2 Kings 13.14-21 tells us about the death of Elisha. He had become sick and he was going to die. This teaches us that even men of faith and Torah are not immune to disease. God had appointed this sickness to take his life. There is no “one way” God does this.
King Joash of Israel comes to him and grieves over the loss of Elisha. He says the same thing Elisha said in 2 Kings 2.12 with Elijah. Elisha was also a defense to the Jewish people as a whole, which was better than the whole army of Israel, its chariots and horsemen.
In the visit by King Joash, Elisha tells him to take a bow and arrows (plural). He tells the king to put his hand on the bow, and Elisha puts his hand on the king’s hand to show that the Lord will help him. He then tells him to open the window towards the east and to shoot and Joash shot it towards the Syrians and Aphek. There is a connection between shooting the arrow and striking the Syrians, bringing deliverance.
Elisha was doing this to show Joash that he did not need to fear his death and that the Lord was still be present to help him. It was the Lord who was the defense of Israel, not Elisha. Then Elisha told him to take the arrows and strike the ground. So Joash struck the ground three times and stopped. Elisha became angry with Joash because he was faint of heart, and that means he will be faint of heart in battle also.
Elisha was “reading him.” He said he should have struck the ground five or six times, then he would have struck Syria until he destroyed them. Now he will only strike Syria three times. Spiritually, attitude in warfare is essential. If you are weak you need to get stronger. The attitude and spirit of the “troops” can make all the difference and change the outcome of a battle. Joash was timid and did not take advantage of the moment.
How many situations do we have where we should “keep shooting our arrows” at an enemy? But we content ourselves with small victories when we can win the whole war. We should keep shooting at sin, keep shooting to learn, keep shooting to be used in the kingdom and keep shooting in using our faith (emunah/action/confidence). There is one thing we know, we know we are going to be attacked. Battles are won or lost before any fighting actually begins. That is the lesson Elisha is teaching Joash here.
Elisha dies and they bury him and what follows is one of the more unusual miracles in the Bible. The Moabites had raiders who would come into the land in the spring. As they were burying a man, they saw the raiders coming so they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha. When the corpse touched the bones of Elisha, the dead man revived and stood on his feet. This miracle alludes to the fact that we can be revived by having contact with the dead prophets who wrote the Scriptures.
But, let’s get back to the lesson Elisha was teaching Joash in 2 Kings 13.14-19 on warfare. We think this lesson is so important that we want to go over some warfare truths we can use in our own spiritual battles. There are some important lessons that we need to learn so that we don’t make the same mistakes as Joash did here in these verses. So, we are going to take the time to deal with some basic truths about spiritual warfare that we can incorporate into our own lives. It is not a question of “if” we are going to fight spiritual battles, but “when” so we need this information. For the whole teaching about this, go to the teaching “The Spiritual Warrior” on this website.
Let’s begin with some basic truths about spiritual warfare. First, we need to know we are going to be attacked so we need to make provisions beforehand. War is the attempt of one side to impose its will on the other side. Strategy is the art of waging war, tactics is waging a battle. The strategy of our enemy is to take the Torah away so that we don’t know the Lord. The tactic is to get Jews to look at what was done to them in the past and not see Yeshua as the Messiah in the Torah. To non-Jews, it is to confuse who the Messiah is, what he said and not look at the Torah at all. The third goal is to keep the two groups apart.
To be “forewarned” is to be “forearmed.” The enemy will attack with no exemptions. The art of warfare is to seek superiority over the enemy in three areas: mobility, firepower and security. Spiritual warfare is a process of difficulty: the first enemies we face will be simple as is the weaponry and defense; with succeeding battles the enemy gets more sophisticated and the weapons increase in what they can do, as should the defenses.
