We'll see if I can get over the rain or if the Lord quietens it. That would be helpful. So maybe pray for that. We're going to be in 2nd Kings chapter 13. 2nd Kings chapter 13 beginning in verse 10 today. Kings is a book that goes back and forth between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom a great deal. Today we're going to be looking at the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and what is happening there. So before I read God's word, again, 2nd Kings chapter 13, verse 10, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you right now because you are the sovereign God who knows all things. You are the majestic God who has the power to do all things. You are the gracious God who is condescended to your people. And you continue to condescend to your people. Last week we heard from your word, Lord, that you do not withhold the good gifts that we pray for. So even now, Lord, I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us that we might see our Savior, Jesus Christ, high and lifted up. Pray that you would do that now even from this text. We pray this in Jesus precious holy name. Please stand for the reading of God's word from 2nd Kings chapter 13 beginning in verse 10. In the 37th year of Joash, king of Judah, Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, began to reign over Israel and Samaria, and he reigned 16 years. He also did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Neboth, which he made Israel to sin. But he walked in them. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, or Jehoash, And all that he did, and the might with which he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, were they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat on his throne. And Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen, And Elisha said to him, take a bow and arrows. So he took a bow and arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, draw the bow. And he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on 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, that is Elisha. the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria, for you shall fight the Syrians in effect until you have made an end of them. And he said, take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, strike the ground with them. And he struck three times and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it. But now you strike down Syria only three times. So Elisha died. And they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. As a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen, and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. Now Hazael, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoiath. But the Lord was gracious to them and had comparison on them, and he turned toward them. because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor as he cast them from his presence until now. When Hazael, king of Syria, died, Ben-Hadad, his son, became king in his place. Then Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, the cities that he had taken from Jehoahaz, his father-in-war. Three times Jehoash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. You may be seated. So we have in our text here today, a lengthy one at that, we have a number of deaths. A number of deaths. So I want to look at four divisions of this text and four different deaths. The death of Jehoash, the death of Elisha, the death of an Israelite, and the death of a Syrian king. See how these move along the story of God and what they can teach us. So first, the death of Jehoash, that's our Joash, as it will be shortened. This is where we begin. It's a few verses. You may feel like those are long verses. But for a king, it's a very brief description of his life. Very brief description of a king. We don't get any details. We're just told he did evil and he died, basically. Basically that's it. I really hope that's not what they say of me when I die, not just that he did evil, but I hope somebody has something more to say than he was an okay guy and he died. Surely there's more to say, this king. Is there anything good? Is there anything of note? Is there anything worth saying about this Joash? Well, it appears there is. We do get a little more after this declaration of his death. But it's really not about him so much as it is about God's people. Hopefully I can show you that. So this death of a king doesn't seem to be the most important thing in this passage. seems that he, like any other man, was on the earth and he died. This is the reality for all. We are born and we die. What will be said of us is almost inconsequential. What are we going to do while we're alive? We'll look at what Joash did and then we can think about ourselves How are we working for the kingdom? Let's look at the death of Elisha. The death of Elisha we get in detail from verses 14 to verse 28. Verse 28 ends with Elisha being dead and buried. But we get a lot more detail before that. His dying is what's important in this text. First, make note in verse 14 that Joash sought him out. So this man that we just read about having done evil and died, there was at some point, at least something in his life that made him seek out a man of God. I don't know what that exact purpose was. I don't know his heart in the moment. I do think there's a few things that we might see in this text that tell us about why he was doing it, but I'm not certain. But he did seek out the man of God on his deathbed. And when he gets there, he refers to Elisha with some respect and dignity It seems that he calls him a military commander of some sort. He's the chariots. He's the army. Why would he do that? We'll go back to, if you want, to chapter three or chapter six, and you'll see that indeed he delivered the