5/16/2011 5:32:31 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Jehoash—ignorant faith
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Kings 13:10-14
Message of the verses: “10 ¶
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of
Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. 11 He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did
not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel sin,
but he walked in them. 12 Now the rest
of the acts of Joash and all that he did and his might with which he fought
against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 13 So
Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat on his throne; and Joash was
buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. 14
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!’”
This
section of Scripture is a bit confusing but with the help of Dr. Wiersbe I will
try and get through it. There are a
number of sections in this last full section in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary,
and I will try and get through the first two this morning. The first sub-section is entitled “He
followed the wrong examples and that covers verses 10-13, while the second
sub-section covers verse fourteen and he entitles that “He made a wise
decision.”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following at the beginning of his commentary on this
section: “For some reason, the death of
Jehoash is mentioned twice, once before the historian records his life (verses
12-13) and again at the end of the story (14:15-16). His great defeat of Amaziah, king of Judah,
is also mentioned before it’s described (14:8-14; 2Chron. 25). But the most important thing about Jehoash
was that he had sense enough to visit the Prophet Elisha and seek some blessing
from him.”
It
is written of Jehoash that he followed after the ways of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, and it was Jeroboam that caused Israel to sin.
Jehoash
did do a wise thing in that he went down to see the Prophet Elisha while Elisha
was on his death bed. This is the first
time since chapter nine of 2Kings that Elisha has been written about, and that
was after some forty years have passed.
This does not mean that Elisha was not doing something for the Lord in
those forty years, for he was more important to Israel than all of their
armies. It could have been Elisha who
had promised a deliverer to come to Israel and as stated before that deliverer
could have been Jehoash. Jehoash called
Elisha the same name as Elisha had called Elijah when he left for heaven, so
that means he must have heard known what happened to Elisha.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following about older saints that I wish to quote: “Faithful servants of God never ‘retire’ even
though they may leave their lifelong vocation and step back from public ministry. Even from his deathbed, Elisha was serving
the Lord and his people. As long as God
gives us strength and sanity, we should serve Him the best we can in whatever
ways He opens for us. How grateful I am
for ‘senior servants’ who have counseled and encouraged me, and the memories of
their lives and ministries are still a blessing to me (Heb. 13:7-8,NIV)”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Two things seem to speak to my heart as I
have read over this section of Scripture and also the commentary that Dr.
Wiersbe wrote about it. The first is
that I am never to give up serving the Lord even though I am getting
older. I am inspired by my friend
Willard Stull who continues to serve the Lord into his nineties. The second thing that I got from this section
is that I do not want to cause anyone to sin as it says about Jeroboam who
caused Israel to sin.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Finish strong.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
3.
Give myself to the Lord today for worship and for
service.
4.
Remember the battle rages on and I need the
spiritual armor in place so that I can stand.
5/16/2011 6:12:48 AM
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