Direction Derived from Desperation

“When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” And he put his hand on it, then Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands. He said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it.  Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. And he said, “The LORD’S arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them.”  Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. So the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.”

2 Kings 13:14-19

I want to set up the scene a little.  Israel was being ruled by Jehu who had killed Jezebel and wiped it clean of any remnants of Baal.  He was a righteous king, but his son Jehoahaz was anything but.  He did what he wanted, even after the Lord saved Him in spite of his transgressions.  Then, his son, Joash (clearly this family had a thing for the letter J) continued in his father’s footsteps and as the Bible (2 Kings 13:11) says, “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  Both Jehoahaz and Joash had neglected what their heritage was: righteousness.  Imagine, they are leading a nation dedicated to God while they themselves are conducting idol worship.  It’s hypocrisy at its finest.  Joash obviously knew who God was and about Him but he didn’t know God on a deeply intimate level.  In the end, Joash lost out on the victory because he didn’t know the who of God and therefore could not understand the what of God, even when it could have eradicated his enemy for good.

Arrow: “A missile having a straight thin shaft with a pointed head at one end and often flight-stabilizing vanes at the other, meant to be shot from a bow.”
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arrow)
Photo: (http://genericgrasslands.com/2011/08/25/the-many-arrows-of-zelda/)

That’s how the dictionary describes an arrow anyway, but any word under the lamp of the Bible can take on a whole different meaning.  An arrow, for example, can mean a direction, or an attack, but when the Lord highlights it to me, I know I need to dig deeper.  In the above mentioned story, the arrow was very symbolic and very important for King Joash, but the problem is, he didn’t know it.  He had very little regard for what was in his hand because he saw it as a thin shaft, a pointed head and flight vanes.

God is a God of moments.  The Bible is peppered with stories about people reaching out to God and God reaching out to people and in that moment, Heaven touches earth.  The same is true in this story.  Had Joash recognized his moment, had he been desperate to find it, reaching for God, he would have understood why Elisha was asking him to strike the arrows on the ground.  Elisha even reprimands him and gets angry at him for not recognizing the moment.  Why?  Because Joash didn’t do some stupid motion with some meaningless arrows?  No.  It was because he couldn’t follow through with the Lord’s command because he didn’t know God, and at that moment, his victory depended on it.  “You should have struck five or six times…”  God knew the number of times Israel would come up against Syria in battle and how many times it would take Joash to defeat their army before being rid of them forever, but Joash didn’t.  The act was emblematical, but without a download of supernatural knowledge that only comes by personal relationship, Joash was literally shooting in the dark.

I don’t believe that God does anything by accident.  It’s not an accident that the Lord chose arrows for Joash to strike the ground with.  They may seem like an arbitrary part of the account but if you look past the black and white of the story, you can see what God is saying here.  The other definition for arrow talks about direction.  Arrows are a symbol of direction and purpose.  It is not often that an archer releases an arrow without calculated precision.  God was showing Joash that these arrows were the “Lord’s arrow of victory,” or the Lord’s direction for victory.  He was showing Joash that His plans for Israel were for them to thrive, for them to return and have victory over their enemies.  Anyone in a position of desperation for their answer, knowing the meaning of the gesture, would have beat the arrows into the ground until Elisha would physically have to stop them.  A desperate person needs an answer, they need their victory from God.  A person at their end and therefore at the beginning of God would stop at nothing to get their answer, and so this exposed Joash’s heart.  He was not desperate for the answer, he was not fraught with concern for the nation of God…the heart of God.  He wanted to take care of himself.  He wanted to continue doing what he wanted and not be interrupted by Syria.  His heart was not for the people of God and therefore his heart was not for God.

This story is all well and good, but unless we let it hit home, it’s just another nice story, an entertaining anecdote.  What is your Syria?  Are you facing an enemy that is attacking what God has entrusted you with?  Have you grown so desperate for an answer that you will throw out your idols and take your arrows and beat them into the ground until God must give you an answer?  Or are you comfortable with the way things have always been and only run to God when your way of life is threatened?  It’s time to get desperate.  It’s time to clean house.  It’s time to go through and take inventory of what is taking the place of God in your life: hobbies, distractions, relationships.  It’s time to rid yourself of the things that exhalt themselves above God and get back to His heart, His people.  Open your eyes friends, Syria is on its way to attack the people which God has called you to protect.  Don’t take it lightly.  Be bold and strong and grip those arrows with all your might and let God know that you are desperate for His answer, you are desperate for His victory, you are desperate for His direction, but most of all you are desperate for Him.