Elisha Dies (Part B)

To say that failure to be healed results from too little prayer and fasting is false. That teaching implies that we can cause God to do whatever we pray for if we pray and fast long and hard enough. He is to heal everyone, every time.

On the contrary, He has something better for us than perpetuating our lives endlessly in these bodies of sin. Today, we will be teaching in 2 Kings chapter 13. Wait till I went to Jerusalem and plundered Jerusalem.

I know. You see, this is a Hebrew plundering Jerusalem. What is wrong with these people? It's like the Baptist is going to beat up the Methodist. It's like, what are you Christians?

What are you doing? Well, we're only Christians on Sunday morning. It's okay to beat up everybody afterwards. Anyway, well, if you're a Methodist, let me reverse it. It's like the Methodist is going to beat up the Baptist.

We have equal beatdowns in Christianity. Well, this deliverance, again, is summarizing it. We don't know who this deliverer is by name. There are some options we have. I think it's a military figure.

Or, well, here are the options. You can say, well, it was Elisha, his influence that eventually led to the deliverance. You can say it was the Assyrians. Because, you see, the Assyrians, you have the Assyrians, then you have the Assyrians. Because they had to outdo the Assyrians. So they put another A, an S in front of theirs. I'm being goofy because it's like, can't you just get more distinct with these things, historians? Well, they're not historians.

Anyway, let me wind it back some and un-confuse you. Syria is attacking both the northern and southern kingdom of Israel because of their rebellion against God. In time, the Assyrian empire, which is to the northeast of Syria, gets strong and they become the menace in the area and eventually the power. So much so that Syria will join with the northern kingdom to fight against the aggression of Assyria. And they will say to Judah, hey, join us too. The three of us can fight these guys. And Judah says, no, I'm going with the Assyrians because I don't think you can take him.

It's all this politicking going on. And that is Isaiah chapter 7. And we're not there and be happy about that. Anyway, the third figure of Syria, Elijah, Jeroboam the second, the grandson of this king that we've been talking about. He eventually extends the boundaries and defeats the Syrians, but he remains a pagan idolater nonetheless. So they escape from under the hand of the Syrians.

And that is a summary of what is going on. It will, 80 years later again, the Assyrians will come along and be a menace in the area. At the end of verse 7, it says, and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before. And so the summary concludes with a peaceful people living outside the refuge of walled cities because the Syrians are no longer coming against them.

But there's no timestamp on this. This is spread out over a long period of time, this struggle. After Elijah dies, the Moabites are going to be a problem. So let's move on to verse 6. Nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.

The historian gives it to him again. But walked in them, and the wooden image also remained in Samaria. Well, the founder of idolatry in the north, Jeroboam, he'd rather keep his kingdom than his salvation.

That's what it came down to. He saw the people were still going to Jerusalem to worship. He said, I don't stop that. Their allegiance is going to be confused. But God promised you were going to be all right.

That wasn't good enough. When God's promises aren't good enough, there's trouble. So he is the forefather of figurine worship in the northern kingdom.

And of course, I mean that disparagingly. They continued to attend the golden calf centers in the cities of Dan and Bath, Sheba. You know, the city of Dan, the archaeologists have unearthed it, and you go to see it today, and it's just really beautiful. And you get to see the gates of the city that the Bible makes such a fuss about. You know, in the gates of the city.

And you see it. And that's where the war councils were. That's where the city hall was.

It was exciting to see it. Well, Dan was one of those pagan centers. And to this day, there are those archaeological evidences of their pagan worship.

But they made these centers of worship, Dan and Bath, Sheba, north and south, to sidestep Jerusalem. It would be like someone claiming to be a Christian and worshiping with the Jehovah's Witnesses of the Mormons, who clearly are not Christians. The Mormons went out of their way when they began and said, we're not Christians. We are Mormons. And then they found out, you know, we need to recruit more people.

And the recruiting is down. So they changed the name to Latter Day Saints. Well, they didn't change it, but they emphasized that part. Then they found we can do a little bit more. So they downsized it to not LSD, but LDS.

