In a scene out of the adventures of the prophets and kings of the Bible, the prophet Elisha is being hunted down by the king of Aram who is furious with him for always informing the king of Israel of his battle plans. So one morning, Aram’s army finds the house where Elisha is staying and Elisha’s servant panics when he wakes to find that they are surrounded by a mighty army. However Elisha tells his servant calmly, “Don’t be afraid, for there are more on our side than on theirs!”

When the poor servant boy tries to count himself and Elisha and always comes up with only two, Elisha prays, “‘O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!’ The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:17) — the armies of the Lord.

It’s important to know that Elisha didn’t pray for victory, or that the Lord would strike down the armies of Aram, but only that the Lord would open up the man’s eyes and let him see. It’s significant because the Lord doesn’t always do everything for us. He comforts us with the knowledge that He is with us, but He wants us in the game. If He did everything for us, there’d be nothing for us to do.

As it turned out, Elisha did something entirely different than have the Lord simply wipe out Aram’s army. He had the Lord strike them all temporarily blind and then led them right to the king of Israel who asked if he should kill them all. “‘Of course not!’ Elisha replied. ‘Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master.’” (2 Kings 6:22).

So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home. And after that, the scripture says the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel. You bet they did!

There is much in this world to cause us fear today. But as followers of Christ, all God really needs to do is open our eyes and let us see. Because what we will see is that the Lord is with us. We have nothing to fear, and all kinds of options because the Lord is with us. So therefore, it’s always important to remember, “there are more on our side than on theirs!”

For more on this topic, join us on “Between the Answers” with John & Marti by clicking below.