The Death of Elisha

This morning we are to think about The Death of Elisha and 2 Kings 13. This is the last in our series of studies on the Life and Times of Elisha. It would be good, therefore, to review what we can learn from this Old Testament history book of 2 Kings. There are lessons so important for today.

After some words of introduction my headings are, first, THE DIVINE VIEW OF HISTORY; secondly, THE ONE THING NECESSARY; and, thirdly, WHY BELIEVE IT?

It was Herbert Butterfield, a Professor of History at Cambridge who once said that:

“our final interpretation of history is the most sovereign decision we can take; and it is clear that every one of us, standing alone in the universe, has to take it for himself. It is our decision about religion, about our attitude to things, and about the way we will appropriate life. And it is inseparable from our decision about the role we are going to play ourselves in that very drama of history.”

You see, there are various views of history. The Marxist view is that (and I quote the Communist Manifesto):

“The history of all hitherto existing society is a history of class struggle.”

The Marxist says the key causal chain is economic – a belief that millions hold today, even if they deny the class struggle. The “evolutionary optimists” believe that “time” itself is redemptive and history is progress to a utopia. Then there are Freudian varieties that say that history results from our drives for power, nutrition and sex. And now we have the post-modern view that there is no view at all. No connective narrative can be given. The best you can do is just study themes such as feminism down the ages, or subjects that interest you such English cooking in 18th century North Northumberland.

This, however, is a modern version of the Baalism the Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha, spent their lives fighting. Baalism did not really believe in history. Baalism covers a range of Ancient Near Eastern fertility religions where nature is almost divine and history is not linear but cyclical. For that is the way the seasons are. And in a land of droughts and with the need for fighting men, people wanted the wheel of nature go round smoothly. They wanted their soil and their women to be fertile. And Baalism, they thought, helped that fertility. Well, so much by way of introduction. For what you have in 2 Kings 13 (as throughout 1 and 2 Kings) is our …

… First, heading, THE DIVINE VIEW OF HISTORY

Look at verses 1-3:

1In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the LORD by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. 3So the Lord's anger burned against Israel, and for a long time he kept them under the power of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad his son.

What do you learn from that? Five things.

One, that the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is sovereign and in control of all politics and national destinies. Verse 3 – it is the Lord who “kept [Israel] under the power of Hazael” – not just military might. So if a nation’s leadership sins, there will be negative political consequences.

Two, you learn that the fundamental sin is forsaking the Lord your God for other gods. On the one hand, there is the temptation to pluralism or syncretism. When God’s people went into the Promised Land after a nomadic life in the desert, they were not to be seduced by the religions of Canaan – these Baal religions. But they were.

After the kingship was established under David and then Solomon, there was political division between the north and the south – the north being called Israel and the south Judah. But Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern kingdom, became the archetypal sinner. Verse 2 here refers to Jehoahaz (the king on the Northern throne) who

did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

In 1 Kings 12.28-30 we read what these sins were:

28the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 29One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin.

Some think that Jeroboam was trying to have his cake and eat it. He was still wanting to worship the true God and at the same time, by using the bull images (so important in Baalism), keep the gods of nature happy as an insurance policy. But you cannot be multi-faith and worship the true God one day and some other god the next. You couldn’t then; you can’t today. Today there are secular gods on offer like money or success or pleasure as well as other religious gods – from new age gods, with their gurus and health promising techniques to more mainstream ones. But if you follow those you soon lose the plot completely. This happened in the Southern Kingdom. There it was less pluralistic or syncretistic but a simple worshipping of other gods. 1 Kings 14.21-25 tells what happened:

21Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah … 22Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD … 23They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. 25In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

These so called believers, now have Asherah poles representing a female goddess, with the poles and shrines having sexual overtones. Female and male prostitutes at these shrines were not unusual. And one version of Baalism involved child sacrifice. Blood and sex, being symbols of life and fertility, immerse you in the stream of nature and help the wheel of nature turn. All this is part of the belief that nature is ultimate and not God. And as you read on in 2 Kings ultimately it led to a destruction of both Israel and Judah through exile. So 2 Kings teaches the sovereignty of God over nations; and the sin of man in forsaking the true God for false gods.

Thirdly, it teaches that God, in spite of all this, is a God of mercy. Verse 4of chapter 13:

4Then Jehoahaz was like Jeroboam] ght the Lord's favour, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. 5The LORD provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before.

Who this morning has come in with a sordid past, or some major issue that is keeping you back from the true God. Remember in the Old as well as the New Testament, God is the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? And the good news is that the divine Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross has atoned for sin – bearing the sin of the world. You simply have to confess and admit your sin and the mess you are in and accept his forgiveness by faith and receive his Spirit for new life. So remember 2 Kings teaches that God is a God of mercy.

Fourthly, it also teaches a connection between king (or ruler) and people. There is a corporate dimension to human existence. Jehoahaz , verse 2, “did evil”. But look at verse 6:

But they [the Israelites] did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them. Also, the Asherah pole remained standing in Samaria.

We all soon become involved in the sin around us, until we take a definite stand. That is why it is important that today God’s people do not just compromise with all that is immoral or dishonest or straightforwardly shoddy.

