“Open My Eyes” – 2 Kings 6:15-17

In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us that we overcome worry and fear if we will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Everything falls into place when we put God the Father first in our lives. A life centered in Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, brings us into the joy Jesus promised us in the upper room the night of His betrayal, and it bring us the peace that passes all understanding that Paul wrote to the Philippians about.

The attitude of seeking God can be found in the hymn, “Open My Eyes, That I May See.” Reading the words speaks to us about earnestly seeking after God for no other purpose than to be available to Him and His will.

There are many passages in the Bible that speak of waiting on the Lord, seeking after Him and having our eyes opened by the One who saves us. In today’s passage, the eyes are opened to see the wonder of God’s protection and our security in Him.

Background

Clara Scott wrote today’s hymn near the end of her life. She had spent most of her late teens and adulthood writing hymns to assist us in our worship and praise of God. “Open My Eyes” is her only hymn we can find in the Baptist Hymnal.

Her hymn asks God to use us, asking Him to open our eyes, to use our hands, to open our ears, our mouths and our hearts. She writes of God’s great salvation, of His great message and of His great love for us. It is a hymn that calls us to wait upon the Lord and seek Him while He may be found.

In today’s passage, we find the nation of Israel in conflict with the Arameans. The king of Aram would send his soldiers to lie in wait for Israel’s army, only to discover that the Israelite would learn of the ambush and avoid the area. The king suspected one of his soldiers of being a spy for Israel, and demanded the spy reveal himself.

The truth of the matter was that God would tell Elisha where the Aramean army was and Elisha would tell the king of Israel would God had revealed. When Aram’s king was told what was happening, he ordered his men to find out where Elisha was. He intended to capture Elisha. Word came back to Aram’s king that Elisha was in the city of Dothan, and immediately soldiers were sent to bring Elisha to the king of Aram. The Bible says that the king sent “horses and chariots and a strong force” to Elisha’s community.

It is at this point that our text takes place. We will only look at three verses, but in these three short verses, we learn the following truth from God’s word:

Central Truth: When we will allow God to open our eyes, He will calm our fears.

God opens our eyes when:

1. Circumstances seem overwhelming (v.15)

“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. ‘Oh, my lord, what shall we do?’ the servant asked.”

Most people have a routine to their mornings. The alarm usually goes off at the same time, and, depending on the person, they know how long they can stay in bed before they have to get up to face the day’s new challenges. We know how long it will take us to get ready, how long it will take to prepare and eat breakfast and how long it will take to get to work. We have our routines and most of the time, the routine is uninterrupted.

It can be disconcerting, then, to have the day begin with a startling break in the routine. Maybe the alarm doesn’t go off and we oversleep. Maybe the hot water isn’t coming out for whatever reason, or traffic is unexpectedly tangled up and a normal drive of 15 minutes turns into an hour. It can be very frustrating.

Imagine Elisha’s servant’s morning this particular day. He goes outside, probably to get some water from a well so he can start the day’s cooking. Perhaps he was going out to get some wood. Imagine how he must have felt when he saw a small army surrounding his village. His reaction suggests that their home was not well defended, and that they were at the mercy of the foreign troops.

Life throws curves at us. The routine days becomes unroutine when something happens in our lives. We may lose a job, come down with a serious illness, hear of the death of a close friend or loved one. Maybe we face unexpected difficulties at work that challenge us beyond our expertise, and we wonder, “What will I do?”

It is when circumstances seem overwhelming that we must turn to the Lord. Paul understood this when he wrote, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Paul wrote from experience. He was a man who had suffered for the Lord, man who had to learn over and over again to turn to God when things didn’t go according to plan. He was arrested, beaten and throw into a Philippian jail. He was cast onto an island as the ship he was on sank in a Mediterranean storm. He was jailed numerous times for his faith, yet he always trusted that God would see him through even the most dire circumstances.

When our days are going wrong, when we find our backs against a wall, when we wonder how we’ll ever get past this set back, turn to the God who loves you enough to have sent His Son to save you. Ask Him, and He will open your eyes and we will see He has the answers and the means to overcome even the most dire of circumstances.

2. We need assurance (16)

“’Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered. ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’”

There is something reassuring in the words, “I know you can do it.” Maybe we’re about to try something we’ve never tried before, or maybe we’re being asked to do something that is out of our comfort zone. We question ourselves, we wonder, and then comes that voice that calms us with words of confidence and assurance.

Elisha’s servant was beside himself with fear as he considered the ramifications of all the enemy soldiers waiting outside. The forces outside the door were stronger and better skilled in the art of warfare than either he or Elisha. Things seemed hopeless.

Elisha knew better, though. His first words were to set his servant’s fears at ease. “Don’t be afraid” are words we’ve all heard at one time or other in our lives. Whether they eased our fears or not, we knew someone was with us.

Elisha then tells his servant something that seemed impossible. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Did Elisha know of Israelite soldiers in hiding nearby? The servant didn’t know. But if the servant trusted Elisha, he must have had his fears eased.

Elisha did know what he was talking about, and in the next verse we see what he means.

When you are facing trying circumstances, we can only see what is right in front of us. God sees the big picture, though, and if we turn to Him in those times, His words will be very similar to Elisha’s. “Don’t be afraid.” And God will work His will in these trying times. He will see us through them. God doesn’t always deliver us from trying times, but He never leaves us and He always sustains us. When we come through the hard time, we look back and realize that it was God’s reassuring voice and His strong arms that wrapped us in loving comfort. Even during the event, we can know the reassuring presence of God if we will open our eyes to Him and learn to trust Him.

3. We seek Him (17)

“And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

We had just moved into our current house. I decided to fix me a lunch of pasta with parmesan cheese and garlic. I looked in the refrigerator for the parmesan container. I knew it had a blue lid, so I looked high and low in the fridge for the blue top, but to no avail. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find the container. I had to settle for pasta and butter with a hint of garlic instead.

When Kim got home, I told her that we were out of parmesan. She felt for certain that we had some, but I assured her I had looked for it all through the refrigerator. She opened the refrigerator door, and, within just a few minutes, she had found an almost full container of parmesan cheese. The container didn’t have a blue lid, but a black one.

Why could Kim find the parmesan when I couldn’t? I was seeking a blue lid; Kim was looking for parmesan cheese.

Elisha knew that his servant needed to see what Elisha was talking about. Elisha knew that God alone could allow the servant to see past the enemy and see what he needed. Elisha prayed that God would open the servant’s eyes. When God did so, the servant’s fears were finally and fully laid to rest. What he saw was a host of angels surrounding Elisha. According to the Bible, the hills surrounding Dothan were full of horses and fiery chariots. Elisha’s faith let him know of God’s protection. Now, with his eyes opened by God, the servant, too, knew of God’s protection and assurance.

When circumstances throw us for a loop, we sometimes forget where to look. We may spend our time looking in vain for blue lids, while we should be looking for the One who sees us through even the valley of the shadow of death.

When our circumstances seem bleak, let’s remember to ask God to open our eyes. He will show us His way.

Conclusion

If I was to ask, I’m sure each of us could tell at least one story of looking in vain for something, only to have someone find it immediately. We could all share accounts of how God saw us through difficult and trying times. And we could probably all tell of times we didn’t seek God first.

Listen to the words of the hymn. Wait upon the Lord, and ask Him to open your eyes. Look into the face of Jesus and rest assured, the Savior has always been with us.