THE late Dr. J. W. Krummacher, the godly German divine, in his book, “Elisha,” writes of the prophet’s activities and experiences, at the time when the King of Syria, in perplexity, asks his servants, “Will ye not shew me which of us is for the King of Israel?” And one of the 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 bed-chamber. . . . 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” (II. Kings vi. 8-17).
Dr. Krummacher writes of Elisha under these, apparently adverse, circumstances: “Let us meantime try to gain an entrance into the house where dwells ‘the doomed man,’ the persecuted, the heavily threatened man. . . . We now open the door of a small chamber. Behold there reposes the threatened man in soft slumbers. Step gently, for his sleep appears to be calm and sweet, uninterrupted by anxious dream or scene of terror. A heavenly peace rests like moonlight upon his brow. Sleeping too, the man reposes in God. In the midst of sleep, the promises of his Master breathe like heavenly harp tones around his believing soul. You look around in his room anxiously, to see whether or not he may have at his command, for his defence, a sword, or at anyrate a shield and breast-plate. But no, nothing of that sort is visible. You only find a pilgrim’s staff leaning against the wall. His sword is the Word, his armour is his faith. You think, perhaps, that you ought not to let him sleep, and feel it your duty to awaken him without a moment’s delay. Ah! no, awake him not. Let him slumber until the morning lay of the birds awakes him, and the rays of the morning sun dawn upon his eye. ‘But,’ you say, ‘let us lock the door and draw the bolt!’ O! no, by no means, my friends! He already reposes under lock and bolt. Forget not that here slumbers a man, over whom, like a golden shield, hovers the divine annunciation, ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed thee: I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine’ (Isa. xliii. 1). And whose pillow under his head is the arm of tender love; whose defence and weapons is the eternal watchfulness of that guardian who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Sweet angels, armed as a protection and resistance for him, keep watch in his camp, and thousands of promises, as sweet as they are inviolable, surround him as a rampart.
Well may he then slumber without care or anxiety, in spite of the forest of lances under his window and in spite of the thunder-cloud over his head. O! what an elevating spectacle is Elisha thus sleeping! . . . So you long to whisper a soft greeting to the slumbering prophet? If so, then let it be with the words of the Psalmist, ‘The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O! taste, and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him’ ” (Psalm xxxiv. 7, 8).