The picture has nothing to do with this blog except that I thought it was good example of irony. But, I heard the greatest example of
irony after midday Bible study at Miles Chapel CME Church,
A
couple of our “seasoned saints” were
pulling out of the church parking lot.
One smiling 90+ year old was driving,
another was riding shotgun. As I
walked past, the driver rolled down her window and shouted playfully, “Better
watch out, pastor. I went to the eye
doctor this morning, and now I can’t see.”
She
was joking.
I
think she was joking.
Either
way, it was the best irony I’ve heard in a long time. Think about it. You go to the eye doctor for a check-up, and
you can see just fine when you get there, but after the optometrist puffs,
drips, and dilates you, you leave unable to see.
Isn’t
that ironic?
It’s
like what happened to the Syrian soldiers who went to see the prophet Elisha in
2 Kings chapter 6.
Elisha
had the gift of healing. He had healed a
woman’s infertility and resuscitated the
child born of that miracle after he died of an apparent brain aneurysm (2 King
4: 14-37). When the Syrian soldiers arrived
at Elisha’s home office, Elisha had recently healed their nation’s head
general, Naaman, of incurable leprosy (2
Kings 5: 1-19).
But
in chapter 6, Elisha the healer spends the day working on a lot of eyes. Some leave him seeing more than they’d ever
seen. Some go to the “doctor” that
morning and leave not seeing at all.
From
his office in Dothan (Dothan, Israel; not Dothan off highway 84), Elisha had
been feeding prophetic intelligence to the king of Israel. God showed Elisha where the Syrians were
going to set up their raiding camps and Elisha told his king.
When
the Syrian king realized what was happening, he sent an entire army to invade another
nation and capture this one man. (And
you thought America was the first country to do that.)
Read
2
Kings 6: 8-14.
Elisha’s
servant/ personal assistant Gehazi had a fit when walked outside to see
hundreds, maybe thousands of foreign troops positioned around Dothan.
(Imagine
you were your pastor’s secretary and when you went outside to check the mail
you saw a couple hundred Syrian tanks and armored personnel carriers
interspersed with soldiers all aiming their guns at the parsonage. Yeah.)
Gehazi
said, “Alas, my master! What shall we
do?”
Elisha
answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are
with them.” (2 Kings 6: 15, 16)
Of
course Gehazi probably thought the eccentric prophet had finally completely
lost it because he could clearly see that NOBODY was with them.
Nobody,
because all of Elisha’s fellow-prophets
had moved out of Dothan and built houses in the suburbs along the Jordan river.
(2
Kings 6: 1,2)
Gehazi
could count the numbers of them versus the number of us, but he couldn’t see,
at least not well enough.
So,
Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray,
open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6: 17)
God
gave Elisha’s assistant sight-beyond-sight (Yes, that was a “Thunderkats”
reference.).
Because
of Elisha’s prayers, Gehazi’s physical eyes saw beyond the visible light
spectrum into the spectrum of spirit. And
then the irony started.
The
soldiers charged down the hill to capture and extract Elisha, and Elisha
prayed. When Elisha the eye-opener
prayed God took sight away from all of the Syrian soldiers in Dothan. (2
Kings 6: 18)
They went
to the prophet that morning and now they can’t see.
They
came to lead the man of God away in chains, and they ended up being led around
by God’s man.
Now Elisha said to
them, “This is not the way, nor
is this the city. Follow me,
and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” But he led them to Samaria. (2 Kings 6: 19)
O.K. You have to pause for a moment and visualize
this. Dozens and dozens and dozens of fierce
Syrian soldiers in full armor, hands on each others’ shoulders, eyes closed or
staring blankly around, following and old
Jewish man in a worn mantle for 12 MILES from Dothan to the northern Israelite
capital of Samaria. And all the way,
their commander is asking, “Are we there yet?
Will we find Elisha soon?”
And
Elisha was answering over and over, “Not, yet.
Not in the right place, yet. Just
follow me.”
All
the way to the Israelite capital.
So it was, when they
had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” And the Lord
opened their eyes, and they saw; and there they were, inside Samaria! (2 Kings 6: 20)
You
and your army are charging down a hill when everything goes dark. After hours and hours of blind marching, the
lights suddenly come back on and you’re in the middle of the enemy capital,
unarmed, and surrounded by the heart of the Israeli army, with the Israelite
king himself standing there having the following conversation with the very guy
you came to capture.
Now when the king of
Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” (2 Kings 6: 21)
Wait. Notice how King Jehoram repeats the question,
“Can I kill them?”
I
imagine the Jehoram bouncing on his toes, cracking his neck from side to side, gripping
his sword hard, pacing back in forth while staring hard at the Syrian
commander, and going, “Come on, Elisha. Come
on. Can I kill ‘em? CAN I KILL ‘EM?!”
Ironically
(because that was apparently the theme of the day), Elisha said, “No.”
But he answered, “You
shall not kill them. Would you
kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food
and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” (2 Kings 6: 22)
Instead
of slaughtering the battalion of enemy soldiers who had made an unauthorized,
unilateral incursion into sovereign territory for the purposes of kidnapping a native
citizen of Israel, Elisha convinced the king to throw them a party.
Then he prepared a
great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they
went to their master (2 Kings 6: 22a)
Right? Doesn’t make sense to me either.
But,
it did make sense to God.
God
used those crazy twists of sight and blindness to do something that His people
had been unsuccessfully trying to do for decades. God used a prophet who did eye-work on the
side, to achieve what killing those Syrian soldiers would not have
accomplished.
God
used this ironic day in 2 Kings chapter 6 to end Syrian raids in Israel.
So the bands of Syrian
raiders came no more into the
land of Israel. (2 Kings 6: 22b)
There
were no more nickel-and-dime raids every other day against towns and
travelers. (The very next verse says that the Syrian’s
took advantage of a famine in Israel to launch one big attack, but that attack and
siege ultimately failed, too. But that’s
another story.)
In
the space of perhaps 24 hours, God used a Syrian invasion to give His people immediate
relief from their Syrian persecutors.
God
opened the eyes of the lonely and fearful who couldn’t see where their help
would come from. But He blinded the eyes
of the confident masses who were already visualizing their victory.
You
gotta love the Lord’s sense of irony.
The
Holy Spirit loves to says ironic stuff like
Count it all joy when
you fall into various trials (James 1: 2);
My strength is made
perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12: 9);
And, whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
will save it. (Luke 9: 24)
In
fact, the gospel is the story of the greatest irony in the universe. We humans who rebelled in a perfect world against
our perfect God are saved by God coming into our broken world to live a perfect
life. For us.
For scarcely for a
righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare
to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5: 7-8)
Yeah.
You
gotta love the Lord’s sense of irony.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director
of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P
O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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