And what's the difference? So, you know, to mess with people's heads like the colonel did. Colonel Sanders used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. But people said, that's fattening. Well, let's call it KFC. Oh, that's better.

I just lost 50 calories. So he said, you know, stuff is how it is. And coming back to this, both the northern and southern kingdoms were, of course, were denying Yahweh, contrary to his clear words.

They were blatantly rejecting his revealed truth by saying, these are your gods. When God said, you shall have no images before. Don't go painting pictures of me thinking I look like that. Imagine if someone did that to you, even if it was flattering, you say, wow, that is a handsome figure. But I'm not that handsome. You'd be insulted because, you know, unless you're comfortable with lies, you might say, I like this. Then that would make you a PR man. But coming back, that would be Hollywood.

There's nothing out there that's real except the insanity. So coming back, who made Israel sin? Again, the man that scoffed at the Bible. But they walked, they walked in them, these sins of Jeroboam, the first. And the wooden image also remained in Samaria. Well, that wooden image was a lewd representation.

There were sexual, explicit sexual things about it. The King James says it this way, the old King James, and there remained the grove also in Samaria. Well, the translators, they favor grove or image because they're giving us an interpretive rendering, which is sometimes a pain in the neck, but other times it's like, thank you, I needed that. It should read that they walked, they went with Ashtoreth. That's what it says in the Hebrew. But if you're a common reader to the scripture, you don't know who Ashtoreth is, and so then you have to do your work. So the translators, most of them feel that they're helping the casual reader understand what was going on. And it is a help to them, perhaps, but to those who are educated readers, it's quite annoying because we say that's not what it says in the Hebrew.

Why didn't you just put the name? I don't mind these interpretive renderings, the idioms that they have to deal with. It's a Herculean task. Well, wait a minute, that was a pagan, a false god, right? But it was a huge task.

What I would like from translators is more consistency so that the word hand is always translated as hand and not mix it up sometimes and say it's a limb. That just sends me to the concordance. So anyway, it's nothing to fuss about. The truth is all there. None of the truth is lost. These places, there were wooden images there for Ashtoreth. There were groves where these actions took place. There's no deception going on.

It's a struggle of trying to take a foreign language in a foreign age and make it understandable to an audience who really is unfamiliar with the history. I don't know. One other thing about this. This is the capital city of the Northern Kingdom, and they had these centers all over the Northern Kingdom. There were some in Judah, too. But it wasn't just at Dan and Bathsheba if you wanted calf worship, but if that wasn't your flavor, if you'd like another form of fake gods, then we have these other little centers like little pit stops on the way. You know, you drive around town, you see these little white boxes for, you know, George Washington once parked here or something like that.

It's a historical thing. Well, in Israel, you could sacrifice at one of these pit stops along the way. Verse 7, for he left of the army of Jehoias only 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, 10,000 foot soldiers, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at thrashing. So again, this is a summary. Verses 6 and 7 are parentheses in the midst of God's deliverance.

This is what was going on. They were ultimately delivered, but before then, he stripped down that army so the king had just enough of a military force to maintain order amongst his people, but he could not launch an invasion or protect them from one at that point. Verse 8, now the rest of the acts of Jehoias and all that he did and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And this is a record of the kings of Israel also. This is an additional record he refers to that God felt was not worth keeping. Now the death of this king is recorded here, but he comes back up in chapter 14.

So again, the chronology is going to be sequenced all over the place. Verse 9, so Jehoias rested with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria, that pagan town. Then Joash's son reigned in his place. Nothing to boast about that king. He died a Hebrew who lived in opposition to the God of the Hebrews.

A sad note, and he's not the only one. Verse 10, in the 37th year of Joash, king of Judah. Jehoias, the son of Jehoias, became king over Israel and Samaria and reigned 16 years. Okay, so we're not going to get tied up on the names, suffice it to say, this is his son. And there are eight people, eight men named Joash, also extended as Jehoash in the Old Testament.