And, fifthly, God is not only a God of mercy, he is also a God of judgement (as we have seen). Look at verse 7:

Nothing had been left of the army of Jehoahaz except fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Aram had destroyed the rest and made them like the dust at threshing time.

Israel at one stage had more than 2000 chariots not just 10! How the mighty have fallen for forsaking the true God. That is the reality of history. The ultimate causal chain relates to how individuals and nations accept or reject God’s word and God’s will. It is as simple and as profound as that. So …

Secondly, THE ONE THING NECESSARY

Look at verse 10:

10In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years. [But what is told us from these years? Only one thing … (verse 11)] 11He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them. 12As for the other events of the reign of Jehoash, all he did and his achievements, including his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? 13Jehoash rested with his fathers, and Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne. Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

So of all Jehoash’s political exploits that are recorded in all these annals and records - from “all he did and his achievements” – nothing is important compared to his sin. I wonder how the writer of 2 Kings would have written about the leadership and the electorate of the last 30 or 40 years of our history? Thomas Molnar has written this: “Today, the legislatures of all previously Christian nations enact laws which erect sin into the norm, and they do so in a social climate which is either largely indifferent to the intrinsic moral issues or, indeed, accepts and promotes immoral solutions”

I fear the writer of 2 Kings might have said something similar; and he might have not mentioned the great achievements over recent years but simply said, in the words of verse 12, “all the achievements are they not written in the book of the annals of Tony Blair?”

Achievements are not important compared with the consequences of rejecting God.

But then our writer, having summarized in a few sentences Jehoash’s reign as essentially sinful and spoken about his burial, goes back to make a fundamental point. He does so by highlighting just one incident from Jehoash’s reign. It concerns Elisha. Look at verse 14:

Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him.

Elisha, the great prophet and man of God is soon to die. The king, for all his sin, had an awareness that Elisha spoke the truth. Romans 1.19 suggests that everyone has some knowledge of God. So when you speak God’s truth, it rings bells. Elisha rang bells with Jehoash and he recognised that Elisha was a true protector of Israel. Verse 14b – so Jehoash “wept over him. ‘My father! My father!’ he cried. ‘The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’” Then verse 15:

Elisha said, ‘Get a bow and some arrows,’ and he did so. 16‘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. 17‘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.’

This was a prophetic action in which Elisha involved Jehoash. For, in spite of his sin, God wanted still to bless him and his people. He would hold back his judgement. So (verse 18):

18…he [Elisha] said, ‘Take the arrows,’ and the king took them. Elisha told him, ‘Strike the ground.’ He struck it three times and stopped. 19The 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.’

Jehoash only fired three arrows. He did not use up the other two or three in his quiver. Elisha sees this as half heartedness. So he prophesied that Jehoash would only have three defeats of the Syrians. It could have been total victory at Aphek.

And then, and quite simply, we read of the conclusion of a great life, verse 20: “Elisha died and was buried.”

So the one incident from Jehoash’s reign that the writer mentions is this. It is when the king is putting himself under the ministry of God’s word to him through Elisha. That is the one thing, for all his other achievements, king Jehoash needed to know - God’s truth. In the Coronation Service of our own Queen, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland presented the Queen with a Bible and said these words:

“Our gracious Queen: to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the Law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords.” And then he continued: “Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.”

Things haven’t changed from Jehoash’s day to the 1950s to 2010. So those in government and, in liberal democracies, all electorates have as the one thing necessary the receiving of, and living by, God’s word. They not only must not ignore or disobey it. They must not be half-hearted about it, as Jehoash was on that one occasion. All this, too, is a fundamental message of 2 Kings. It relates to the first temptation of Jesus - the temptation to fail to remember that

man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

But you say, “how do we know all this is true? Why should I not believe, along with the militant new atheists, that nature is ultimate?” That brings us,

Thirdly, and finally, to WHY BELIEVE IT?

Look at the second half of verse 20:

20…Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21Once 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. 22Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. 24Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son succeeded him as king. 25Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.

You say, “can you believe that about the bones?” Yes, if nature is not ultimate. There are three reasons why you cannot dismiss these and similar stories in 2 Kings as legends.

One, as we have seen, the author of 2 Kings had an interest in history, in what actually happened. His book is full of evidence of research regarding source material – these annals and other records. And these miracle accounts are written up in exactly the same way as the historical material.

Two, there are ancient Near Eastern parallels to Hebrew poetry and Hebrew Wisdom literature. Also there were prophets in neighbouring countries and prophetic texts have survived. But no prophetic legends have been discovered in these texts. In the providence of God Elijah (Elisha’s mentor) and Elisha himself were not ordinary spokesmen for God. They were there to shape ideas that have been, and are, fundamental for understanding the world and universal history. And the miracles validated all they had said and done, as the Resurrection of Jesus, that supreme miracle of miracles, validated all he had said and done.

Also, three, there was the truth and fulfilment of prophecy. Verse 25 tells us that Jehoash only defeated the Syrians “three times” but did not secure real victory, as Elisha had said would happen.

I must conclude. The final message to underline from 2 Kings is there in verse 23:

the LORD was gracious to them [Israel] and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.

Our God is a covenant God. He wants to save. He is unwilling to destroy. That is the good news. But this is no cheap grace. If you reject him, judgment is a reality.