TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna - October 10, 2025 - 2 Kings 13:14-21 - The Arrows of Faith and a Grave Awakening

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

In this episode of Morning Manna, we walk through 2 Kings 13:14–21, where the prophet Elisha faces death and delivers his final prophetic act. King Joash’s half-hearted obedience limits Israel’s victories, reminding us of the cost of lukewarm faith. Yet even after Elisha’s death, God’s power brings life from a grave, showing that His purposes outlast human strength. This passage calls us to wholehearted trust, bold obedience, and confidence that God’s work continues far beyond our limitations. Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc BurkhartYou can partner with us by visiting FaithandValues.com, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today!www.megafire.worldGet high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!www.AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!www.Amazon.com/Final-DayApple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books!www.books.apple.com/final-dayPurchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Faith Friday. This is the day of the week that we focus in on the topic of faith. And what is faith? How does it work? How do we use it? How can we fail to use it? Let's study faith.

What can faith do for you? How does God work with our faith? And so every Friday, our theme is faith. now today we're looking at an old covenant story in second kings chapter 13 the lord showed this to me several weeks ago and told me that this would be the lesson after we finished with boat faith and i've been waiting for this one is this at first when i first looked at it it's like Lord, I'm not sure if I see a Faith Friday lesson in this. Where is it?

Where are you going with this, Lord? But as I studied and meditated on it, then it just opened up with just enormous faith principles in these verses. So I'm going to pray. Doc's going to read the first 21 verses of chapter. chapter 13 of second kings it's important that you hear the full body of verses so that we get the context of what this story is about yes almighty god father we gather here today on this faith Friday that your holy spirit would lift up and and strengthen and edify our faith in

Christ, our king. So Holy Spirit, reveal the principles of faith in these verses that we study today, all for the glory of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, our king, our Lord. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Welcome morning, man, everyone. Glad to have you here for a Faith Friday edition. Just a reminder at the end of our lesson today will be honoring the Lord's table, the communion, the Lord's Supper, and so we want to remind you about that to be prepared for that with bread and either red wine or grape juice. If you're a confessing believer in Jesus Christ, you've been baptized in water according to scripture, we invite you to participate.

In the meantime, we're studying 2nd King, Chapter 13. I'm reading the first 21 verses. If you'll read along with me, please. In the 3 and 20th year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Johaoahaz, the son of Jehu, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned 17 years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin. He departed not there from them.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazeo, king of Syria. and into the hand of bin hadad the son of Hazel all their days. Joah has besought the Lord and the Lord hearkened unto him, for he saw the oppression of Israel because the king of Syria oppressed them. And the Lord gave Israel a savior so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before time. Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam,

who made Israel sin, but walked therein, and there remained the grove also in Samaria. Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz, but 50 horsemen and 10 chariots and 10,000 footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them, had made them like the dust by threshing. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, in his mind, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Noah has slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria, and Joash, his son, reigned in his dead. In the 30 and seventh year of Joach, king of Judah, began Johoash, the son of Jehoaz, to reign over Israel and Samaria, and reigned 16 years. And he did that which was evil in the side of the Lord.

He departed not from all those sins of Jeroban, the son of Nabat, who made Israel sin, but he walked therein. And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah King of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat upon his throne, and Joach was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. So they're given the history of all the kings here. Now we get into the meat of the story. All right, verse 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness, whereup he died. and Joash, the king of Israel, came down to him and wept over his face and said, Oh, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel

and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows, and he took 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,

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 error of the deliverance from syria for thou shalt smite the syrians in aphick till they thou have consumed them verse 18 he said take the arrows and he took them and he said unto the king of israel smite upon the ground this is the key here and he smote thrice and stayed and the man of God was wrought with him and said thou should have smitten five or six times then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice and elisha died and they buried him and the bands of the moabites invaded the land of the coming end of the year and it came to pass listen to this verse 21

as they were bearing a man that behold they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the sepulchre of elisha and when the man was let down and touched the bones of elisha he revived and stood up on his feet this is a great passage here you're going to so much in this. So, Doc, I would like you to summarize verses 1 through 13 and set the contacts for what we're going to study. What took place? What's the meaning of verses 1 through 13? So you have three different nations here. You've got Israel, Judah, and Samaria. At this time, the kingdom was split, and even Israel itself was split into. Israel and Samaria. So you have several different players here, several different countries,

several different kings. Yet in the midst of all this, this telling from verses 1 through 13, it outlines the reins of the kings, but also outlines how they led the people and how they led the people of their separate nations. And as you can see, there was a constant struggle in order to maintain righteousness among the peoples, depending on the nation, to what degree or another. Samaria still had a grove. What that meant was they were out worshiping idols out in the grove. But we're building the outline here to get us to King Joash. And, you know, Joash's father did not really follow in the ways of the Lord. Joe Ash seemed to be moving in a positive direction,

but even he still was trapped in the, if you will, the cultural sins of Israel, the sins that are winked at, the sins that kept going, and yet at the same time, Joash recognized the authority of the prophet Elisha, and it's, he,

Joash is a unique character that we're going to be looking at here he reminds me a lot of American Christians and we'll get into that here in a little bit I hope I did a okay job summarizing that it was good so because of of Israel's sins against God God allowed the king of Syria

to vex Israel right kind of like Hamas vexing Israel and Syria to the north today Syria still exists okay

but this is what was happening and so Joash wants he wants to get victory over the Syrians and that's what this leads up to so we'll begin our study

with verse 14 and the King James says now Elisha the prophet Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died now he didn't die at this point right

and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face and said oh my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof Like, okay, what does that mean? Why did he make this statement? So we're going to take a look here at each part of this verse.

