"Turning Battlefields Into Banquets" (August 9, 2026 Sermon)
/Turning Battlefields Into Banquets
2 Kings 6:8-23
Once when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he took counsel with his officers. He said, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Take care not to pass this place, for the Arameans are going down there.” The king of Israel sent word to the place of which the man of God spoke. More than once or twice he warned a place so that it was on the alert.
The mind of the king of Aram was greatly perturbed because of this; he called his officers and said to them, “Now tell me: Who among us is betraying us to the king of Israel?” Then one of his officers said, “No one, my lord king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.” He said, “Go and find where he is; I will send and seize him.” He was told, “He is in Dothan.” So he sent horses and chariots there and a great army; they came by night and surrounded the city.
When an attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. His servant said, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, “Strike this people, please, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria.
As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.” The Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them he said to Elisha, “Father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?” He answered, “No! Would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink, and let them go to their master.” So he prepared for them a great feast; after they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to their master. And the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel.
So, how many of you know how to play chess? I’ve played chess my entire life. I’m not that great at it, but I’ve started to pick it back up and learn more. When Hazel Grace started the Spanish immersion program at Jones Elementary School, Tricia and I both downloaded the Duolingo app so we could try to get ahead of the time when the two of them can conspire in another language. I downloaded the Duolingo app to learn Spanish, but, as it turns out, you can also learn chess with Duolingo. So that’s what I’ve been doing the past month or so — relearning chess. And I’ve found something that’s actually quite annoying: as I get better, the app keeps giving me an AI opponent that gets harder and harder. It’s quite rude. I’m getting to the point where I feel like my AI opponent knows what I’m about to do before I even do it. I have a very particular way I like to open my chess game — I try to control the center of the board immediately, getting the pawns to the center and the knights out. If I’m feeling particularly frisky, I’ll try to get my queen into the action really soon to put my opponent on the defense early. But lately, that particular opening hasn’t been working for me because my AI opponent knows I’m about to do it. It’s quite frustrating. Is it going to make me a better chess player? Yes. It’s still really annoying.
The King’s Growing Suspicion
I’m guessing that's how the king of Aram felt at the beginning of today's passage. You may remember that last week we talked about the story of an unnamed slave girl owned by a general named Naaman, who served in the Aramean army — another word for Syria, modern-day Syria. They were the primary antagonists to the Israelites at this point in 1 and 2 Kings. As Elisha’s prophetic ministry gets underway, the Israelites and the Arameans are trading hostilities. But the king of Aram — we don’t know his name, the text doesn’t tell us — is getting really annoyed that whenever he tells his troops, “We’re going to do such and such,” he finds the Israelites already know the game plan. It happens once, and he thinks, okay, that’s a coincidence. It happens twice, and he thinks, okay, maybe that’s bad luck. And then it happens seventeen times, and he goes, okay, something’s going on here.
So he gathers all his generals and reaches the only rational conclusion most people in that position would: we’ve got a spy. Someone is feeding the Israelites intelligence. He gathers his generals and says, “Okay, which one of you is spilling the beans to the Israelites?” They all look at each other sheepishly, and then one general raises his hand and says, “Actually, Mr. King, it’s not us. It’s that Elisha dude. He knows everything. By the power of the Israelites’ God, he knows what you say when you are alone, sleeping at night.”
Well, I don’t know about you all, but that’s rather disconcerting. So the king of Aram says, “Okay, bring me this guy so I can kill him.” And that’s exactly what he does — he sends the Arameans to capture Elisha. They gather intelligence and figure out that he’s in a relatively small city in northern Israel called Dothan. So the Arameans send their army to surround Dothan in the middle of the night. Early the next morning, Elisha’s servant gets up, leaves the apartment, and goes outside to grab a cup of coffee and a newspaper at the bodega around the corner. He notices that there is a whole army surrounding Dothan.
