{"id":7398,"date":"2020-12-03T06:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T06:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communitychurchministry.com\/?p=7398"},"modified":"2022-05-07T13:42:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T13:42:04","slug":"a-final-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communitychurchministry.com\/?p=7398","title":{"rendered":"A Final Request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Final Request <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the man of God was angry with him, and said, \u201cYou should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u202d\u202dII Kings\u202c \u202d13:19\u202c \u202d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha is dying. His time is short. Joash the king came to visit him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, \u201cO my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u202d\u202dII Kings\u202c \u202d13:14\u202c \u202d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joash is expressing his sorrow over the fact that Elisha, a mighty prophet of God, is sick and is about to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha doesn\u2019t focus on himself. He had not retired from being a prophet. Elisha knew that Syria was an enemy of Israel.  He instructs Joash:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd Elisha said to him, \u201cTake a bow and some arrows.\u201d So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, \u201cPut your hand on the bow.\u201d So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king\u2019s hands. And he said, \u201cOpen the east window\u201d; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, \u201cShoot\u201d; and he shot. And he said, \u201cThe arrow of the LORD\u2019s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them. \u201d Then he said, \u201cTake the arrows\u201d; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, \u201cStrike the ground\u201d; so he struck three times, and stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u202d\u202dII Kings\u202c \u202d13:15-18\u202c \u202d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Joash stop after only shooting 3 arrows? David Jeremiah suggests that Joash was not “all in” as far as his commitment is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You would think that he would have jumped at the chance to see his enemy finally defeated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha was furious. He told the king that he would only get to strike the enemy 3 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha was dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was Elisha\u2019s final request of the king. His dying wish, if you will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been a hospice Chaplain for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In hospice, we minister to patients who are dying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever you do in life, think about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do I use the “Joash” approach, or do I give my all to make their quality of life as good as I can? I may not be able to fulfill all their requests, but I can do something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Final Request  \u201cAnd the man of God was angry with him, and said, \u201cYou should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.\u201d\u201d \u202d\u202dII Kings\u202c \u202d13:19\u202c \u202d Elisha is dying. His time is short. Joash the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,207,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news","category-devotional","category-newsletter"],"yoast_head":"\nA Final Request - Community Church Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Final Request\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communitychurchministry.com\/?p=7398\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Final Request - Community Church Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Final Request\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/communitychurchministry.com\/?p=7398\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Community Church Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/communitychurchministriesromega\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-03T06:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-07T13:42:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/communitychurchministry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/a-final-request.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"George\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"George\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"George\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1ad210f01c84a952a47214355ca4463d\"},\"headline\":\"A Final Request\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-03T06:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-07T13:42:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398\"},\"wordCount\":429,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/a-final-request.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Community News\",\"Devotional\",\"Newsletter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communitychurchministry.com\\\/?p=7398\",\"name\":\"A Final Request - 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