Fireside: Don’t Be So Hard To Work With

“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.

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 thine 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 thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou 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, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.”

2 Kings 13:14-19

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Fantastic Legacy

Elisha led a miracle-filled ministry. Starting with Elijah’s fiery ascent into Heaven, he is in every way an anomaly of the Old Testament. Stories of making the axe-head float, to raising the dead, to summoning a pair of she-bears, to the cleansing of Naaman’s leprosy– all anticipate that one with such a triumphal entrance would also have a victorious exit.

Sadly, things did not end that way.

Perhaps Elisha was an absent-minded eccentric. Maybe the constant nagging of friend and foe for just one more miracle had bedraggled his mind. Or it could have been that a lifetime of prophesying and teaching at the school of the prophets had left him tired of talking.

Whatever the case, his last wishes were not communicated properly. And it wasn’t anyone else’s fault but his own.

I empathize with the zealously ignorant King Joash. He came to see the old prophet on his death-bed. He wanted to get one final blessing. He waited on every word of Elisha.

Elisha told him to take his bow and arrows. Joash did.

Elisha told him to open the window. So he did.

He told him to shoot; he shot!

And then Elisha tells him to “Smite upon the ground.” And so he did. Once.

The dying prophet glared at him. So he smacked them again, and looks for approval, but saw only a stern wrinkled grimace. What had he done wrong? Elisha offered not a word of encouragement, not a word of advice, not a word of counsel. Silence. Awkward glare.

So, Joash whacked them on the ground the third time, and looked back to Elisha.

Only to have Elisha blow up in anger. “Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.”

WHAT!?

Honestly, if I’m Joash right there, I’m thinking: “You GOTTA be kidding me! You could have said that ten seconds ago and it would have been REAL helpful!”

Every little word meant so much to Joash, it is evident from the Scripture. But for some reason, Elisha failed to give him any guidance at the last crucial junction for the nation of Israel.

Failure to Communicate

Maybe Joash should have known. But one thing is for certain: Elisha should not have assumed that Joash could read his mind. Every insight, prophecy, miracle, or intuition of Elisha was locked behind the gates of a personality that was hard to work with. And it cost his country BIG time.

As a fellow-believer, do you find yourself frustrated with people not doing what they are supposed to do? Have you instructed them? Have you taught them? Have you talked TO people as much as you have talked ABOUT them? Have you verbalized feelings, goals, expectations, honest evaluations… or are you having those ‘talks’ in your head?

Take some time to pull up a chair with people who you depend on and communicate with them. Because they are depending on you to do that.

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