OPEN: Tomorrow is Memorial Day and it’s a very special day. It’s a day to remember our military - those who’ve died in war. It was originally called “Decoration Day” and it was started shortly after the end of the Civil War, but no one seems to know when the tradition began. One of the earliest Memorial Day ceremonies was held by freed African Americans down in the South. It became a national holiday in 1971, and (ever since that year) on the last Monday in May people have decorated the graves of those who’ve died in war.
It’s called Memorial Day. A day to Memorialize - to remember - those who’ve fought and died for the United States over the years. It declares that their deaths and their sacrifice mean something to us. It declares that we take what they’ve done seriously and we don’t want to forget what they did for us.
In our text today, we read about a man who died, and who’s death is MEMORIALIZED by God so that we don’t forget what he did. His name was Elisha. And this chapter tells us a lot about what Elisha DID just before he died!
2 Kings 13:14 tells us “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!”
Now Joash (also known as Jehoash) reigned over the northern 10 tribes of Israel for 16 years, and 2 Kings 13:11 tells us “He also did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam…” So, he’s not a very nice guy. He was a man who did evil things. God wasn’t all that important to Joash, and yet Joash likes Elisha (the Prophet of God). And when he hears that Elisha is dying he rushes to his side and weeps over him. Joash may not have cared much about Elisha’s God… but he loved Elisha.
And so, here we have Elisha on his deathbed – and he offers a gift to Joash. He asks Joash to take a bow and some arrows and shoot an arrow out the East window. But before the arrow is shot, Elisha lays his hands on the king’s hands. And when the arrow strikes the ground Elisha declares: "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." II Kings 13:17
Now notice, Elisha put his hands on the King’s hands… it’s personal. This is MY hand on yours telling you this is what you will receive. This is my gift to you from God. And BTW Joash, when you get the victory over the Syrians at Aphek I want you to REMEMBER this day. MEMORIALIZE (if you will) this day.
(PAUSE) Now, remember … Joash is not a godly man (he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD). He’s not a church-going kind of fella. He goes to the parties, gets drunk, sleeps around - you name it, he’s probably done it. But he has a soft spot in his heart for his preacher … Elisha. And it looks like Elisha has sensed that he may only have this ONE opportunity to grab the King’s attention and turn him back to God. So Elisha goes BOLD!!!! And he does a little show and tell, and he asks Joash do something bizarre, something that he’ll remember. He asks him to shoot an arrow out the window.
Now, I played with this thought for awhile and it occurred to me that what Elisha was doing here was trying to leave Joash an inheritance. It’s like Elisha sees himself as a father-figure for the King, and he wants to leave the most valuable thing he can give to Joash… FAITH IN GOD.
ILLUS: When we think of an inheritance we think of someone giving their family money; property; jewelry; priceless paintings. The more valuable the estate, the more people seem to fight over it because they know the value of what they might receive.
ILLUS: Back in 1930, in Philadelphia, an 81 year old woman died (Henrietta Garrett) and she left an estate worth 17 million dollars (today, that would be worth about $240 million). But she died intestate - there was NO Will. She had only one known relative, a 2nd cousin, but once the estate became public knowledge, people came out of the woodwork to prove they were related. Now, you might ask: How many people tried to claim that inheritance? Over 26,000 people from 47 states and 29 countries, and they used more than 3,000 lawyers trying to get a piece of the pie. Why would they do that? Because it was a valuable inheritance.
And that’s what Elisha was trying to get JOASH to understand: he was trying to offer the King a valuable inheritance, he’s trying to get him to understand that God was worth listening to. He was a God who could guarantee victory over his enemies and He was the valuable asset he could be given.
Now, my question for you this morning - is this: What are you leaving as an inheritance? When your Last Will and Testament is read, is there going to be anything in there about God? Will you mention how much you love them and how much you want them to come to Christ? Will you include stories of how God has acted in your life… or in theirs?
Now, I’m not trying to put anyone on a guilt trip here (I just thought about this as I was preparing this sermon). I’m just saying we often give more thought to our physical estate than to our spiritual estate… a spiritual gift of an inheritance. But we ought to give it thought!
So (on his deathbed) Elisha left Joash a SPIRITUAL inheritance. He tried as hard as he could to drive home to the King - how valuable this was!!! But he did one more thing - he had Joash do something unusual with his arrows, and it was REALLY odd! He said, "Take the arrows," and (Joash) took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground with them." And he struck three times and stopped. 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, but now you will strike down Syria only three times." II Kings 13:18-19 (See Footnote)
Now, what’s peculiar here is that Elisha doesn’t tell Joash how many times he should strike the ground with the arrows. So, how could Elisha be so angry if Joash only struck the ground 3 times. There were no instructions to do more than that! It’s not like Joash is DISOBEYING Elisha!
Well, this is MY OPINION. I could be wrong (but I’m probably not). My opinion is that Joash was indifferent. He didn’t take this seriously. He was just playing along with Elisha. He doesn’t believe in Elisha’s God … and so he’s just being polite. Shoot an arrow out the window? “Sure. Fine. Whatever makes you happy.” Strike the ground with the arrows? “OK… sure… whatever.”