Are you getting this? Because I know you've been waiting for that. There is the Joash who was the king in the south at the same time that the king in the north had the same name. This is not God's doing. He didn't name these people, but this is how it was. And so you just have to struggle through it. It might help you to understand even historians struggle through it.

Everybody does. You have to make these charts and you go back and adjust the charts. How much room you need space to put the scriptural references. You go back later and look at it and say, where did I get that? How did I know he was king for 40 years? And so you're constantly working if you're a Bible teacher because you want to be able to communicate these things to where not only do the people understand, but it doesn't become a hindrance to God speaking through the message. Verse 11, and he did evil in the sight of Yahweh. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nabat, number three, who made Israel sin but walked in them. So this guy was really had his teeth gritting. He had to use a mouthguard to write this.

So he didn't grind his teeth so hard that he killed one of them. Had I lived in the northern kingdom at this time, I think I would have tried moving to Judah or Egypt or anywhere. But I don't think I would have wanted to stay in the northern. The northern Israel is beautiful.

It's just lush and it's just a beautiful place, but they idolatry soured it. Now we come to verse 12. We've got about 20 minutes, 25, 30.

Can I get 35, 40 minutes to go? Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did and his might, which he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? We want to read all of this together.

We don't want to leave anything out. We can do that when we get to Chronicles chapter 1. Verse 13, So Joash rested with his fathers, then Jeroboam sat on his throne, and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. So the Jehu dynasty, this goes back to Jehu, the madman of the north, his four sons.

This is the third one to die. He's got one more Zachariah, and his dynasty is over as promised by God through the prophets. During Jeroboam the second, then Jeroboam sat on the throne, it says here in verse 13, the prophets Hosea and Amos had their ministries, and you can find out what the people of God had to go through with those guys, with that king on the throne. You've got to love Amos. Amos was from the south. He moves to the north, kind of a reverse of a Yankee, right? And he gets up there and they want him to go back to the south. Stop preaching.

We don't want to hear it anymore. A very powerful prophet Amos was. Verse 14, Elisha had become sick with an illness of which he would die. Then Joash, the king of Israel, came down to him and wept over his face and said, Oh, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen.

Well, this is quite moving. Now, if you don't know who Elijah is, you would have had to read the preceding chapters to find out that he was a great prophet in the north. He was the disciple of the other great prophet, Elijah, who's long gone to heaven. And now, Elisha, who's very old, it's in 70s, 80s now, over 50 years of ministry. And we'll get to some of that just briefly. But this is another parenthetical section to kings. It's OK, while we're talking about the kings, let's stop for a moment and let's get back to Elijah. And this will be through the, of course, resume in the next chapter, even at the end of this one.

Anyway, this is out of sequence because Joash, the king who comes and weeps over him, in verse 13, is already said to have died. So you see, you pick up the parenthesis. A scoffer would come along, that's contradicting. And you're contradicting and irritating.

And it sure doesn't go with those pants. So anyway, it is unbiblical. It is flat out unbiblical to assign sickness and death to a lack of faith. You just don't have enough faith. Well, I hope I have enough energy to go upside your head if you say that to me again.

No, that's not true. We Christians can only fantasize about that. We're not supposed to do that either. I love you, brother. Anyway, Dave Hunt. I have a quote here. I don't think I quote Dave Hunt enough. He too is with the Lord.

Sure would be nice if God sent another Dave Hunt, who could so articulate and meticulous research the truths of Christianity against so much blubbering that's going out blabbering. Dave Hunt says, to say that, failure to be healed results from too little prayer and fasting is false. That teaching implies that we can cause God to do whatever we pray for if we pray and fast long and hard enough. In other words, that we can impose our will upon Him. What about God's will? It also suggests that God's will is to heal everyone every time. On the contrary, He has something better for us than perpetuating our lives endlessly in these bodies of sin.

I could have said it better, but I opted to let Dave have a little of the limelight. Actually, he's just an amazing brother, and I'm glad to have lived in a time where God used him. Again, men will sacrifice reason for imagination. And we have these people going around in Christianity preaching that, you know, God wants you healed, God wants you rich.

