(📕 2Kings 13 : 14 – 20)

Today’s reading passage covers the story of two sick men – Elisha and King Jehoash of Israel.

📝 Elisha is dying of a terminal illness (v 14a) while king Jehoash is sick with his own sin and inner corruption (” He did evil in the eyes of the Lord..” v 11), and also with shame at the humiliation of Israel under Hazael, king of Syria. He had limited soldiers, horses and chariots because Hazael, the king of Syria had destroyed them all (v 7)

📌 For years Elisha has been silently watching the judgements fall on the house of Jehu as the Lord began to cut Israel short (2Kings 10:32).

📌 At last the opportunity comes to him on his death bed to teach a lesson on HOW VICTORY MAY BE WON.
📌 King Jehoash enters the prophet’s chamber and cried out “My father !. .. The chariots and horsemen of Israel” v 14b
Elisha instructed Jehoash, “Take a bow and some arrows; … Open the window… Shoot “.
📌 In this object lesson with BOW and ARROWS, we find simple VICTORY RULES :

1) Take BOW and ARROWS v 15 (Demonstrate your intention to fight)

Elisha wanted to instill in the heart of the defeated king the determination to fight for the VICTORY.
The first step to VICTORY is to take up our own weapons with the determination to go and fight.
Paul writes, “Put on all the armour that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the devil’s evil tricks ” 📕 Eph 6:11

IS THERE ANY SIN IN OUR LIFE and A BITTER DEFEAT ❓ If so, take up your weapons of the Spirit and declare WAR.

2) Take the BOW in your hands… and Elisha put his hands on Jehoash’s hands v 16 (Reckon on divine faithfulness)

The rule for VICTORY is our hands on the weapon and God’s hands over ours. By doing this we proclaim that “the battle is not ours but God’s”.

3) Open the window eastward v 17 (Expose the place of failure or defeat)

Face the place in your heart where the proud enemy boast his victories. The rule is that VICTORY arrows cannot be shoot through closed windows
If we are to be victorious then the windows on each particular things that defeats our attempts to live as God wants, must be opened to expose the failures to the Hands that controls ours on the weapon.

4) Shoot and he shot v 17b (Put action to your faith)
The arrow in itself may seem ineffective to deal with the particular enemy that is harassing us but the Lord claims it as his. The rule for victory is ” Faith that acts will bring the foe to his knees “.

5) Take the arrows.. and Strike the ground v 18 (Take the measuring cup of victory and fill it)

Obedience is the manifestation of faith’s energy. The king limitted his obedience for ” he struck it three times and stopped “. Victory over our failures is in exact proportion to the obedience of faith. The record states that King Jehoash defeated the Syrians thrice (v 25 ).

💞 Beloved Church, let us learn from Jehoash. He lost his patience ; he limitted his obedience and as a result he got a limitted blessing. We all are fighting a battle with an unseen enemy. Let us allow God to put his hands upon ours because the battle belongs to the Lord.

🙏 God, the fight which I now fight, I fight in the faithfulness of your Son Jesus Christ ✝️

Glory to God 🙌
✍🏻 Mark Boje
Arunachal Pradesh, India 🇮🇳