I picture Joash as being indifferent, almost bored with this whole thing. He’s not quite being rude about this… but he’s close. And so Elisha takes this opportunity to… slap Joash’s hand. “You didn’t take me seriously… you could have struck 5, 6, 7 times, but you didn’t. And so you’ll not get the FULL inheritance I wanted to leave you. There are consequences to being indifferent to God.
ILLUS: Back in 1949, an unemployed man named Jack Wrum was wandering along a California beach when he found a bottle with some papers stuffed inside. So he opened it up and found it was a last Will & Testament. On one of the papers were these words: “I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle, and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike. - Daisy Alexander, June 20, l937 (12 years before)
Now, what would you have done? Would you have thought it was a joke and just tossed the bottle back into the sea? Or into the nearest trash bin? Would you have just walked away? Or would you have contacted that lawyer? Well, Jack took the note seriously and he contacted the lawyer, and found that not only was the offer legitimate – THIS was the Last Will & Testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, of the Singer Sewing machine family. Wrum ended up inheriting $56 million up front, and $80,000 yearly dividends from Singer stock. All because he took the offer seriously! (Uncle John’s Biggest Ever Bathroom Reader, pp. 573-574)
My point? We’ve got to be willing to warn our friends, neighbors & loved ones to take Jesus seriously. To warn them that there are consequences to being indifferent to God. If they reject Jesus… they don’t realize what they’re throwing away.
ILLUS: At funerals I’ll often tell the audience that their dearly departed loved one has passed over to the other side. They now have seen what Heaven looks like, and what Hell looks like - and they know where YOU’RE going. So what would they say if they were here today? If they knew you were going to heaven, they’d sit down beside you and explain how glorious Heaven is and how blessed you are to go there. And they’d urge you to do everything in your power to make sure you don’t miss out on this wondrous experience. BUT, if they knew you were going to the other place… they’d be on their knees PLEADING with you. Begging you to take eternity seriously and turn to Jesus for His forgiveness.
That’s what Elisha was doing with Joash BEFORE he died. He was literally pleading with the King to take God seriously.
But then (PAUSE) ELISHA died. II Kings 13:20-21 tells us “So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And 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.”
What’s this all about? Why does God tell us THIS part of the story? Why would He let us know that Elisha’s dead body gave life to a corpse? Why should this matter to us? Well, this was the last part of Elisha’s Last Will & Testament. This was the last part of his inheritance. This was last thing Elisha left for us. Notice I said for US! Just so you understand, this inheritance wasn’t for Joash, it was for us.
And the inheritance was this - this was a declaration by God, that He had the power to give us life after death. And that is the primary message God wants us to see in the Bible. God has the power to give life to the dead.
Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that “Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had the power over death… to rescue all of us who lived each day in fear of dying.” CEV
Jesus died (and rose from the grave) that we might live.
ILLUS: At the beginning of the sermon I spoke about Memorial Day. It’s a very special day, a day where we remember those who have died at war.
Someone once said: THEY DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE! Someone died so that we might live. and that’s exactly what Jesus did for us. He died that we might live.
Now what’s interesting here is this: When the man fell into Elisha’s grave, what brought him back to life???
The Scriptures tell us “as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.” As soon as he touched the body… he was given life. Do you realize… that’s what happens to us? Hebrews 10:10 “… we have been made holy through the sacrifice of THE BODY of Jesus Christ once for all.”
It’s when we come in contact with His body that we’re given life. Did you realize, that’s what happens when we’re baptized? Romans 6:3-4 says “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (We touched His body, if you will) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
CLOSE: One man (Phil Hammons) put it this way “Did you know that because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ there are dead men walking all over the earth? They are not zombies, they are not the undead, they are not men on death row; they are born again believers in Jesus Christ. How would you have to describe your life? Is it “Night of the living dead?” Or, “Life of the living Lord?” We WERE Alive to SIN and DEAD to Christ. But in Christ our position has changed, our situation is now reversed. Ephesians 2:1 says ‘He made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.’ We are no longer alive to sin and dead to Christ, WE ARE DEAD TO SIN and ALIVE IN CHRIST! We are no longer enemies of God… now we are children of God. We are no longer servants of sin. Now we are saints of the Savior.”
So, is this the inheritance you wish to leave to your loved ones, your neighbors and your friends? Then we need to remember how valuable this blessing from God is, and seriously urge the ones we care about to take advantage of what God has offered.
Now I do know of people who've not waited until they've died to give an inheritance to their loved ones. Long before their death, they've handed out money or possessions that their family and friends would appreciate. So, don't wait until your Last Will and Testament is read... share Jesus with people you care about today.
INVITATION
Footnote on Joash "striking the ground" with his arrows. The commentary by Keil and Delitzch (considered by some to be the cadilac of Old Testament commentaries) says this: "When used of an arrow (the Hebrew word here) signifies to shoot and to strike with the arrow shot off, i.e., to wound or to kill (cf. 2 Kings 9:24; 1 Kings 22:34). The shooting of the arrows to the earth was intended to symbolize the overthrow of the Syrians. 'And the king shot three times, and then stood (still),' i.e., left off shooting." Keil & Delitzsch
