Fire from Heaven and Going 'Old Testament' on Hostile Belligerents
A curious story of kindness towards an enemy from the life of Elisha offers insights on peace
The phrase ‘going Old Testament’ usually connotes an imminent descending wrath. As in plagues, fire from heaven and bloody massacres. I last heard this used as a friend comedically portrayed his mother’s rage in response to his disrespectful attitude. A more sobering example came after the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. The day after I remember discussing with friends ‘It’s about to get Old Testament up in there.’
There certainly is violence aplenty in the Old Testament: epic battles, religious violence, armies, cities and civilizations destroyed.
Kindness towards an enemy has far greater power to bring about peace and has longer lasting effects.
2 Kings contains the stories of Elisha, the prophet of God who succeeded Elijah during the time of Jehoram King of Israel. In the midst of an ongoing conflict between Jehoram and the Syrians, the Syrian army discovers that Elisha the prophet had been giving intelligence to the King of Israel about their operations and whereabouts. The Syrian forces need to deal with this leak and discover Elisha is in the city of Dothan. They come under cover of night and surround the city.
Elisha’s servant rises early and is taken in fear for the Syrian army surrounded the city. Elisha prays that this young man might see the true reality of their situation and “he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (v.17)”
So God opens the eyes of Elisha and his servant physically and spiritually. They see the reality of whole different dimension at work. Elisha prays and the Syrian army is blinded. His identity is somehow hidden from them and he leads them, unknowingly, to Samaria where the army of Jehoram is waiting. Once there, their eyes are opened and they realize they are surrounded and trapped.
When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?” “Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.
Jehoram’s response to this miraculous deliverance of his enemies into his hands is illustrative of the typical human heart. Jehoram said to Elisha, “My father shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down? (v.21)” One can hear the glee and bloodlust in Jehoram’s words. His kingdom had been assaulted for years by the Syrians who raided their cities, looting and plundering, warred against them and likely carried off Israelites as slaves. Revenge is a tempting natural response, one might even make the case for justice.
They would have expected a slaughter. Instead they are fed a meal.
The text doesn’t communicate much about the commander or army’s response, but it doesn’t take much to imagine their abject fear. They would have expected a slaughter. Instead Elisha recommends mercy and a feast is prepared by the army of Israel for their enemies in Samaria.
This theme appears in Psalm 23:5 as a poetic sign of God’s favor, protection and grace: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Surprising kindness, meekness and hospitality instead of recompense has a powerful, jarring effect. Elisha knows they will ‘go back to their master’ with a report of mercy and awe.
The Syrian army leaves for home with full stomachs, astonished at the grace they received. They returned and ‘went to their master. (the phrase is repeated) And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.” Peace was achieved, not with military might, but with mercy and surprising kindness.
In an honor/shame culture, this would have been especially poignant. The honor and restraint shown by the King of Israel to the belligerent army would have projected great power, fear even. It would have likely elicited the experience of shame from the invading army as “we are so insignificant we are not even worth our enemy’s time.” The confusion of emotions and experiences, shame, but then honor and hospitality would have resulted in cognitive dissonance.
The ‘sons of thunder’ James and John, tried to ‘go Old Testament’ on some Samaritans that had slighted Jesus in first century Palestine. they wanted to call down fire from heaven and destroy the offenders. Jesus rebuked them, it was apparently not the way to win friends and influence people in the first century either.
Repressive militaristic interventions are not very efficient at achieving desired outcomes.
Mercy, surprising kindness and grace in the face of aggression, violence and hatred is rare, but it has powerful transformative effects. I can’t think of the last time I witnessed this kind of response interpersonally let alone on a geopolitical or governmental level.
In our day, repressive militaristic interventions are not very efficient at achieving desired outcomes. In a 2008 RAND study of 648 terrorist organizations between 1968 and 2006, Seth Jones and Martin Libicki found that only 19% of insurgent groups were defeated by military force and only 7% of terrorist organizations. Other studies indicate backlash effects to common counter-terrorism strategies: that neither retaliatory attacks, repressive tactics, stricter punishments, nor UN resolutions have much effect on reducing terrorism and may result in net increases.
Perhaps governments, states, organizations and people in conflict should give mercy and surprising kindness a try. Elisha found it to be a strategic choice even with the upper hand.