IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
What would this look like to you? You notice two guys, who are obviously from out of town, turn into one of the legal brothels of the city you live in. They walk inside and stay the night. What would that look like to you? You’d probably assume that it was just another normal business transaction for that kind establishment, wouldn’t you? You’d have no reason to think otherwise. Or what about this situation: A self-proclaimed “Christian Killer” in the Middle East suddenly makes the claim that the Lord God himself appeared to him out of the blue and told him that he should be a Christian. And now he’s asking the Christian churches of that area to come out of hiding and invite him in so that he can speak to them about this miraculous turnaround. What would that look like to you? Wouldn’t it sound a little fishy? Would you really think this so-called recent convert to Christianity is who he says he is? These couple situations cause us to formulate conclusions rather quickly, don’t they? We perceive what is happening in each one of these instances and we immediately assume the worst. And why not? Our observations and experiences tell us that what we have already concluded is probably right. But the two stories I just summarized aren’t just made up stories - they really did happen. And what actually was going on behind the scenes in each of these stories was not what it looked like at first.
The self-proclaimed “Christian killer” in the Middle East was the apostle Paul. And although it didn’t look like it to those congregations at the time, God actually did appear to him; he actually did convert him on the spot; he actually did send him to Christian churches! The two out-of-town guests that stayed overnight at the city’s Main St. bordello were the two spies sent by Joshua into the city of Jericho. Rahab was the owner of that “house of ill repute” and the two men came in not to sleep but to hide. It must have looked like something that happened every day to the townspeople who saw them walk through her doors, but it was anything but. The Lord had in mind to save this prostitute and her family. And what it may have looked like from the outside was not the reality at all. The Lord is used to doing things contrary to what they look like from an outsider’s perspective. He is always doing things that we can’t see. He is always working things out in ways that we don’t understand. He is always managing things under his control when all we can see is chaos. And he did this very thing in our story of Elisha today in 2 Kings 6:
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
It looked like a hopeless situation to Elisha’s servant. It looked like they were going to be captured by the king of Aram and there was nothing they could do about it. It looked like there was no way to escape. It looked like they were outnumbered: two against tens of thousands. But it’s not what it looked like. It wasn’t a hopeless situation. They weren’t going to be captured. And they didn’t have to escape because they weren’t even close to being outnumbered. The thousands of horses and chariots that the king of Aram brought with him were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of heavenly horses and chariots that were actually on fire! The Lord had sent reinforcements! He had sent such a massive army of heavenly beings that they covered the hills as far as the servant could see. It wasn’t what it looked like at all! In fact, it was just the opposite! The Arameans were the ones who were actually surrounded; they should have been the ones looking for a way to escape; they should have realized it was a hopeless situation! Elisha and his servant had the upper hand. They were on the right side. And Elisha’s servant probably felt a little embarrassed for having panicked and worried so much after the Lord allowed him to see what was really happening behind the scenes.
But can we really blame this servant? I can’t imagine any of us thinking anything different! We would have panicked! We would have been at least a little bit worried and stressed out if we had been in the same situation! Because that’s what we do! We almost always assume the worst will happen when things don’t look so good. And we usually assume the worst because we figure that the problem at hand rests squarely on our own shoulders instead of on the Lord’s. “How am I ever going to fix this problem?” we might say to ourselves. And if we can’t figure out how to fix the problem then we just assume that the problem is probably never going to be fixed.
Let me ask you something: Based on what you know about your Lord, based on everything he has done for you and for the rest of his people in the past, is there any reason you should ever assume the worst will happen? Is there any reason to doubt that the Lord is fully in control, that he has everything planned out ahead of time, that he will take the situation at hand and turn it into a blessing for you? Is there any reason to assume anything less than that? But we do, don’t we? We constantly imagine that the end result will not be for our good, that it will hurt us, that it will harm us in some way. We seem to always be of the mindset that we will not benefit in any way from the bad things that are happening and, in fact, we will be worse off than we were before!
I sometimes wonder if the Lord just sighs and shakes his head in disappointment when we think that way. Because what more does he have to do for us before we start trusting his power? What more does he have to prove to us before we start relying on his love? What more does he have to show to us before we stop assuming the worst is going to happen? Does he really have to visually present to us the fiery horses and chariots that cover the hills in every single situation? Does he really have to give us a peek at the master plan so that we can somehow see how our life’s blueprint starts to fit together? Isn’t his Word enough? Aren’t his promises sufficient? Don’t his past actions prove that he will be the same God for us today as he was back then? We can be very skeptical Christians at times. Spiritual unstable. Very untrusting. Very unsure. Even though our Lord asks us to have an unwavering faith in him at all times.
