Death of Elisha

INTRO

If you have your Bible today you can turn to 2 Kings chapter 13. Grab a Bible around you, look on your phone or follow on the screens to really engage today, maybe even get a pen and follow along with the notes. Because this is a message that will be about the death of Elisha, and also the death of our series on Elijah and Elisha, and it is a good one to end on. I’m praying that this series has been encouraging, challenging, inspiring for you to live supernaturally in a complacent culture. Specifically, to live supernatural in the complacent culture of our hearts, that seem to want to constantly, as the hymn says, prone to wander. And the tension of this supernatural and the complacent is seen perfectly in the story today.

But, before we get into the story I need to fill you in a little bit on what has been happening. Because last week we were in 2 kings 6 and now we are in chapter 13 which means, things have been happening. Elisha has done some amazing other miracles, that I would encourage you to read through on your own time, but the chapter 9 Elisha anoints a new king over Israel. And after that, we don’t hear a lot about Elisha until his death. And this time period, from chapter 9-13, while it may seem short is actually around 45 years. And during this time, there is a constant changing of kings, some that are terrible like Ahab, some that are actually okay. Like in chapter 12 a new king named Jehoash becomes king at 7 years old (yes, you heard me right, 7.) And he tries his hardest to rebuild the temple. For 23 years he tells the priest to take money from the people as a tax and use it to update the neglected temple. They collect money but they don’t update the temple. Can you feel the passivity and apathy? Priest, the leaders of the spiritual direction and formation of the people don’t even care about the meeting place for God and man. So Jehoash takes it into his own hands but only can do some cosmetic things before he is killed off and another terrible king is put into power.

I share all of this, because we need to remember how dark, distorted, and distracted the culture of Israel was during that time. Yet, God was faithful in sending Elijah, Elisha, and many other prophets but the culture did not change. The culture did not change, yet Elisha stayed faithful to God all the way to his dying breath, and even after he died, as we will see today, he was doing miracles. That is called extreme faithfulness, right!? So let’s read our text today and see what the Lord has for us.

BODY

14 Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” 15 And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow,” and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on 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 LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.”

Let’s pause here to make sure we are all on the same page.So Joash, the king at the time who is not great, but also respects Elisha, hears that Elisha is sick and goes down to honor him and to ask for his guidance because the Syrians are attacking Israel again. So Elisha gives him guidance and a word from the Lord by seeing the kings willingness to obey through a strange act of faith. Elisha must have been a bow hunter because he said grab the bow and arrows, then tells him to come over and Elisha helps him shoot the bow by putting his hands on him. the putting on of hands could have been a symbol of blessing, or it could be him genuinely just helping him shoot the bow. Either way, Joash does is it and Elisha congratulates him for this act of faith by saying the Lord will give you victory over the Syrians in Aphek just like that arrow shot to the east. From this simple story, I actually believe one of the keys to live supernaturally in a complacent culture is seen in this strange story.

To live supernaturally in a complacent culture, we need to act in faith.

This might sound too simple, “christenese” or churchy. But when you look at the actions that Elisha is asking Joash to do, it is strange. Right? This was not a normal visit/simple prophet consultation of Elisha saying “thus says the Lord” and giving an answer. There was an aspect of trust, faith, and action to what was being asked of Joash from Elisha, the man of God.

I would say the same goes for us today when we hear the Word of the Lord and the leading of the Spirit. Pray for those who persecute you. Really Lord? Yup. You should love your brothers and sisters. All of them? You should walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Ya, but what about… Following Jesus and his commands are not burdensome and 1 John 5 tell us, but it is strange. It is strange to say that your identity is not in what you do here, but it is found in heaven. It is weird to say that you are not going to live for what the world keeps trying selling you. It feels a little hard and narrow, yet it leads to life. I’m not saying it is a grind, it is just going in a different direction so you will have friction and you will have people probably look at you weird. However, to know that you are walking in faith, believing in Jesus who loved you and still loves you, is a great reward.

Unfortunately, Joash starts strong here but does not finish strong in his walk of faith.

18 And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped. 19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”

So even though Elisha did not give directions this time, it was almost assumed that, hey you shoot the arrows, that brings the victory from the Lord. And yet this is where we see the tension of the supernatural and complacent. All the commentators that I looked at for these verses agree that Elisha’s anger towards the king was because of his apathy. How many arrows were there? No idea, could have been 10-15 maybe even more if it was a quiver for war where they would shoot hundreds of arrows. Nope. 3 arrows. Maybe he got self aware at how silly this might look to other people of him shooting these arrows in to the ground. Maybe he was weak and got tired after shooting 4 arrows. This apathy is something that we have seen throughout the whole Elisha and Elijah Series especially with kings. The men in leadership that should be leading the people to the Lord are actually the very ones doing nothing to help and creating more issues through their apathy and complacency. And this leads me to another thing that we have talked about through this series that I want to remind our hearts today.

To live supernaturally in a complacent culture we need to put to death our apathy.

I know that is pretty strong language, to put to death. But think about how much apathy does to help. Not much, right? And I’m not saying you have to be someone else, or you have to make sure to look like a crazy person. But to put it this way, if every believer in the world was given the same amount of passion that you have for Jesus, would it make a difference? Would it hurt? This is not me shaming because I know I still have a lot to grow in this area too. But think about worship, witness, spending time in the word, in prayer. Is it a priority? or is it backseat, 3 strikes and then done? So if you are realizing you want to get rid of that apathy, I think it would be unfair of me to help you get rid of apathy. So here are a couple ways to start working against the infection in your soul called apathy.

