38. More with us (2 Kings 6)

2 Kings 6:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. (KJV)

This is a story about war. And there are many wars in the Bible. And a lot of them are described very simply. The righteous versus the wicked. The people that follow God versus the people that don’t. Good guys versus bad guys. And when the good guys win, it’s because they are good, and when they lose, it’s because they are being bad. But not every war is actually like that. Not every war in the Bible is like that. And this is the story of a war that was not like that at all.

It starts out like the others, with bad guys attacking the part of the family of Jacob in a place called Israel. So the family of Jacob gathered an army to defend itself. And every time the enemy was going to attack, the family of Jacob would ask the prophet Elisha to pray to God. And God would tell him the enemy’s plans, and Elisha would tell the king. And the king would send his army to the right place at t…