2nd Kings chapter 13 and we're going to read from verse
14. We've been thinking about Elisha
for a number of weeks now, perhaps learning a little bit about this
fine prophet's history, his experiences, his dealings with the Lord's
people as God's representative amongst them. And we have come
to the end of our story of Elisha. This will be the last time that
we touch upon him, certainly for a little while, perhaps. We've also moved on in the book,
Second Kings. There have been a number of chapters
since we last heard about Elisha. And that's because we have some
accounts given to us of the various kings that came both in Israel
and in Judah. These kings were not good kings.
These kings were wicked kings. This was a time of idolatry and
a time of persecution and trouble in Israel and in Judah. And now we find that the old
prophet has come to the end of his life. So we're going to read
2 Kings chapter 13 and verse 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. 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,
I put thine hand upon the bowl, 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 Afek till thou have consumed
them. 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 shouldst have smitten five or six times,
then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it,
whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. 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 sepulcher of Elisha. And
when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha,
he revived and stood up on his feet. Amen. May God bless this
reading. I did mention that a few chapters
had transpired since we last read about Elisha. And in that time, it appears
that a long period had gone past. Indeed, if we think about the
years of the kings that reigned in this period, we will discover
that since the anointing of Jehu, who had reigned 28 years, and
his son, who reigned 17 years. Now the grandson is on the throne. And it might suggest that there
had been a period of around 45 years, if these reigns were consecutive,
in which we don't hear anything about the ministry of Elisha.
That's a long time, but certainly half a lifetime for many people. It suggests a time of quietness
in the Prophet's ministry. He doesn't appear to have acted
on the national level as he previously had done. Israel had gone into
a period of idolatry and wickedness. And it seems as if the Lord just
held Elisha in check, held him back and didn't provide that
opportunity for ministry in the land. I think that's a very solemn
thing. You know what this is telling
us? It's telling us that when the wickedness of men and women
get to such a level, the Lord just withdraws. And he says,
get on with it. And I wonder if what we discover
today in many ways is that the Lord has restricted the broad
national witness that previously characterized many of the nations
around the world where the gospel was valued, where the things
of truth were appreciated, where people had a desire after these
things. And it seems now that we live
in days when every man does that which is right in his own eyes. You remember that Elijah, the
prophet that Elisha succeeded, he had died, not died, he had
been translated into heaven in a fiery chariot. And Elisha,
he saw him going. And Here we discover that this
prophet, Elisha, is not going to have the same entrance into
heaven that Elijah had. That reminds us that old prophets
and old ministers die too. They give up their ministry,
their ministry comes to an end. And we see that there is a quietness
from those who once spoke bravely and boldly for the things of
truth and the things of God and the gospel. But Elisha had one
more prophecy to give. And this King Joash came to see
him. And he was a wicked king just
as his father and his grandfather had been. But when he heard Elisha
was dying, it seems as if something was triggered in his mind. Perhaps
an awareness that here was a man who was to be venerated. Here
was a man who had honor in his day. Here was a man who had helped
Israel over the year. and now he was passing and it
seems as if Joash wanted to go and in some way acknowledge the
death of Elisha and recognise it at that level in the country. And we are told that he wept
for the passing of Elisha, perhaps realising the loss that the Prophet
would be to the nation and perhaps realising that he had neglected
to spend time with Elisha when he had the opportunity to do
so. You know, this little congregation
has discovered over the years that those who have ministered
with faithfulness have gone on before, and times of barrenness
do arise. Let us always be ready to take
opportunity to hear the gospel when the Lord gives it to us.
For we do not know when he'll take it away. We do not know
when the voice will grow faint and quiet and be gone for good. And this is a privilege to hear
the gospel. It is a privilege to have Elisha
in the land. And now Elisha was dying. And
the young king, it seems, became aware suddenly of the fact that
the opportunities that he had had before were now opportunities
lost and gone. Let us listen to the gospel.
There will be plenty of temptation to go away and do other things,
do exciting things, do things with our friends, do things with
our families, but let us be a people who value the gospel amongst
us in these days. Joash came and he quoted the
very words that Elisha had quoted when he saw Elijah being taken
into heaven. And it's as if to say, as Elijah
was going into heaven, Elisha recognized that here was the
one who interceded between man and God being taken away. And
now the young king appreciates the same thing is happening.
