They say cats are aware of the existence of God. In this cats are not like dogs. Dogs look at us and think we are God. They say cats are not fooled in this way. Cats know we are only the intermediaries.
"They say ..." I am not sure who "they" are. I think probably they are elderly Turks since I heard this premise in a Turkish movie about cats in Istanbul. In Turkish. But with subtitles.
A few weeks ago, when I took on this preaching assignment, I was suffering from brain fog. Not only was I shifting topics in the middle but I was telling interesting stories about the wrong family. I was even explicating elementary combinatorics using the wrong operator -- if you can imagine that!
So today we are going to talk about brain fog. And about Elisha the prophet. And cats. You may be thinking "He still has brain fog." You may be right. If so I think it is a bright fog with a lot of light shining through it. So bear with me.
In that taxonomy of cats and dogs which I got from the movie "Kedi", the king of Syria is no cat. The king looks at Elisha but can not see that Elisha is only an intermediary for God. The king thinks if he can only capture Elisha then God's intervention in favor of Israel will end.
By the way, the national name "Aram" in the pew Bible is not brain fog. The name "Aram" is probably a better transliteration of the name of the country off to the east and north of Israel at the time of this story but the name "Syria" better communicates where this nation was located. So I will say "Syria" and you will know it is some other country in more or less the same place.
This story opens with two synecdoches. "The king of Syria" does not mean the king of Syria. It means the nation of Syria and especially all of that nation's military might. And "the king of Israel" does not mean the king of Israel but the whole of the northern kingdom of Israel and especially all of its military power.
This story opens with the king of Syria attacking the land of Israel and its king. The story does not bother to elucidate why; this was simply something which happened at that time. And in other millennia as well.
Needless to say the king of Israel was opposed to the policy of invasion and depredation. It is needless to say and so the story does not say. But we know. We know because we have seen the same sort of behavior by other nations at other times.
It is depressingly commonplace.
At this particular time there was an additional factor we do not always see in such cases. That additional factor is Elisha, the intermediary of God.
The king of Syria has a problem. He wants the Syrian army to make camp, get a good night's sleep, and then attack Israel. But Elisha is there. Elisha sees: Elisha is not afflicted with brain fog or any other kind of blindness. Elisha can see where the Syrians are going to camp.
Elisha tells the king of Israel: Watch here for the Syrians. The king of Israel sends word to the local commander and the Syrian army's plans are foiled! And this happens again. And again!
The king of Syria is not amused. Naturally he turns on the general staff and declares them all traitors. The national security advisor speaks up with temerity: It is not any of us but that pesky Elisha who somehow is listening even at your bedroom door -- and passing all he hears to the king of Israel.
How could he do that? Of course he can't. Elisha is not a magician or a demon. Elisha is the intermediary of God. God has the power. But Syria's national security advisor is not a cat. He sees Elisha and thinks Elisha himself must be the god.
"Well, where is this Elisha?" "He is in Dothan." "Then dispatch a task force and take him in hand!"
Did you notice, incidentally, how the Syrians follow the tactics which are traditional for the Hebrew people? Long before the prophets, judges such as Gideon moved the army in the evening so as to be ready to strike at dawn. "Evening and morning", says the poem of the days of creation.
The Bible does not specify who was first but here we see the army of Syria move at evening, rest at night, and attack at dawn.
So it is that when Elisha's intern steps outside very early in the morning he looks around in the light of the early summer day and sees not the rising sun, not the singing birds, not the wild hares nibbling at the fresh grass pushing up along the sides of the road. No, the intern sees the horses and chariots of Syria.
And he says, Oh my lord Elisha intermediary of God what shall we do for we are undone!
Yes, that is right. He uses another metonym: "horses and chariots" to represent the military might of the nation of Syria. I am not sure just where this figure of speech arose but it is prominent in the stories of Elisha and his mentor Elijah who were personally known as the horses and chariots of Israel.
I said Elisha was not afflicted by brain fog. Elisha sees. Elisha also prays: "God, help this poor frightened intern to see. Help him to see the truth which is in front of his eyes."
The horses and chariots of Israel are not the horses and chariots of the king. The horses and chariots of Israel are not the prophets Elisha and his mentor Elijah. The horses and chariots which guard Israel are horses and chariots of fire, horses of that same metaphorical species which was able to convey Elijah into heaven at the end of his earthly life and the beginning of Elisha's service as the intermediary of God.
Now that both Elisha and his student are seeing clearly, it is time to begin operations. Strike this army with blindness! Or brain fog. At this time of my life I am inclined to think the specific form of blindness with which God afflicted the Syrians was an extreme form of brain fog. The Bible is not explicit, but that fits. Elisha walks up to the Syrians and says, "This is not the road and this is not the city. But trust me! You can follow me to find the man you are looking for!"
Which is entirely true since in their blindness they would be following that very man. There is no dissimulation here.
So the Syrians go for a walk with Elisha and Elisha takes them to the city of Samaria, the capital city of Israel, the city where the king of Israel lives. There the Syrian soldiers lost their blindness and woke up to where they really were.
The Bible does not spend any time explaining how that awakening happened (just as it did not explain in detail how they became blind). In my own mind I imagine some of the officers looking around at the large buildings and the city wall and saying, "Dothan is much bigger than I would have expected!" And I imagine a local businessman overhearing and telling the soldiers, "This is not Dothan! This is Samaria!" And then the Syrian might have said, "Samaria? But we were supposed to go to Dothan and find Elisha." To which the businessman may have chortled and replied, "Well, you did find Elisha. He is standing over there talking with the king and the commander of the army." Seeing their guide with the king I imagine the scales fell from the Syrian soldiers' eyes and they realized what had happened to them.
And what was the king saying to Elisha? The king of Israel knew Elisha was God's intermediary. The king was not blind in the way dogs may be blind. The king had his own peculiar blindness. You can see this in his words.
The king looked at the enemy soldiers, turned to Elisha, and asked eagerly, "Can I kill them? Can I kill them?"
The king of Israel knew Elisha was God's intermediary but I wonder whether the king wished all his subjects were like dogs. I wonder whether perhaps the king wished that when other people looked at him they mistook him for a god.
Elisha told the king, "No, you may not kill these Syrians." Even war has its limits and its rules. "If The King's Own Royal Guard had captured these Syrians and brought them into Samaria you would not murder them. This task force was captured by the power of God, by horses and chariots of fire. If God had wanted them dead their corpses would be rotting in the hills. But here they are, alive and healthy human beings and that is how God wants them."
Elisha said, "Be God's intermediary. Give them a meal and send them home."
So that is what the king of Israel did. He gave them a banquet and sent them back to Syria. And so the raids into Israel came to an end ... until the next verse and the next story.
They say cats are aware of the existence of God. A dog may look at us and think we are all there is. You and I, when we look at each other, may think we see gods. You and I may look at ourselves and wish we were gods.
They say when cats look at us the cats are not fooled. Cats know we are the intermediaries of God and not gods ourselves. God's intermediaries are who we are, who we are called to be. They say the cat is not fooled: When the cat looks at us the cat sees us. The cat also sees God whose work we ought to be doing.
When a cat looks at you, does the cat see the faithful intermediary of God?