Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

The Weeping King and the Way of Victory

How victory may follow defeat.

“And Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened to 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. … Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz, but fifty horsemen and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing. … Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash, the king of Israel, came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took to 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 Apheck, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to 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 13:4-5, 7, and verses 14-19).

The last incident in Elisha’s life is not less instructive than the rest of his story. The chapter in which is it given shows the misery and poverty of the people in a few terse words: “The king of Syria had oppressed them, and had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust of the threshing.” They were a backslidden people. They had turned their backs upon God, and gone their self-willed way after idols, and were but reaping what they had sown. Then King Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and we know that that was always the last resort of these children of Jacob; it had ever been a proof that they were at their wits’ end. Yet the Lord hearkened to his cry, and this was evidence of the longsuffering of their God and ours. He is a God ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy. Hence we read: “He was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and gave them a Saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians, and dwelt in their tents as aforetime,” which means that they were free and safe and happy, as God always wished them to be.

But how reduced they were from the time when they followed the victorious Joshua into their God-given land, and what a change from the prosperous days of David and Solomon. It was their sins that had brought them so low, it was God’s mercy that had preserved them from extinction.

There is surely an analogy between the decline of these children of Jacob and the Church on earth. We read of the days when “the churches had rest and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied” that “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost;” and that “the Word of God grew and multiplied.” Those were great days, when with one heart and one mind Christians strove together for the Faith, and had “joy unspeakable and full of glory” “rivers of living water” flowed from them, and “from them sounded out the Word of the Lord, and in every place their faith Godward was spread abroad.” We are conscious that things are different now, that we have reached the days in which “evil men and seducers have waxed worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” and that in Christendom and in the Name of Christ sound doctrine is not endured, but, having itching ears, men heap to themselves teachers of their own sort, who will preach fables to them, and not the truth. Not all are like this; there are some who are aggressively orthodox, but with no heart for Christ. They have a Name to live, but are dead. Others again have sincerely desired to walk in the truth. They have cast off all authority but the Word of God, and yet how they have blundered and failed, and those who are nearest to God will feel it the most. And for those who feel it, is there any remedy, any hope of recovery? Yes, thank God there is, and this hope lies first in the longsuffering love and unfailing compassion of our God. He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, and as He gave to impoverished Israel a Saviour, who without doubt was Elisha, so will He still deliver His people. Elisha’s presence in the land seems to have been forgotten for forty years, and yet he was there, ready to show the kindness of God to the people whenever they turned to Him. We know that he speaks to us of Christ, Who is our great Deliverer right through to the end. In Christ there is hope, for He dies no more, as did Elisha; “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”

God never did and never will turn away from the cry of His people, for He loves them with an unchanging love, and while He must often chasten them because of their waywardness, for “whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son that He receives,” yet He will not give them up. It was of these wilful children of Jacob that He said: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness will I draw thee,” and again, “can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have engraved thee upon the palms of my hands.” And if His love to Israel was so great and faithful, and if they always proved it to be so when they turned from their backsliding to Him, how much more shall we prove it in these “more abundant” days of Gospel grace. He has brought us into His family, all who have believed in the Son of His love are His children, and they form His Church in which He is to have glory in Christ Jesus to all the generations of the age of ages.

It is in the Epistle which unfolds for us the favour and joy of our relationship to God as our Father that we read: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). And wherever there has been backsliding this is the way of restoration, and restoration to communion with our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ means deliverance from oppression and defeat, and spiritual revival. We come out from under the hand of the Syrian, and dwell in our tents as aforetime. We enjoy our blessings and live as God’s children should.

Now we come to God’s last deliverance of Israel through Elisha. The prophet was dying, and the king hastened to his side. His tears indicated that his heart was sorely burdened, and his cry, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” showed that he realised that without Elisha they would be an orphaned people, nor could they hope for any victories over their foes. If only that people had realised that continually what a different history theirs would have been! But here comes a challenge to every one of us. Do we realise how indispensable the Lord Jesus is to us? What should we do without Him? If He had ceased to be the Administrator of God’s grace to us, where should we be? The very thought is an appalling one. Not for worlds would we be cut off from Him. Then let us appreciate Him with a greater fervour, and make use of Him with a larger faith. Let us consider Him in this twofold character. “Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord.” He cares for us with a tender and constant care, and He is our protector from every enemy. These two sides of the truth have been illustrated by the wings of the mother bird. The soft down in which the young birds nestle tells of the tender care of our Lord, the strong quills that protect them from the enemy tell of the protection we have in Him against our foes. We may well take up the words of this weeping king, and say to our Lord with a greater and more spiritual intelligence, “My Father-my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” And we can take up this cry without tears, except for our own foolish backsliding, and for this and the impoverished condition of the Church we might well weep; but we can take it up with joy, for our Saviour dies no more. He has said, “I am He that lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore;” and again, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” So that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my Helper. I will not fear what men shall do to me.” And He is our Leader, the Captain of our salvation.

And now we learn in a new way the way of victory, when all human hope is dying. “Open the window eastward,” said the prophet. Surely a word to us to keep our faces towards the sunrising. We must not be occupied with the failure or grow depressed in the dying dispensation. It may be true, and it is, that the day is far spent, but we look for the Saviour. Hope of the glory yet to come is a great tonic for the drooping spirit; it is salvation to those who have it. They can lift up their heads, for this hope is a helmet to them.
“Our hearts beat high,
 The dawn is nigh
 Which ends our pilgrim story
 In His appointed glory.”

This outlook is important, and in this closing chapter of our book we would give it emphasis. It is the outward and upward look that revives the soul. And the sure word of promise constrains us to this steadfast look. Light springs up anew for the soul that faces the sunrising. It is renewal of strength for those who wait upon the Lord.

Then upon the hands of the king the prophet placed his hands. Here there was the surrender of the king’s strength. Elisha’s hand was to guide that arrow in its flight. The king was a passive instrument, and yet so identified with Elisha’s strength in his surrender to him, that the act of shooting was his. It is only thus that the bow of any servant of the Lord can abide in strength. It was so with Joseph. He was the target of his enemies, then “the arms of his hands were made strong by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob, and from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel” (Genesis 49). POWER, PRESERVATION, PERMANENCE. The might of God to direct us in our warfare, the Shepherd of Israel to preserve us in every danger, and the unmoveable Rock upon which we are sure-based all are there for the one who abandons any strength that he has thought he possessed, and yielded himself wholly to God.

God is always greater than our faith. Our faith is feeble and limited. His supplies are boundless and inexhaustible. “Ye have not because ye ask not,” and often we dishonour God and miss much because we ask and expect so little. So Joash struck three times, and stayed when he might have struck five or six times. Indeed, he ought to have continued striking until Elisha told him to stop. “When will you cease asking favours of me?” asked a great monarch of a persistent courtier. “When your Majesty ceases to give,” was the shrewd reply. “ASK, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full,” said the Lord. “For the Father Himself loves you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

It is our desire to be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. This is the way, to have our hands yielded up to His, and to ask and to expect. To smite at His bidding, and to continue to smite, that “the world, the flesh, and the Devil” may indeed be smitten and defeated foes. If any man is to be an overcomer in his own life, and a helper and deliverer of others, this is the only way. The story of King Joash and the aged prophet was surely written that we might be admonished to this end.