Ep.19 - Surrounded Pt.3

Welcome to episode 19 of Take 10, hosted by Tameka. This episode is a part of our "Surrounded" series, diving deep into the biblical scripture 2nd Kings 6, verses 19 to 23.

Tameka interprets this act as a profound demonstration of faith, love, forgiveness, and spiritual maturity, providing an instructive reflection for our own ingrained biases, reactions, and interactions. What looks like an enemy isn't always what we believe it to be, revealing the often misinterpreted triggers and self-confrontations underneath the surface. By learning from this story, we are invited to turn inward, recognize our own blindness and, in doing so, bring light to the people and situations around us.

Tune in and discover the powerful teachings hidden within 2nd Kings 6.

Episode Transcript

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Music.

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Hello and welcome back to Take 10. This is your host Tameka and I'm so excited to be back.
We are on episode 19 and this is part three of Surrounded.
Okay, let's get into it. Our base scripture is 2nd Kings 6, 19 through 23.
And it reads, And Elijah told them, This is not the way, and this is not the city.

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Follow me and I will take you to the man you you are seeking.
And he led them to Samaria. When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said,
Oh Lord, open the eyes of these people that they may see.
Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked around and discovered that they were in Samaria.
And when the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, my father,

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shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?
Do not kill them. He replied. replied, Would you kill those who have captured
with your own sword or bow?
Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.
So the king prepared a great feast for them. And after they had finished eating

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and drinking, he sent them away and they returned to their master.
And the Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again.
All right. There is a lot of things in here and I read this and planned this
out weeks ago, but as I just reread it today to prepare for this,
I felt like the Lord was just showing me some different things that I had missed.

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And so I'm excited because I feel like this is ministering to me and I really
pray that it's ministering to you too.
Okay. This again, this scripture, you need to have listened to Surrounded Part
1, Surrounded Part 2, and to read 2 Kings Chapter 6 to understand where we're about to go into.

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Elisha told them, this is not the way and this is not the city.
Follow me and I will take you to the man that you're seeking.
You need to know that before this, Elisha had just got finished praying for
his servant because they were surrounded by the Aramean army, right?
And in verse 18, it says, as the enemy came down toward them,

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Elisha prayed to the Lord, strike this army with blindness.
So he struck them with blindness, just as Elisha has said.
So now we're in verse 19 and Elisha says something, this really stood out to me.
It says, Elisha said, this is not the way, and this is not the city.
Follow me and I will take you to the man you are seeking.

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And as I read this, it hit me like many times our enemies or people that are
set out to destroy us, they don't even know what they are setting out to destroy.
They don't even know who. So they didn't recognize his voice.
They didn't recognize anything about what was being said. They knew that they were blind.

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And again, when one of your senses go down, it impacts everything else,
including probably your decision-making.
However, they probably felt like they had no choice.
And, but it just, I feel like it's so symbolic of the enemies that we have in our lives now.
Right? Because the reality is, is lots of people are.

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Have targeted you or made you their enemy because
they are an enemy to themselves like they
don't even know like these people were blind but I
feel like it's indicative of what we actually
see now where people have they just don't like you because they don't like you
and they say well you know my spirit don't I don't I don't like the vibes the

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vibes are wrong but a lot of times people People don't understand that their
triggers and their own PTSD impacts how they relate to others.
I mean, literally, you are mad and upset with people and you don't understand why.
And I feel like this is symbolic. And I feel like the Lord is trying to share something with us.

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They were set out to capture Elisha. But in reality, like what were they really seeking for?
Was it validation? The Bible talks about how the king of Aram was just at war
with Israel, period. He was just at war.
Why? I do not know. Right. But I wonder, right, when people are setting out

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to destroy you to stop something, it's just like, are you running from yourself?
Like, what are you really, what are you really seeking?
You know, because it seems like it's targeted at someone.
But a lot of times I don't think that it really is. I would say the majority
of the time, it is not what we think it is.
And I think it's important for us to investigate that.

