Text: “And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.” – 2 Kings 13:19.
Comment: In the days of the Prophet Elisha, he instructed Joash, the king of Israel who paid him a visit to take bow and arrows, “Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot.” (2 Kings 13:17). Next, the king asked him to take the arrows and smite the ground. Again, in obedience, the king fired three shots and stopped. Elisha was wroth because Joash still had more arrows at his disposal. He expressed his disappointment on the number of arrows Joash had shot using the words in the text for today. The Bible states: “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition”. – 1 Corinthians 10:11.
As we “Fight the good fight of faith” so as to “lay hold on eternal life”, we should exhaust every opportunity that comes our way to please God. We should never be contented with the magnitude of sacrifices, amount of energy or duration of our services over the years. As long as the opportunities keep coming, we should not be weary. King Solomon declared: “In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” – Ecclesiastes 11:6; Hosea 10:12.