Earlier this Summer I went on holiday to Edinburgh which is a beautiful city, probably one of the few I would consider moving to. And if you’ve been to Edinburgh or know much about it you will know that the city is built around Holyrood Park, within which are a number of rather large hills, the largest of which is known as Arthur’s Seat. Pretty much wherever you go in Edinburgh you can see these peaks jutting out above buildings or between streets. There is pretty much no getting away from them, they so dominate the skyline. So often there are things in our lives which seem to dominate our thoughts and vision. No matter where we look they always seem to be there. It could be a situation at work or at home. It could be worries about the future or money. It could be that one sin that we just seem to keep falling back into. And it towers over our lives and, even though our lives contain so much more than this one thing, we have a whole city of life which is good, we can’t seem to get it out of our sight. In the Second Book of Kings chapter 6 Elisha has been driving the king of Aram up the wall by telling the king of Israel where he plans to move the Aramean army. Whenever the king of Israel planned to move his forces to a particular place God would warn Elisha that the Aramean army was heading that way and so he would warn the king not to go there. So the king of Aram decides he will put a stop to this by seizing Elisha so he can no longer warn the king of Israel. Shortly after this Elisha is woken up one morning by his servant to see that the city of Dothan, where he is staying, is completely surrounded by the Aramean forces; horses, chariots and troops. There is simply no escape, the odds are stacked against him, the mountain before him looks insurmountable. His servant is quick to point this out and yet Elisha can see past what is before him and see what God is doing. He prays and suddenly his servant can see what he sees, the hills surrounding them and the Arameans are covered with horses and chariots of fire; heavens armies. God’s power is bigger than Elisha’s mountain. Elisha then prays that the Arameans will be blinded so that they cannot see and he leads the entire army of Arameans right into the capital of Israel where he prays that their sight may be restored. And what a shock it must have been for them, they must have known that this was certain death, but instead Elisha commands that they be fed and sent home. I wonder what would happen if we were all just a bit more like Elisha. It’s not that he couldn’t see the problem in front of him; this great mountain in his path. It’s the fact that he doesn’t allow it to dominate his vision, he is able to look past it and see what God is doing, that it’s all under control. If all we do is look at the mountain then pretty soon it will be all we can see, but if we look past it then we will soon remember that our God is in the business of moving mountains. And it’s worth noting what Elisha does when God has moved the obstacle; he doesn’t gloat or take advantage of his sudden upper hand, he simply allows them to go, in fact he feeds them first. When God hurls our mountains into the sea we mustn’t gloat or allow pride to cloud our vision. We should simply give glory to the one who saves us and then move on, ready to face the next mountain, safe in the knowledge that if we are doing the will of God then nothing can stand in our way. Now if I flip this entire scenario around it gets interesting. What if we allow God to be our mountain; what would happen if wherever we looked all we saw was God. What a glorious life that would be. To see God in every person we meet, to see God in every situation we face, to see the face of God in every good thing and to see His saving power behind every obstacle. Even to see Him with us in every defeat or failure. That no matter where we walk in the city of life we can always see God on the horizon; loving us, challenging us, and drawing us ever closer to Him. And knowing that one day, when the earthly city of our life passes away, we will ascend the hill of the Lord and be with Him forever. Amen
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AuthorI was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church and attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and as such my faith has been influenced by these traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Categories
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December 2021
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