Unseen Army

UNSEEN ARMY
2Kings 7:1 There is a story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elisha and how the unseen world of spiritual light and spiritual darkness operates. It is the story of Elisha and the four lepers of Samaria. This is a story of the limited power of darkness when it faces up to the unlimited power and purpose of God and his goodness. The spiritual world is an unseen world, the real world of God’s activity, the world dominated by light and faith, and alas, darkness inhabits this realm also but with faith we learn to withstand it and overcome.
The king od Israel was ruling over a fortress city in the high region of Samaria. The city was put under siege by the king of Syria, and because there was a great famine in the region, the people of the city were starving, and the Syians had cut off any food supply lines that might have existed from down in the more fertile region of the Jordan. It got to the point that after a time even a donkey's head sold for fifty dollars and a cup of dove's dung brought three dollars! This angered the king and he was trying to find someone to blame for all of this disaster.
Elisha was sitting at home, the elders sitting with him. The king had made up his mind that Elisha the prophet must be to blame because he had not organized God to come to the rescue, and he finally decided to blame God as well. He had already dispatched his attendant to take Elisha’s head off, but before the man arrived Elisha told his friends he knew what the King was planning and said shut the door and lock it. While he was giving his instructions, the king showed up with his attendant, making charges against God; ‘This trouble we’re in has been sent from GOD! And what's next? I'm fed up with GOD! The Syrian army is outside and the people inside the walls are starving to death and paying exorbitant amounts of money for something to eat, a donkey's head is selling for fifty dollars and a cup of dove's dung costs three dollars!
Then Elisha brings a word from God to the king. ‘by this time tomorrow two gallons of flour or four gallons of barley grain will be sold in the markets of Samaria for a dollar!"
But the king’s attendant tells everyone not to believe it ‘Do you think God is going to open trapdoors in Heaven and pour food though them? 

Meanwhile four lepers who are sitting just outside the gates wondering what their fate might be. ‘Well. what are we sitting here for, just waiting to die "We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we might as well go out and face the challenge – we’ll present ourselves to the Syrian army, and they might even feed us and let us live, if so then so much the better; but if they kill us, we would have died anyway. So that evening they went out to the camp of the Syrians, but there was no one there! 

To understand what was really going on here we have to look at the previous chapter and see what had happened to the previous king of Syria with regards to Elisha a year åor two beforehand. That king had been marauding the outposts of Israel whenever Israel sent an army to protect the people, but Elisha knew from God what the Syrian king was up to so he warned the king of Israel every time so that they escaped attack. When the Syrian king found this out he sent his army out to capture Elisha who was not living in the fortress city at that time but in another area of Samaria called Dothan. When the Syrian army surrounded Dothan to take Elisha, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, woke up one morning to see Dothan surrounded by the Syrian army and collapsed in panic, but Elisha prayed for God to open Gehazi’s eyes to see the Unseen Army of the Lord arrayed against the Syrian army, and said to him ‘greater are they that are with us than they that are with them’ and the servant calmed down. Then Elisha prayed for God to put blindness upon the Syrians so that they were groping around in the dark, then he walked and asked the commander of the army who he was looking for, and when the commander told him, Elisha said Oh, he doesn’t live here any more but I’ll lead you to where he lives, and he led them all to the fortified city of the king of Israel (the one in our current story). When they all arrived he prayed to God for the eyes of the Syrians to be opened, and they found they were in the hands of the king of Israel, who wanted to take them all into captivity, but Elisha told the kings to give them a good feed and send them home (he obviously knew there were better things to come).

So getting back to the four lepers finding the Syrian camp deserted the Bible tells us (2Kings 7:6) that God had made the whole Syrian army hear sounds of a host of  a great army approaching and the clatter of speeding chariots and a loud galloping of horses. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us," they cried out. 7. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else. 8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it.  9 Finally they said to each other, "This isn't right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! Even if we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us; come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."

