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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Angels and Demons are All Around Us
II Kings 6:13-23
Introduction
I said it on the first episode of this podcast: if you’re a modern Christian living in a westernized country, you’re weird. You’re living in a very weird time and weird place in human history.
Because we are taught to accept rational, scientific explanations for things. We’re told that if you can’t find it in a test tube or with a telescope or see it with your own two eyes, then it probably doesn’t exist.
Most people, and perhaps even most western Christians, have absolutely no concept of a spiritual battle taking place around them at all times. No awareness of angels and demons.
Most Christians might be aware that yeah, there are spiritual forces that exist; but they never really think about them outside of church. Once Monday morning hits, most Christians often give no more thought to the spiritual realm than your average atheist.
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore what the Bible has to say about spiritual reality.
Turn to II Kings 6, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
Behind-the-Scenes Code
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about how angels and demons are around us all the time.
Some of us might have a few more angels than demons, and others may have more demons than angels. And we’ll talk about why that is as we wind down today.
So, my first job that I got when I was 17 was as a web designer. I got that job in 2007. I may have mentioned before that my first job was at a radio station, and this was it. I was a web designer for a radio station.
This was back when websites were actually built using html code. HTML, CSS, Javascript. I haven’t built a website for a while, but it seems today that you don’t have to know all those coding languages to be able build a website; but back then, we did.
I had to learn how html tags worked. I learned how to make my style sheets in CSS. I had to learn the if-then language of javascript. And the result was that I would end up constructing a web page that you would see if you went to our radio station’s website.
However, just by visiting the website, you didn’t see all the code that I had tediously written to make everything fit together. You just saw a web page. I saw everything behind the web page. I saw all the lines of code, the tables, the attributes, all that stuff. I saw the grid. I saw the skeletal form of the page, I added the meat to it, everything "behind the scenes,” you might say.
If you pulled up the web page on my work computer, you’d see a very different side of it than what a visitor saw to our site. If you were to visit my work and look at the website from there, you’d see that there is a lot of code going on behind the scenes that you had no idea about. If you hadn’t been trained in writing HTML code, it would be too much for you to handle. It would look like gibberish to you, or perhaps it would be overwhelming to understand.
Similarly, our physical world has another dimension to it that almost all people never see. It’s called the spiritual realm. And in the spiritual realm, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that we never know about. And if we did, it would probably be too much for us to handle. We only see things from the physical realm. Our tiny human brains could probably not comprehend the complexities of the spiritual realm.
It would be too much information. Overwhelming.
In fact, today’s Bible story is going to look at a guy who got to pull back the curtain on the spiritual realm for a brief moment, and he’s going to be pretty shocked at what he sees.
Elisha and Gehazi
So for the third and final week, we’re going to take a look at II Kings 6. And also consider this an introduction to spiritual warfare, which we’ll be talking about for at least the next month. And I’ll tell you more about where we’re going at the end of today’s episode.
But where we left off last week was when the King of Syria, Ben-Hadad, is frustrated that Israel always seems to know his plans. Every time he tries to lay a trap for the Israelites, somehow they know to avoid it. His servants come to him and tell him that in Israel there is a prophet, named Elisha, and they say that he gets messages from God about everything Syria is up to. They even tell Ben-Hadad that Elisha knows “the words that you speak in your bedroom.”
So Ben-Hadad says, “If we’re going to put a stop to Israel, first we’re going to put a stop to Elisha.” So let’s pick it up at:
II Kings 6:13-15
13 And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” 14 So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
The servant here is a man named Gehazi. This was a guy who followed Elisha around and helped him, but he is not usually a very noble guy. In fact, you read about Gehazi and you would probably often wonder why Elisha keeps him around. I think God has Gehazi in some of Elisha’s stories to teach us a lesson.
Gehazi is usually pretty earthly-minded. Elisha is almost like the ancient version of a superhero, and Gehazi serves a role of often showing how an ordinary person following Elisha around might have reacted to him. Gehazi, I would say, is probably representative of most Christians today.
II Kings 6:16
16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Elisha says, as you look out and see yourself surrounded by all of these soldiers, and it looks hopeless, don’t lose hope. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. There’s a verse in
I John 4:4 that says
Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
I think this is the Old Testament version of that verse. This is a verse that reminds us to not trust what we see with our own eyes but to trust in what we know is true in the spiritual realm. There are more good angels than fallen angels. There are more angels loyal to God than there are angels in rebellion to God.
