Welcome back! Can you believe it is the end of August 2023? Christmas decorations should be in stores any day now! 🙂 In May, we started a series taking a look at an Old Testament prophet named Elisha and how his life relates to ours. “Second place” was mentioned because he was the apprentice of one Israel’s most famous prophets, Elijah. However, Elisha’s impact was just as great and important as the person he served under, Elijah (easy to get them mixed up). In such a busy and crowded world – it’s easy for us to feel like “second place.” Not getting a promotion or initial job we interviewed for. Seeing on social media a social event took place that we weren’t invited to. Unanswered prayers. Questioning: What is my purpose? Am I making a difference at all? For an extensive study of Elisha’s life story – please read 2nd Kings Chapter 2 all the way through 2nd Kings Chapter 9 sometime when you have a quiet moment for the entire context.

Today, we’re going to conclude the series by highlighting “The Mystery of the Unstruck Arrows.” Possibly, one of the most confusing stories in The Bible that you may not have read before. Surprisingly, an entire book has been written about the theme of this story. It is called The Last Arrow: Save Nothing For The Next Life by Erwin McManus. This event and interaction with the current king of Israel, Jehoash, takes place near the end of Elisha’s life and is found in 2 Kings 13: 14-20:

When Elisha was in his last illness, King Jehoash of Israel visited him and wept over him. “My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” he cried.

Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows.” And the king did as he was told. Elisha told him, “Put your hand on the bow,” and Elisha laid his own hands on the kings hands.

Then he commanded, “Open that eastern window,” and he opened it. Then he said, “Shoot!” So he shot an arrow. Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, an arrow of victory over Aram, for you will completely conquer the Armeans at Aphek.

Then he said, “Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.” So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times. But the man of God was angry with him. “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” he exclaimed. “Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times.”

Then Elisha died and was buried.

Here is a brilliant commentary and perspective regarding this rather obscure story from The Last Arrow by Erin McManus:

Much of what happens here doesn’t make any sense to our modern minds. How could the king’s future be so affected by whether he struck an arrow three times or five or six times? Why didn’t Elisha explain to him what was required before holding him to its consequences? How could the king have known that six is the magic number and that three would leave him wanting? Up to that moment, he had done everything Elisha instructed him. But when Elisha told him to strike the ground with the arrows, the prophet left the instruction open ended.

It is not insignificant that the text says, “The man of God was angry with him.” Clearly much more was happening here than meets the eye. This was no small mistake. The king began with the promise of a complete victory and afterward was the recipient of much less. And it all centers around one decision: he struck the ground three times and then stopped. putting it another way: he quit. The Bible doesn’t tell us why he quit. Maybe he was tired, maybe he felt ridiculous, maybe he thought it was beneath him, or perhaps he sensed it was an act of futility. But it is clear that, for Elisha, the fact that the king stopped striking the arrow was connected to his determination to receive the full measure of God’s intention for him. He quit and the victory was lost. He just didn’t want it badly enough.

I wonder how many victories are lost before the battle has even begun. I wonder how much more good God desires to usher into the world that has been thwarted by our own lack of ambition. I wonder how many times in my own life I thought I failed but actually the only thing that happened was that I quit.

What is it about us that stops before we’re finished, that mistakes quitting for failure, that settles for less? I see too much of myself in this – can identify too many times when I have prayed too little, expected too little, and done too little. Have you become the kind of person who is always looking for the least you can do, trying to do only what is required? Or are you the kind of person who has given up not only on life but also on yourself? When you come to to the end of your life, will you be able to say, “I gave everything I had,” or will you have a hollow feeling inside of your soul that you quit too soon, that you expected too little, that you did not strike the last arrow?

I think many of us hear God say, “Take your arrows and shoot,” but, much like the king, we never hear the command, “Stop striking the ground.” We simply stop before we’re finished. We stop before God is finished.

There is a posture toward life that separates those who end their lives with their quivers full of untapped potential and unseized opportunities and those who die with their quivers empty. Arrows are not meant for decor; they are meant for battle. The question each of us must answer is this: Am I the kind of person who strikes three times and then stops, or am I the kind of person who, when commanded to strike my arrows, keeps striking and striking and striking until there are no arrows left? (pages 8-10)

Conclusion: We never know when our faith is being tested. Usually it happens when we’re going through a tough time or not ready for it. We also never know what God is up to. His ways are beyond our limited thinking – He doesn’t seek our approval before acting. The great thing is that God wants to use us far beyond what our finite minds can comprehend. Starting today – live life with no regrets, it is never too late. What does it look like for you to “save nothing for the next life”? Like King Jehoash, we only get one “shot” at this amazing gift called life. Keep striking your own personal “arrows” until God tells you to stop!

Blessings,

Dave 🙂

https://www.amazon.com/author/davidrische