2 Kings 13 Bible study: The arrow of victory

Jehoahaz the son of Jehu "did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (13:2). "The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually" (13:3). Then the turn: "Jehoahaz begged the LORD, and the LORD listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them" (13:4) (tap begged). "The LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before" (13:5) (tap savior). Judges has the same word: "the LORD raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them" (Judges 3:9). The chapter doesn't say that Jehoahaz or the people turned from Jeroboam's sins. It says the opposite: "they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam" (13:6). The reason it gives for the LORD's listening is what he saw, "the oppression of Israel" (13:4). And how low Israel had fallen: "he didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them and made them like the dust in threshing" (13:7).

2 Kings 13:23→leads toLuke 13:6-9

Both kings in the chapter "did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight" (13:2, 13:11), and the people "didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam" (13:6). "But the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and favored them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet" (13:23). Four chapters later the LORD "removed them out of his sight" (17:18). Jesus told a parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none" (Luke 13:6). The owner said, "Cut it down! Why does it waste the soil?" (Luke 13:7), and the vine dresser answered, "Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it" (Luke 13:8). "If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down" (Luke 13:9). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Kings 13 and doesn't say who the tree or the vine dresser stand for, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject, a cutting down held back for a time and not for ever ("as yet", 13:23; "this year also", Luke 13:8), not on the fig tree as a picture of Israel, which the parable doesn't draw. The reasons given differ: 13:23 gives the LORD's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in the parable the vine dresser asks for a year "until I dig around it and fertilize it" (Luke 13:8). Some read the two together, as the same patience before a judgment that still comes (13:23 and 17:18; Luke 13:9). Others read the parable within its own setting, after the words Jesus had just spoken, "unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way" (Luke 13:5), as his call to those listening that day, and read 13:23 as the LORD's dealing with Israel in Jehoahaz's day, without looking from one to the other.

תְּשׁוּעָהteshu'ahsay te-shoo-AH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "deliverance, salvation". Strong's: "rescue (literal or figurative, persons, national or spiritual)", and "from 7768 in the sense of 3467", the verb behind savior in 13:5 (tap savior). "The LORD’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria" (13:17). 2 Kings uses the word only three times: twice here, and in Naaman's story, "by him the LORD had given victory to Syria" (5:1). There the LORD gave Syria its victory; here Elisha calls the arrow the LORD's, and the victory is over Syria.