There such a thing as the “battering ram theory.” As weapons are developed, new field plans and defenses will be necessary. Israel had many enemies in her history. She had the Romans, the Hittites, the Philistines, the Assyrians and so on. We can look at our enemies and we can put them into these categories. For example, A “Roman” attack requires intervention from God. The Roman attacker comes at us with the attitude that you will be destroyed, no matter what the cost. They will intimidate and divide and will try to keep us off balance and will infiltrate.
Vanity is a great weakness (2 Sam 16-17). Ahitophel was so angry and vain towards David after the Bathsheba affair (his granddaughter) he sided with Absalom and was destroyed. His son Hushai sided with David and lived. Spiritual and physical battles often go hand in hand, and casualties will occur. Jer 12.5 says, “If you run with the footmen (infantry), and they wearied you, then how can you contend with horses (cavalry). And if you are in the land of peace, in the land you trusted (friends and relatives) and they wearied you, then how will you do in the flooding of the Jordan (when confronted by your enemies)?” The best defense is a good offense. No matter how strong your defenses might be today, if you stay as you are (static) an adversary will come along who can knock down your fortress (Jerusalem vs. the Assyrians).
The problem is we get stuck with “bronze age” weapons and tactics and we come up against an enemy who is in the “iron age” as far as weapons and tactics go. We should not rely on past victories (tactics) to win future battles. The enemy will have learned their lesson and developed superior tactics. This was seen in several wars in Israel. Israel took Jericho in six days, but made mistakes and didn’t heed warnings from the Lord and were defeated at first at Ai. In 1967, Israel won a swift victory (six days). But in 1973 they were complacent and didn’t heed certain warnings and nearly lost the war.
When a “Hittite” attacks you they like to undermine you. They would dig tunnels to get under your walls and distract you from noticing. They did not like face to face confrontation if they could help it. When found, you needed to cave in their walls. In the same way, Hittite attacks are when someone undermines you and tries to make you look bad without getting caught. We need to confront them face to face and “cave in” their plots. So, we need to evaluate what kind of enemy we have. We need to know what weapons they use and what kind of tactics they employ (assess and evaluate). We should never underestimate the enemy. When they built Masada, nobody thought anyone could reach their walls because they we so high up on the plateau. So, they built what was called “casemate” walls which were thin. When the Romans came against Masada, they built a ramp up to the walls and used a battering ram and broke through the walls easily. They should have had what was called a “broad wall” up there which was very thick.
The success of a battle is determined by the abilities of an enemy. The attitude of the commander and the spirit of the troops can change the outcome of a battle (Exo 13.17; Judges 20.18). The motto for the tank corps in Israel is “The real steel is in the tank.” The real miracle at Chanukah was when they were faced with assimilation into Greek paganism, they chose the Lord and the Torah, often at a great price.
In a “Philistine” attack they will try to draw you in close to fight you. The Philistines had iron weapons and Israel didn’t, so they liked to fight close (opposite of Hittite). David knew this and did not wear armor to fight close, but used a long range weapon called a sling. He assessed the enemy and adjusted his tactics to suit his purposes. He would not fight close, but used a long range weapon to stay away from the tactics of the Philistines.
In an “Assyrian” attack, they will try to overwhelm you and these battles are costly and nasty. They will “play dirty” and there will be many casualties. The bottom line is, you can’t win. There will be “domino effect” problems, and even your friends and family are under attack and can’t help you. You are alone and cut off from help, and your walk can deteriorate. Your own strength won’t win. You can’t fight them in open terrain and your only hope is a strong “fort.” An Assyrian will try to “decapitate you” and “cut your hands off.” They will impale you and are able to wage a multiple siege. They are very organized against you. You need the Lord to intervene. You are outnumbered, outmaneuvered and outgunned. But don’t panic and start running, you will get “killed” anyway so you might as well fight and not make it easy for the enemy. Our only hope is to pray for the intervention of God like King Hezekiah did in Isa 36 and 37. God intervened and destroyed the Assyrians.
In Part 10, we will pick up with what to do in psychological warfare.
Leave a Reply