Elisha has spent fifty years in Israel, and now he is dying in bed — no chariot of fire for him. The king who comes to his bedside is Joash, an idolater, and yet he weeps over the old prophet the very words Elisha once cried after Elijah: my father, my father, the chariot of Israel. Elisha has one act left. He puts the king’s hands on a bow, calls the arrow “the arrow of the LORD’s deliverance,” and tells him to strike the ground. Joash strikes three times and stops — and gets exactly three victories.
A study in 2 Kings 13 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
The LORD Gave Israel A Saviour
“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 Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their days. 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. 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.”
2 Kings 13:3-5
Hazael has ground Israel down to almost nothing — fifty horsemen and ten chariots left, the army “like the dust by threshing.” And in that state Jehoahaz, an evil king, prays; and God, seeing the oppression, sends a rescuer anyway. The deliverance is pure mercy: the text is careful to add that “nevertheless they departed not from the sins of” Jeroboam. Relief came, repentance did not.
The chastening itself was love. God let Syria scourge Israel to bring her back, and when she cried out even without turning, He still answered. It is the pattern the whole book keeps showing: judgment aimed at recovery, and a God far more willing to save than His people are to be saved.
“It was because of His love for erring Israel that God permitted the Syrians to scourge them.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 254
O My Father, My Father, The Chariot Of Israel
“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. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. 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. 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.”
2 Kings 13:14-17
Fifty years earlier Elisha shouted those words as Elijah went up. Now a godless king says them over Elisha — and means them: this dying man is worth more to Israel than her cavalry. That an idolater on the throne could see it is a measure of what Elisha’s life had been.
The old prophet’s hands go over the king’s hands on the bow — the LORD’s strength joined to the king’s. The arrow fired east, toward the occupied territory, is named before it lands: “the arrow of the LORD’s deliverance.” The victory is promised outright.
“So effectual had been his ministry and so widespread his influence that, as he lay upon his deathbed, even the youthful King Joash, an idolater with but little respect for God, recognized in the prophet a father in Israel, and acknowledged that his presence among them was of more value in time of trouble than the possession of an army of horses and chariots.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 261
Thou Shouldest Have Smitten Five Or Six Times
“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. 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 13:18-19
The promise was total — Syria consumed. The measure of it, God left to the king. Joash strikes the floor three times, in a half-hearted, going-through-the-motions way, and quits. He was not told when to stop; he simply had no appetite for more than the minimum, and the deliverance shrank to fit his enthusiasm.
Elisha is angry because it did not have to be this way. When God guarantees the outcome, He still looks for someone who will throw himself into it — strike five or six times, press until it is finished. A grudging faith is answered, but only up to the level of its own effort.
“When God opens the way for the accomplishment of a certain work and gives assurance of success, the chosen instrumentality must do all in his power to bring about the promised result. In proportion to the enthusiasm and perseverance with which the work is carried forward will be the success given.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 263
He Revived, And Stood Up On His Feet
“And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. 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. … Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.”
2 Kings 13:20-25
Elijah went up alive; Elisha died of a long illness and was buried like anyone else. Yet the power that rested on him outlasts his body: a corpse dropped hastily into his tomb, touching his bones, stands up alive. The double portion did not run out when he stopped breathing.
And the arrows come true, to the number Joash chose: “three times did Joash beat him.” Syria is pushed back, the lost cities recovered — a real deliverance, and a smaller one than was offered. The mercy underneath it all is stated plainly a few verses on: God spared Israel “because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The nation had earned nothing; the promise carried them.
“He upon whom had fallen in full measure the spirit resting upon Elijah, had proved faithful to the end. Never had he wavered. Never had he lost his trust in the power of Omnipotence.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 263
