II Kings 8:7 Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,”
We’ve all had times when either we, or someone we care about, has been deeply hurt by others. Hurt that, no matter how we try to be generous in our explaining it, was intentional. When it’s intentional, that hits differently. Generally, it’s not just sadness or pain that come up, but anger, resentment, and other strong emotions. We may feel like we never want anything to do with that person, or those people again!
Today’s verse seems to have been lifted out of context. And in the sense that it’s only one verse, it has been. But if we read the entire chapter, it still sort of feels this way. Elisha went to Damascus. We aren’t told why. Based upon the larger story of Elisha’s life, I think it’s safe to say that he went there simply because God told him to. If we’re jumping into Elisha’s story at this point, we won’t understand the significance of his trip to Damascus. But if we go back over the previous chapters, we’ll see that his trip is remarkable.
Damascus was the capitol of Syria. Syrians are referred to in II Kings as Arameans. These were enemies of Israel! The Arameans had just been besieging Samaria, hoping to starve them out of the city so they could be killed! These were bad people. They hadn’t acci-dentally offended Israel, they were deadly purposeful about it!
Yet God called Elisha to go there. Why would God do such a thing? Surely God knew what they had done. This wasn’t the first strange direction of God for Elisha. In a few chapters before this one, Naaman came to Elisha for healing from leprosy. Naaman knew to ask Elisha because he had a servant girl from Israel. He had captured this girl on one of his many raids. He was a top general for the king of Syria! Yet Elisha healed him.
Even at our best moments, we often put ourselves at the center of the universe. Things and people are good or bad specifically for how they affect us. But God wants us to see things from His perspective. Jesus came to forgive. That’s an easy concept for most of us when we just think of ourselves. But Jesus came to forgive that other person too. The person that was so terrible to you? Jesus came to forgive them. The one that did you wrong? Jesus came to forgive them. The one that caused you great pain, knew it was painful, and did it anyway? Jesus came to forgive them.
Jesus knew that for us to have peace with Him, for us to truly find forgiveness, we had to be forgivers as well as forgiven. This is a difficult thing! But when God asks us to do some-thing, He provides the resources to make it happen. It’s hard to forgive. Sometimes, it’s the absolute hardest thing! But it’s what Jesus wants. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Elisha to go to Damascus. Or for Jesus to go to the cross.
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
