2 Kings 13

Take your Bibles with me and turn to 2 Kings 13. I was at work today and I had up a study guide on 2 Kings on one of my screens. One of the guys that works with me walked by and he was like, "So you think there are two kings: Donald Trump and who else?" I just kind of rolled my eyes at him.

Second Kings is mostly the story of the kings of the Northern Kingdom — what we call Israel, as opposed to Judah, which is the southern kingdom. Remember the northern kingdom was basically all bad. They did not have a single good king. Judah, the southern kingdom, was hit or miss. They had some good kings.

And so 2 Kings gets kind of confusing as we jump back and forth between the kings of Judah and the kings of the northern kingdom. And what makes it more confusing is that at times — and this chapter is one of them — the king of the northern kingdom and the king of the southern kingdom have the same name. In this story, at one point they're both Joash or Jehoash, but they're two completely different people.

I think a lot of people look at a book like 2 Kings and they think, "What a boring thing, what a snore fest," and I think they are completely wrong. There is so much awesome stuff to get out of a book like this, and even a chapter like the one we're going to look at tonight has exciting lessons and amazing stories for us. I just can't wait to get into it. So let's do that.

Jehoahaz: The Wicked King Who Prayed

2 Kings 13:1–9

[1] In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years.
[2] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.
[3] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days.
[4] And Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
[5] (And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.
[6] Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.)
[7] Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing.
[8] Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
[9] And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his stead.

*> 2 Kings 13:1-9 (KJV)

So Jehu dies and his son Jehoahaz comes to reign. Remember one of the promises that God gave Jehu is that his dynasty would last for several generations. It wasn't going to be like the dynasties of those that came before him in the northern kingdom, which were very short-lived. Jehu's dynasty actually lasted a long time, and that begins to be fulfilled here with his son Jehoahaz, who has a fairly long reign of 17 years.

But Jehoahaz sins in the same way that Jehu did. Remember, at this point the kings of Israel are not worshipping the wrong gods. They're not worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth and the false gods like Ahab did and his children did. But they are worshiping the right God the wrong way. That's the sin of Jeroboam, and it's just as much a sin in the eyes of God.

Jehoahaz sins in this way and rules in this way, and there's not much to be said about his reign besides that it is characterized by basically being beaten by the Syrians. The Syrian army was a neighbor of Israel, and during this reign they were coming in and encroaching on Israel and taking over its cities.

It got so bad that Jehoahaz actually sought the Lord — even though he was a wicked man. He asked God to send a helper, to send a savior, and God did that. God sent a savior to Israel and kept them from being completely overtaken by the Syrians.

But God had basically allowed Syria to walk all over Israel. It got so bad that the Israeli army was down to 50 horses, 10 chariots, and 10,000 soldiers. They were a tiny fraction as powerful as they had been under earlier kings.

Now what can we take from this story? The interesting thing here is that Jehoahaz, even though he's wicked, prays to the Lord in dependence on him and asks the Lord for a savior — and God sends one.

God is merciful in looking out for his people and saving his people despite their sin and their lack of goodness.

God wants us to come to him with empty hands. God wants us to come to him in a spirit of dependence and ask for his help. When we do that, he'll help us. He's not going to look at us and say, "You have been disobedient to me and you've not listened to me all these years. I've got all these things I can bring up against you." No — God is merciful in sending us a savior.

Sometimes I meet people who want to talk about how bad they've been. They think God could never save someone like them because they have lived wickedly and partied and thumbed their nose at God for decades. God could never save me.

I want to say to them: don't underestimate the mercy of God. If you come to God as a sinner needing a savior, God provides you a savior in Jesus Christ.

Now that doesn't mean there are no consequences for sin. Israel had consequences here — their army was diminished to next to nothing. People come to Christ and God gives them mercy and a savior, but God doesn't always erase all the consequences of their sin. I believe people can be in prison for doing horrific things and come to Christ. God gives them a new life and mercy and grace. That doesn't mean God erases everything they've done or the consequences for it.

