“O LORD, please open his eyes that he might even see” “Strike this folks, please, with blindness.” “O LORD, open the eyes of those males in order that they might see.”
Do your prayers have components of blindness and sight? Tales about blindness and sight are frequent within the Bible, and are linked with non secular perception and blindness.
Background
After Elisha raised the kid within the final prayer passage, the writer of two Kings treats us to a sequence of miracle tales of the prophet. He saves a group of prophets from a toxic stew, feeds 100 males throughout a scarce time, heals a commander from Aram of illness, and retrieves an axe-head fallen right into a stream. All of those tales present Elisha as one of many premier prophets. God labored by him in particular methods, simply as He had Elijah.
On this story, three petitionary prayers play a pivotal function. It is usually one of many extra participating tales within the Bible, each for its content material and the non secular meanings we draw from it. The background issues a neighboring nation of Aram, who was participating in a number of assaults in opposition to Israel. However Elisha at all times knew forward of time and warned the king of Israel. The story is instructed with humor and delight.
The king Aram is annoyed along with his plans being thwarted, so he gathers his males and asks if there’s a traitor amongst them. One of many males tells him that it’s the prophet Elisha who warns Israel. The king discovers that Elisha is in a city referred to as Dothan, so he sends a big military to seize and kill the prophet. (Not solely does the king ship an entire military for one man, however he fails to see a vital flaw: if Elisha knew of the opposite assaults, absolutely he would know of this one?).
The military arrives throughout the night time, surrounds town, and waits. Within the morning, Elisha’s servant went out (to get the paper?) and sees the military. Panicked, he calls Elisha, “What we could do?!” The prophet tells him to not fear as a result of there are extra troopers on their facet than on Aram’s facet. We will think about the servant questioning if Elijah had gone mad—they have been no troopers to guard them.
Elisha provides the primary petition, asking God to open the servant’s eyes. To his surprise, a large number of horses and chariots of fireside turned seen all concerning the metropolis—far bigger than the military of Aram. As the military begins its descent to seize Elisha, he prays a second petition and the troopers develop into blind (“bedazzled” could also be a greater translation of the Hebrew phrase). Elisha shouts to the military that they’re within the flawed place, going the flawed means, however he’ll lead the place they should go. They comply with him by the hills and a winding highway to the capital metropolis of the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria. (Think about a solitary prophet main a whole military down the highway in enemy territory!)
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