Half Measures

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD'S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. 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.

II Kings 13:14-19

What was the problem? Joash had done what he had been told, hadn't he? Of course he had! But then he stopped. He continued with what he had been told until he felt he had beaten the ground enough times. The results were not what he would have hoped for. Instead of ending when he felt he had done enough, he should have continued until the Lord felt he had done enough. Other kings had a similar problem. They may have served the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. In II Chronicles 25:2, Amaziah is described this way. In the days of Moses, the Israelites are described this way (Numbers 32:11), and it is for this reason that they wandered the wilderness for forty years.

The question for us is this: are we serving God wholeheartedly? Or do we stop when we feel we have done enough? We can see the example set for us in study of God's word (Acts 17:11), but do we only study a couple times a week? Or do we study on a regular, constant basis, focusing on God's word? We know we are to assemble (Hebrews 10:25), but do we stop when we have assembled once a week? Or do we wholeheartedly assemble at every opportunity? We know we are to pray (I Thessalonians 5:17), but do we stop after praying only at the beginning of meals, and perhaps before we go to bed? Or do we endeavor to pray constantly throughout our day? The same questions apply for all things that we are to do in service to God: helping others, contributing on the Lord's Day, teaching, and so on.

Are we serving wholeheartedly. We should be. When Christ was asked what the most important commandment was, it was this answer He gave:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 22:37-38

Anything less is not enough. Anything less is halfhearted service and love. Anything less is unacceptable. We cannot approach our worship and walk with God with a “eh, that's good enough,” sort of attitude. We must be zealous and fervent in wholeheartedly following the Lord. If we are, we can be like Joshua and Caleb, who were commended for their wholehearted service (Numbers 32:12) and were allowed to enter the promised land.