Elisha, who was at one time, this mighty prophet. And God did great miracles through him. He's now an old man. He's frail. he's sick he's on his deathbed Bible scholars estimate that Elisha was probably about 110 years old at this time

because he was born sometime around 910 BC and he died sometime around 800 BC right as 110 years okay so the old boy's been he's been around yes and you know just once and i say once great prophet he's still a great prophet right even on his death on his deathbed he still agree as we see later

even in his grave he's still a great prophet yes but his body is not great anymore his body is frail is sick. It's wearing out. He's shutting down. That's what's happening. His body is shutting down. His mind's not shutting down. His spirit is not shutting down, but his body is shutting down. His body is weakening, but his faith is strong. And what is the lesson that we have here is that God's power is not diminished by. your weakening physical frame don't think because you age and you're becoming thorough that God's power in you somehow weakens God's power remains the same so faith is not measured by by physical vitality

It is measured by spiritual steadfastness, the faithfulness of Elisha. What we also see here is that God sometimes allows his greatest servants to endure lingering illness. It's not a punishment. It's a testimony. God is showing people that faith still triumphs. even when the flesh is failing yes again as we're going to see when we get down to the bottom of this of these verses Elijah was raising the dead when he was dead but it wasn't Elijah doing it it's God raising it but God was showing people just because this man's dead I still recognize him I still recognize his face this man's faith was great even in the grave his faith is great so God takes

Elijah's sickness and makes it a pulpit amen what are we learning here faith doesn't falter when your strength fades your faith endures because it rests in the eternal God, not in the physical strength of a human being. Now, let's talk about Joash, King Joash. First thing we see is that even the most powerful men and women must bow before the spiritual power of God. He calls Elisha, my father. he's he's acknowledging the prophet as his spiritual father and and actually he's quoting elisha himself because yes the same thing the day that elijah the day that elijah the prophet

was taking up into heaven and he said those same words my father my father you know and the charred of israel and the horseman there he said the very same thing so King Joash is actually quoting Elish's own words to him. Yes, and you can read that in 2nd King's chapter 2 verses 11 and 12.

This is when Elijah, prophet Elijah, was caught up in the chariot of fire, and the horses of fire, and taken to heaven. He never died. He was just taken up to heaven. and when Elisha saw Elijah being carried away, he said those words,

my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, the horseman thereof. So, Doc, why did Joash quote Elisha? Well, you could say a couple of different ways of looking at this. One is Joach is recognizing that Elisha is coming to the end of his life and you know bringing a bit full circle with it that's one way to look at it yes another might be just to say to elisha that king joash is recognizing his authority his spiritual authority as contrast to kings to joash's political authority in other words it'd be like somebody here in the United States. In God, we trust, you know, even if they don't believe that God really does take

care of things. They will say it. Well, God's on our side. So I, God bless America. That's what they all say. That's it. Or we're a Christian nation, you know, something like that. I tend to lean toward that interpretation of it because sin continued to prevail in Israel. Joash had the opportunity to address sin, didn't do it. But at the same time, he also is recognizing the spiritual authority of Elisha and knows that the only way that Israel can be saved is by God's hand. I think it's a combination of both of those things, Doc. He was recognizing the prophet, saying, I know about you.

I know your history. I honor you and then quoted Elijah's words as Elijah was taken from the earth which was a way of him saying

dear old prophet I'm where you are about to leave us and it was a reminder to Elijah oh yes I said those words as God took Elijah and now my own words have been repeated as I'm ready to die it's a powerful moment

imagine you said something under the anointing of God decades ago as another anointed person died you're at their deathbed and you spoke words under the unction of the Holy Spirit and now decades later you're on your deathbed and somebody comes in the door and quotes you

tell me you're not going to think oh boy I'm not getting off this bed am I I'm not going to recover from this sickness he literally spoke prophetically Elijah I recognize

you're going to die so faith perceives that the power of God's word is mightier than the chariots of war even if it's a little bit of faith yes it also means that a nation is stronger with one prophet with faith in God than the strength of a mighty army at least Joash somewhat recognized it. If Lee Greenwood was around, he would have had Lee Greenwood come in and sing. I'm not mean.

There'd be jets flying over with Red of Blue Contrails. Right. It is somewhat of a recognition that, yeah, there is, I understand. understand, I understand that there's a power and you walk in that power. Yes.

But you've got the scene here. Here's Elisha who had for many years, decades, had walked with God and God performed great miracles through him. And now he's declining. Here is this great man. And nobody ever thought that they would see this day. Here is this great man who's now a frail, sick old man who can't get out of bed. Right. And yet they still recognize his spiritual authority.

