Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #27 in Genesis 37, and we have taken a little detour over to  2Kings 6 as we follow the word “Dothan.”  Dothan was the place where Joseph traveled to find his brethren who were tending the sheep.  The only other place in the Bible where the word “Dothan” is found is here in 2Kings 6.  I will read 2Kings 6:15-23:

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, JEHOVAH, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And JEHOVAH opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto JEHOVAH, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, JEHOVAH, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And JEHOVAH opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

I will stop reading there.  This is a very unusual true historical story that happened.  It was very odd, and it took place in Dothan.  That is where Elisha and the young man, his servant, were when the army of the Syrians found him.  But did they?  They had heard he was in Dothan.  The king of Syria discovered this fact, and he sent a huge host with chariots and horses.  They compassed the city round about, and the next thing we are told is that the servant of Elisha turned to him, and said, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” Elisha answered and said, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” 

Last time we saw how that fits in with 1John 4:4: “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  That is, greater is Christ who is in the people of God than Satan who is in the unsaved people of the world. 

So Elisha pointed out to the young man, “They that be with us are more than they that be with them,” because Christ is far, far greater than Satan, and the army of Christ is far greater than the army of Satan, even though Satan’s army has greater numbers. 

Then it says in 2Kings 6:17:

And Elisha prayed, and said, JEHOVAH, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And JEHOVAH opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

He had not seen these horses and chariots of fire all over the mountain until God opened his eyes.  It is very obvious that the horses and chariots of fire were in the spiritual realm.  They represent God’s power and strength, as horses and chariots identify with power and strength.  An army that had many horses and chariots was a powerful army, and that was why they feared the Syrians.  They had horses and chariots, but so does God.  That is, God has power.  God has mighty power, far greater than Satan and measly fallen men who are simply creatures.  What power does the creature have in comparison to the one who created him, the Creator?  Of course, there is no power.  And this is what the Lord was opening up the eyes of the young man to see.  “Do you see these horses?  Do you see these chariots covering the mountain round about Elisha?”  And he did see them.  He saw that there was really nothing to fear because the strength lies with the Lord God and with those on God’s side.  So I am sure this would have comforted and encouraged the young man.

By the way, as far as horses and chariots of fire, we do read of horses in several places that identify with the army of God.  For example, it says in Joel 2:2-5:

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

This is the army of the kingdom of heaven.  Here in Joel 2 it is describing Christ as He comes with that army to judge the world.  Christ comes with ten thousands of His saints, and they are likened to, “the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble…”  The wicked, the unsaved, are the “stubble,” and they are devoured in the Day of Judgment.

The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.  Then we read in 2Kings 6:18:

And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto JEHOVAH, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

Now what happens next leads us to believe that they were not smitten with physical blindness.  Why would I say that?  It goes on to say in 2Kings 6:19:

And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

In other words, he told them to follow him, and they did follow him.  Then he led them to Samaria, which indicates that they had to have seen him.  They had to see him in order to follow him.  Can you see that?  Can you see that if they were struck with physical blindness they would not have been able to see Elisha in order to follow  him to Samaria?  Can you imagine?  We do not know how many soldiers there were, but there were probably thousands, as it was said to be a great host of horses and chariots.  If they were all struck by God with physical blindness, they would have been wandering around unable to know what way to go.  And if Elisha said, “Follow me,” then how could they do that?  He would have had to take one soldier by the hand, and then everyone would have to grab the hand of another soldier.  But we do not read of that happening. 

This blindness involved smiting them with a particular “blindness” that caused them to fail to recognize that they were in the proper city, and to fail to recognize that Elisha was the man they were seeking.  They came to seek Elisha in Dothan, and they came to the right city and found the right man.  That is the truth.   But once God smote them with blindness, and Elisha said, “This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek.”  He was basically saying, “I am not that man, but I will lead you to that man.”  This is very odd and unusual. 

They did follow him, and he led them to Samaria, and the king of Israel had his own army round about them, and at that point, Elisha said, in 2Kings 6:20:

And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, JEHOVAH, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And JEHOVAH opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

I do not know how God did this, but He allowed them to see the road in front of them, and they marched along without “seeing,” or understanding, that the road they traveled led to Samaria, the place of their enemy, the king of Samaria and his army.  I do not know how that happened, but God did it.

Have you sometimes had the experience of driving early in the morning on your way to work, and you kind of “zone out,” and you are groggy, and not all that alert?  In your mind, you are thinking of something else, and you are not really watching the road.  (That is very dangerous.  I do not recommend it, but I have done it.)  Then after a while something would jar you to alertness, and you see the road ahead of you.  You had been driving, and making turns and maneuvers, but you were doing it in an unaware state in your mind.  But all of a sudden, you are back in your right mind.  I remember thinking, “How did I just drive several miles without even having an awareness of it?” 

So it was probably something like that where this army was able to function and move as they marched along, “seeing without seeing.”  And do you see where that leads us?  That is what God says concerning those who come to the Bible, but “seeing, they see not,” and “hearing, they hear not.”  Those who are unsaved and handle the Word of God can see the Scriptures.  They can read it.  They can even study it and come up with some ideas about it, but “seeing,” they fail to “see” it. 

So here, they were seeking Elisha, and Elisha is a type of Christ.  They came to where they heard Elisha would be.  He was in Dothan.  And it was true that Elisha was in Dothan.  They came the right way, to the right city, and they found the right man.  But when God smote them with blindness, they did not know they had come the right way.  They did not know they had come to the right city, and they did not know they had found the right man.  You can begin to see where this leads us, spiritually, when God struck them with blindness.  It had to do with their understanding.  We read about that in the New Testament in Ephesians 4 where God is telling us of the unsaved, and He says in Ephesians 4:17-18:

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Their understanding is darkened.  That is the problem area.  They lack right understanding.  They lack an ability to understand the truth, and God relates that to the blindness of their heart.  That is what He struck this army with, a darkened understanding of even natural things that had to do with their circumstances, like who they were sent after, and the place they were sent to, but it is painting the spiritual picture that God struck them with blindness of heart so that they would not understand.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue looking at this interesting passage, and it will lead us to another interesting passage that will explain even better what is going on when Joseph came to Dothan to find his brethren.