Blindness and Sight in Prayers (2 Kings 6.17-18, 20)

“O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see” “Strike this people, please, with blindness.” “O LORD, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.”

Do your prayers have elements of blindness and sight? Stories about blindness and sight are common in the Bible, and are connected with spiritual insight and blindness.

Background

After Elisha raised the child in the last prayer passage, the author of 2 Kings treats us to a series of miracle stories of the prophet. He saves a community of prophets from a poisonous stew, feeds 100 men during a scarce time, heals a commander from Aram of disease, and retrieves an axe-head fallen into a stream. All of these stories show Elisha as one of the premier prophets. God worked through him in special ways, just as He had Elijah.

In this story, three petitionary prayers play a pivotal role. It is also one of the more engaging stories in the Bible, both for its content and the spiritual meanings we draw from it. The background concerns a neighboring nation of Aram, who was engaging in several attacks against Israel. But Elisha always knew ahead of time and warned the king of Israel. The story is told with humor and delight.

The king Aram is frustrated with his plans being thwarted, so he gathers his men and asks if there is a traitor among them. One of the men tells him that it is the prophet Elisha who warns Israel. The king discovers that Elisha is in a town called Dothan, so he sends a large army to capture and kill the prophet. (Not only does the king send a whole army for one man, but he fails to see a crucial flaw: if Elisha knew of the other attacks, surely he would know of this one?).

The army arrives during the night, surrounds the city, and waits. In the morning, Elisha’s servant went out (to get the paper?) and sees the army. Panicked, he calls Elisha, “What shall we do?!” The prophet tells him not to worry because there are more soldiers on their side than on Aram’s side. We can imagine the servant wondering if Elijah had gone mad—they were no soldiers to protect them.

Elisha offers the first petition, asking God to open the servant’s eyes. To his wonder, a multitude of horses and chariots of fire became visible all about the city—far larger than the army of Aram. As the army begins its descent to capture Elisha, he prays a second petition and the soldiers become blind (“bedazzled” may be a better translation of the Hebrew word). Elisha shouts to the army that they are in the wrong place, going the wrong way, but he will lead where they need to go. They follow him through the hills and a winding road to the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria. (Imagine a solitary prophet leading an entire army down the road in enemy territory!)