This morning I came upon this wonderful story that I only remember part of being told me in Sunday School. The part that I remember is the part where the city of Dothan is surrounded by an army from Syria, coming for Elisha the Holy Snitch, and Elisha's servant panics and wrings his hands to his master, and Elisha prays that God would open his eyes so he could see that "they that be with us are more than they that be with them," and he sees the fiery host. It's a great story, full of holy imagination for things we cannot see. But the second part of the story is a very cool reversal that I don't remember. The enemy comes down into the city and Elisha prays again, this time that God would smite them with blindness. And when they are blind, he leads them to Israel's king who has been eluding them raid after raid. And when they get there, in the middle of Samaria, in the presence of the king, then Elisha prays that God opens their eyes again, and we expect a great slaughter. The king asks Elisha if that's the plan, his eagerness palpable by repeating his question "My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?" But Elisha says no, that would be dishonourable; rather, he should feed them and send them home. And the king obeyed, "prepared a great provision for them" and then sent them on their way. And the story concludes, "So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel."
It strikes me that there's a lot of blindness in this story, including the initial blindness of the king of Israel who is made to see that extending hospitality can execute peace more effectively than extending the sword. Makes me wonder what I'm blind about.
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