FBC Daily Devotional – December 16, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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00:06

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. How is your vision today? Are you able to see well?

00:12

I ask that question because our reading in second kings chapter chapter six and seven

00:18

Has an interesting theme of seeing or not seeing that runs right through it

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Bear with me as I trace this little theme Through chapter six and seven

00:30

So in chapter six verse one the very first verse the sons of the prophets said to elisha See now the place where we dwell is too small for us

00:40

So they go to chop down some trees. They're going to build a bigger place one guy's

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Hacking away and the axe head falls off the axe handle. It falls into the water Can't find it come to elisha and say hey, you know, my axe my axe had fallen fell off the handle and it's borrowed and Elisha said where did it fall off in verse six?

01:02

And he showed him the place He let him see the place where the axe head fell off in verse 11 the king of syria is greatly troubled because he's wanting to attack the israelites and And they get they get warned every time

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The king of syria is on the move and he's greatly troubled and he called his servants and said to them

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Will you not show me? Let me see which of us is for the king of israel show me who is in favor of the king of israel and in verse 13

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The king says go and see where he is that is where is elisha go and see where he is in verse 17

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Elisha said lord. I pray open his eyes that he may see

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And the lord opened his eyes of the young man and he saw we're going to say more about that in just a few minutes in verse 18

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The syrians came down to him to a lot and elisha prayed to the lord and said strike this people

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I pray with blindness. So the lord struck them with blindness according to the word of elisha of elisha verse 20

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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

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And they saw and there they were inside of samaria verse 21

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When the king of israel saw them, he said to elisha shall I kill them shall I kill them and elisha says no in chapter 7 verse 2

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Uh, it says an office is around whose hand the king of of uh, the king leaned answered the man of god and said look

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If the lord would make windows in heaven could this thing be And elisha responds and says in fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it

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And in verse 19 that is fulfilled Where it says that officer had answered the man of god said look now

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Look if the heaven uh, the lord would make windows in heaven could such a thing be he said in fact You shall see it with your eyes, but you will not eat of it and the man saw that with his eyes

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But he didn't eat of it. He was he was one trampled to death and then in verse 6 chapter 7 verse 6

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Says the lord god lord god had caused the army of the syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses

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The noise of a great army they said to one another look the king of israel's hired against us the king

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Kings of the hittites kings of the egyptians to attack us they heard But they didn't see

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They didn't see what was really going on now The reason

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I wanted to trace that that whole theme of seeing through these couple of chapters Is that we can see some things in this natural world?

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And do we see a great deal in the natural world? Um, we see things all around us in the natural world you know the servant of elisha looked out the window when he got up in the morning and he

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Looked and saw That the syrian army was surrounding the city in which they were dwelling

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And that that evoked a great deal of fear In this world in which we live we can be

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Physically capable of seeing and yet nevertheless spiritually blind

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There are things we don't see And that spiritual blindness is is not

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Something that can be remedied if you will with with natural sight in other words

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You can't pray and have the scales of spiritual blindness be removed and then all of a sudden you see a whole bunch

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You see physically a whole bunch of spiritual realities what i'm getting at is

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You know, you know elisha prayed to the lord that his servant would be able to see the

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Spiritual host the spiritual army That would protect them against the physical army of the syrians and god graciously opened the eyes of that servant

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And he saw this great angelic host of warriors Who would protect elisha and that city from the syrian army?

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And we can't expect that What we can say What we can say through this account is yes, we open our eyes we see things all around us

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I mean even as i'm sitting here at my desk I can look up and I can see what's beyond on the other side of the camera

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I can see I have a window over there to my left. I look out and I see a great deal of outdoor stuff, you know but But there is at the same time

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Beyond a veil that is covering my eyes A great deal of spiritual reality that I cannot physically see

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I believe there are There is an end there is angelic presence here. I believe that There are spiritual beings and and there is stuff going on in the spirit world just beyond the veil that through which

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I cannot see And that's what's that's what seems to be brought out here And the syrians they they didn't see when they heard this noise, but they didn't see an army but there was one there was one

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So there is a reality That we simply are not able physically to see that's what

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I wanted to that's what I wanted to get across but Knowing of that spiritual reality that we cannot physically see

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Should encourage us As it encouraged elisha's servant when he did have his eyes open the veil was

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Temporarily removed from before his eyes and he was able to look out and see that vast spiritual force

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That would give them the victory and protect them the lord of angel armies

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Still protects his people And that spiritual reality just beyond the veil of our eyes

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Is still is still existent is still there Let's take let's take encouragement from that The lord sends his messengers.

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He sends his angelic visitors. He sends his angelic forces And there is protection for the people of god that Again, it's there

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But we can't see it Too glad it's there Father we do.

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Thank you. We thank you for the way you protect your people in ways that we can't even see

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We don't comprehend it. We cannot fathom it We can't see it

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Other than through the eyes of faith just believing the reality that is there

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Thank you for this passage of scripture that gives us just a glimpse beyond the veil

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We praise you for it in jesus name All right.