10 So they went back to the city and told the attendant what had happened--they had gone out to the Syrian camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a soul around. 11 Then the attendant shouted the news to those in the palace.
12 The king got out of bed (trying to guess what had happened – and guessing wrongly!) and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Syrians know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields, thinking that we will be lured out of the city. Then they will attack us and make slaves of us and get in." 13 One of his officers cautiously replied, "We'd better send out scouts first to see. Let two charioteers of take chariots out with our four remaining horses and if something happens to them all it won't be any greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us!" 
14 So the king sent out two charioteers to see where the Syrians had gone. 15 They followed a trail of clothing and equipment all the way to the Jordan River-- thrown away by the Syrians in their haste. The scouts returned and told the king, 16 and the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So it was true that two gallons of flour and four gallons of barley were sold that day for one dollar, just as the Lord had said!

All the players in this story had an opinion about what was going on, and they had a reaction to it or a response in it. Some were panicking, some had given up all hope, some were weighing it all up, and like the king, suspicious and getting it wrong, some decided to act with due diligence and caution like the officer who suggested to do a scout patrol. What were they seeing? Did they see that God was at work with the Angel Armies – greater are they that are for us than they that are against us …. 
These are the things we ask ourselves when there is a crisis – are we being driven by fear or are we being inspired by faith, or guided by wisdom with ears to hear…

The four lepers had to make a choice. They could sit around in despondency and wait to die or they could face the challenge of facing the enemy, so they went into the enemy camp and saw with their own eyes that God had been at work. God had not only supernaturally defeated the enemy but he had poured out his provision for his people. If they had not taken this initiative no one would had moved in the entire city and they all would have starved, despite the fact that they had the word of blessing from the prophet. Elisha had done his part - he had shared the Word of the Lord.

We have the word of blessing, the good news of God’s goodness to us through Jesus. We have to move on that and take initiative against the bluff of the devil. All Satan has in his armory are the weapons of darkness and deception. Satan has no creative power. He is a deceiver and a confuser. The battle between light and darkness is not hanging in the balance. The battle has been won. God is not in a defensive position against darkness – He has defeated it. Darkness can only work on us, and the Bible says that when we align ourselves with God and his authority and resist the devil the darkness HAS to flee (James 4:7). His target is our minds and our hearts where he wants to plant confusion and deception and fear (2Cor. 4:3). We have to take the initiative and withstand him.

The Bible says the whole world lies in darkness, and we have all experienced that. But if we have the truth the darkness cannot harm us. Satan likes to put himself on display but when his bluff is called he has to back down. We are to walk into the darkness bravely and confidently.
The four lepers walked boldly into the enemy camp, and we are to do the same. The risk for us is NOT in being harmed by the enemy – the risk for us is in NOT putting our trust in God that his goodness will come to us. That is not a good path for us to go down.
The word of God about the blessing and the relief of the famine had been spoken by Elisha and was already in operation. The name ELISHA means ‘God of Blessing’. The word of spiritual blessing has been spoken over us in Jesus (Eph 1:3) and we are to trust that it is working in our lives and it will come to pass in every situation. 

We accept that the current adverse or confusing situation is being used for God’s greater purpose and we give thanks in purposeful prayer. That is so that we can be strengthened in our faith in times of sometimes painful uncertainty, rather than going in to negative resistance like Israel’s king did and look for who to blame (He blamed God and God’s messenger or like many people do we just blame the devil!). No, instead we accept that God is at work in the Unseen, with his Unseen Army, even when the uncertain situation discomforts us. This strengthens our faith. Paul said he did not run aimlessly or fight to beat the air but his commitment to spiritual fitness was by taking on reality with hope and faith.
That will always lead to our finally seeing the supernatural effect of his working in our lives and in those we bring before him in our prayer. We realise that the battle is ongoing until God’s a victory is apparent for all to see. 

Ephesians 6:12 tells us to throw down the spiritual powers. Then it tells is what armor to put on. Truth, peace, faith, love, which will overcome anything the devil throws at our We are not feebly struggling against a powerful dark force but aligning ourselves with a powerful God force – and throwing down the darkness..
We assume our place of authority with Jesus ABOVE the powers of darkness.
We declare that we are serving the purpose of God in our generation.

2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds