2 Kings 13

15-17 Elisha then carried out one final symbolic act: he had Jehoash shoot an arrow out of an east window (verse 17)—that is, one facing the eastern part of Israel (Gilead), which was occupied at the time by Hazael king of Aram. As he did so, Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands to symbolize that the king would have God’s blessing in his fight against Hazael. The arrow itself symbolized Israel’s victory over the Arameans.

18-19 ThenElishatoldthekingtotakethe remaining arrows he had and shoot them at the ground. The king had five or six arrows, but he only shot three of them. This indicated that he had too little faith and determination to complete the work of overcoming Aram; instead, he would only win three battles (see verse 25). The total defeat of Aram and the liberation of Israel would have to wait until Jehoash’s son Jeroboam became king (2 Kings 14:25,28).

20-21 Elisha was indirectly involved in one final miracle, this one occurring after his death. Some Israelites were getting ready to bury a man when they saw a band of raiders approaching. Needing to flee quickly, they put the dead body into the nearest tomb they could find—which happened to be Elisha’s. Just the contact with Elisha’s bones brought the dead man back to life (verse 21).

A miracle is something that is beyond the natural; it is supernatural. We can choose to disbelieve miracles, or to try and find natural or scientific explanations for them; but when we do, we are missing the larger point. The activities of God are not limited to the natural. He created the laws of nature; He created the entire universe; He created life. Raising someone from the dead is no miracle” from God’s perspective, only from ours.

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Mark 12:27). Those who truly believe in God do not die. In some unexplainable way, those bones of Elisha represented God’s lifegiving power. God didn’t need those bones to bring the dead man back to life; but He chose to use them in order to show that His power—as manifested through Elisha’s life and now through his death—was great enough to bring not only one man but the entire nation back to life. This, then, was one more sign that God was giving Israel another chance to “live.”

22-23 Why was God giving the Israelites yet one more chance? Because He loved them, because He had brought them into a covenant with Himself and He did not want to set that covenant aside. God had been preserving Judah because of His covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:16; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19). He was also preserving Israel because of a much older covenant: His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ancestors of the Hebrew people (verse 23). Because of that covenant God was unwilling to destroy His people or to banish them from His presence.⁵³ He was postponing His judgment in order to give Israel more time to repent and return to Him. Such was God’s patience, mercy and love! And yet God’s patience would not last forever.

24-25 As Elisha had promised, Jehoash defeated Aram three times (verse 19). The cause of his success was the Lord’s favor upon Israel—as had been the case with every Israelite success since the time of Moses.