Pastor Brian K. Brown, St. Mark M.B. Church
II Kings 6:13-23
The story in the text is a reminder of what it’s like to be in the valley. Dothan was a valley city with mountains all around. Elisha was there to be a voice for God, he was helping to give direction for God’s people; and helping the people realize they needed God for every aspect of their lives. Meanwhile the king of Syria made plots and plans against Elisha, but his plans were always found out and warnings sent to the people. It also lets us know that all we need is God, who will guide and give us what we need. When we trust in the Lord, he will show and reveal things to us. The king of Syria accused his men of double crossing him. They denied giving secrets away and told him that God hears his plans and gives them to the prophet Elisha and Elisha gives them to the people. So, the king ordered that the location of Elisha be found, and the information given to him. He was told that Elisha was in Dothan, so they surrounded the City. Elisha was in a trap, and we also find ourselves in a trap where there seems to be no place to go. Everything we used to do, we can’t do; the exits are covered leaving only the option of sitting in our valley places and wait.
How should we wait while in the valley? The first point comes from verse 16 of the text – When in the valley We Should Wait Positively. Don’t allow the negative that caused us to be in the valley to cause us to go negative but wait with a positive attitude. If we wait negatively, we will look for the negative while waiting positively we will expect something positive to come into our lives. Elisha did not go negative when his servant asked what should they do. He told him to fear not. If God sends us to the valley, it is because he wants to show us something that we wouldn’t see if we didn’t have a valley experience. God uses time and pressure to make something good for us, out of us, or something good to happen around us but we have to wait on God.
The second point from verses 17 and 18 – We Should Wait Prayerfully. Prayer goes more than one way. First Elisha prayed for those on his team, then for those against his team. We should thus pray for those who are helping us and those who are hindering us. God caused those against Elisha to be unable to see and those helping to be able to see. Prayer will help see us what we can’t see and help those against us not see how to hurt us. We may talk about situations, but do we direct it to the one who can heal? Are we talking to God through prayer?
The final point from verse 19 – 23 – We Should Wait Patiently. Elisha does no more than pray. He leads the enemy from Dothan to Samaria and when they get there, he prays again. When they opened their eye, they are in Samaria. The king then asked if he could kill them, but Elisha says feed them and release them to their master. When they returned home, they decided to stop hindering the Israelites. If we are patiently waiting, we can’t get ahead of God. We must be where God needs us to be, saying what God needs us to say and refuse to say what he does not need us to say. In all that we go through we must patiently wait on God. When God shows up what hinders us will move as he works thing out for us.
We invite you to join us on Sunday morning in the sanctuary or through live-stream on YouTube @ St Mark MBC at 10:20 for Sunday School, worship service at 10:45 a.m. each Sunday with bible study on Wednesdays @ 7:00 p.m.