Revelation 12:3-4 say
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
This is symbolic language, but it’s speaking of the spiritual beings who rebelled against God. Satan rebelled and took one third of the angels. One in three of them took his side. Two in three stayed loyal to God. Which means the good guys outnumber the bad guys.
So when you wake up in the morning and you see yourself surrounded by problems on every side, remember that those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
Your eyes can deceive you
There’s a scene in the very first Star Wars movie ever made, which is the fourth Star Wars movie ever made…which was the first one that ever came out…but it’s also called Episode 4. And Obi-Wan is teaching Luke Skywalker about this thing called The Force.
And, this is not a Christian allegory, and the Holy Spirit is not the Force. But there are some parallels to our spiritual walk you can pull from those movies at times. And something Obi-Wan tells Luke that has always stuck with me.
“Your eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them.”
That is basically true in the Christian realm. There are times that it makes no logical sense to do what God says, and any rational person would do something else. But we are not go to by what our eyes see, what the world tells us is smart, or even always by what our own brains say is logical.
Let me speak in earthly terms for a minute, and then we’ll take it to the spiritual realm. That celebrity who seems to have the most exciting life. But seems to live such an ungodly lifestyle. Embracing all kinds of sins, yet seems so happy and their life seems to glamorous and enviable. Oftentimes those people are miserable behind the scenes. Their marriages never last. They’re in and out of rehab. They’re on all kinds of depression medication.
Or let’s talk finances. I’m sure if I had a secular banker or accountant look over my finances, they could point out all the things I could buy if I didn’t tithe. They’d say I could pay off my vehicle so much quicker or buy a nicer car if I didn’t tithe. When inflation is hitting at 20 or 30%, living without that 10% of your income doesn’t make sense to the outside world. But I’d rather have a little less with God’s blessing than a 100% of my paycheck without it.
No one in my family has ever gone hungry. I’ve never paid a bill late. And don’t tell Dave Ramsey but I have a credit card and I pay off the balance every month. And most people who don’t tithe probably can’t say that.
And I don’t say that to brag on myself at all because I’m simply telling you that God makes it happen. God pays the bills. Some might say I could live more comfortably if I just kept that 10%. I live very comfortably with the blessing of God. And I’d be much more uncomfortable if I didn’t have it.
Now let’s take this discussion into the supernatural. Your eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
It doesn’t matter what battle you’re facing down in the physical. God has resources in the spiritual realm that far outnumber the giant that’s in your way. Literally giants. That’s why David slew the giant. He said, “you come with sword and spear, but I come in the Name of the Lord my God. I come in his authority.” You know that phrase “you just brought a knife to a gunfight”? Goliath brought a sword to spiritual warfare. And we all know what happened to Goliath.
David recognized that he was in a spiritual battle. How many Christians would look at someone standing in front of them with a sword and spear and would recognize it as a spiritual battle? Not many of them. We would be more likely to lean on the Second Amendment to save us than to lean on the Lord of Heaven and Earth to save us.
Gehazi’s eyes are opened
I love that worship song that says, “It may look like I’m surrounded but I’m surrounded by You.” That song always makes me think of this story. I think it’s called “this is how I fight my battles.”
When you rely on your own strength, you will only do what you can do. When you rely on God’s strength, you can do so much more.
When I ask God for His help in crafting these podcast episodes, it’s because I know it won’t turn out as good as if I try to do it without Him. When I used to do interviews with authors on the radio, I remember interviewing one lady who had been in the radio industry for decades, and as I often did before an interview, I asked her if I could say a quick prayer. She thanked me and said that she often has to be the one to ask for a prayer before a radio interview.
And I’ll just tell you who this is, it was June Hunt. She has been on the radio since before I was born. Literally for decades. And she was here telling me that she always prays before an interview. She still always prays because no matter how experienced she is at radio, she doesn’t want to rely on her own power before she starts speaking on the air. She wants God’s help.
Listen, when we try to do it on our own, we’ll only accomplish what we can do by ourselves. I want God’s help.
Hey, I like partnering with coffee. Coffee gets me through some tough mornings at work. Coffee helps me be a little more productive. If I don’t have coffee, I’m can only do what only I can do. But with the power of coffee, I become a bit more productive.
