Bent Oak Church

Jehoash was given a prophetic promise. He would strike the Syrians and defeat them. Elisha commanded Jehoash to fire arrows out the window as a sign of his coming victories. Jehoash fired three arrows and then stopped. Elisha explained that his victories would be limited to three. Jehoash should have fired more arrows. What keeps us from receiving all God has for us? What is it that stunts our faith and traps us in our own attempts at control? 

To celebrate Father's Day, we combined services with Central Assembly. Dr. Jim Bradford and Pastor Chase Replogle discuss manhood and fatherhood. 

Joash did what was right in God's eyes. He also repaired the temple and managed to avert war with Syria, but how did he pull it off? Joash used his wealth and the temple's. His actions raise a question How much of his faithfulness was based on appearances and how deep did his reforms go into the heart of Israel's worship.

For two chapters we watched the rise of Jehu. He was a king by military precious and decisive action. God used him to overthrow the house of Omri but he did not follow God. To the south, in Juda, another king came to power. But he did not rise by sword or plot. He came to power as a child, through a covenant, an anointing, and a testimony. 

Jehu was anointed by God to be the new king of Israel. He even fulfilled long-awaited prophecies. But outward action alone should not be our primary evaluation of faithfulness. In the end, Jehu did not follow God nor obey with all his heart. His life is a warning about how easily we trust appearances and success and mistake them for genuine faith. 

God had had enough with the kings of Israel. They had brutalized his people, killed his prophets, and refused to honor him as God. God would now replace the house of Omri with a new king. But hanging in the story is an important question. Is this peace? How does real peace come in a broken world?

Many see the Bible's prophecies of destruction as a fickle God prone to abandon his people, but for every page of destruction, there is page after page of his divine warnings. And where God's warning is given, his messenger also wept. Elisha wept for Israel. Jesus wept for Jerusalem. Our God longs to give us a better way.

2 Kings records the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms. As their kings continued to turn away from God that collapse came in military defeat but also in moral clarity. In this week's passage, we see the inability of kings to resolve those conflicts or unravel the complicated ethical complexities. But we also discover a God who is able to save, a god who is able to reverse things in spite of the compromised people at the center.

The Syrians thought they finally had Elisha surrounded. Even Elisha's servant began to panic. But Elisha saw what others could not. He prayed for his servant and his eyes were opened. He could suddenly see the heavenly army surrounding the Syrians. Blindness and sight are recurring Biblical images. We come to recognize that though we see, we can be blind to so much of the truth. We pray for God to open our eyes as well. 

We live in a time when almost nothing feels impossible. Technology has given us more than any previous generation could have imagined. But the tools we use to construct our world are not the only truth. Our tools break. Our projects stop. Our technology fails. We are left like prophets of Elisha not sure where to look but discovering something new and unexpected, an ax head that floats.