Day 171/365- 2 Kings 13:18, 19

"When Enough is not Enough"

And he said, "Take the arrows," and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground with them." And he struck three times and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times." (2 Kings 13:18, 19 ESV)

Here is another interesting account involving Elisha. He is coming to the end of his life & is speaking with the king. He tells the king to shoot an arrow & prophesies that the arrow represents God's victory over their enemies, Syria. He then instructs the king to take the arrows & strike the ground. He does so, but only three times. Elisha tells him he should have struck the ground 5 or 6 times but now he will only strike Syria three times & not utterly destroy them. Seems a little random & unfair doesn't it!? And yet he knew that the arrow he shot was symbolic of what God would do for him over Syria, why would the beating of the arrows be different? Why did he not approach the beating of the arrows with the same zeal that he did the shooting of the arrow? Maybe he thought he did. He hit the ground three times instead of one or two. Again, another mysterious event surrounding the life of Elisha.

I do think there is some truth in here for us. When approaching God's work & kingdom, we tend to do something but often not all we can. It's not that we do nothing. We know that wouldn't be right. We strike the ground three times. But we also don't do all that we can. We don't approach the Lord with the reckless abandon that he calls us to. And in the end, not only does the mission of God become hindered but we miss out on all that God has for us. We don't ask, we don't pursue, we don't passionately give all for his glory & even our good. Have we ever thought that surrendering our all would be for our good? Of course it is! God doesn't require all of us to harm us but because he knows what's best for us. He knows that our surrender is the best for his glory & our good! So, are we serving, loving, or giving to God half-heartedly? If so, let's give him our all instead of just enough. Because just enough, is not enough.