How to See Chariots of Fire

 

In 2 Kings 6 in the Bible, we find the king of Syria waging war against the nation of Israel. When the Syrians would plan an attack, the Hebrew prophet Elisha would tell the king of Israel where and when they were going to attack, and they were able to outflank the Syrians in every battle. The king of Syria would attempt sneak attack after sneak attack, and every time Elisha would spoil his plans. 

The king of Syria started to think that he had a spy in his court. One of his advisors told him that it was not a spy, but Elisha was telling the king of Israel "the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber."  They discovered that Elisha was in the town of Dothan, and the king of Syria sent a mighty army there. Here is what Scripture says: 

"...When the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host compassed the city both with horses and chariot. And his servant said unto [Elisha], 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, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord 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."(2 Kings 6:15-17) 

Elisha's young servant woke up to see his city surrounded by the Syrian army, and perhaps quite reasonably, he began to panic, "What are we going to do?" 

But Elisha was as cool as a mountain stream, he knew something the young man did not. He could perceive something he did not. He had discernment. 

Discernment is an essential, spiritual ability that allows us to differentiate good from evil, right from wrong, and to understand the true nature of a situation. 

Too often we are like the young man, we live in fear, a near perpetual state of panic, because all we see are enemies surrounding us. All we see are our addictions, our burdens and heartaches, our mental and physical illnesses. We are surrounded by stress and bills; we see violence and death on the news and outside our doors. Natural disasters and peril are on every hand. 

We look to the left and to the right, we look forward and backward, and we see plenty of reasons to fear.

This is all we see, but that does not mean that is all there is. This spiritual gift of discernment allows us to pierce the veil, to pull back the curtains of this physical reality and perceive and understand the eternal, spiritual reality that underlies all of existence, just out of sight. 

As we study the Word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to see glimmers of this truth and reality. We come to understand that this world and its heartache is not all there is. 

We live in fear because we cannot see that the God of angel armies has arrayed his flaming chariots upon the mountains around us. We cannot see because we are not looking with our spiritual sight, we are not using the discernment that God has given us. 

If you have driven a car, perhaps you have had this experience.  There is some flaw on the windshield, perhaps a crack or a bug splat or some bird droppings, and it becomes distracting. We tend to focus on the windshield, but if we focus on the windshield, the road, the other cars, the signs all become blurry and indecipherable. We cannot see where we are going properly. If we spend too much time focusing on the problems with the windshield, we will end up in a wreck. We have to keep our focus on the world outside, the road, and later, when we are safely parked, we can clean the windshield or get the crack repaired. 

Too often we find ourselves wrecked in life because we become too focused on the wrong things. We focus on the cracks and stains in our lives and lose sight of the eternal values. Lust and greed are always floating in our field of vision, and if we focus on them, we veer off the straight and narrow course. We wring our hands worrying about the problems of this life and spend little, if any, time focusing on God and his Word and those things that will truly last forever. We crash our lives when we do not have the discernment to see what is truly valuable in this world and we let our worries and fears overwhelm us. 

How do we develop this discernment? 

For Elisha's young servant, his eyes were opened after Elisha prayed for him. If we want to have spiritual discernment, prayer is the key. 

We might not have a prophet to pray for us, but we can certainly pray for ourselves. God has promised us wisdom and discernment if we have the faith to ask. We can pray that God would open our eyes so we can see his flaming chariots surrounding us. 

The Conversion of Saint Paul, c. 1544
Jacopo Tintoretto (painter) Venetian, 1518 or 1519 - 1594
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington*

In Acts chapter 9 we find Saul, travelling along the Damascus Road, on his way to persecute Christians. He is suddenly interrupted and blinded by a vision of the Lord. Saul continued on to Damascus, there a Christian named Ananias had his own vision. In it, the Lord instructed him to visit Saul, and heal his blindness. 

"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized." 

Saul and the young servant both have this in common, they could not see, and they needed help to regain their sight. Often discernment is not a skill we can develop on our own. We have to be taught; we have to be mentored. 

Just as children need to be taught that Tide pods are not candy, and cleaning solution is not Kool-Aid, we need to be taught how to perceive spiritual reality. 

Even in our own lives we are often ignorant about how the enemy is at work in our lives. We need teachers and mentors to help us see. 

Many times, we can gain this instruction and guidance by reading good books, listening to sound, biblical preaching, and spending time fellowshipping with more experienced, mature Christians. We can ask them to pray for us to have discernment while we pray for ourselves and others as well. 

Enemies might surround us, and we may feel overwhelmed, but spiritual discernment allows us to see through the chaos to the reality that God is still sovereign and all powerful. As we are aligned with him, we can know peace and confidence.

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*Before he became known as Saint Paul, Saul was a persecutor of Christians. This early painting by the Venetian master Jacopo Tintoretto depicts the moment that led to Saul’s conversion. As described in Acts 9:3–7, he traveled from Jerusalem to Damascus to destroy the churches there. As Saul and his troops approached the city, he saw a flash of light around him and, falling to the ground, heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Tintoretto portrayed the scene as utter chaos. Frightened men and horses tangle and crash to the ground. Their terror seems to reverberate around them as ominous clouds and a strong wind seize upon the landscape.

In the artist’s time, the theme of Saint Paul’s conversion was a popular subject—one that provided painters an opportunity to show their skills. The ambitious young Tintoretto had studied works by masters including Raphael (Marchigian, 1483 - 1520) and Titian (Venetian, 1488/1490 - 1576), and his own bold treatment seems to challenge them. But while referring to their works, Tintoretto’s painting resets them within a broader, more dynamic scene. Also contributing to the energy of the picture is the artist’s varied brushwork, which in some areas is strikingly free.