2 Kings 6:15

_AND WHEN THE SERVANT OF THE MAN OF GOD WAS RISEN EARLY, AND GONE FORTH, BEHOLD, AN HOST COMPASSED THE CITY BOTH WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS. AND HIS SERVANT SAID UNTO HIM, ALAS, MY MASTER! HOW SHALL WE DO?_ His servant said ... Alas, my master! how shall we do? On the Syrian detachment surrounding the place by night, for the apprehension of the prophet, his servant was paralyzed with fear. This was a new servant, who had only been with hint since Gehazi's dismissal, and, consequently, had little or no experience of his masters powers. His faith was easily shaken by so unexpected an alarm....

13-23 What Elisha said to his servant is spoken to all the faithful servants of God, when without are fightings, and within are fears. Fear not, with that fear which has torment and amazement; for they that are with us, to protect us, are more than they that are against us, to destroy us. The eyes of his body were open, and with them he saw the danger. Lord, open the eyes of our faith, that with them we may see thy protecting hand. The clearer sight we have of the sovereignty and power of Heaven, the less we shall fear the troubles of earth. Satan, the god of this world, blinds men's eyes, and so deludes them unto their own ruin; but when God enlightens their eyes, they see themselves in the midst of their enemies, captives to Satan, and in danger of hell, though, before, they thought their condition good. When Elisha had the Syrians at his mercy, he made it appear that he was influence...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-7:20 FURTHER MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA. The historian relates first a (comparatively) private miracle wrought by Elisha in the vicinity of Jericho, for the benefit of one of the "sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 7:1). He then tells us briefly of a series of public miracles which brought Elisha into much note and prominence. War, it appears, had again broken out in a pronounced form between Israel and Syria, Syria being the aggressor. The Syrian monarch prepared traps for his adversary, encamping in places where he hoped to take him at a disadvantage. But Elisha frustrated these plans, by addressing warnings to the King of Israel, and pointing out to him the various positions occupied ...

AND WHEN THE SERVANT OF THE MAN OF GOD WAS RISEN EARLY, AND GONE FORTH,.... Either out of his master's house, or out of the city upon some business to be done early in the morning; this was not Gehazi, but a new servant: BEHOLD, AN HOST COMPASSED THE CITY, BOTH WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS; which he could see at the door of his master's house, the city being built upon an eminence; or which he perceived, as soon as he came out of the gates of the city, or was about so to do: AND HIS SERVANT SAID UNTO HIM; Elisha being with him; or else he returned to his master on the sight of such an army, and not being able to go forward: ALAS, MY MASTER! HOW SHALL WE DO? to get out of the city, and through this host, and proceed on our intended journey; and if he understood that the intention of this formidable host was to take his master, his concern might be the greater; and the more as he was a new...

2 Kings 6:1. _And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us._ It seems to have been a habit of the prophets to gather about them companies of young men whom they instructed in the holy Scripture and in the truths of revelation. Many of these young men became prophets themselves and were the instructors of the people. Elisha, then, was the President of a College for young men who were being trained for the sacred ministry of God. They had grown so numerous that they were cramped in their lodging and they said, «The place is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us fit place there, where we may dwell.» They were ready to work to build their own lodging; they do not appear to have gone into debt for it, and to have saddled themselves and the institutio

5. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The lost axe-head recovered (2 Kings 6:1)_ 2. Elisha makes known Ben-hadad's plans (2 Kings 6:8) 3. Elisha's arrest planned (2 Kings 6:13) 4. The blinded Syrians led to Samaria (2 Kings 6:18) 5. Samaria besieged (2 Kings 6:24) 6. The king's wrath against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31) It has been truly said that the miracle of the swimming axe-head reveals the condescension of

AN AXEHEAD SWIMS. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS AT DOTHAN. In several minor miracles Elisha is always represented as working them not by his word, but by some expedient. Thus he heals the miscarrying waters by salt, and the pot by meal, and recovers the axehead by casting a stick into the water. The prophet appears in the second narrative as the moving spirit in the Syrian war. Whenever the king of Syria devised an ambush (2 Kings 6:8, with a slight alteration of reading), Elisha revealed the secret. Elisha was at Dothan (2 Kings 6:13), a city standing on a hill about 10 miles N. of Samaria, on the caravan road from Egypt to Damascus (Genesis 37:17, p. 30). Elisha was defended, as we are finely told, by horses and chariots of f

THE SERVANT. attendant. HIS SERVANT. young man. Hebrew. _na'ar._...

_the servant_ The word is the same which in 2 Kings 4:43 was rendered -servitor". It is the special and more personal servant. Hence the R.V. puts -or, minister" in the margin. _a host compassed the city both with horses and chariots_ R.V. AN HOST WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS WAS ROUND ABOUT THE CITY. The words are not the same in Hebrew as in the previous verse where -compassed" was used. Literally -an host and horses &c." The horses and chariots were in addition to the footmen, who alone were spoken of in verse 14....

DISCOURSE: 368 ELISHA PROTECTED BY CHARIOTS OF FIRE 2 Kings 6:15. _And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them._ IT has been justly said, that a servant of God is immortal, till his work is done. He will indeed be exposed to many dangers; and probably to more, in proportion as his zeal is exercised in the service of his Lord: but the promise made to Jeremiah is fulfilled to every faithful champion; “They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee.” The prophet Elisha eminently experienced this blessed truth. He had been enabled by God on different occasions to reveal to the king of Israel the plans which the king of Syria had laid for his destruction. The king of Syria at first thought that his plans were all betrayed by some confidential