Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Horses and Chariots of Fire

How to be without fear of our foes.

“And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, 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 6:13-17).

If the Devil cannot ensnare you with his wiles, he will change his tactics, he will stop his beguiling, and begin to buffet you; he will show himself to be your implacable adversary, for his name “Satan” means “the adversary.” John Bunyan, who knew his ways if ever a man did, tells us in thrilling words of his effort to scare the Pilgrim to the Celestial City from his purpose. He says: “He straddled quite across the whole breadth of the way,” and said to Christian, “I sware by my infernal den that thou shalt go no farther: here will I spill thy blood.”

That is his way. He will do his desperate worst to make you feel that a life of faith is beset with dangers and insurmountable difficulties, in the hope of shaking your faith in God. This is plainly illustrated in our story.

The city where Elisha lodged was surrounded in the night by a great force of Syrian warriors, and when the servant of the man of God awoke he was filled with fear. The foe was entrenched at every gate, there was no way of escape, and he began to feel that for all his trust in Elisha he was on the losing side. He was wise in running to his master, but his cry, “Alas, my master, how shall we do?” plainly showed how shaken he was by the sight of the enemy’s power.

Have you ever felt like that? It may be that even now some of my readers are finding that their confession of Christ has brought them up against difficulties that they never anticipated, and with which they feel utterly unable to cope. Are you surprised? “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” and if that were all you might well consider whether you were wise in standing against the force of the foe for Christ’s sake, but Jesus added to those words: “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And the way of escape is not in lowering the standard and compromising with the foe, and being less of a Christian in the hope of some relief, but in turning afresh to the Lord, even if it is with the almost despairing cry of Elisha’s servant. He is the great Overcomer. He died, but He lives again, and He ever lives to make intercession for you, and herein lies the way of confidence and victory for you. Let us consider it.

First notice that Elisha prayed for his terrified servant, and his intercession prevailed to quieten his fears. Your great Intercessor prays for you, and He is never deceived by the Devil; let him scheme and rage as he will, your Lord is always ahead of him, and He ever lives to make intercession for you. And here is a theme that might well occupy volumes printed in gold, but how little understood! If you have not considered it, do so now; deliverance from all fear of the enemy depends entirely upon the grace and mercy that you may receive through the intercession of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is our Great High Priest, the Son of God. Does not your heart swell with holy exultation at the thought of His greatness? The service to which He devotes Himself in this character is that of bearing up His warring pilgrims in intercession before God, and He does this with truest compassion and deepest sympathy. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities — marvellous thought!

You may not be able to understand it; you are not asked to do so, it is too great for your small mind; but He asks you to believe it, and if you don’t you will grieve that heart that loves above all things to be trusted. He would have you to believe that He is serving you every hour because He loves you; yes, loves you with the same love that led Him to Calvary for you. The birth pangs do not exhaust the mother’s love for her babe; she would be willing to lay down her life for it at any time.
“Yet she may forgetful prove,
 He will never cease to love.”

How could He cease to love? He is Jesus. And what does that Name mean to us? It tells us of the love that brought Him from the Eternal Throne to Bethlehem’s manger; it tells us of a life of suffering-service that led through sorrow and shame and loss to the Cross of Calvary; it tells us how His love declared itself there. The waves of death uplifted their awful crests and rolled upon Him to engulf Him; the billows of Satan’s power roared about Him to destroy Him, and He went down beneath the deep waters of God’s judgment against sin on our behalf. But though He stood for us where all the seas met upon Him, yet was not His love quenched. It burned with a fervent flame amidst the fierce waters, and shed its wondrous light in the darkness of that awful hour, and there it triumphed. Now the Lord is risen: He lives upon the Throne of God for us:
“And we stand beyond the doom
 Of all our sins through Jesus’ empty tomb.”

His love has not changed one whit; it is as deeply interested in your welfare to-day as it was when it bore your sins on the tree. Were it otherwise, Jesus would no longer bear that precious Name for us, and we should have neither Saviour, Priest, nor Defender.

