Jehu-Jehoahaz-Jehoash
God promised that Jehu's family will reign in the north for four generations. 2 Kings 13 covers his son and grandson, Jehoahaz and Jehoash, respectively. Both were bad kings and let the Ashereth poles stand. God allowed Hazeal, king of Aram, to frequently harass and defeat the northern kingdom at this time.
Both Jehoahaz and Jehoash cried out to God at various points with all these military defeats by Aram and God gave them some victories and peace. But it was not enough for them to turn to God in a substantial way.
Elisha became old knew and he knew he was going to die. Jehoash visits him on his deathbed and asks for deliverance from the Arameans. The French Bible says that Jehoash said that Elisha was worth many chariots and charioteers of Israel, but the English (NLT) translates it slightly differently in that he sees chariots when he sees Elisha. This would indicate that the kings of Israel see Elisha as militarily valuable, which would be understandable given that Elisha struck the Aramean raiders blind one time. It would also indicate that Elisha is looked upon favorably with the kings, which was very different than the treatment that Elijah received from Ahab/Jezebel.
Elisha has the king shoot an arrow the window. The arrow symbolizes the victory of God over the Arameans. Elisha then has him strike other arrows on the ground. He does this three times. Elisha is frustrated because the king did not do it 5-6 times, which would mean total victory over the Arameans, whereas the king would only get 3 victories for striking the arrows 3 time.
When I first read this, I was sympathetic to the king. How could the king know what striking the arrows on the ground meant? On a second reading, I have less sympathy because Elisha explained to him, quite literally, what the arrows meant when he shot it out of the window. The arrows mean God's victory. The king already understands that when Elisha makes a prediction, it will happen.
The king's casual attitude to the arrows indicates he understood what he to be doing to be a ritual performance, rather than an invitation by God (through Elisha) to get involved at a deeper level. Did he not understand God or what Elisha was saying? I think the answer is no and hence, that explains why Elisha gets frustrated.
Sure enough, he gets 3 victories over Hazeal's son, Ben-Heddad.
Elisha dies from a sickness and is not taken up to heaven like Elijah was. At least, not in the similar way. Going back to Elijah's whirlwind to heaven, since it was not visible to the other prophets who were present besides Elisha, it would indicate that it happened on a spiritual level and not necessarily on the physical level. So, we don't know how often that happens.
Regardless, Elisha's death is different from Elijah and Moses - there is a body to be buried. Elisha's corpse is in a tomb when another body is thrown into it and the corpse of the second man becomes alive.
Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-29)
Great grandson of Jehu
Jeroboam II became king after his father Jehoash died. He was a bad king in God's eyes, but despite that, he had many military victories and a fairly long reign.
He even recovered some of the land that had been lost. Some of the victories had been prophesied by Jonah.
He is also the fourth generation of the dynasty, inclusive of Jehu. Jehu was the best and the rest of the dynasty did poor in God's eyes, although they treated God's prophets much better than their predecessors (Ahab-Elijah) or their contemporaries in the south (Joash-Zechariah). It will be interesting to see what God has to them now that the promised fourth generation is reached.
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