Our Victory is Equivalent to Our Faith - 2 Kings 11-15

Our Victory is Equivalent to Our Faith

2 Kings 13:14-19 (ESV)

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!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. 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. 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.” 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. 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.”

Elisha was a great prophet.   He asked for a double portion of the Spirit of God that was on Elijah and was granted it.   As a result he was consulted and asked to intercede for many people.  This is especially true of the kings.   In the above passage we read about King Joash (a king of Israel that did evil).  Joash came to Elisha with a concern about his dwindling army.   He states it as a “worry.”  He is worried because his “chariots and horseman” had been depleted.   Since there was constant war in those days, the king goes to the powerful prophet and wants help and support.   The exercises we see Elisha give him seem to be minor in nature.  Yet, they had major implications.  Because his faith was not deep and fully trusting in God, he would see limited victory.   We could defend the king and ask how would he have know that is what Elisha wanted.  How would he have known to strike the ground more than three times.   But that is the problem.  Joash, king of Israel, was not sensitive to the things of God.  He was not thinking spiritually.  He was thinking as the natural man thinks.   Elisha, at the time of his death, was speaking spiritual truths.   The lesson in this passage is simple.  We are to seek out wisdom from God via His servant, but we not to ask with a wavering heart.  Note how James states it in his early letter to the church:

James 1:5-8 (ESV)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

We are to come to God and seek His wisdom, fully believing he can save and deliver us.   Joash had a wavering heart.   A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.