Ways to get rid of apathy in your faith

Get rid of the fear, shame, or insecurity that is fueling it.

Joash stopped at three either out of fear of looking stupid, feeling ashamed at how silly it felt, or insecure in the thought that the more arrows the more victories. We have fear, shame, and insecurities that are infecting our faith life and we need to confront them head on. Because like last week, we remember that we are not orphans, we are sons and we have the Spirit of God in us to walk in a spirit of adoption. With boldness. Courage. A more than a conqueror. And as soon as we realize the fear and the shame or insecurity that is making us feel ashamed rather than free, we confess that to the Lord and even to other. And as soon as we expose the lie, it disappears.

Put off false identity and remember your true identity.

A lot of times our acts of faith, reading the Word, praying, worshipping, witnessing, etc. is met with a saying such as, “Well I am not good at that.” Or something along the line of “well, that is just not me.” What are those statements? Identity statements that are shaping us into a place of apathy and complacency. What if we said that about other areas in our life. Hey your marriage is falling apart. Oh, yea, I’m just not good at it so, I’m not going to work on it. Pretty absurd, right? Wouldn’t you figure out ways to say I am not great at, fill in the blank, and yet I know God has called me to this so I am going to try. And when I fail, I’m not going to beat myself up because I’m just learning. I’m trying, which is faith. And faith is more important that comfort and prestige in the kingdom of God.

So our apathy needs to be confronted, it is possible for us to be free of this and to have a renewed passion in us. Lord do it today.

The last story that I want to leave with is one that we have actually sung about many times in this place. I’m not sure if you know this story but it shows us how Elisha’s life was fully dedicated to the Lord so much so that even his bones are being used to do miracles.

20 So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. 21 And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

I have a weird imagination, but can you imagine the reaction to this guy who was just raised from the dead? Wakes up next to this bones after being thrown in a hurry to escape some moabites. Like did he understand what was happening? How freaked out are the guys that just threw him in there? Like where did you come from, weren’t you dead!

But in all seriousness, this message of this story should stir our faith and help us to put to death our apathy because it reminds us of the fact that we serve a resurrecting God.

To live supernaturally in a complacent culture we need to believe in a resurrecting God.

He works through Elisha’s bones here, but we know that there is one who was in the grave and is there no longer who keep raising people from the dead. Don’t we? We have a God who is not the God of the dead, but of the living. People who don’t want to believe in this, that we have a resurrecting God, even some Christians don’t want to see God in this way that he is actually over death and the grave remind me of when Jesus was talking to pharisees about the resurrecting because they were trying to trap him. But Jesus told them, he is not a God of the dead, but of the living. He is resurrecting people right now.

If God is just a God of paper, one that we can control and manipulate to our benefit, we are not following Jesus. If he is the God of doing things in the past, then we should probably all pack up, go home, and find some new hobbies.

But if he is the God of resurrection and able to do incredible things than our faith will be more active, we will be more attentive to His Spirit that is working and moving in our lives and others lives, we will not be so worn down by the drama of the day because we know that the Kingdom is at hand, God is alive, and it is good!

Okay, the last thing, and possibly the most important thing to understanding the supernatural life. I want to point out to close this all out is in verses 22-23.

22 Now Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.

Spoiler alert, even with Elisha, Elijah, and many other prophets coming to Israel they are going to be sent into exile after over 500 years of disobedience. In 12 chapters you will read about how Babylon comes in and destroys the people of Israel. But there is hope. God does not destroy them fully because of his covenant that he made with them through Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This should be incredibly encouraging for us in many ways. But before we talk about the most important thing to understanding the supernatural life for us, I want to ask this question today.

WOULD YOU STILL PURSUE A SUPERNATURAL LIFE IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE IF THE CULTURE DID NOT GET BETTER?

Think about it for a moment, Elisha and Elijah were powerful prophets, yet things did not get better. In fact, it got worse with every king. Sure there were some high points and some kings that tried, but no one got close to what Israel was like in the time of David. There was no resurrection of worship, following God, and a full turning to yahweh, yet Elijah and Elisha stayed faithful.

So, I get that we live in some interesting times. Some tense times. And I’m not saying things can’t change. But is our goal for things to change for our comfort? Or is it more so that we can exalt Jesus and stay faithful to him no matter what the response is? This get’s to our motive, an important thing in all of our lives.

So I lay that before you to ponder a little bit. But as I promised before, let’s talk about the most important thing to understanding the supernatural life for us.

The most important thing in living a supernatural life in a complacent world is God’s covenant with us.

Back in verse 23 we see that God did not destroy Israel with all their 500ish years of disobedience because of the covenant that he made in his kindness and love. He could have justly destroyed them. That was part of the covenant agreement. God upholds his end, and if they don’t, then death can come. But God. Being rich in mercy disciplines them yet does not destroy them.

For us, what is crazy is that we have a new covenant. One that is fully on God’s shoulders. His covenant is focused on what he has done, not what we can do. It is because of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension that we are forgiven, loved, made new creations, filled with His Spirit, have faith, shake off apathy, walk as image bearers, and are promised eternal life now and forever.

If you get anything from this series, I hope it is this. The more you abide in the New covenant of Christ, the more you will live supernaturally. The more you will walk in faith and not apathy. The more you will not be tossed to and fro by the changes in culture because you have a different foundation. And I can’t think of a better way for us to commit to this New covenant, a way to maybe sign ourselves back up if we have felt apathetic, then to take communion.

Invite the band up and elder?