That's right. There's enough there to recognize the authority that God has granted Elisha. That a king comes down. Think about that. Think about if you're an old preacher laying in a hospital bed somewhere, you're about ready to pass on and the president of the United States comes and visit you okay and says my father my father the charity of Israel and the horsemen they're up i mean recognizing that authority that's that's the scene that we're looking at here yes and so god's permitting his servant

Elijah to linger in sickness so that god's power might shine through his spirit that the dying prophet still is shaping the destiny of his nation yes let's look at what the commentator said john gill the prophet though dying was still israel's defense for the strength of the kingdom lay not in armies but in the prayers of the righteous. Charles Bridges. And how I wish modern Christians understood this. Modern Christians, especially here in America, we have more faith in the U.S. military than we do the church.

We think the military, and look, respect our soldiers. I'm not saying that, but we think that our strength as a nation is in the military, They don't see the strength of the nation as in the church. Charles Bridges said the true bulwark of a nation is not as chariots, but it's saints. Faith unseen holds back judgments that might overwhelm kings. So what Bridges is saying there, the fact that God has not judged Israel at this point is because of saints like Elisha. Yes. Folks, you're saving your country by living righteously for God.

You're saving your nation right now. Exactly. Precisely, that's what's happening. And when we sin, we weaken our nation. When we repent, we restore strength in our nation. Alexander McLaren, the king's tears fell on the bed of one whose faith had moved heaven. yet the dying prophet was greater in weakness than the king in strength Albert Barnes faith may languish in the body but not in the soul

death cannot silence the witness of those who have believed God verse 15 and Elijah said unto him take bow and arrows and he took unto him bow and arrows he said there can't be any great meaning in this right an old man on his deathbed says hey pick up that bow and arrows and the guy said okay I'll do it

what's the faith lesson well there's faith lessons here okay first of all Elisha he's bedridden he's dying yeah he's commanding what's that doc he's commanding kings

he's still commanding a king and the king obeys there's your lesson a godly saint on his or her deathbed is still strong enough to command a king so elisha's physical sickness did not diminish his His spiritual authority, his clarity of mind. The word of the Lord was still flowing through the lips of this man who's now, his life is almost a flame, is ready to go out. Right. So what do we learn here? Faith-filled obedience does not begin in strength, but it begins in submission to the Word of God.

even if that voice comes through a weakened servant now Elijah's frailty actually was a test of Joash's humility would the king obey a dying old man so the command is simple take bow and arrows there's no reasoning no explanation it's a command and the prophet is waiting for obedience and the command really wasn't from elisha but it's from the lord that's what you have to think keep in mind here it wasn't just an old man dying

that's speaking this this is god reaching out to joe ash where he yes yes but joash had to discern he had to decide is this is this the crazy talk of an old man who's dying or is the is the lord still speaking through this man again elisha provided no explanation new reasoning he just said pick up your bow and arrows so faith begins with a simple act of trust before understanding the purpose of the action. God will give you instructions that to your mind, it says, that doesn't make sense. What are we doing? What you're doing is obeying a simple command.

God's testing you. He can't give you a big command until he sees that you will follow. a small command. Yes. God will bring you to the word, just like he brought King Joash to Elisha. But then you have to respond to the word that's given at that point.

But God, I know. I know in my life there were times. I can't think of specific, but I know there were times when the Lord gave me an instruction to do something. And the only purpose for doing it was to see if I would do it.

Right. people go that doesn't even make sense he asked you to do such and such or say such what was the purpose in it the purpose was to see if I would obey him and then once you

you prove to him yes I heard you and I obeyed then the Lord says okay now I can give you something else to do so your faith begins with simple actions of trust without understanding the purpose of the actions.

God will start with the ordinary before he reveals the extraordinary. There's a command before Revelation. Obedience comes first. Obedience first, then Revelation. So it's a small instruction. But Joash has got to make a decision. Am I going to obey this instruction?

Or am I just going to pat him on the head and say, well, Pops, I hope you pass away peacefully? Right. You're kind of talking out of your head. He had enough faith to come to Elisha, but will he obey? Right. So the bow and the arrows. Why, Doc? Why did he tell King Joash?

pick up your bow and arrows well they were the you know really the the only power king has is his army right when you get right down to it and so the bow and arrow represents the military and really political authority that the king has and so in telling him to take a bow and arrow elisha is basically saying king joash you have to submit not just yourself but the nation to obedience to the Lord in what I'm about to tell you. Including your military. That's right. And so these instruments of war became instruments of prophecy,

the tools for Elisha to use. But they represented the authority that Joash had. Will Joe Ash not only obey but submit his authority to the Word of God? That's the next thing that's being tested here. we also see the principle of God saying what's in your hand right what do you have what ordinary thing do you have that I can use for my glory and your victory before Moses Moses had a staff David had a sling the widow had a jar of oil they had something so in the hands of faith

ordinary things become sacred instruments yes this is all about submission and willingness to obey the bow and arrows also represents faith cooperation with divine purpose men and women have to grasp what god appoints if they if they if they hope to see deliverance so you've got this question of obedience and then joe asher says and he took unto him bow and arrows to joe asher's credit he acted immediately yes he didn't say hey pops what's up here what i just came over here to see you before you died why do you want me to pick up a bow and arrow no he'll he'll he'll he'll he'll he'll he obeyed out of respect a lot of it could have been just respect for an old man an old prophet yes sir i'll do that for you i don't know if he if he fully understood what was taking

place but he had enough respect for elijah that he obeyed kind of maybe almost just to say okay if that's what you want me to do i'll do that for you so there was respectful compliance even though he didn't fully understand. So, faith begins with what? Obedience. Obedience. And then it has to persevere.

You begin with a single act of obedience, and then you persevere. You keep going. Yes, it's not a one-time thing. It's not, well, I believed I did that Now God must do this No there's a perseverance factor that's involved

In other words it's a It's not a single act of faith It's a continuing act of obedience And then The maturity of your faith The strengthening of it, the growing of it As you progress Over the years

Your faith matures Through obedient repetition of new command hands. Right. God never stops giving you these instructions because he's building your faith. John Gill said this action was typical and prophetical. The taking of the bow and arrows denoted preparation for war and that victory should come through obedience to the prophet's words. Charles Bridges said faith begins with the lowly task. God bids the man of rank.

rank to do the simple thing, that he may learn the greatness of obedience. Adam Clark said this was done to fix Joash's attention, to awaken faith and expectation. The outward action was a visible link to the unseen promise. Yes. Alexander McLaren, the prophet's feeble hand still ruled the fate of the armies. God's power is not measured by man's strength, nor his truth by the vigor of the tongue that speaks it. Charles Spurgeon.

The word of God is still mighty when spoken by trembling lips. The faith that obeys such a voice wins victory. The world cannot measure. Albert Barnes, the act was symbolical. Faith must take hold of the appointed means before God can bless them. Amen. And G. Campbell Morgan, the bow and arrows were sacraments of faith. Materials formed, material forms changed with spiritual meaning,

requiring obedient touch before divine energy could flow. Wow, there's a, there's a whole lesson just in those quotes. Right. Verse 16, And he said to the king of Israel, put thine hand unto the bow upon the bow. and he put his hand upon it and Elijah put his hands upon the king's hands

put your hand upon the bow another simple command this is the second command first was pick up the bow now put your hand upon the bow Elijah didn't shoot the arrows himself

he's getting ready to command the king to do so but there is obedience coming from Joash at least we see Joash participating he may not understand the instructions but he's not resisting he's going along with it he might have been thinking in his head I don't know where this is going

I don't know what this guy's up to it just doesn't make sense to me but I respect him so much I'm going to do it but the principle is faith isn't idle it's never idle faith moves in rhythm

with divine commands you can't exercise faith in a recliner. You have to move. You have to get up and move. You just can't sit in a recliner and declare, I've got faith. God is going to say, okay, I'm going to take you at your work, get out of the recliner, and here's something for you to do.

So then Elijah, the prophet, put his hands upon the kingdom. hands there's a spiritual um impartation taking place the laying on of hands god's power was moving through elijah through his hands to the king's hands act of obedience then there's a there's some tenderness also here yes

you can think about it yeah joy think of joash's hands trembling he's sick he's frail that that had to have been a moment that joeash never forgot the rest of of his life. That old prophet, you can just see his withered hands, reaching out there, maybe shaking a little

bit. I mean, he's at the point of death. This is maybe one of his final acts, reaching out and putting his hands on Joach's hands. And you can only imagine how many times Joash told the story. How many times people ask him to tell the story? What was it like, King Joach, when Elijah's hands touched your hands? Charles Bridges said, The prophet's hand upon the king's hand

teaches dependence upon God's strength. The touch of faith transforms human actions into divine cooperation. Gee Campbell Morgan said the touch was the secret of power. The prophet's faith was the conduit through which divine strength passed to human endeavor.

William are not. the prophet's hand upon the kings is faith's mystery made visible God's help given through man's obedience and that's something to glean from this ladies and gentlemen in that you know I hear a lot of people say well I have faith in God to do this or do that but God is waiting for you to get involved in this faith process too yes verse 17 and he said open the window eastward and he opened it it. Then Elijah 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 APEC till thou have consumed them. So now the prophet is prophesying. It gives him a third command. Open the

east open the window facing eastward not just any window open the window that face faces eastward and point your bow towards apex why apex doc i mean of all the cities in syria why did elijah pick that one because that was the place where they had lost in battle in other words that was the place of failure oh my wait a minute the prophet is speaking under the unction of god and saying i'm going to give you victory where you failed yes oh i hope you get this one this is the beautiful verse you got to know it was uncomfortable when joe ash looked out toward the east maybe he saw Apak out there. Maybe you could see it off in the distance

and constantly reminded of their loss and their failure. Humiliation. Right. He was humiliated in that city. It wasn't just a setback. It was a total humiliation. It was his embarrassment.