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When people rub us the wrong way and things like that, I always try to ask myself,
I investigate that, investigate the feelings that I'm having.
What am I feeling? Is that jealousy?
Is that, am I feeling insecure? What is that feeling?
Because now you're taking it out on people
and you're trying to destroy people or whatever it

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is that we try to do right I don't think we you know try to capture
them like what's happening here but I do think it plays a part in
our interaction I'm going to make a generalization this is
not accurate all the time because men do it but
with women okay so as we keep going it says when they entered Samaria Elisha
said oh lord open the eyes of these men that they may see so now you have Elisha

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praying for his enemies praying he leads them that these are the same Haman
that was surrounding and going to capture him.
He doesn't kill them. He doesn't destroy them, but he leaves them.
And then he prays for them.
This, I believe is something that we need to do in our lives.
When we have enemies and people that are literally set out against us, right?

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They are set out to destroy us. We need to pray for them.
We do not change who we are. We do not change how we operate.
I listened to something on social media that said, we don't match energy.
You change the atmosphere. You don't match energy.
You remain who you are. You don't lower yourself to get on a level of someone that clearly is blind.

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If we stick with this story, they are blind.
They do not know what they are doing. They don't know where they need to go.
They think that they have a target, but it's in actuality they don't. He prays for them.
This is something like serious spiritual maturity.
And a lot of times we are measuring ourselves and our spirituality by the wrong things.

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When people are truly out to get you, when you and when they are vulnerable
and they are down for the kill, how do you respond?
And I'm not talking about that fake spiritual stuff.
I'm talking about how are you, what is your heart posture? the
thing that we cannot see like the naked eye cannot see
the Lord opened their eyes they look around discovered they're in
Samaria so the king of Israel says like shall I

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kill him shall I kill him Elijah says do not
kill them set food and water before them that
they may eat and drink and return to their master he
said feed these people feed them and return
them to their master I'm talking about true heart
posture these people set out to come
and capture Elisha he asks the Lord

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to blind them not to hurt them he then prays for the Lord to open up their eyes
and then he says to the king of Israel feed them the king of Israel then he
prepares a great feast verse 23 and after they finish eating and drinking he
sent them on their way and returned to their master And you know how this ends?
Do you know how this story ends?

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It says in the Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again.
That was done. This whole story started out by saying that the king of Aram was at war with Israel.
That's how it started. It ended. It ended because of these actions.
King of Aram woke up and chose violence and ended with this war. It has now is it's over.

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This is done. I ain't coming to Israel no more. Now imagine what this could look like in our lives.
I think God is calling us to a higher place where yes, people are going to come
against you. That's a part of the job description, right?
Like I was just telling one of my leaders, this is a part of the job description.
You are going to battle these types

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of things. This is a part of the job description. It does not change.
God is calling us to a higher place. He's calling. He wants to be able to trust us.
God had to trust Elisha to know that yes, he's going to make them blind,
but that that he would not hurt them if that was not what God wanted him to
do. Can God trust you today?
Can God trust you to treat his people, even your enemies, the way that he wants

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you to treat them? The way that he's called us to be.
One of the 10 commandments, love thy neighbor as you love yourself.
What? Key word is to love yourself.
You got to love yourself first before you can love your neighbor.
What does that look like for us?
So Father, we just come to you and we just say thank you for this word. thank
you God for illuminating this for us
thank you Lord for showing it to us God we ask that

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you help us give us the boldness and
the courageous spirit to walk in this and not just in our words God but in our
heart posture that we can love our enemies that we can pray for those that despitefully
use us we pray God that you give us the grace and the power to do so and we

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thank you you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
All right. That's the end of this series. Again, go back, read second Kings
chapter six. It is amazing.
I love Elisha, but I really love this story of him praying for his servant and
then praying for his enemies.
So I will see you all next time.
Music.