Elisha’s servant got up early and went out. He saw an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. His servant said to Elisha, “Oh no! Master, what will we do?” “Don’t be afraid,” Elisha said, “because there are more of us than there are of them.” Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” (2 Kings 6:15-17a, CEB)
My family just got back from a week-long vacation, which included spending four days camping in the Great Smoky Mountains. On the day we packed up our gear to head east into North Carolina, I had to go old-school and look at an actual paper map to figure out the best way to go since we were getting no cellphone signal. It looked like there were a couple options. One was to go the shorter way, but would include what looked like some curvy roads. The other option was to add more miles, but we’d have straighter highways. I figured, Let’s take the curvy roads and see some beautiful scenery along the way!
Bad idea.
They were probably the curviest roads I’ve ever driven in my life–after seven miles or so of going 20 MPH and constantly swerving left and right, I literally started to get a little nauseous and I wasn’t 100 percent sure we’d find the connection to Interstate 40. Just when I thought we were done with the curves, we saw a sign that said, “PAVEMENT ENDS” (gulp) and then, a few hundred feet later, sure enough, a gravel road. My heart sank. The thought of turning around and going through all those curves again was unappealing at best. But then my daughter said, “Look at the sign!”
We had stopped by a sign that told folks that the gravel road would veer left and under the symbol, someone had taken a black pen and scribbled, “!-40/3 Miles.” I was never more grateful for the defacing of a sign in my life. I trusted that the person writing the note meant for us to stay on the gravel road and, sure enough, 3 miles later, we were on I-40.
I was reading a passage a few days ago that was unfamiliar to me. Aram and Israel were fighting a war and the prophet Elisha was prophesying where the Arameans would attack, which angered the Aramean king. The king wanted to kill Elisha, discovered where he was and surrounded the city. We pick up with the text highlighted above. Elisha’s servant responds appropriately when he sees the enemy forces. Oh, no! What will we do? Elisha tells his servant to not be afraid and then prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes. The Lord opens the servants eyes and he sees that “the mountain was full of horses and fiery chariots surrounding Elisha.”
Whenever we come to a place where we’ve seemingly run out of pavement or it seems there are forces against us, it’s totally understandable for us to cry, “Oh, no! Now what??” In those moments, rather than panic, let us pray Elisha’s prayer: Lord, open our eyes. You may find scribbled directions on a road sign. Or supportive groups surrounding you. Or a surprise you never expected.