So he goes and finds his master, wakes him up, and says, “Excuse me, Mr. Elisha — we have a small, small problem. There’s an army surrounding us.” But Elisha isn’t too concerned. He’s still kind of sleepy — acting kind of like Jesus does in that boat story you all know from the Gospels. Elisha says to his servant, “It’s fine. We outnumber them.” The servant’s like, “What are you smoking?” But Elisha says, “No, trust me — go out and look again.” And the servant goes out and sees something different this time. He sees the whole army, but around the Arameans’ army, he sees a heavenly, angelic army with horses and chariots of fire. The authors of 1 and 2 Kings really like chariots, and they really like them on fire — I don’t know why, but it’s pretty catchy. In this moment, Elisha’s servant recognizes that they’re not alone. Elisha finally wakes up, goes out, joins him, and says, “Hey, watch this.” And he calls on God to strike the Arameans blind.
So — God strikes the Aramean army with blindness, and Elisha captures the very army that was sent to capture him. Very ironic! Elisha takes the army captive and says, “Okay, follow me,” and they have no choice but to follow him. Elisha leads the army into Samaria, the capital of Israel. Elisha knocks on the door of the king of Israel and says, “Hey, look what I found.” The king of Israel says, “That’s awesome! Thank you — let’s kill them all,” because, you know, we’re in a time of war, and that makes sense when your enemy wanders helplessly into your arms. But then, as you heard Bob read for us, Elisha does a remarkable thing. Elisha says, “No — these are not your captives; these are my captives. I don’t want us to fight them. I want us to feed them.” And that’s exactly what happens. The blindness lifts from the Aramean army. They look around in panic, as any of us would, but that panic is short-lived, because shortly after, the Israelites set a table in the presence of their enemies. Have you ever heard that line before? After they’ve had their fill, Elisha and the Israelites send the Arameans home unharmed. It’s a remarkable story.
From Battlefield to Banquet
It’s remarkable because you and I are living in a very pugilistic culture right now. I know that’s a big word — does anybody know what a pugilist is? It’s an old term for a boxer. We are taught, in all corners of our culture, it feels, never to turn the other cheek but instead to fight, fight, fight. And yet in this story, Elisha says, no — now is the time to feed, feed, feed. So I invite us all to be curious together about what it might look like — what the world might look like — where we no longer bomb our enemies but feed them.
A Pastoral and Prophetic Balance
Now, whenever I have a sermon where I critique our country’s obsession with military violence, I think it’s very important to acknowledge that we can critique our culture’s obsession with military violence while not disparaging our men and women of the armed forces. I did three funerals this week — two here at Guilford Park, one down at Forbis and Dick — and two of those three folks I helped sing to heaven were servicemen, combat veterans. So whenever I preach sermons like this, I always admit that I’m not in the military, I don’t come from a military family, I don’t know what that sacrifice takes. And I think it’s really important that we hold that balance together.
One of my favorite preaching heroes was Harry Emerson Fosdick, the founding preacher of Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was a noted pacifist who frequently criticized the military-industrial complex from that pulpit. But every week, when he learned there were servicemen and women in worship at Riverside, he took time out of his busy schedule to write each of them a handwritten note of gratitude for their service. I love that pastoral-prophetic balance, and I want us to have the same vibe here together today as we express wonder at this inexplicable story about feeding our enemies instead of bombing them.
And it’s fitting that I mention Harry Emerson Fosdick, because I believe our closing hymn today is “God of Grace and God of Glory,” in which Fosdick famously wrote, “Cure thy children’s warring madness.” So together, I invite us all to wonder what it might look like if we fed our enemies instead of bombing them. And I mention our courageous servicemen and women because I believe they would be the first among us to long for a world in which all battlefields become banquets.
So I don’t have all the answers. I’m not the president of the United States or the commander of the military — I don’t know what it’s like to make those calls, and I’ll freely admit that. But you and I are stewards of a radical story like this one, which compels us not to accept warfare as the only option. Elisha’s servant looked out and thought warfare was the inevitable option. The king of Aram looked out and thought warfare was the only option. The king of Israel looked out and thought warfare was the only option. But the God whom you and I dare to call the Prince of Peace called a prophet named Elisha to expand the moral imagination of the Israelites — and of all of us — to reimagine the battlefield as a banquet.
In the name of God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, may all of us, God’s beloved children, say: Amen.