Now, I’m joking a little bit here, but I can do a lot more with God’s help than I can with coffee’s help. I like to partner with both of them. But the power of God can take me a lot further than coffee can. Because those who are with me are more than those who are with them.
When Elisha said those words to Gehazi, let’s read what happened next:
II Kings 6:17
17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
So guess what? Gehazi is worried about all these threats surrounding their city that they’re in at this time. But the army of the King of Syria pales in comparison to the spiritual army that God has there to defend them.
It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you.
That’s why Elisha wasn’t worried about the enemy soldiers. He knew God had it under control. He knew that if it was God’s will for him to die that day, there wasn’t anything on this earth that could save him. And that if it wasn’t God’s will for him to die that day, there wasn’t anything on earth that could take him out. His life was in God’s hands. He was not looking to the natural at all; he was relying on the supernatural.
And when Gehazi’s eyes were opened, Gehazi was able to see why. He got a glimpse behind the veil. He got a rare view of the supernatural realm. He got to view the html code of reality. Let’s finish the story with
Verses 18-23
18 And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. 19 And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria.
20 As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21 As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?”
He actually says it twice. Which implies to me that King Jehoram was pretty excited. He’s like, “Can we kill them, can we kill them?!?” He’s more excited than Dave Ramsey with your credit card and a pair of scissors. But Elisha doesn’t view these flesh-and-blood soldiers as his true enemies, so Elisha doesn’t want them to die.
Verse 22
22 He answered, “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” 23 So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.
It’s actually kind of New Testament in its ethics right here. Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you.
Why was Elisha able to let them live? Why did he feed these enemy soldiers who had been sent to destroy his life and let them go home freely? Because Elisha understood that he did not war against flesh and blood. These people- even with murderous intent- were pawns in the enemy’s hand. The devil was just trying to use them to kill a prophet. Elisha was able to look at them and say, “they aren’t my real enemy. I don’t even want them getting killed in the crossfire.”
And the result was that the Syrians left Israel alone after this. They had a demonstration of the power of God. Perhaps their hearts were softened when they were treated with this kindness by their enemies. And so Syria left them alone.
Really an amazing story when you think about it. Letting those enemy combatants go might have looked like they were giving up a battle. Letting a free victory slip out of their hands. Elisha gave up this battle so he could win the war. Because he knew where the real war was being fought.
In the spiritual realm. Not the physical. There are angels and demons all around us. Good spiritual beings who work for God combatting evil spiritual beings who work for the devil. That’s where the real battle is. And that’s what I want to talk about in a minute as I close down today.
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Next Time/Mailbag
So that person at work or school or whoever who is a jerk to you and ruins your day. If they aren’t a Christian, they’re probably heavily influenced by spiritual forces. In fact, there may be spiritual beings who are just using that person to torment you. That person may not be your real problem at all.
Even if they are a Christian, Christians can be influenced by evil spirits as well. If you could see into the spiritual realm like Gehazi did today, you might see demons all around that person who is giving you a hard time.
In some cases, the demons can be inside people. That is called demon possession, and the Bible speaks on this topic frequently, especially in the New Testament.
So next time on this podcast, I want to spend a week or two on Mark 5. We just spent three weeks in II Kings 6, and I was thankful for that opportunity. Now I want to try to make it through the story of the demoniac of the Gerasenes. This is the guy who said ‘my name is Legion, for we are many.’ This is the story that ends with the demons being cast into a herd of pigs. There’s a lot of weird going on in this story, and I’d like to pick that apart with you all.
Once I get through that, we’ll be at a special milestone for this podcast: our one-year anniversary of Weird Stuff in the Bible! I decided to mark the occasion by getting an interview or two set up, so once we finish Mark 5, I’m going to be speaking with author and longtime Christian communicator Bill Scott and let you all hear his story of helping a girl who was tied up with the occult, and there will be a lot of valuable takeaways you can grab in regard to spiritual warfare and the exact type of stuff we’re talking about today.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
Some mailbag moments: Brent says, “A great podcast. Can’t wait for new episodes to come out.” Thank you for saying that, Brent, glad to have you aboard as a listener!
Jendor4 on Youtube: Your enthusiasm is a blessing for the weary in their dull days of life! I said: Thank you, I try my best to bring energy to it, which is not hard because I love studying the Bible!
