God’s Incredible Patience
This is a
tough chapter for me to pull something out today, but I will try. Here we have the record of two kings of
Israel. Both kings do what is evil in
the eyes of the Lord. Both kings draw
Israel away from their God. Neither king
has God’s respect.
Yet, both
of them reign for a substantial amount of time: 16 and 17 years, respectively. Altogether, they reign for a third of a
century. Surely God is more patient than
I am!
Actually,
I make this point for a reason. Even
though they were evil and did evil in the sight of the Lord, their reign was
allowed by God to continue. Because we
have the sentence about their evil deeds in our text we do not think that their
reign was blessed by God. Yet, how often
do we assume in today’s culture that someone in a position of power for that
long must have God’s blessing? Blessing
has nothing to do with it in this case – and probably not in many cases!
God is
slow to anger. God is patient and lets
us demonstrate our true character to Him over time. God also lets us display our true character
to ourselves over our lifetime, if we are willing to listen. God gives us time and time again to fix our
mistakes and learn from them. God is patient
and allows us to rejoice in our successes and learn from them, too!
But just
because a person has a long time in leadership does not make them inherently
blessed by God. I feel the need today to
bring out the caution that just because our eyes see something that makes us to
think that they are blessed – such as a long reign – that doesn’t mean that
someone really is doing what the Lord desires.
Resurgence of Elisha
So now
let’s turn to the death story of Elisha.
I marveled at the story of Joash coming to Elijah and calling him “My
father.” {For the record, don’t confuse the Joash/Jehoash of Israel in this
chapter with the Joash/Jehoash of Judah that we have been following in the
prior chapters. They aren’t the same guy
at all.} I think I marveled at the
story because I am so very much out of touch with a polytheistic mindset. Let me explain.
First, my
mindset is monotheistic. I believe in
one God, and either you believe in Him or you don’t. I believe that if I believe in God then I
can’t put any other gods before Him. For
me, it’s God or nothing. That’s just the
monotheistic mindset of Western culture speaking through me. So when I hear Joash (remember, who did what
was evil in the sight of the Lord) come and pay his respects to Elisha, my
brain screams out “hypocrite!”
However,
this is not necessarily the case. I
forget that most ancient cultures had dozens – if not hundreds or thousands – of
gods. It was nothing for a person to
have their personal favorite gods and still be able to respect other people and
their gods without feeling adversarial towards them. I think this is the case here with
Joash. Joash doesn’t revere Elisha or
Elisha’s God, but he does know that Elisha is a national treasure. Elisha is a great prophet and is capable of
doing great works. So it makes sense to
pay respects to Elisha (and even his God!) regardless of whether or not Joash
believes in God or not.
I know
that sounds completely strange. But
remember that this is just the difference between a monotheistic mindset and a
polytheistic mindset. Polytheism is a
belief in many gods, and you don’t follow all of them. Polytheism allows you to pick the gods that
you revere all of the time, some of the time, or none of the time. It is monotheism that asserts not only the
belief that there is only one God but also the belief that it is all or
nothing.
In this,
please know that I am not excusing Joash for not believing in God and following
in His ways. I am simply acknowledging
that the cultural mindset is different.
I personally enjoy monotheism as it allows me to know where I
stand. I believe Joash is wrong for not
believing in God.
That
brings me to another understanding. I am
glad to live in a monotheistic culture.
For a person who naturally sees in black/white instead of shades of
gray, monotheism is simpler. You either
believe in my God and love Him or you don’t.
There is none of this “Your God isn’t my god but I still respect your
God” kind of junk that can happen in a polytheistic culture that really
confuses the issue. I feel fortunate to
be able to say that there is only one God and salvation comes only through
Him. I really do feel fortunate. I am thankful to God for allowing me to exist
in that truth.
For me, I
guess that’s the feeling for the day. In
the midst of all of these stories, I feel fortunate to live when I do and to
have the God that I do.
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