So faith is called to face the very direction of your former failure right you are not to flee from it but you were to redeem it under god's power some of you today listening to me there's a place there's an apex in your life where you failed there's no other way to sugarcoat it there's no ex you failed it's a humiliation it was oh i don't want to even think about it it was a horrible time and god says you know where i'm going to take you i'm taking you back to that place where you

failed and i'm going to give you victory in the place of your failure now humans would say oh we're going to build a monument there to your failure we're going to remind people to the north, south, east, and west. This is where he failed. This is where she absolutely was humiliated. We'll build a monument. We'll have a park. But God says, no, I'm going to take you back there to the place in your life where you failed.

And we're going to do this again, and you're going to have victory. So God commands. he commands his people to open the window toward their personal battlefield not their comfort zone right God didn't tell

through Elijah didn't tell Joash hey open the west window over here pointing towards the golf course joy oh yeah the golf course I like this no he says the east wind see over there where you were defeated

where you were humiliated I'm going to do a miracle so at this moment God is setting Joash up for a great victory at the place where he was defeated right it's an opportunity

this window eastward is a opportunity faith open what fear keeps closed. In Jewish's mind, he's like, I'm never going back to APEC. I would never go in that city again. I got crushed.

I barely got out of there alive. But if you want your victory, you're going to have to deal with the failures of the past. So faith does not shut its windows in the face of adversity. It opens them. expecting victory and elisha said shoot and he shot so this is a defining moment this is when belief turned into motion again brief command no explanation shoot that's one word shoot and he shot and he shot so joyish is still he's still he still in He's still going with the prophet.

Again, he's probably really confused. Why am I doing this? Why am I aiming this arrow towards the city where I was humiliated? But God's saying to Jewish, I am turning this arrow into my word as it flies. the principle the faith principle here is the bow of obedience releases the arrow of promise you will not receive the victory until you are obedient and you release your faith and god is saying i i desire you to release your faith toward the very place where you failed

on your own strength and this time we're going back there with my strength yes the arrow of the lord's deliverance and the arrow delivered from syria in other words elisha is saying this is my this is the promise you're going to overcome the failures of the past So, he says, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Apec, until thou has consumed them. Does Joash believe it? I don't think so. The faith principle is that faith sees victory where memory recalls defeat. Joash was having trouble in his mind.

having faith because the prophet is challenging him to direct his faith towards the place of his humiliation every one of us we have places in our lives where we were humiliated where we failed and God says okay we're going to do this again we're going to go back to that place

we're going to do this one more time but you leave your strength behind and just go in my heart strength see it was your strength that got you humiliated but this is the principle I'm teaching your son or daughter go in my strength go my name and you will not be humiliated why Eastward besides APEC Eastward in Eastern culture means the rising sun the new beginning the new day divine illumination so faith is always looking eastward

the sun rises in the east his faithfulness is new every morning amen amen so we get down I will take a look at because I'm watching the time here we've got to have communion yet uh john gill said this was a symbolical action the opening of the window denoted the discovery of god's will

and the shooting of the arrow the execution of it the arrow was the lords not the kings amen adam clark said the eastward direction intimidated intimated the quarter from which the enemy came and the quarter from which deliverance should come the arrow was the total and pledge of victory. Alexander McLaren, the arrow flew and with it the promise of God. The prophet's

feeble body became the channel of a nation's hope. Chief Campbell Morgan, the opening of the window was face opportunity. The shooting of the arrow was faith's obedience, and the prophet's declaration was faith's assurance.

You got all three there. That's good. brother Morgan and William are not when the window is open eastward and the hand obeys the arrow of faith flies straight towards God's appointed victory praise God okay verse 18 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 now up to this point the Joash has obeyed and done everything he's supposed to do up to this point

but what changes here in verse 18 Rick all right so Elijah says take the arrows and Joe Ash took them

then the prophet said smite upon the ground Joe Ash did but Joe Ash added something to it he added a number three times

Septuagin says and he said take the arrows and he took them and Elijah said him to the king smite upon the ground and he smote three times and ceased so Elijah told him to smite the ground it was Joe Ash who decided to do it three times

and stop yes this is the point where joe ash failed to test this is where joe ash ruined the miracle god desired to give him at this point joeash his mind stepped in and said okay i'm taking over here at this point i'll do it three times and then i'm done with this I'm looking at my watch I got to go I'm going to humor this old man there I shot it three times

I'm done I got king stuff to do yeah I got kingling things to do okay I did it three times this is where Joash is being Joash he's no longer an obedient young man listening to an old dying prophet

he's now saying okay I've given you enough time I'll do it three times and I'm done This is where Joash's self intervened His faith stood back I don't think he had that faith at all He was just obeying a dying old prophet

I mean that's a great place to start obedience that's a great place And God will work with you there That's right At least you're obeying the commands But you've got to continue in it You just have to have a little faith so the first arrow represented God's promise

but the rest of the arrows represented the king's persistence in faith did he really believe faith is not a single act it is a sustained attitude of trust and obedience to the king he said i've done enough of this this is where i cut it off and he's probably looked at an aide and said hey warm up the chariot i'm leading i'm wasting arrows right so faith that stops obeying two sown forfeits the

blessings too great to measure. If you take anything out of this, take this principle. Faith that stops too soon gives up the blessings that are too great to measure. Doc, I just remembered a dream I had when I was, I was a very young Christian, I would say in my 30s, I just had this, I just remembered this dream. It has to do with this. In the dream, I was climbing a mountain. And it was rugged, and I was making it.

