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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 13:10–19, “In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein. And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto 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 Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto 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.”
Jehoash and Joash are two different forms of the same name, one being a contraction of the other. In order to avoid confusion when there were two kings with the same name, ruling at the same time, the two different forms of the name are used here. The king in Judah had a very long reign and, during his thirty seventh years, a new king with the same name, but described with the longer form of his name, came to power and ruled in Samaria. Later in his reign, Jehoash fought against the king of Judah. Eventually Jehoash died and was replaced by his son Jeroboam. He was Israel’s second king with this name. Before Jehoash died, Elisha came to the end of his long and powerful ministry. As Elisha was dying the king of Israel came to see him and wept beside his bed. Elisha, after all, had been a great prophet for the Lord who had tried faithfully to restore them to worshipping the Lord their God in the way that the Lord had appointed. Elisha asked Jehoash to take a bow and arrows and to shoot an arrow towards the east, the general direction of Syria. Afterwards Elisha told the king to hit the ground with the arrows. Jehoash hit the ground three times and the prophet was angry. Elisha told the king that he should have hit the ground many times rather than just a few times. If the Lord tells you to do something, and in this case the Lord was speaking through His prophet, you do as much as you can instead of only making a token effort. The Lord promised Jehoash that he would have three victories against the Syrians because he only made a token effort to obey the Lord. On the other hand, if he had obeyed with all his ability he would have had many victories and completely subdued his traditional enemy.
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