As opposed to the situation under Elijah, who felt alone
although there were many other prophets in Israel at the time, there is a large
company of prophets in the time of Elisha, so many that there isn’t enough room
for them and they feel the need to move apart and expand. Elisha served the king well in warning him
against the army and king of Syria and the king determined to kill the prophet
so sent an army to find him and seize him.
The prophet, however, saw in the Spirit, saw the truth of the situation,
that the armies of heaven were surrounding the city of Dothan and were actually
protecting the prophet from harm. His
servant, and we have to assume it is no longer Gehazi, could not see these
without the prophet’s prayers to open his eyes.
How often do we fail to see God’s protection and live in fear and
trembling when we should have confidence and hope. Elisha saw the spiritual reality of the
situation and took charge via the power of God but was merciful to those who
had sought his life.
The law of an eye for an eye is known as lex talionis and
was the way of the world, a concept not foreign to Judaism. Jesus, however, changes the ethics of
retaliation to say that we are to love our enemies, not seek revenge or
retributive justice against them. What
is the basis of this ethical injunction?
It is nothing more than the reality that we are created in the image of
God, every one of us. We too often
forget that truth and act as though our enemies are flesh and blood not
spiritual enemies. Elisha got it right,
he knew that the forces that really opposed him and sought his life were
spiritual not these armies who were under authority. We, as Christians, are called to a much
higher ethical standard because of the understanding that we are sinners, all
of us, and we are called to take compassion on others, even those who persecute
and harm us because we, too, are capable of evil against one another.
Paul’s words are clear, we are not called to separate
ourselves from those who do evil in general because all do evil and there would
be no evangelism if we were separatists.
We are, however, to separate ourselves from those who would call
themselves brothers and sisters who act like the world. The ethical and moral law is applied to those
people, and we are to judge those who would be part of the body of Christ
because they have accepted the standard and yoke of Christ while those outside
are judged by God alone. Likewise, he
says that we are not to have lawsuits against one another because the world is
not to judge us. We should handle
disputes and disagreements within the body rather than allowing them to spill
out into the world. Surely we can live
out wisdom, mercy and justice among ourselves.
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