people of God. He delivered Israel from their military enemy, Syria. So maybe that's part of why he called him that name. But also what's very important is that Elisha referred to Elijah by this name. So Elisha used the same title. What is this title exactly? Just to refresh our memories. He comes to Elisha, that is the king of Israel, comes to Elisha and says, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. He is their defense. Well, Elisha said this to Elijah. And now you have the king of Israel saying it to Elisha. The question is, is he trying to mock him? Is he trying to show respect? I'm honestly not certain, but it appears that in some way he is looking or asking for who is going to come after Elisha. You're dying. Who's going to be the chariots of Israel now? I don't know what he expected, but with what comes after this, it looks as if Elisha is saying, you, you need to be the chariots and the horsemen of Israel. This is the challenge I think it's being given to him. Look at verse 17. He said, open the window eastward, and he opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot, and he shot. And he said, the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria, for you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them. And he said, take the arrows, and he took them. I'm going to stop there. What we see so far is obedience to the man of God and to God's word. So when Elisha speaks, he listens and he obeys. And when we end verse 17 here, this arrow that is the victory, this is a promise. This is a sure promise of God given to the king by the man of God. What we see follow now, when I pick back up in verse 18, he says to the king, strike the ground with them. And he struck three times and stopped. This is His display of whether he is claiming this promise that has been given him or not. How he is claiming it. Whether he is claiming it. And this is what draws the rebuke. Verse 19, Then the man of God was angry with him and said, You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it. Now you will strike down Syria only three times. The rebuke is for his failure to claim the promise of God. This was a revelation of his heart. His heart was not in it. He was not trusting in the living God. He wasn't prepared to take on the enemy. This is why Elisha rebukes him. He is not zealously claiming the promise of God. So I think this is a challenge for each and every one of us. Are we claiming the promises of God? How are we claiming them? Are we convincing ourselves that we are claiming the promise of God and we are doing everything we can when in fact we know we're not? Where is our heart? This is the challenge that was given to the king of Israel and it is a challenge that's given to each and every one of us. God has said clearly in His Word, He has set forth many promises. Are we zealously claiming them? Now we come to something that may seem strange. Elijah is buried there at the end of this text. And then we have a story of an Israelite. Now, bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year, and as a man was being buried, behold, a baroding band was seen, and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet." This seems very strange to be inserted here. What does this have to do with the story of the king and Elisha? At least that's what we ought to be asking. Now there are many who are going to take this out of context and make this passage about all sorts of things. This is not the first raising of the dead either. I remember reading a periodical in the newspaper here in Uganda one time where in the article he said, I don't know if this is the only time someone was raised from the dead in the Old Testament or not, and I thought you should go find out before you write this article. But this is an occasion where someone is raised from the dead. What is the point here? Is the point supposed to be Elisha and Elisha's power? He's so powerful that his bones can raise people from the dead after he died. I don't think that's the point. In fact, I'm pretty certain that's not the point. Let me take it a step further and say, is the point all about God's power through Elisha? And it never was about Elisha himself. It is about God's power. And so now that Elisha is dead, even the raising of the dead through Elisha's bones prove how it was God working through Elisha the whole time. And he can continue to work in whatever way he wills. I think that's absolutely true. And I think that's one point that can be taken here from this passage. But I don't think that's the main reason this particular story is here, this particular narrative point. I think it's there to be coupled with the following verses. It's sort of obscured in the English, but I'll try to make it more clear. Picking up in verse 20, 2. Now Hazael, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoaz, but the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast him out." This is the same verb used for the man who was tossed. They cast the man into the grave. that God would not cast His people away. So here, if we compare these two things, the man is a sign, a shadow of the hope that God makes clear in His promise in the following verses, that as they cast away the man because they fear for their own lives, God is able to raise this man from the dead. He's not done with them. And so with his own people, even though they may appear dead, there's nothing good in them. He will not cast them away. He will find a way to revive them. There is hope. And so the story of this man being tossed into the grave, I submit to you, is not primarily about Elisha's power or even God's power to raise people from the dead in this context. It is more so about God's promise, faithfulness and hope that even when seeing things seem their bleakest, God