What Does The Arrow Mean In Christianity

[Mandy Geise]

Weneed faith because the Evil One will be shooting arrows--especially where we do not expect it. At your job, the Evil One can have a field day with a bunch of disgruntled workers. In the Church, (yes, even the Church) the Evil One can attack us when we are so focused on doing ministry that we forget we need ministered to as well by Jesus and others. In the home, we need to put up a shield because the Enemy loves to have families focused on trivial things instead of the Gospel.

What arrows can be blocked by the shield of faith? ALL of them. The Scripture does not say that God picks which arrows He will block. We can block them all and we must know where they are aimed: our heart. If you take out someone's heart, you take out all of them. The Evil One delights in a half-hearted person. No one tries to live a half-hearted life; however, it is easy to do this when we keep ducking arrows aimed right at us.

Jason is the founder of Java and Jesus. He loves Jesus, coffee, his wife & two children. He enjoys helping people experience freedom in Christ. Java and Jesus is a resource and not meant to be a replacement for the fellowship & community that one experiences in a church. Blogs, podcasts, & spiritual direction are a few of the resources that are offered by Java and Jesus.

Look at (13:14-17) Now what is this business with the arrows all about? Well, lets remember that in Eastern Lands, instruction by means of symbolic actions was common. Do you recall that when Samuel told the self-willed Saul that "the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day", he "laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rent". (1 Sam 15:27 Acts 21:10) You see, this was a symbolic action. Elisha was symbolically urging God's people to victory over God's enemies. Elisha was being removed from the scene of battle but the fight would still go on. Through this symbolical action, Joash was being called to execute a specific task.

4 So Jehoahaz pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. 5 Then the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, so that they escaped from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before. 6 Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin, but walked in them; and the wooden image also remained in Samaria.

Elisha then, rendered to the nation of Israel his last sermon in hopes that the threat of Syria may be contained. The prophet tried to rouse the king to act decisively and offensively, instead of being on the defense from Syria. The king, having given up hope, only strikes the ground three times. This three military victories is then fulfilled in 2 Kings 13:25.

This could be symbolic to the many instances when the Lord renders help to believers or kings in the Bible time and time again. But most of the effort were not met with the faith that God expects. King Joash had given up, though he was obedient.

Elisha was angry at his halfhearted compliance, telling Joash that since he had shot only three arrows, he would have only three victories over the army of Syria, rather than destroying their war-making power completely, as the LORD had intended.

2 Kings 13:14-19 reintroduce King Joash after his own death, so at this stage the narrative is thematic rather than chronological. Rachelle Gilmour (Juxtaposition and the Elisha Cycle, pages 199-201) cites DeVries, who believes that 2 Kings 13:14-19 to be a later addition to this narrative. Gilmour says this episode was probably juxtaposed with 2 Kings 8:7-15 in the Aramean collection.

Gilmour sees at least two different ways of reading this story. She says that, read in isolation, the pericope portrays Joash positively and Elisha enigmatically. Elisha is described as a man of God when he burst out in anger against Joash, and we assume he has some enigmatic purpose of divine origin.

On the other hand the pericope can be read with 2 Kings 13:10-13, a Deuteronomic notice that summarises Joash's reign. This states unequivocally that Joash did evil in the eyes of the Lord, a negative assessment that alters our reading of verses 14-19. We are now ready to assume the worst of Joash, so that when he strikes the ground only three times, this is some kind of failure by Joash. Joash can now be characterised as a dying but unworthy king, to whom Elisha offers the arrow of victory, but he is not worthy of the full measure of God's mercy.

The king did not know that Elisha expected him to hit the ground five or six times. This can be read as an example of Elisha's use of deception by deliberately withholding information. The literary consequence of Joash's failure to understand this is to provide an explanation for the continuation of the Aramaean incursions after Joash had defeated them in three battles (2 Kings 13:25: "Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel").

I don't think that Elisha set out to 'teach Joash a lesson' through the striking of the arrows. Rather, the way that Joash responded to Elisha and carried out his instructions revealed that he was rather half-hearted and lacking in belief. Joash, having not followed the Lord's ways and 'done evil in the sight of the Lord', when he heard that Elisha was dying, came to seek Elijah's blessing at a time when the nation was threatened by enemies. Perhaps suddenly fearing what would happen to Israel if Elisha the man of God died and was no longer around. However, it seems that he treated the way that Elijah answered him in a rather disdainful manner, which revealed his continuing lack of trust and unbelief. Elijah had made it clear to Joash that the shooting of the arrow was a symbolic spiritual act, symbolising defeating the enemy, and so Joash would have known that the second instruction to strike the ground was carrying on the symbolic spiritual message. From the way he carried out the instruction, Elijah could see that Joash was not really believing and entering into the spirit of what were supposed to be powerful symbolic acts. That is why Elisha became angry with him and said that he would not receive the full blessing and victory which God would otherwise have given him.

Joash struck with the arrows against the floor three times, and then paused, thinking he had done enough. He did not enter into the spirit of the symbolical act, which represented the smiting and slaying of enemies. Perhaps he had not much faith in the virtue of the symbolism, which he may even, with the arrogance of a proud and worldly minded man, have thought childish. (Bible Hub, Pulpit Commentary).

Scripture often uses an economy of words to communicate a story. We may wish more words had been used to clearly spell out each detail. The point of the story is that Jehoash turned to God when he was in trouble but didn't have enough trust in God to ask for total victory. Elisha's response to Jehoash's actions indicate that the two men clearly knew what was being communicated.

10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years. 11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them.

In 2 Kings 13:18 Elisha tells Jehoash to strike the ground with arrows - the point being that the number of times he struck the ground would be the number of battles won. Three battles was not enough to win the war.

Jehoash communicated to Elisha, and God, where his his trust in God was - only three victories. As king Jehoash should have well known that three victories would not be enough but did not have the faith to ask God for what he needed.

Based on the story Elisha and Jehoash were clear on what was being communicated. Elisha was so clear on Jehoash's lack of faith that he was angry.

I think, for very many Christians, we have become largely unconversant in the lingua franca of secular spirituality (a language that is used among people who speak various different languages). We do not know how to have spiritual conversations because we have a fairly narrow understanding of what those conversations need to be about.

Reflecting upon this, I wonder whether we, as Christians, have once more created a dualistic understanding of our world: some things are spiritual and some things are not; some things God cares about, other things He does not. The spirituality of many of our neighbours is not drawn along these same lines.

Furthermore, the means of Christian spiritual engagement often comes across as overly cerebral and propositional, while the spirituality of our neighbours is far more experiential and subjective. They long to feel and experience a spiritual encounter with God (or gods), not just hear ideas about Him and study what He would like us to do.

Unfortunately, until Christians learn to speak into the spiritual agendas of our neighbours, rather than imposing a specifically Christian-formed spirituality, we are not likely to find ourselves in genuine spiritual conversations with anyone outside of Christian faith. And until we can do that, we will not be able to contribute a specifically Christian point-of-view. When we are able to see the spiritual world in ways that others can relate to, it will create a point of common agreement from which we can discuss.

Jesus said that unless a person is born again that person cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is this spiritually real Kingdom that people are longing to see and experience, and part of our witness is to point it out to others. As they ask questions, instead of giving them answers by which we come across as the experts rather than a friend on a journey with them, we would be wise to answer as Jesus does, either with another question that helps tease out their presuppositions and assumptions or by telling a story that invites them to discover the truth for themselves.

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