Longtime listener Joe says about my most recent episode, Well spoken young man, God bless you!
Let me just reiterate: I believe if those episodes were helpful or beneficial in any way, all glory to God. All I did was pray and ask for His help. If anyone found it worthwhile, I’d say God came through!
And let me just say this: I don’t read positive feedback to glorify myself. I do it because I get frustrated with so many podcasters who focus on their haters instead of their fans. I’m like, why don’t you read more feedback from the people who are actually nice to you instead of focusing on all the people who get angry at your podcast? So I don’t want to focus on haters, although if you have a pushback with anything I’ve said, I do regularly read those kinds of comments, too. I’m perfectly fine with reading critical feedback if you aren’t hateful about it.
And if you have some, send it to weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
All Around Elisha
So we’re going to be talking about spiritual warfare for the next few lessons, and today was just the introduction. So your lesson today is, “You can’t do it. God has to do it. You can’t fight in the spiritual realm on your own. You’re a physical, flesh and blood creature. All you have is the authority of Christ given to you by a higher power.”
So if you want to stand up against the devil, against Satan and his angels, the first thing you’re gonna have to do is let go of any pride that you can defeat demons on your own.
Just like, a police officer is granted a certain amount of authority by the government, and they’re given a badge. They can flash that badge as proof or evidence that they are a legitimate police officer, an arm of the government to enforce our laws. If I want to walk down the street and arrest somebody, even if they truly broke a crime, I couldn’t do it because I have no authority to make an arrest.
If you’re a Christian trying to do spiritual battle without relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, you’re worse than a policeman with no badge, no gun, you’ve got nothing.
So that’s your lesson for today. Be aware of the spiritual battle. Don’t trust your eyes. Rely on the Spirit.
Barna did a poll a few years back and found that 3 in 10 Christians do not believe in evil spiritual forces at work in the world. Also, 59% of Christians agreed with the statement that Satan is not a living being but merely a symbol of evil. 8% were not sure. Which means of all the people who call themselves Christians, only 33% know there’s a devil.
I don’t understand how people can read the Bible and come away with the conclusion that Satan doesn’t exist. He literally has conversations with Jesus. Demons are literally cast out of people. Well, next time we’ll probably talk about how people get deceived about that.
Now, interestingly, in this same survey from Barca, almost half of them also said they believed Jesus probably sinned while on this earth. And if you believe that, you aren’t a Christian. That’s just downright heretical. They might call themselves Christian, but they aren’t saved if they believe that. But when you have that many people believing heresy about Jesus, no wonder they’re also confused about Satan and the supernatural.
As Mark Twain, I believe, said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he didn’t exist.” And there are entire denominations who will buy into the falsehood that the devil isn’t real, despite that it gets more obvious every day. That is so weird to me! I don’t even feel like Satan is hiding anymore, yet it seems that fewer and fewer people are believing in him.
So much deception out there; we can’t fight in the spiritual; so what does God do to help us? The answer is in this text: When Gehazi had his spiritual eyes opened and saw the army of God in the spirit realm, did you notice where they were? Let me read the verse again.
II Kings 6:17
17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
They were assigned specifically to protect Elisha. Elisha was the one walking with God. Elisha was the one who had the faith. And Elisha was the one who had this divine protection.
Did Elisha have super-human vision to see behind the veil anytime he wanted? I don’t believe he did. I don’t believe he needed to. I believe he just had faith.
The question for you today is: are you going to have an Elisha faith or a Gehazi faith?
I see it as kind of a spectrum. I think Christians fall someone on the Gehazi side or the Elisha side, or somewhere in between. And most Christians are more on the Gehazi side. But starting today, after reading II Kings 6, the question for you is: which side are you going to be on now?
When I hear that a majority of so-called Christians don’t believe that Satan exists, I don’t know what Bible they’re reading.
My Bible says Jesus was 100% perfect and never sinned.
My Bible says Satan is 100% evil and a daily threat.
My Bible says angels are real.
My Bible says fallen angels are real.
My Bible says demons are powerful.
My Bible says Jesus is more powerful.
And believing none of that is weird. That’s normal. We’re weird when we forget or we don’t know that angels and demons are all around us all the time. But now we do.
Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.