I was on my own, I'm by myself, and I'm climbing a very tall. steep mountain. There's no path. I'm just grabbing rocks and pulling myself up. And I'm looking down and I'm like really high up. But I keep going. I got to get to the top. And I find another ledge and I pull myself up one more time. It's hard. It was hard. It was difficult. There was nothing in this dream that was easy. I had to use every of strength I could muster to pull myself up another couple of feet and I kept climbing this mountain and I got to the near top and dockey the top the crest of the hill the mountain top was covered in ice it was covered in ice and I reached up my hands and my hands are sliding. I'm going, what do I do? And I'm trying, trying with all my might to get a grip. And in my mind, I'm saying, this is too difficult. I'm not a, I'm not strong enough of a man to do this. I don't have the physical strength to do this. I'm never in this

dream thinking, I got all the way to the top. And now it's covered in ice. And I don't, have the physical and I remember thinking I don't even have them the mental strength to do this and there were two angels standing on top and they're looking down at me and the one angel looks at the other angel and says do you think he's going to make it and the other angels says I don't know this is the place he usually quits that was a real dream that spoke to me as a young man that the toughest place the hardest place is that last those last few feet that it's the last few feet of climbing that mountain is harder than the entire mountain combined and that angel saying,

I don't know, this is where he usually quits. Okay? So that we give up. We give up at the moment we almost have victory. So that that might speak to somebody. You might be at a place right now. now where you're almost there, you almost have the victory. The hardest part is that last segment where it takes everything you've got.

So faith that stops obeying too soon forfeits the blessings that are too great to measure. Elijah gives no explanation. He simply commands action. Joash obeyed, but only partly. He smote the ground three times and quit. His obedience was partial. It was not full. He fulfilled the letter of the law, but not the spirit of faith.

Right. See, faith presses on without knowing the outcome because it trusts the one who gave the command. So what this reveals in Joash is partial faith. He's willing to start, but he's unwilling to finish. this is the lesson for us many of us are willing to start but we're not willing to finish because it's too hard right i trusted god but he didn't come through for me yeah well it just gets too difficult yeah or he's asking you to do things that don't make sense and your your carnal reasoning mind says i i have to understand this or i'm not going to do it what if the lord told you to move to another city another state or another country would you do it

if he if he doesn't explain it if he says i'll explain it to you after you get there would you do it so the test of faith is not how well we began joash began well the test is how long we stay in do we finish look Elijah was still in his test of faith he was still to his dying breath Elijah was still obeying the Lord

it never ended for him Elijah never there was never a moment where Elijah said hey I've made it I've made it to this is where prophets chill out now

on his dying bed he's like I got to prophesy one more time so the arrows smote the ground each strike of an arrow represented

a victory in battle but Joash limited how many victories he would have. Right. He said, I'll go for three. So faith often receives only what it expects. That'll preach. Heaven's abundance is measured by your heart's appetite.

There's no... Shortages in heaven. For some reason, we think that there are shortages, that God limits what we can receive. The only limit is in your mind and your words, your faith. So, so maybe Joe Ash only had three arrows. Oh, no.

No. he had a whole quiver four of them he decided he was only going to shoot three of them and maybe he decided well three i'm getting tired i don't want to do anymore because doing five or six would be hard so what he didn't what he didn't understand doc was that every strike of the arrow by faith was enlarging the field of his victory. Amen. And so he decided that's enough.

I'm okay. I'm satisfied with three. He was half-hearted, lukewarm, willing to accept a partial blessing. You'll have friends who will tell you, Why don't you just be satisfied with what you got right now? I've had people tell me in this ministry over years.

Rick, you're always dreaming of something bigger. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. And you're always dreaming of something smaller. And that's why the two of us don't get along. Because we can't be in the same room.

You're shrinking and I'm expanding. People have no faith. They want to bring you down because you're expressing your faith in God. They want you to shrink your faith down to their level. Instead of you lifting them up to your level. And so, Joyce was quite satisfied. I'm okay with three. I got a whole quiver full of arrows,

but I'm okay with three. I did what you said, Elijah, that's it. And here's the tragedy of it, Rick. He obeyed, but it was incomplete. Yes, because his heart was respectful but not passionate. He did it out of respect, not out of faith. It was respect. God delights in the soul.

that responds with eagerness and expectation. The heart that keeps striking until the prophet says, that's enough. See, that's what Jewish, that's what Elijah was hoping he would do. Just keep firing the arrows until the Lord says, tell him to stop, that's enough. Until I get tired. Yeah. heaven is never offended by too much faith you are not going to

knock God off his throne by having too much faith the sad truth is heaven's disappointed by too little faith so I'm sorry we're way over time This is such a good lesson. If you've got to go, I understand. Come back and listen to the rest of it later. Albert Barnes, each stroke represented a victory.