Elisha calls for Joash to do an interesting thing, to fire
an arrow out of the window. And as he tells the man to fire
this arrow out of the window, it's to be fired eastward, and
probably making a reference to Syria, who had dominated a large
part of Israel at this time and had occupied it over in the east
side, probably making a reference to the fact that the arrow was
being fired against the enemies of Israel. But the prophecy was
that God would give Joash victory over the Syrians in that easterly
direction. And the prophet laid his hands
upon the young king's hands as the arrow was fired, thereby
showing that God was behind the victory and that if victory was
to be had, it would be because God would provide it for the
sake of his people. And then again, Joash was asked
to do something else. He was asked to take some arrows
and to strike the ground with the arrows. When I read this,
first of all, I thought that probably what he did was took
the arrows from his quiver and hit them on the ground. And then
as I was reading a little bit, one of the commentators said,
you know, I think that probably what he was being told to do
was to take the arrow again into his bow and fire it onto the
ground, strike the ground with the arrows. Be that as it may,
it changes the picture a little bit. Joash perhaps did exactly
that, took the arrow from the quiver, put it into his bow and
fired it onto the ground once. And he did it again, twice, and
he would be looking at Elisha to see what was in the old man's
face. So he took another one and he
fired it again and he thought, what am I doing this for? And
he stopped. And Elisha was angry. He said,
you should have done it more. You should have done it many
more times, he said, and you would have had more victory against
your enemies. I think there's a lesson in there
for us to realise that with God there is no restriction in power. Here was a picture given to this
young man that he had potential to do much more if he had just
trusted the Lord, if he had just followed the pattern that the
Lord had given. The prophet said, start to strike
the ground. The prophet never said, stop
striking the ground. And yet he stopped. He used his
own will and he stopped when he should have trusted and gone
on and pressed the advantage. So much potential and so little
achieved. The fields are white to harvest.
Let us be a people who seek to carry the power of the Lord in
the message of the gospel as we send it out into our community. Then at the very last a strange
thing happens. Elisha dies and he is buried. He's put into a sepulcher and
he lies there perhaps for some time and he's buried and maybe
to a certain extent people have regrets that he's gone and they
get on with their lives. But we find that there is a time
of danger in Israel and there are enemies coming in to the
land and they are spoiling the land and they are hurting the
people. A man dies, and as he is being
taken to the burial, the burial party notice some of these enemies
on the hillside coming down against them. And in their panic, they
think to themselves, we're going to have to dispose of this body
quickly. We can't run away with it. We
can't just leave it lying. So they open a tomb there, perhaps
in a place where people are buried. They open the first tomb. And
they put the body inside quickly. And we're told that that was
the tomb of Elisha. And when that body was put into
the tomb, as it tumbled down, as it was pushed quickly inside
and tumbled down, the body touched the bones of Elisha there in
the tomb. And the man stood up. Life came
back into him and he stood up. and he was healthy and well. That's an amazing story, almost
unbelievable. And yet the wonderful thing about
this story is that here the Lord was attesting something about
Elisha that the people needed to know. And it was this, that
the prophet was gone. The ministry was silent. but
its effects would keep going on. And that's the wonderful
thing about the gospel. You know, ministers come and
ministers go, but the gospel is the power of God and it continues
to the accomplishment of God's purpose. I think that what was
happening here in the life and death of Elisha was that the
people of Israel were being told that there is life beyond death,
that there is a resurrection which is coming. Let me tell
you something, and if you can contradict me on this question,
then I'll be pleased to hear it. I think that this is the
last miracle ever performed in the history of the Old Testament
before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the virgin womb
at the beginning of the new. Now isn't that interesting? Isn't
that interesting that here is the very last miracle that God
performed and what was it? that a man should rise from the
dead. And that was a testimony to Israel
in those years gone by that there was something yet to happen,
something to look forward to, something that would be revealed
in the future. And now they had to wait for
it. This speaks of resurrection.
It speaks of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. and it speaks
to us of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ would come with
power. He would be raised from the dead. The prophets had spoken, they
anticipated that day and now the people had to wait. We have
seen, because we live in New Testament times, we have seen
the accomplishments of these prophecies, and now we are waiting
on the Lord Jesus Christ coming again. Let us be a people who
value the ministry of the Gospel amongst us. Let us be a people
who see the goodness of God in providing for us this Gospel
of Jesus Christ, and let us take care to hear that gospel, to
value that gospel and to remember that one of whom the gospel speaks,
our Lord Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead and who is
coming back for his church and people very soon. Amen.