Death, Faith, Defeat, and Deliverance

2 Kings 13:14-25
    14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!"
    15 And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. 17 And he said, "Open the east window"; 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 you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." 18 Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. 19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."
    20 Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. 21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.
    22 And Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence.
    24 Now Hazael king of Syria died. Then Ben-Hadad his son reigned in his place. 25 And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz recaptured from the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times Joash defeated him and recaptured the cities of Israel.

The death of Elisha tested the faith of Joash the king by how much he took God at His word.  Elisha had him shoot a first arrow out the window with his hands on Joash’s, telling him plainly that it symbolized the LORD’s deliverance.  He then told the king to hit the ground, trusting in that deliverance, but Joash only struck three times, disappointing the spokesman of God that he did not believe and trust to do more.  Each time he hit the ground was a belief that the LORD would deliver Israel in battle from their enemy of Syria; if he trusted more, then the enemy could have been destroyed.  Instead of five or six times, they now would fall short with only three, leaving the salvation from the enemy incomplete.  Elisha then died.  Even then God showed His power by later giving life to a dead man buried on top of him!  Syria continued to attack God’s people, but God’s covenant of promise to watch over and protect them kept them from being cast out of His presence by destruction for the time being.  A new king of Syria took that throne, and Joash defeated them three times to recapture cities of Israel taken captive previously.  We learn here by this example to take God at His word for deliverance by an active faith in His New Covenant promises to keep us from eternal destruction of suffering for sin forever.  We learn also to fight the good fight in bringing the good news of Jesus Christ’s reconciling work of deliverance by reconciliation, and these things in light of the preexisting bad news of our hopeless defeat of sin and resultant death (spiritual).  This is the gospel which Christ was born to suffer and die to bring us on Christmas Day with a view to Good Friday’s gloom and Easter’s hope of unending light in His presence to follow.  There is death, faith, defeat, and still deliverance in this account which should give us hope and strength in who we live for - Christ who enables us and those still in darkness who need to be conveyed into His marvelous light of hope in that trust of His work (1 Peter 2:9, John 6:28-29, Colossians 1:5, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Acts 26:18, Luke 1:79, Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 42:7).  This is the hope of Christmas which we celebrate in remembrance of His finished work and our deliverance with victory (1 Corinthians 15:55-56).  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad as Psalm 21:6-7 says!