The Lord's Arrow of Victory

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

This morning if you will turn quickly to the Book of 2 Kings, Chapter 13.

This morning we are going to take a look at a scripture that I mentioned last Sunday morning that has weighed on my heart ever since.

In fact, the passage for this morning as well as tonight’s passage God told me that I was going to preach about on Monday.

I didn’t know what order exactly but this is where the Lord wants us this morning.

This is where the Lord wants us to focus and let His word and the power of The Holy Spirit settle and sink deep into our souls.

It is no mistake that for the last several weeks the Lord has burdened my heart to really preach and drive home the point and the importance of the Holy Spirit being present and active the lives of every single believer.

And I feel it in my bones that it is so important for us, right here, in this place to understand this and to welcome and invite the Holy Spirit into our lives because God is about to do something amazing in this community.

God is on the move and God desires for us to be on the move with Him.

But in order for us to be on the move with God, we have to be in tune with God.

And the only way to get in tune with God is to be under the power of the Holy Spirit, who is God.

But we have to be a willing vessel in order to receive the power of the Holy Spirit that God has intended for each and every one of us to have.

The time for sitting on our hands has passed.

The time for letting the other churches take care of things has passed.

The time for idleness has long past.

Today is the day that the Lord has made—We had better be glad and rejoice in it!

Today is also the day that God has issued the challenge—the call to action—the call to arms, not just for preachers but for us all

And today will be the day that you must decide whether you and your house will serve the Lord, FULLY AND COMPLETELY, or not.

Today is a day of decision and you WILL NOT leave here today without making some sort of decision.

Whether that decision be for God or not for God, you will make a decision today.

And part of that decision, I really believe is whether or not you believe what happened in the Scripture I am getting ready to read was #1 even possible and #2 actually happened.

And it really is sad that we even have to ask those questions.

But the reality is there are people in churches all over that do not believe in the literal Word of God.

They do not believe that the wonders and miracles that took place in the Bible actually occurred.

They are under some delusion that it’s all stories and fairy tales.

Well, I am here to tell you that yes, it is a story, but it’s a true story.

There are no fables and fairy tales.

Every miracle, every wonder, every amazing story we read about in our Bible is true.

And it is all possible because God made it possible.

The same God that created this universe from His spoken word.

And that is also the same God that empowers you to do all things through Jesus Christ IF you will allow Him.

If you will just submit and believe.

So, with that, let’s get into our Scripture this morning.

And it is just one verse—2 Kings 13:21.

Would you stand with me this morning for the reading of God’s Word if your able.

Again 2 Kings 13:21, reading from the NIV . . .

Scripture Focus

2 Kings 13:21 NIV84

Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

>PRAYER<

So, now we are in a very trying place in the time of the Israelite people.

Elijah had already been caught up by God and is gone.

Elisha had just died in the verses prior to the one I read.

In fact, I want to go back very quickly and look at the last thing Elisha did before dying.

So backing up to verse 14, the passage reads this way . . .

2 Kings 13:14–17 NIV84

Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

And I want to stop right there really quickly because this is good and we don’t want to miss it.

Elisha is laying on his death bed.

The king hears about him being sick and comes to Elisha torn all to pieces because his prophet is dying.

His connection to God is dying and he is bitterly weeping over this man.

And I see that and I think about our own connection to God.

How are we connected to God?

I don’t know about you, but I am connected to God through the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8, talks about the Holy Spirit interceding for us.

Being that way of communication between us and God.

In Acts 1, it talks about the believers being Baptized with the Holy Spirit and receiving Power from the Holy Spirit.

The power that flows directly from God.

So, our connection to God is the Holy Spirit.

And how sad is it when we let that connection die.

When we don’t even realize that the connection is dying.

That we are neglecting and ignoring the Holy Spirit.

That we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to speak life into us and speak life into others through us.

That is what Elisha represents to the King here.

But Elisha has one final act and one final message before he goes.

He tells the king to get some arrows and to shoot that arrow out the window.

And what does he call it?

THE LORD’S ARROW OF VICTORY!

Oh, do we not need the Lord’s arrow of victory in our lives?

You see it says that is is an arrow of victory over Arman, the oppressor of Israel.

The one that holds them under bondage and subjection.

The one that prevents them from moving freely into the promises that God had already spoke into their lives.

And God is telling them through Elisha that this arrow, this OFFENSIVE weapon is a sign of their VICTORY over this oppressor.

Not only victory, but complete destruction of the enemy.

All the Israelites had to do was take hold of it and claim it.

Allow God to use it.

But the king was timid.

Starting in verse 18, Elisha tells him . . .

2 Kings 13:18–19 NIV84

Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

So, he tells him to strike this ground and Elisha wants him to strike this ground with power and authority.

Believing that what God has promised will come to pass.

Elisha wants the king to be just as angry about what the enemy has been doing to his people as Elisha was.

But the king, not understanding that even though Elisha was going away, the Holy Spirit was still right there fighting for him, just half-heartedly strikes the ground 3 times.

And this made Elisha angry at the king.

And Elisha tells him about it—calls him out.

Almost as if the king doesn’t believe that God has the power to defeat the enemy.

And we do the same thing with the oppressors in our lives.

Some people have been under bondage for so long they don’t know anything else—any other way to live.

And God is saying to us that the power, the authority, the filling of the Holy Spirit IS that arrow of victory.

And it is an arrow of complete victory over the enemy.