The king's hesitation showed a lack of faith in God's unlimited power. Alexander McLaren, half-hearted faith limits the Holy One of Israel. The king's three strokes are the sigh of weak faith, where strong faith would have stormed heaven. Charles Spurgeon He who would win a nation's deliverance must smite often The languid hand leaves the arrow half drawn And the blessing half won The blessing half won

Wow G Campbell Morgan the test was obedience Carried through to completeness Partial obedience robs faith of its crown William are not Faith that ceases to strike loses the victory it might have gained the arm of

obedience must not tire until God says enough boy these are great lessons we just keep going until we hear the Holy Spirit say enough enough you got it

keep striking the ground Rick yeah verse 19 and the man of God was wroth with him and said thou should have smitten five or six times then thou had smitten Syria till thou had consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice oh modern English and God was angry with him and said the man of God was angry with him and said you

should have struck five or six times then you would strike Syria until you had consumed it but now you will strike Syria just three times so remember remember the promise that Elijah made to Joe Ash was that he would consume Syria, that he would consume it. But now, Elijah is saying, you're not going to consume it. You're going to have some victories, just three victories. But it won't be a total, a complete deliverance. But the Lord wanted Joyce to go to the city where he was humiliated. Yes. God desired to give him complete vindication. Yes.

Change his, change his legacy. So that people would say, oh, yes, Joe Ash was defeated in APEF, but the God of Israel took him back and gave him a great victory. That was the God's, that was the Lord's plan, his desire. But Joe Ash was like, whatever. And God said, you know what? Whatever. Yeah.

So what you're going to get from heaven is whatever. I don't desire to disappoint my father with a lack of faith in him. Few things wound the heart of God like unbelief. Jesus, I would just like, oh, walk away. The unbelief. When he went back to his hometown of management, he could do a few miracles there because of their unbelief. All right, so then we get down to the final verses, okay, and Elijah died, and they buried him. What I think about here is the old boy, serve God.

God did great miracles through him. He must have thought, imagine, what's it going to be like on the days when the day comes that I die? You know, maybe Elijah, will I go up on a chariot of fire like my mentor, Elijah? How is this going to end? You know how it ended? It ended him on his deathbed griping about a disobedient, unfaithful king, a politician. that's how he went out like my life came to an end meet i'm chastising a politician this is it

the king the king and eliza died that was it that was his last act that's it and they buried him and so then they buried eliza and then there's another man being buried. And a group of men take the man who's being buried and they toss him in on Elisha's grave. And the dead man pops up, stands up alive. It's an amazing story. God says, hey, Elisha, I got something planned here for your last day. Yeah, you're going to go out. Your last words are going to be you chastising a disobedient case. You're going to be. You're chastising a disobedient king but the very last word is going to be you're going to raise the dead while you're dead and what do we remember aliasia about now that he's dead in the grave and they throw a

dead man on top of him and the dead man gets up and walks away he got the last word it it's It shows us that God's faithfulness outlives his servants. The grave closed on the prophet, but not on the promise. The power of God was still in Elish's bones. It's an absolutely astounding story. His ministry, his life, his physical life was over, but his ministry kept bearing fruit. even after he was dead after he was dead okay we're way over let's go to the lord's table good time to go to the lord in communion right that's right and as i mentioned the beginning of

our lesson today if you're a confessing believer in jesus christ and been baptized in water according to scriptures in the name of the father son holy spirit we invite you to participate in the Lord's table. It goes by different names, the Eucharist, Communion, the Lord's table. However you want to label it, it's still the same message that the Lord told us to do this until he comes again. And then we'll celebrate this meal, holy meal, with him on that day. We've been talking about faith, but really the message is about incomplete faith today. and oftentimes we fall short of that mark in our personal lives and so rick would you pray for us today before we enter into communion yes that lord to search our hearts today for those areas of our life

where we believe god half-heartedly and where we really don't trust him and that i have faith lord increase my faith amen amen father father first we confess our sins to you we ask you to forgive us, wash away our sins with the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood that we are about to drink in remembrance of his sacrifice for us. Father, I also ask that the Holy Spirit would bring to our remembrance those instances in our lives when we did not express full faith in you. When we quit too soon or we were satisfied. with less than what you desired to give us,

which is another disappointment to you. There's one thing to quit too soon, Father, but it's another thing to be satisfied with less than what you desire to give us. Father also, show us the places of our humiliation and take us back and give us victory. Vindicate us and silence our enemies. by giving us victory where we once failed.

Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you have the elements of the Lord's table, which includes bread and either red wine or grape juice, we're going to pray the Lord's blessing over that as we partake of the Lord's table today. And so join with me as we pray, Almighty God and your tender mercy you gave your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption. He offered himself and made once for all time

a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. And he instituted this remembrance of his passion and death which he commanded us to continue until he comes again. So Father, we ask you to bless and sanctify with your word and Holy Spirit these gifts of bread and wine that we may partake of his most blessed body and blood. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed once for all upon the cross.

Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia. On the night that he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take eat. This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life. This is the bread of heaven. take and eat in remembrance that Christ died for you after supper jesus took the cup and when he'd given thanks he gave it to them saying drink this all of you for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me praise god hallelujah glory to god the blood of our lord jesus christ which will shed for you preserve your body and soul to everlasting life drink the cup of salvation and

remembrance that christ's blood was shed for you and be thankful behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the sins of the world and blessed are those who are invited to the married supper of the lamb this sacrament is the gift of god for the people of god feed on him by faith with thanksgiving that christ died for you praise god hallelujah amen Danes asked a real good question. Dana said, so he obeyed, but he didn't know it was incomplete. That almost seems like a trap. How are we supposed to know when we are quitting too soon? It's a really good question because Dana, I thought the same thing when I first read this story. The lesson here is there are two things to understand.

First of all, the prophet Elijah gave him a command. Now, up until this moment, Joash obeyed each command. He didn't question. He didn't reason. He just did it. Elijah said, pick up the bow and arrows. Okay, he did that. Okay. Open the window.

He opened the window. Smite the ground. Okay. So he did each thing. It's only when it got to the point of firing the arrows that Joash decided to add some words to the instruction.

He added the words three times in stop. Elijah didn't tell him that. If he would have followed the command, he had a quiver full of arrows. He would have just kept pulling arrows out because he said, hey, the command was, strike the ground, strike the ground,

strike another arrow, strike the ground, okay? He should have been saying, I'm going to wait until this old man, tells me to stop or i run out of arrows and if i could throw something else in here too elisha had spoken to joe ash just previously in the conversation and had given him the promise that they would consume his enemies back up in verse 17 elisha said to him you know you've you've shot the arrow out the window you did the right thing you're going to smite the syrians you're going to smite them in AFAC, till you have consumed them.

That should have gotten him excited. That should have gotten him go, hot dog, we're going to, we're going to whoop up on the Syrians. We're going to overcome my failure. I'm going to shoot arrows at these Syrians until I'm out of arrows. That's right. But no, his obedience only brought him to a point.

Did he believe? And so that's the real message there, Dana. in that it wasn't that he hid the number of shots he was supposed to shoot. The response from Joach should have been, I'm just going to keep on shooting until this old preacher tells me to stop. I hope that helps. I'm reading these. I'm reading Rachel's dream.

I don't want to keep everybody too long. I was just trying to look at the comments and questions. and I think this lessons had strong impact on people today doc I've been pondering it for weeks that first day you told me if you're going to teach on I just dove right in I because it's a great it's a great lesson okay I I'm going to tell you something I'm not going to give you the details yet But I've had a dream, a vision the Lord had given me years ago to do something for him. I started many years ago, and this one problem after another,

not worth spending a lot of time telling you all the battles I had to go through. At times, it's just like, is this ever going to get done? When the Lord gave me this message weeks ago, he brought back to my remembrance a visit 10 years ago by a Colorado woman and her daughter and they had a message the mom had a message is a very so I think I told you all this which was she said I mean she went from Colorado to Florida to say one sentence the Lord says build it bigger she didn't know what it meant he had no idea what that meant she says the Lord said the Lord said to tell you build it bigger when the lord gave me this these verses weeks ago for a faith friday lesson he told me he reminded me of that incident with that woman saying build a bigger and he said you are now oh doc back to the place of the failure he's saying open the window eastward I thought I failed in building what he told me to build.

I was like, it just hasn't worked. I tried. I worked hard at it. Weeks ago, when the Lord gave me this message, he said to me, son, I'm taking you back to that moment when that woman said to you, build it bigger. You are now building it bigger. It's happening right now. Doc, what we have embarked on in this ministry.

This is the fulfillment of what the Lord gave me years ago. And we are now, and so the instruction to us, Doc, is don't do it halfway. He's saying to us, shoot arrows until you're out of arrows, and then I'll give you imaginary arrows. That's right. Okay. See, that's what Joash should have done. He goes, I'm out of arrows. I'm just going to pretend by faith.

I'm shooting faith arrows now. Oh, I'll tell you what. Oh, Elijah would have came up off that bed. He would have danced. You're shooting faith arrows? Oh, I love it. I love it. Lord bless those faith arrows.

This man's shooting arrows is not even in his quiver. See, that's the faith God wants us. So that's what God's speaking to me right now. Rick, I'm opening up the window. I'm telling you far, far eastward, face that place and fire again. And don't stop firing those arrows. Just keep going until I tell you, that's enough. Praise God.

Hallelujah. Okay. Those of you who get involved with this ministry, and you are, obviously, being in this class, but involved financially with us, the blessings will come. upon you. The blessings of abundance will come upon you because this ministry is moving into a new, a new dimension. And the blessings will come upon those who say, we are going to fill your quiver with arrows. You just keep shooting those arrows. And you watch what God does in your life. Watch the victories that come to you. Things that you thought would never happen, places that were you feel. God, going to take you back and say hey i'm going to give you the victory it's going to happen so easy so fast just watch all right i got to go shoot arrows amen we got to strike the ground today praise god on that note god bless you we'll see you on the monday edition of morning man have a

great day in jesus god bless you Thank you.