The soft approach. The Bible is not a history book, nor does it set out to be. Incidents are recorded as lessons to both the people then but more importantly, to us now. We looked recently at one of the occasions when the Israeli king was, as usual, warned of Syrian attack by the prophet Elisha. He was ready and prepared and the attacks failed. The Syrians wanted more land, so they next sent a detachment to capture Elisha but suffered blindness so severe that when the humourist Elisha meets them and explains that they must have lost their way he can lead them.

 Straight into the main city square. Elisha tells the king (who wanted to kill them all) to give them a good meal and send them on their way. That detachment went back North to their homes with their tails between their legs, no weapons (you try carrying a spear without sight) and no Elisha.

The fearsome approach. Some time later the Syrians were so determined to get the land and their own way that they sent quite a large army to drive out the Israelis, who had gone back to idol worship, from their city of Samaria and surrounded the walls. Food ran desperately short so much so that some women were even contemplating killing their own children. They blamed Elisha for the famine, and his answer was that “tomorrow you can have as much flour as you want”. A city official’s reaction was that if God should “open the floodgates of heaven, should this happen?” Elisha tells him he would see it but not benefit. During the night some men with leprosy who were camping outside the gates said to each “We are going to die anyway so lets go into the Syrian camp and beg there”. To their surprise, they found the camp deserted, so helped themselves to whatever they wanted (and hid some silver and gold) before thinking of the people in the city and shouting to the guards. That official was ordered to stand in the gate to ensure order, but the crowd was so keen to get food that he was crushed and died. The Syrians apparently had heard the sounds of an huge approaching army and panicked and run away leaving their tents, their horses and donkeys, lots of food and money. The Syrian army went back home again in humility. So the good meal treatment and then the fear/panic therapy were forgotten and something severe was required to satisfy their greed.The hard approach. Meanwhile, the Egyptians had invaded because the Israeli people had been “unfaithful and abandoned the law of the Lord”. The Egyptians wanted to control the north/south M1 that was used to transport grain from Egypt to Rome. Despite that conquest of parts of Palestine by Egyptians, Jerusalem still stood. We read that they had “come as far as Jerusalem”. The Israelis in Samaria had not learned the lesson, went back to their old ways, and the city was taken and the Israelis were “resettled” into other countries and Samaria was lost to the nation for several hundred years. We read that they had adopted the traditions and rituals of the surrounding nations and forgotten God. Jerusalem still was held until they too forgot God and adopted local fashions. So the Assyrian army came back down in force and surrounded Jerusalem and food ran short. We are now In 740bc under Tiglath-Pileser 3. who is famed for his libraries and state records.  Conditions in the city were desperate. Isaiah is the local prophet and he says the enemy will not enter the city or even shoot an arrow over the walls. He was laughed at. We read that when the people got up the next morning they found that the invaders were “all dead men”. The Bible says that a hundred and eighty five thousand bodies were counted. The Assyrian remnant went home and Jerusalem was left in relative peace until they again persisted in forgetting God and the Babylonians came and destroyed the city  and temple in 597/5 BC.Really? Now that number is rather large and we are often told that Bible stories are only good fables. The Assyrian press reports have been found recently and they tell of a glorious campaign with victories. Contemporary histories often do miss out on failures. However the army pay records have also been found and they show a shortfall of exactly one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers for that year. Some commentators have suggested Bubonic plague. Others water pollution. Plagues were not uncommon and several have been carefully recorded. Tiglath-Pileser has left us with detailed styles and scrolls which confirm the Bible account.Questions. Why did God allow the people in the city to suffer so badly from hunger and hopelessness before relief and assurance? Why did the Syrians keep attacking? Why did the soft approach (with the feast) or even the amusing humiliation of the temporary blindness not deter attacks? Did they really need three increasing lessons? What does the church need now to prioritise spreading the gospel over traditions and fashions? (Not to mention bright ideas)  What do we really learn from these events and the way God deals with people? First things first? What are first? What does it mean to forget God? How does God teach us now?  What do we know? Jesus got rid of temptations by quoting Deuteronomy from memory. I don’t think I could.
Bob