I know people who in their youth ran from God and lived a wicked life, and there are consequences — maybe sickness, maybe children born out of wedlock, maybe lasting damage to their mental health. They come to Christ and God gives them new life, but there are also sometimes lasting consequences from their prior life of sin.

So that's Jehoahaz. He passes away and passes on the kingdom to his son, whose name is Joash. This is confusing because this is Joash of the north, and there's also a Joash in the south at this time. But let's read it. Let's read verses 10 to 19. This is interesting — this is going to involve Elisha.

Remember Elisha? The prophet who did more miracles than anybody else. Elisha dominates this book of Second Kings, but we haven't heard from him in a couple of chapters. He's going to come back here.

Jehoash, Elisha, and the Arrows

2 Kings 13:10–19

[10] In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years.
[11] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein.
[12] And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
[13] And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
[14] Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.
[15] And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows.
[16] And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.
[17] And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.
[18] And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed.
[19] And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

*> 2 Kings 13:10-19 (KJV)

So Jehoash — or Joash — becomes the next king. Again he has a longish reign of 16 years, and he has the same sins that his dad and his grandpa did. He follows God, but the wrong way. He follows in the sins of Jeroboam.

Not a whole lot is said here about Joash. One thing mentioned in passing is that he fought a war against Amaziah, king of Judah. That's recorded in Chronicles in more detail, but we're not going to get into it. The interesting thing here is that he finds out that Elisha is dying.

Elisha at this point would have been an older man. He has faithfully served as the prophet for something like 50 years. He's probably weak, and he has come down with some kind of sickness and it's obvious to everybody that he's dying.

Elijah, if you remember, didn't die. He went up in a chariot of fire into heaven. Elisha dies just like you and I do. He gets sick and he dies.

It's interesting — Elisha healed many people in his lifetime, but it was God's will for Elisha to die of sickness. This is how God was going to take Elisha home. So don't think just because you are sick and dealing with some kind of illness that this is God's judgment on you. Don't think the only right way to die is with a smile on your face in your sleep. This is the normal way that God takes people home.

So Jehoash comes to visit old Elisha, to pay him a last visit. Even though he was wicked in the way he worshiped God, he still worshiped God and he had some respect for this old prophet. He comes and he sees him and he says the same thing that Elisha said when Elijah was taken into heaven: "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof."

"My father, my father" — he was giving Elisha an immense amount of respect. And when he said "You are the chariots of Israel, you are the horsemen of Israel," he was saying: you are the real power of Israel. This was a wonderful compliment that Jehoash paid to Elisha.

And Elisha, the old man, sick and dying, says to Jehoash, "Go get your bow and arrows and come here." Elisha says, "Open the window." Together they open a window — pointed east, toward Syria, toward the city of Aphek. Elisha says, "Draw your bow and point it out the window." He puts his hands over Jehoash's hands and they shoot an arrow out the window together.

Elisha says, "God is going to deliver the Syrians to you at Aphek."

What I think Elisha was saying is this: "I am not the power of Israel. The real power of Israel is God, the God that I represent. He's not going anywhere, and you need to act in faith and obedience to him."

Then Elisha says, "Take your arrows and smite the ground." Joash obeys and strikes the ground three times, and then he stops. Elisha gets angry. He says, "Why did you stop at three? You should have struck five or six times. Because you stopped at three, you're only going to defeat Syria three times, but if you had struck five or six times, you would have completely destroyed them."

Here is the lesson from this story: when God tells us to do something, we need to do it with zeal, we need to do it in faith, and we need to keep doing it until he tells us to stop. We cannot be half-hearted in our obedience to the Lord.

So many people will go through the motions of obeying the Lord but their heart isn't in it. They're just giving their three arrows. They're just doing their little bit.

Joash is a picture here of those who try to manage their sin instead of putting it to death. He's a picture of people who have a half-hearted walk with the Lord — they pray sometimes, they give sporadically, they witness when it's convenient. They do the bare minimum.

