“Then the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?” And one of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” So he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” And it was told to him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.”  (2 Kings 6:11–13, LSB)

Elisha was a prophet of God, and as far as prophets go, the Lord was very powerful through him. In 2 Kings 6, this is shown through several vignettes about how God did miracles through the hands of this man of God.

In the above account, Elisha spoils the plans of the Arameans by warning the King of Israel when an ambush was set for him and his army. Clearly God, who is all knowing and nothing is hidden from his sight, was sharing this military intelligence with his man Elisha so that he could warn the Israelite king.

Elisha’s field reports were so accurate that the King of Aram was certain that he had a spy in his midst. “…Which of us is for the king of Israel?” It was an obvious conclusion to come to under the circumstance. If the battle plans are made known to the enemy, clearly there is a leak. But there is a twist in the plot. No one among the Arameans is being unfaithful. There is no spy.

Somehow, the servants had found out that the source of the leak was not among them, but was the prophet Elisha. This man of God was so privy to the king’s secret plans that even if something was spoken of in the innermost chambers of the king’s bedroom, Elisha would know about it.

Okay, we understand that much. But what is dumbfounding to me is the way the Aramean king sought to fix this intelligence leak—by silencing Elisha. It shouldn’t be hard because his location wasn’t a secret. They knew exactly what town he was in, and where to find him.

So, the king who couldn’t keep a secret from God was now demanding that his soldier go and arrest this prophet…Do you see the hole in his logic? Would they sneak up on him? Perhaps wear camouflage? Ninja-style?

In the next section of the account, we find out that Elisha wasn’t surprised. Why not? Because God isn’t blind and he’s not deaf either. Of course, the Lord could have allowed Elisha to be completely ignorant of the plans. But he didn’t let that happen.

Back to the king. He knew God saw and heard everything. He knew God was telling Elisha his plans. And yet he thought he could somehow swoop in and surprise Elisha and arrest or maybe kill him?

The Bible is filled with examples of how sin makes us stupid. Life is filled with even more examples. I’ll probably prove this truth myself, today. I hope I don’t. But I am not sinless, and neither are you, dear reader. We will mess up, and we will need the blood of Jesus to forgive us again.

But that’s not the point of this little article. The point is that we can’t hide our sins from God. We might be able to hide them from others, maybe for a long time. But God knows and sees. All of it. Doing dumb stuff is a result of our fallen nature. But acting like God doesn’t see it all? That’s truly stupid.