Do you remember what Elisha said when his servant was wavering in his faith, when he was a little untrusting and unsure? Elisha said to him calmly and confidently, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” In other words, “Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be OK. We actually don’t have to do anything to fix the problem because the Lord is in complete control of the situation just like he always is.” And maybe that’s something that we need to be reminded about on occasion too: “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Every time. So don’t worry about it. It’s going to be OK. We actually don’t have to do anything to fix the problem because the Lord is in complete control of the situation just like he always is. He promises that everything will turn out well and so it would be wrong for us to assume the worst is going to happen. In fact, we should always assume that nothing but the best is going to happen. Because when it comes to the Lord, it’s almost never looks like what it really is.
Our entire salvation is based on that premise: It’s not what it looks like. A virgin girl who is not yet married suddenly becomes pregnant. She claims an angel appeared to her during the night and that the child in her womb is actually the Son of God on account some miraculous in vitro fertilization process by the Holy Spirit. That probably looked a little suspicious to the people of Mary’s hometown? But it wasn’t what it looked like. It really was Jesus in her womb. It really was the Holy Spirit who did what he did. Mary wasn’t lying after all! Years later Mary’s child, Jesus, comes into the capital city on the back of a donkey. His disciples, a group of his followers, and some children are singing his praises and waving palm branches in the air. He didn’t seem like a grand and glorious king. He didn’t look like anyone important. But it wasn’t what it looked like. It was our Almighty God riding into the city of his death. It was the one who created the heavens and earth. It was the Messiah whom everyone had been waiting for even if he didn’t look the part. Later that week our Lord is betrayed and all of his disciples run away from the mob that has come to arrest him. It looked like he is all alone. It looked like he didn’t have a choice but to give in. But it wasn’t what it looks like. Jesus himself said that he had thousands of angels at his disposal if he wanted their help. No, Jesus wasn’t forced to go; he wanted to go. And then the very next day we find him standing in front of the Jewish crowds in the custody of Pilate. He had been up all night, he had been beaten, he had been chained, he had been flogged, he had been dressed in a purple robe and had a crown of thorns pressed into his head. He was bleeding all over the place. He was haggard and worn out. He looked like a criminal; he looked like a hopeless human being, a waste of space. But it wasn’t what it looked like. He was the only human being who wasn’t a criminal, who wasn’t hopeless, who wasn’t just a waste of space because he was the only human being there who was also true God!
A couple hours later this man dies while hanging on a cross of execution. It looked like he wasn’t God after all. A couple men lay him in a tomb and there his corpse remained. It looked like all those great things he promised weren’t going to happen. On Sunday morning the stone is no longer in front of the grave and there is nothing left in the tomb but burial clothes. It looked like some bandits or a group of religious zealots had broken into the tomb over the weekend and had stolen his body for some morbid reason. But it wasn’t what it looked like. His body hadn’t been stolen! His promises hadn’t been broken! His death hadn’t stopped him from being God! On the contrary, God had to die! It wasn’t just an unfortunate side effect that he didn’t foresee; it was the pinnacle of his plan! That’s what he had set out to do from the very beginning: he had set out to die and to rise. And it didn’t seem like it would work. It didn’t look like it was going to fix the problem of sin even to his own chosen disciples. But it did! The most unlikely thing did work for our forgiveness because it wasn’t what it looked like. Instead, it was exactly what God wanted it to be.
The entire Aramean army surrounding Elisha and his servant is exactly how God wanted it to be too. He wanted to prove to everyone that Elisha was his prophet. He wanted to prove to this worried servant that there was nothing to worry about. He wanted to prove to the King of Aram that he shouldn’t contend with the one true God. God had it all planned out. And things happened just like he wanted them to. But do you know my favorite part of this story? The hundreds of thousands of fiery angelic horses and chariots that covered the hills around the Lord’s prophet… never even had to be used. The heavenly reinforcements that Elisha and his servant were privileged enough to see weren’t needed. They just sat there, watching. Instead, God himself blinded the entire army and led them by the hand of Elisha away to another town. There was an incredible spiritual force at the Lord’s disposal, but he decided to take care of it himself. Because that’s how powerful our Lord is: he can snap his fingers and change the entire situation. He can say a single word and everything must stop. He can step in at any time and when he does, what looked like what was going to happen doesn’t happen at all.
A lot of times it’s just not what it looks like. We don’t know all of the details. We can’t see all of the avenues and reasons and connections that the Lord has right in front of him. Yes, the problem may seem unfixable, but it’s not. Yes, the situation may seem hopeless, but it’s not. Yes, the outcome and the after effects of any given difficulty may seem like they will be damaging to you and those you love, but they won’t be. It’s not what it looks like. The Lord is out front fighting the battle whether we see him or not. And he is also behind the scenes doing all of the little things necessary to make sure that everything works out according to his plan. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Every time. Trust the Lord in this. You will never be outnumbered. You will never be overwhelmed. You are on the side of the Lord. And he will always give you the victory.
Amen.
“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” – Rom. 11:33, 36
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