Happy Fathers Day! Today's passages are very relevant to us as fathers / leaders of our respective families. The current books of the Bible we are reading through provide detailed accounts of those leaders who God appoints, they are faced with great challenges and ultimately succeed, they then turn from God, and finally God deals with them severely. It is easy for us to read through and shake our heads at how foolish these leaders seem...but how many of us are consistent in our walk with God and ultimately our leadership?
It was interesting to me the passage that described the interaction between King Jehoash and Elisha in 2 Kings 13. 17 “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”To me, it looked like Johoash did what Elisha asked him to do...but when striking the ground he hit it a few times (3) and likely thought that was good enough. The lesson for me here is that if God calls us to do a task or items of service we need to approach it and go above and beyond what we consider "good enough". God wants our full effort in whatever we do for Him.
Another of the concepts that jumped out to me today was the portion that described Amaziah and how he assembled his army, had great success, and then returned to worship the gods of the people he just decimated. At the outset Amaziah took stock of his fighting men and then decided he better get some hired help to assist with the cause, and so hired 100,000 men from Israel. He paid for them, and then was told by the man of God that God would deliver them and they did not require the extra help. God gave him great victory without the use of the hired help and yet when Amaziah returned home and in
2 Chronicles 25 - 14 When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods,bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. 15 The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?” ; Easy for us to sit back and judge, but how many times does God grant us success or victory and we turn around only to rationalize the outcome form our own perspective...excluding God. Interesting when I read the portion that stated "..the anger of the Lord burned..." I shudder to think about God's anger towards me when we act with similar motivation. It may not be as overt as burning sacrifices to an idol but placing our confidence and pride in our own abilities..may not be far off.
As fathers and spiritual leaders of our families, we need to challenge ourselves to continually be reading God's word and seeking his direction. When God grants victory or success for our nations (families) we need to thank Him, with humility communicate the source of our victory, and finally loop back to seek His guidance and direction for the next challenge. 
2 comments:
2 Kings 13:17-19 “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
This passage also stuck out for me, it sounded like Elisha almost mislead the king, but after reading it again and having Jay also point this passage out, I see how the king could have gone further and stuck the ground 5-6 times instead of stopping at only 3. A lesson for us to go above and beyond, as Jay mentioned.
One thing I noticed was when it said King Ahaziah followed God, but not wholeheartedly.
Do we follow God wholeheartedly or are there some areas of our lives where we just don't trust Him?
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