Don't be a minimum Christian. Don't be somebody who does as little as they possibly can. Don't just shoot your three arrows.

Someone said that Joash got a blank check and he only cashed half of it.

Church, you only get out of something what you put into it. If you want to get the most out of your walk with the Lord, out of church, out of Christianity, then pour your whole self into it and do it with some zeal. Don't just shoot your three arrows and be done. Put your whole soul into what you're doing for the Lord.

My daughter this week told me something. She had a Pentecostal friend who had visited here a couple of times. She said, "How come you Baptists never do anything extra? You just do everything kind of basic."

And I think what she's saying is we don't seem to have a lot of zeal. We're not going the second mile. We're just shooting our three arrows and we're good with that. And God will bless the three arrows — but God would bless the six arrows or the eight arrows. We could have full victory if we wanted it, and we only take a little.

Church, if God has given you five arrows, shoot all five. If God has given you ten arrows, shoot all ten. Do everything you can for the glory of God.

When I was a coach I used to tell the team, "Leave it on the field. Don't come back to the bench with gas in your tank. Give all you can."

I think that should be the same way we approach our walk with the Lord, our service for the Lord. Shoot every arrow. Leave it all out there. Put it all out there for the Lord. Let's go to heaven having exhausted ourselves for the glory of God — not go into heaven with gas left in the tank.

The Dead Man and Elisha's Bones

2 Kings 13:20–21

[20] And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
[21] And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

*> 2 Kings 13:20-21 (KJV)

Now this is a crazy story. Elisha dies, has a normal death, a normal burial. Some time goes by and somebody else near his grave is having a funeral. While they're having that funeral, a band of Moabites attacks. In a hurry, they throw this dead man's body into Elisha's grave. When the body touches Elisha's bones, the man comes back to life and stands on his feet.

So even in his death, Elisha is working miracles.

What's the moral of this? Is it that the bones of great saints have miraculous power? The Catholic Church kind of took this and ran with it in the Dark Ages. People went to touch a vial of Mary's milk or hair that supposedly came from Peter. There were museums where people paid for this stuff, thinking there was miraculous power in these relics.

That's all foolishness. There's only one story in the whole Bible where anything like that happens, and it's right here in 2 Kings 13. And it only happens this once. It's not as if other people bring their dead to this grave and toss them onto Elisha's bones and it keeps happening over and over.

So what's the lesson? The lesson is that God has the power to resurrect the dead. For those who follow God, death is not final.

This points to Jesus, who resurrected far more people than Elisha ever did, and will resurrect many millions more by giving us eternal life.

I also think this may have been prophetic. Israel — remember, we're talking about the northern kingdom — does not have much life left. It's about to die. It's going to be taken over by the Assyrians and essentially wiped out as a nation. The only thing that's going to bring life back to the dead people of Israel is contact with God's prophets, with the Word of God. That's what brings back life. And by the way, the word of the prophets still brings life today — through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not the bones of dead prophets that bring life. It's the Word of God through those prophets that brings life to the dead.

God Keeps His Word

2 Kings 13:22–25

[22] But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
[23] And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.
[24] So Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead.
[25] And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.

*> 2 Kings 13:22-25 (KJV)

This last section is something of a summary. It goes back and talks about Hazael, the Syrian king who oppressed Israel through all the days of Jehoahaz. God was gracious and had compassion on Israel during this time and wouldn't let them be destroyed.

Hazael's son comes to reign — Ben-Hadad, the new king of Syria. And Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, goes to fight against him. He defeats the Syrians. How many times? Three times. Why three times? Because he only struck the ground three times.

This is a perfect fulfillment of the words of Elisha. And it's a reminder as we close this chapter that God keeps his promises. God fulfills his word. You can count on it. You can set your clock to it. God's word is going to be true — good or bad, positive promises or warnings. God's word is going to come true.

So let's trust his word. Let's stand on his promises.