2 KINGS 13 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
2 KINGS 13 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
It is in the reign of Jehoash that we have the first mention of the repair of the breaches of the house, about 150 years after it was built (see 2 Kings 12: 5) but the hallowed things and gold were given to Hazael to buy him off from coming to Jerusalem.
Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, began to reign in Samaria just as the house was being repaired in Jerusalem, in the twenty-third year of Joash.
We see no recovery in Israel, save the brief moment at Carmel under Elijah’s ministry. But even that did not bring the people back to the service of Jehovah. But Jehovah had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens (2 Kings 14: 27). He had not yet given them up. So that when Jehoahaz besought Jehovah under great pressure He hearkened unto him. This goes on still in the christian profession. God answers every genuine exercise even though there is no true desire to get back to His true service. That is why we hear of movements of blessing and success in service here and there. If there is any capacity to feel the results of His government He comes in and gives a measure of deliverance. The influences of the world answer to the Syrians who enfeebled the people and made them like dust (2 Kings 13: 7).
But Elisha is still alive though near his end, and Joash came down to him and got a sense, or professed to get a sense, that “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” were there. Elisha had said this when he saw [p. 179] Elijah taken up to heaven and received a double portion of his spirit. This was to be his power for witness in Israel just as now the apprehension of Christ as having been taken up into heaven and the Spirit given is the power for witness in the midst of all the departure here. But with Joash there is a taking up of the words by one who knew little of their meaning. It seems like the wide-spread speaking of the Holy Spirit and His divine power without the conditions that were suitable. I think we can see in Elisha how the chariot of Israel moved in healing and life-giving power, but in Joash there was a limited and partial result; a result not worthy of the divine power that was available.
I suppose we all have got some experience of the power available through the exaltation of Christ and the gift of the Spirit, but how much faith have we to use it?
Elisha puts Joash to the test. “Take bow and arrows”. It is a question of victory over the world, but we have to put our hand to it. Elisha puts his hands on the king’s hands. That is the divine power which is in Elisha’s heart is the measure of what is possible. So that when Joash shoots it is an arrow of Jehovah’s deliverance in the fullest sense. But then it remained to be found how far Joash was ready to use the power; so he had to take the arrows and smite on the ground, indicative of self-judgment. It is a question how far we are prepared to go in the use of divine power. Joash was not ready to make full use of the power. He smote thrice and stayed. That is a very common thing. God gives some expression of the power available but we do not give ourselves energetically to it. There is only a partial victory over the world instead of a complete one. I do not believe that any complete victory over the world is possible apart from worshipping where Jehovah has set His name. Israel really had a rival system of worship and never judged it nationally whatever might be true of the godly remnant. It is in the life which is in Christ Jesus that [p. 180] there is complete victory. Elisha stands for this so far as I see. God would call attention to Elisha as His man for the moment who is able to meet every situation that arises with divine resource and sufficiency. The remarkable incident of the man cast into the sepulchre seems to bring out the power of life even in his bones. It is what will meet 2 Timothy conditions, life in Christ Jesus. The man who has a double portion of the Spirit of the Man who has been taken up is the only one really in life. But the instruction here seems to be that even if a dead man comes into contact with that he will revive. Paul is like our Elisha or John. Every christian in the power of life in Christ Jesus is a sign that God has not yet cast away His people from His presence (verse 23).