After the anointing of Jehu as king of Israel, nothing more is said of Elisha till this record of his last sickness and death--a period of about forty-five years; this covered the whole of the reign of Jehu and his son Jehoahaz, and part of the reign of Joash, the grandson of Jehu. Hazael reigned in Syria all this time, and continued to commit depredations in all the coasts of Israel. (2 Kings 10:32; 13:22) He even made an incursion into the kingdom of Judah, took Gath, and "set his face to go up to Jerusalem." (2 Kings 12:17)
Then Joash of Judah "took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem." (2 Kings 12:18)
Hazael had so persistently oppressed Israel that finally there was left "of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing." (2 Kings 13:7)
This was the condition of affairs at the time of our lesson. "Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." (2 Kings 13:14)
Now that Joash is about to lose Elisha from his kingdom forever, he comes to weep over him, and to remember the day when Elisha alone was more than a match for all the armed hosts of Syria. He now begins to realize what a protection Elisha was, and what a power the kingdom is now about to lose. If he had remembered this sooner, he would not have been brought so low. If he had never forgotten it, Israel would have flourished instead of being oppressed.
It is ever so. We appreciate our blessings when they are gone. Then, too we act without them as we should have acted when they were with us. But if we would only learn to appreciate our blessings while we have them, then we should not have to do without them; for by the advantage of these, we should but be advanced to other and greater ones.
But for even this parting token of regard, Elisha, in kindness, shows the king a token of good from the Lord. "And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon 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, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you shall smite the Syrians in Aphek, till you have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, You should have smitten five or six times; then had you smitten Syria till you had consumed it: whereas now you shall smite Syria but thrice." (2 Kings 13:15-19)
Hazael was succeeded by his son Ben-Hadad. "And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel." (2 Kings 13:25)
And Syria never invaded Israel anymore. "And Elisha died, and they buried him." (2 Kings 13:20)
And that is the obituary of Elisha, "the man of God." (2 Kings 13:19)
The Bible writers are remarkable for the brevity of the obituaries. It would be well if their way were followed more fully at the present day. "And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year." (2 Kings 13:20)
The Moabites were the descendants of Moab, the son of one of the daughters of Lot, by her father, after the destruction of Sodom. Their country lay to the east of the Dead Sea. "And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." (2 Kings 13:21)
It is idle to conjecture upon why the Lord wrought this miracle. He has not told us why it was. He has recorded the fact, and that is all we can say about it.
With the death of Elisha closes the lessons in the Kings, for this year. But the kingdom of Israel continued only about a hundred years longer, until even the Lord could no longer bear with them, and then He cast them out of His presence. In today's lesson, verse 23, we read that for all the sins of the successive kings, yet: "The Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast He them from His presence as yet." (2 Kings 13:23)
Finally, however, they had so literally "sold themselves to do evil," (2 Kings 17:17) that the Lord "removed them out of His sight," (2 Kings 17:18) and rejected all the seed of Israel, and they were carried captive into Assyria, and never returned to their own land.--Signs of the Times, October 22, 1885--Notes on the International Lesson, November 1--2 Kings 13:14-25
A.T. Jones