But Jesus is the Son of God, for so the Word presents Him, and while “Jesus” carries us in thought down to the very depths of the humiliation into which His love carried Him, “THE SON OF GOD” presents His glory, His magnificent greatness, the unmeasured splendour of His Person and inheritance. But there are other thoughts than these in the bringing together of these names and titles that should talk eloquently to our hearts. “Jesus” tells us of His preciousness to us. “The Son of God” tells us of His preciousness to God. “JESUS” TELLS US THAT, SINCE HE LOVES US SO WELL, THERE IS NOTHING THAT WOULD BE GOOD FOR US THAT HE WILL NOT ASK FOR US WHEN HE INTERCEDES BEFORE GOD FOR US; AND “SON OF GOD” TELLS US THAT GOD WILL NOT DENY HIM ANY REQUEST THAT HE MAKES. So that the fact of Jesus, the Son of God, being our Great High Priest, means that we are put into contact with the eternal and inexhaustible grace and power of God, and infinite love sets these resources in motion for us, for God loves His Son, and Jesus loves us, and Jesus is the Son of God. Who would fear the Devil who knows the blessedness of this?

Our limited space forbids that we should enlarge upon this most blessed theme, but we would urge upon our readers, and especially those who are passing through trial and sorrow, who are confronted with difficulties and opposition to their faith that make them afraid, to consider the High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. He it is Who intercedes for you and Who can and will sustain you. He has passed through the heavens from the very lowest point of suffering and shame; He has gone to the highest point in glory, and no watchful sentry rang out the challenge, “Halt!” for every gate was thrown open wide for Him to pass triumphantly through, and He is our Forerunner in the glory as well as our Priest. There is not a difficulty or hostile power that He has not met in the way that we travel as we follow Him. He was tempted in all points as we are, apart from sin. And now He lives in glory to succour us with gracious help from thence.

But Elisha not only prayed for the young man, he spoke to him, and what assuring words they were. “Fear not,” he said, “for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” And the word of Elisha opened his eyes, and lo! the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. How safe he was in the company of his master. With his eyes opened he might well have shouted with triumph, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” And that is just where we stand through grace. God is round about us, why should we be afraid?
“E’en friends may pass and perish, Thou, God, wilt not remove;
 No hatred of the devil can part me from Thy love;
 No hungering, nor thirsting, no poverty nor care,
 No wrath of mighty princes can reach my shelter there.
 No angel and no demon, no throne, nor power, nor might,
 No love, no tribulation, no danger, fear nor fight,
 No height, no depth, no creature that has been or can be,
 Can drive me from Thy bosom, can sever me from Thee.”

Let the assuring words of our Saviour sing their sweet melody to our hearts: “The Father Himself loves you, because ye have loved Me;” “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

God never abandoned a man who stood for Him. “Our fathers trusted in Thee and were delivered.” The Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire, Daniel in the den of lions, Elisha and his servant in Dothan, proclaim the fact for us that God stands by those who are true to Him. To us the Lord has said, “I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.” So that taking courage we may say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid; what will men do to me?” (Hebrews 13. 5, 6). The Devil is just as powerless as men if the Lord is with us.

It is a great day in our spiritual history when we learn that God has bound us up with the interests and fortunes of His dear Son, and that He is not against us but for us. If God were against us, we could not but despair; but He is for us, and if God be for us, who can be against us? That is a great triumphant challenge! “I am thy shield,” He said to Abraham. He is ours also, to stand between us and every foe, to answer every charge, and to drive away all fear of the foe from our breast. Having given His Son for us, will He withhold any good? And if He allows us to suffer, to be killed all the day long for Christ’s sake, in these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. The enemy may take a Christian’s possession from him, and even his life, if God permit it, but he cannot destroy his faith or separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is in the knowledge that God is for us that we are delivered from all fear in the path of faith, and this knowledge will ever be real to us if we keep in the company of our Lord Jesus Christ.