Extract
The Mission and Miracles of Elisha – Part Six
A. W. Pink
15. Fourteenth Miracle
16. Fifteenth Miracle
15. Fourteenth Miracle
First, its connection. That which engaged our attention on the last occasion grew out of the determination of Benhadad to again wage war on Israel. After taking counsel with his servants, the Syrian laid an ambush for the king of Israel, but they had reckoned without Jehovah. He revealed to His servant the prophet the danger menacing his royal master, and accordingly, he went and acquainted him with the same, who, attending to the warning, was delivered from the trap set for him. The heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled at this thwarting of his design, and suspecting a traitor in his own camp made inquiry. Whereupon one of his attendants informed him that nothing could be concealed from the prophet that was in Israel, and that he had put the intended victim on his guard. After sending out spies to discover the whereabouts of Elisha and learning that he was in Dothan, the king of Syria sent a formidable force, consisting of “horses and chariots” and a “great host” of footmen to take him captive, determining to remove this obstacle from his path.
The miracle we are about to consider is a double one, and strictly speaking, comprises the fourteenth and fifteenth of the series connected with our prophet. But the record is so brief and the two miracles are so closely related that they scarcely admit of separate treatment, and therefore, instead of taking them singly we propose to consider them conjointly, viewing the second as the counterpart or complement of the former. It is a miracle which stands out from the last one which occupied our notice. That concerned the opening of eyes; this, the closing of them. There but a single person was involved; here, a great host of men were concerned. In the one, it was the prophet’s own servant who was the subject of it; here, it …