The Syrians Ensnared; the Syrians Generously Liberated. – B.C. 893.
8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. (2 Kings 6:8-12 KJV)
Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Here we have Elisha, with his spirit of prophecy, serving the king, as before helping the sons of the prophets; for that, as other gifts, is given to every man to profit withal; and, whatever abilities any man has of doing good, he is by them made a debtor both to the wise and unwise. Observe here,
I. How the king of Israel was informed by Elisha of all the designs and motions of his enemy, the king of Syria, more effectually than he could have been by the most vigilant and faithful spies. If the king of Syria, in a secret council of war, determined in which place to make an inroad upon the coasts of Israel, where he thought it would be the greatest surprise and they would be least able to make resistance before his forces could receive his orders the king of Israel had notice of them from Elisha, and so had the opportunity of preventing the mischief; and many a time, 2Ki 6:8-10. See here,
1. That the enemies of God’s Israel are politic in their devices, and restless in their attempts, against him. They shall not know, nor see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, Ne 4:11.
2. All those devices are known to God, even those that are deepest laid. He knows not only what men do, but what they design, and has many ways of countermining them.
3. It is a great advantage to us to be warned of our danger, that we may stand upon our guard against it. The work of God’s prophets is to give us warning; if being warned, we do not save ourselves, it is our own fault, and our blood will be upon our own heads. The king of Israel would regard the warnings Elisha gave him of his danger by the Syrians, but not the warnings he gave him of his danger by his sins. Such warnings are little heeded by the most; they will save themselves from death, but not from hell.
II. How the king of Syria resented this. He suspected treachery among his senators, and that his counsels were betrayed, 2Ki 6:11. But one of his servants who had heard by Naaman and others of Elisha’s wondrous works, concludes it must be he that gave this intelligence to the king of Israel, 2Ki 6:12. What could not he discover who could tell Gehazi his thoughts? Here a confession of the boundless knowledge, as before of the boundless power, of Israel’s God, is extorted from Syrians. Nothing done, said, thought, by any person, in any place, at any time, is out of the reach of God’s cognizance.