can save. He can even raise the dead. And this is true corporately for Israel. It's also true corporately for us. I've been convicted lately to pray even more for some of the people I love back home who are in churches that are quite honestly dying. And maybe that building and that particular grouping structure should die because there's great error there. But God can raise even the dead. He can deliver even those churches, even those that are struggling to their utmost. And so we keep praying. There is hope. And so then we get to this death of a Syrian king in verse 24 through 25. Verse 24-25, when Hazael, king of Syria, died, Ben-Hadad, his son, became king in his place. Then Jehoash, the son of Jehoaz, took again from Ben-Hadad his son Hazael the cities that he had taken from Jehoash, his father, in war. Three times Jehoash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel. So first I want to note that there is relief from oppression here. The people of Israel were struggling under the oppression of the Syrians, and God offers some relief. And he does it through the sitting king of Israel, Joash, the same man who we found out from the beginning did evil. So several important things about that, just because someone does good work for God's people, I've said this before, doesn't mean he himself is a man of God. Doesn't mean that he's right before the Lord. We need to remember that. But there's more that we can say here. This entire text is very clear that the credit shouldn't go to Joash, from us. In fact, he's failed. But imagine being an Israelite. The temptation would be great. The temptation would be very great to say, look, finally, we are delivered by our king. The same king that the text said that he was. I think this is a common theme amongst even us, is to give credit. where credit maybe shouldn't be due or at least too much credit to certain people or structures or what have you. It is to be true politically, give too much credit to our political leaders like the king here for this military sort of taking back of land. But we can also do it in our churches, to our preachers, We can give them too much credit. I'm asking, just now, don't give me any credit. Anything God does, any good that God does, let the glory go to Him. Let the credit go to God. God is the one who establishes rulers. He's the one who establishes the men in the pulpit. He's the one who establishes the fathers over their home. I'm not saying we don't encourage our leaders, but I'm saying we need to ensure that we are always giving glory to God. Glory be to God. To God be glory. The great things He has done, not that men have done, not that kings do. To God alone be the glory. And he deserves all the glory, even more, because through this narrative we see that there is a great need and there's a great failure to meet that need, just as there is throughout the Book of Kings. Over and over again, people need something and the kings fall short. Here, of course, is no exception. He won some cities back, but he didn't do it ultimately because Syria still looms. They can still take those cities at any time, and they will. In fact, if he had struck the ground and destroyed them utterly the way Elisha had said, if he had claimed the promise of God, how much more could he have done for God's people? This is a challenge to us to really claim God's promises and ask ourselves, are we claiming them in full or are we stopping ourselves short? But their need is even greater than that. We see that their need is for life. And I didn't just skip over the whole idea of Elisha in the grave and what it can point us to, I promise you. It does point us to something greater. There is a need for life. And that is in that story, there is a need for life and not just life for a short time. There's a need for eternal delivery and eternal life. Surely there is. And this story certainly points us there. And Elisha and his bones show us the utter lack and inability of even man to do this. And even in that situation, As incredible as it might be for a man to be thrown onto the bones of a dead man and become alive, this is for a short time, and this is one man. How utterly small of a miracle that is when it comes to what we actually mean. And this is why God has provided Jesus Christ. He's the man whose bones were not corrupted. Not only were his bones not corrupted, he has been made new with a glorified body and raised from the dead. And that resurrection from the dead is an assurance of everlasting life without sin, without tears, without pain. Praise be to God alone. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ, the bones that did not see corruption, but rather that you raised from the dead with a new flesh to be the God-man for eternity, to lay before the Father with his wounds that are the sacrifice that will be eternally there so that we might live eternally with you in your presence. that we might have our tears wiped away. Truly, this is the gift that we didn't know how you would provide, but deep down, we all know we need it. And I pray, Lord, for those who have not yet known this need. I pray, Lord, that you would help them to see their need for Jesus Christ. Give them your Holy Spirit, we pray. I also pray, Lord, that you would continue to encourage all of us to claim your promises. They seem great. They seem too great, in fact. And yet, Lord, you are a God that we cannot comprehend who is faithful, who desires to hear our requests, and who will grant them because you are a good, good Father. You'll grant them in the way that we need and the time that we need. And for that, Lord, I pray that you would give us a continued urgency of prayer, continued urgency to serve you and to praise you wherever we are. I pray that you would do this in Jesus' name. Amen.