But we have to take the arrow—we have to shoot that arrow—and we have to follow the instruction of that arrow.

Not just kind of half-hearted, willy-nilly, but we have to get angry at the enemy.

And we have to let the enemy know that we mean business.

So, this morning DO YOU MEAN BUSINESS?

We need to let the enemy know WE MEAN BUSINESS, and we ain’t playing no more.

We ain’t playing church no more.

We need to let the enemy know that we ARE THE CHURCH and the gates of Hell, WILL NOT prevail over us.

We need to playing for keeps because I guarantee the enemy is.

But in verse 20, Elisha dies and the chapter changes direction a little bit.

And I will read it again, verse 21 . . .

2 Kings 13:21 NIV84

Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

And we could talk all day about this miracle but there are four distinct things, or distinct personalities that I want us to dive into and take a deeper look at this morning.

First we have the Israelite people.

Then we have the band of raiders.

We also have our dead man.

And finally, we have Elisha and his bones.

The Israelites

And where I want to start is the Israelite people and who/what they represent.

We’ve already talked about some of it, when we talked about the kings attitude.

But really the king was just a reflection of the attitude of the people.

You know that people will reflect the attitudes of the other people around them.

This could be work relationships, family relationships, church relationships, societal relationships.

People have a tendency to reflect and emulate the attitudes of other people—particularly the more they are around each other.

That’s why it seems like everything on the news is the same, everything on TV is same.

Even politicians know this—I guess that’s why they all act the same.

And a good thing to realize and point to make here is this—if you want change in our society, look at the type of attitude you are reflecting back to society.

Are you reflecting an attitude that is fully of the love and joy of Jesus Christ?

Are you reflecting an attitude of victory over the enemy through the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit?

If not, what attitude are you reflecting?

Let that settle just for a bit while we go on here.

But, let’s look at the Israelites here.

In the passage itself, we really do not see anything out of the ordinary.

We just have a group of Israelites performing burial rites on a man.

In essence they were having a funeral.

And the funeral happened to be near the tomb where Elisha was buried.

And just a bit about Israelite burial practices.

When they “buried” someone they would typically go into a cave or carve out a section of a mountainside and make it into a tomb.

And much like we have cemeteries today lots of families would share the same cave with each family having their own section.

And in each family section they would have almost like a table—usually made out of stone where they would lay the dead body for a year.

Then after a year they would come back and collect the bones and put them in a little box and on a shelf with the rest of the family.

So, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on here. They were just there having the funeral.

But it is that ordinariness that I want us to pay attention to.

Many times we spend our lives going about just doing our ordinary things, our ordinary routines not giving the greater things of life or the greater things of God a second thought.

It is just day in and day out, ordinary routine—but there are things going on all around us and we are missing it.

The Holy Spirit is speaking to us all the time trying to point things out to us all the time but we either can’t hear, or don’t listen.

And it is mainly because we are all caught up in just our everyday routines.

We need to slow down and listen and be in tune and aware of the Holy Spirit because the same Holy Spirit, who is trying to teach us and instruct us doing the just “regular and routine” days, is also the same Holy Spirit who is going to fight with us and fight for us when the raiders come.

The Raiders

And that’s who I want to talk about next, these raiders.

So, who were they?

From a historical standpoint these raiders were Moabites.

The same Moabites that all the way back in Chapter 3, the Israelites failed to subdue because their king at the time was an evil man ruling under his own authority and not under God’s authority.

And ever since then, every Spring these Moabites, like clockwork would come into Israel raiding and robbing whoever they wanted, taking whatever they wanted.

And instead of banding together, the Israelites just stood by and let them do what they wanted.

They ran from them.

And if you haven’t figured it out, these raiders represent the enemy who is trying to strike fear into our lives.

Who is trying to come and rob and steal every blessing and every great thing that God has in store for each and every one of us.

And we have to decide whether we are going to be like the Israelites and just let the enemy have it.

Run away and hide.

Cower in fear.

Or whether we are going to stand and fight.

Whether we are going to take up God’s arrow of victory.

Whether or not we are going to strike the ground and say enough is enough devil.

You have gone as far as you are going to go.

And now it is time for you to go!

The Dead Man

And if we decide that we are going to fight back, well we will end up just like this dead man did.

And I’m not talking about ending up dead.

Because our friend here, started out dead, but he ended up alive.

Alive and well.

The Bible says the man came to live and stood up on his feet.

In The Message translation it says that the man came alive, stood up, and WALKED OUT on his own two feet!

Not only was he alive, but he was alive, well, and ready to fight.

And that is exactly how we are when we choose God.

When we choose the Holy Spirit.

When we choose the anointing.

Folks, we start out this life spiritually dead.

Ephesians 2:1–6 NIV84

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Elisha’s Bones

God took what was dead and stinking and by the power of the Holy Spirit brought that back to life, sanctified it, and made it ready for HIS use.

And that my friends really all the bones of Elish represents here.

Elisha was dead and gone, but the anointing of God remained.

The power of God never left that place.

The impact of Elisha’s ministry for God lived on in such a way that even after he was gone, lives were being touched.

Hearts were being changed.

Miracles were being performed.

And as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to only only be thinking about the immediate impact and need that God places on our hearts.

But we also need to be thinking about the future impact that the work we are called to do today might have on someone tomorrow, next week, next year, 10 years from now.

Altar/Challenge

Because God’s anointing is eternal and will go on.

However, do we want that anointing?

Are we willing to accept it?

>ALTAR<