Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” – 2 Kings 13:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 19, 2016): 2 Kings 13

One of the biggest lies of modern Christianity is the belief that saying certain words make you a Christian. The words are often called “the Sinner’s Prayer.” And the false belief is that by just saying those words of repentance and asking Jesus to move into our lives, we are somehow reformed to be Christians. The truth is that too many people have uttered the words like a magic incantation not meaning or having any desire to apply them to their lives. The Church is filled with these people. We wonder why they never bear fruit, why there is never any evidence of life change, but the reason is that they have never actually been connected to God. God has been nothing more than a part of a ritual prayer that they prayed, and then never gave the words of the prayer much thought afterward.

There is so much compacted into this one verse. The first thing we need to notice is that the verse exposes the lie that the faithful people of God are somehow immune to sickness. Elisha not only got sick, but he suffered from the disease for a time. And eventually this illness, whatever it was, would steal his life away.

But second, it is surprising after all that we are told about the evil of Jehoash, the King of Israel, that the King would bother to rush to the sick man of God’s side at the time of his death. We might have thought that Elisha would have been a thorn in the side of Jehoash that Jehoash would have been glad to get rid of, much as Ahab would have probably celebrated at the news of the death of his troubler, Elijah. But Jehoash seems to be genuinely upset that the teacher of Israel was dying. Some commentators have wanted to remind us that even the ungodly will miss the godly when they are gone, but the real truth is that Jehoash was not a worshipper of a false God in the way that Ahab had been. The sin of Jeroboam was that he worshiped the true God in the form of two idol calves. Jeroboam’s words to Israel were, “Here, O Israel, in the form of these calves, is the God who brought you out of Egypt.” If Jehoash persisted in that sin, then he might have been better described as a false worshipper of the true God, rather than a true worshipper of a false God. Because he believed in the “God who had brought Israel out of Egypt,” he might have had great respect for Elisha. But Jehoash would have been like one who prayed the sinner’s prayer without ever intending to allow the words to change his life.

But maybe even more surprising are the words that Jehoash chose to use as he addressed the Prophet. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” These are the very words that Elisha had used as Elijah was taken up into heaven. Maybe Jehoash hoped that he could have become the successor of Elisha. But that would have required more than just repeating some words at a convenient time.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 14