“Shooting Arrows & Striking Ground”
2 Kings 13:14-19
There is no stronger power available to fuel your life than faith.
You may have heard the phrase, “The sky is the limit “. But the truth is,
“The sky is not your limit; your belief system is.”
Passage set up:
Joash was a frightened king. When the prophet Elisha was sick and near death, King Joash of Israel came to visited him. The King was disconcerted over his military situation. The Syrians had taken over a large amount of his territory and he didn’t know what to do about it. After several lost battles, the number of his military men was low, and the downfall of his kingdom seemed to be written on the wall.
Several times before, the lord had rescued Israel’s wicked predecessor kings, even though they had walked in sin and lead their people to do the same. And it was amazing how ungrateful they were. Even when rescued they refused to repent and turn from their sin. However, once again by His compassion, God would send help to his people. This is once again, that occasion.
2 Kings 13:14-19 (NKJV)
14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”
(Joash is using the word father out of respect, Elisha wasn’t his actual father. Joash was humiliated and begging for the help from a dying prophet and his God.
15 And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So, he took himself a bow and some arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So, he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17 And he said, “Open the east window”; 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 you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.”
A couple of questions that always arise when this bizarre story is told:
Why did Elisha give Joash a bow and arrow?
• In times of war - Hostilities were usually proclaimed by a herald, sometimes by a king or general making a public and formal discharge of an arrow into the enemy's country. It was their way of saying, “Game on!”
• But Elisha wasn’t trying to bring public attention at this moment. He directed Joash to do this, as a symbolical act. He wanted to, in a real hands-on way, signifying God’s promise of victory to Joash, that he could expect over the Syrians.
Why was the arrow shot eastward?
East was towards the country beyond Jordan, the land of Gilead – and that was the exact area that king Hazael had taken from the Israelites. (2 Kings 10:33)
So, God was promising to give back the land that was taken. But little did Joash know in this moment that the process of retaking the land, and the extent of his own success against the Syrians, would depend on this private but important test the lord was about to give to him. Watch what happens …
18 Then he (The prophet Alisha) said, “Take the arrows”; so, he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so, he struck three times and stopped.
19 And the man of God (Elisha) was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.” (meaning he would only win 3 battles)
1. Everyone’s an archer.
• We are all called to shoot an arrow of faith.
Job 22:28 the Lord says, “You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon they ways.
(Note: This is where I told my congregation a story of how I first whent public with a desire to become a pastor. It shocked me to hear it come out of my mouth but over the next few years the plan came true.) (My surprising job choice story)
2. Your current plans and behaviors indicate your expectation of God.
God is watching how we Strike the ground. If we will hold to faith that God is bringing success according to His will in our lives, then we are participation with Him. We need to be honest with ourselves if we are half-heartedly sticking, thinking this isn’t going to be much of anything or is we are seeing in our minds the success God can bring to our plans. The victory ahead.
Are you still praying for those who need to know the lord, or have you lost faith?
Are we still believing that God is changing you into the likeness of Jesus, or have you given up?
If we are still believing for these things then we are currently submitting to this process. If we are failing to believe, then we could stall out the worked God is tending to do in us to bring the change.
Her’s a thought for you. Wouldn’t it be better to shoot for a 100% of a thing and in the end get 50% than it is to shoot for 0 and get 100% of Zero.
Remember: Low faith will reveal itself = Low effect. High faith in God will = higher return of spiritual progress in your life.
(Story) We all know that Walt Disney himself was a dreamer. He dreamed of accomplishing impossible things. In fact, it is said that when Walt would meet with his creation team to determine projects to tackle. If everyone in the room felt that one of his ideas was possible then he would change direction, put that plan in the trash and pull out another idea. And when everyone in the room had agreed the new idea was impossible, Walt would say, “Okay, then this is what we’re going to make happen.”
Walt Disney died on December 15th, 1966. He had wanted to bring the magic of his imagination to the West coast with his plans to open Disney world. His dream came true on October the 1st, 1971. At the grand opening someone said to his wife, “Don’t you wish he could have been here to see this?” Mrs. Disney confidently replied, “O he did see it, he saw it before anyone else, he saw it all with his imagination.”
Matthew 9:27-29, Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened.
Question: If the secular world is believing for impossible things, and accomplishing them, what are we as Christians believing for?
3. The arrow (of faith) in your hand is the “ARROW OF THE LORD”; it’s meant for the victory in your circumstance.
- To apply yourself to applying faith you must shoot your arrow.
Note: at this point in my message I had a Testimony shared by a young man in our church named Joseph Hallett- He come up to the pulpit and shared his plan to “Shoot his arrow” by handing out bible promises on cards with big candy bars this Oct. 30, Halloween, as an effort to share his faith and evangelize his neighborhood.)
One way or another, how we apply our faith will produce a result.
(Story) Born in 1901, Will Sutton, was a famous American Robber. He was so good at being bad that he stole more than two million dollars in his 40-year carrier of crime. When he was finally detained, he spent more than half his life in prison. However, when the authorities questioned him, and this in on his record, they asked him why he robbed so many banks, he responded, “Because that’s where all the money is.”
He was fully committed, believed in what he was doing, but he was full of folly. Amen?
Sharing secular stories of success does not diminish the principle of belief and here’s why: All humanity has been created in the image of God and possess the ability to express faith. The question is, who or what will we each apply or faith to. Who will we put our faith in and what will we believe for?
Here is a truth: The people of God Walk in faith not according to the flesh but according to the spirit of God but that faith should spillover into our daily lives and not be contained to the mental theological domain. It is the Spirit of God who leads us to work and believe for Godly success in the Kingdom and that kingdom should become evident in the story of our lives, Amen!
• Was David’s faith evident when he slew the giant?
• Was Daniels faith evident when he was in the den of lions?
• Was Peter’s faith evident when he stepped out of the boat?
Where is our faith evident in our lives?
Question: If the secular world is believing for impossible things, and accomplishing them, what are we as Christians believing for?
Whatever you are doing in life right now, you’re doing it because you believe in it. You might say you believe in something else, but you rely don’t, you are where you are in life today because of the choices you’ve made so far and the choices you make are based solely on the things you believe.
One way or another, for good or bad, faith produces a result.
(Call the worship team)
(Story) Faith like Potatoes – Angus Buchan – A white Zambian farmer of Scottish origin. / He and his wife were farmers trying to make a life and was warned not to plant potatoes because of a drought. He was desperate to make a living and knew that the highest return on a crop would be to invest in planting potatoes and he felt like God told him to take the risk. He planted in dry ground with no irrigation and no rain. He had to just sit there and wait with no green vegetation from the plant above ground. They were planted in the spring and were to be harvested. Full size potatoes, under normal conditions take 80-100 days till harvest. When the time was right, when he finally opened the ground, and to everyone’s amazement, he found under the earth that he had a bumper harvest!)
Question: How are you Sticking the ground in your life:
• If you strike with Low faith = Low result.
• If you will strike with High belief = Great Reward.
“According to your faith let it be to you.”
“This is the Word of God. If you’ll believe it, it’ll work for you, if you don’t believe, it won’t.”
(Song)
Note to anyone who would like to use this message: I have available power Points and Handout notes. I would be happy to Email them to you upon request. God bless.