Whether they know what they're talking about or not is irrelevant. That's a lie, and there's no excuse for it, because the Bible does not teach these things. This is the great prophet Elijah, and he gets sick and he's going to die. He's terminally ill at this point in his ministry. That, again, is over half a century.

Now, how do we get these dates? Well, we would determine them by the amount of time we're told the kings reigned. Ahab reigned 22 years, and we know Elisha was ministering towards the end of Ahab's life.

Ahaziah for two years, Jeroboam for 12, Jehu for 28, Jehoaz for 17, Joash for 16. And he ministered within all of these six different kings. And that's how we get an idea of how old he was. Plus, he's balding. He's bald by the time he enters the ministry.

If he's just starting to lose it, he's probably in his late 20s or something, and so you get an idea of where he was. Anyway, he continues to prophesy while terminally ill. In fact, when he dies, after he's dead, his bones will even minister, his body. And we'll come to that in a little bit. This is just such an ageless ministry.

We haven't heard from him for 45 years. Again, dating by the kings, not since chapter 9 when Jehu was anointed king. The prophet sends one of his servants, go anoint Jehu king, and get out of there as fast as you can. And that's what he does.

Well, why not? Because apostasy was exalted amongst the people in the northern kingdom. And that reduced the ministry of the prophets.

They still ministered, they still functioned, but only within the circles of those who wanted to hear what they had to say. I remember, oh, I can't remember his name all of a sudden. Wilbur Smith. Wilbur Smith was a very solid Christian writer and preacher back in the 50s, 60s.

Had at that time perhaps the largest private theological collection of books in the world in English. And he was hard, he couldn't see well. And there was another pastor that I know that was around when Wilbur Smith was ministering. And he goes to this Bible study Wilbur Smith is giving.

There aren't many people there, most of them old. But the pastor is telling the story, he's relatively young. But the older guys had taken him under their wing and he submitted to that willfully. And he says he went there and Wilbur Smith, of course, is just reading from his notes and preaching on the word. But he's just so disappointed, there was nobody there. There's just such knowledge of the scripture, so anointed, but there was no interest. And this is the case with Elisha at this point in his history.

We don't hear from him because the interest was down. Everybody's at these pagan altars. And if they're not there, they're afraid to say I serve Yahweh and not and rebuke their family members who were no doubt engaged in made up religion. Well, he's old and frail at this point but still spiritually powerful and useful. As was Moses and Caleb and Simeon in the New Testament when they bring the baby Jesus into the temple.

Anna was also very useful to us and we have their stories and each one is a sermon's worth. So that's an overview of where we are with Elisha at this moment. It says, then Joash, the king came down to him.

Well, news reached the palace. The prophet is dying. And he, you know, make ready my chariot and his entourage heads to the house of Elisha the prophet and he weeps over his face. And we have no reason to doubt the sincerity behind this.

Where the questions come is what? Well, he's weeping over a national hero. He is not agreeing with the religion of Elisha. He respects it. He wants to cherry pick it. You know, it's an eclectic thing that Satan will tell you. Just take out, you know, the best from the best and leave the rest. That's Satan's approach. Never mind the truth.

Just pick what you like. And this is what he was doing. But he's sincerely coming intellectually, emotionally, patriotically. He adores the prophet. He admires him, which aren't the same. You can adore someone and still have this, you know, but the way they do things really. I just love that guy. But man, he just does it wrong. Well, this in this case is like he loved the prophet. He admired him. He just didn't go far enough. He didn't go spiritually.

That was what was left out. Christ put it this way to the church in Ephesus. You've departed from your first love.

You got all these things right. You have your soup kitchens and your pantries and, you know, you got all these things you're helping human needs with. You don't love me anymore. Anybody can do what you're doing, but not anybody can love me and be called a church. And this is what Christ was was facing with the church in Ephesus.

Well, here he loved him, appreciated him, understood what he meant to the nation, what he had accomplished. Jesus said it this way to the Pharisees. Then they said to him, Where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also. You talk the religion, but you don't have it. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you. So make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross Reference Radio.