Puzzling To Me

One of the things that I find puzzling is that it seems that God sometimes expects us to be mind readers.  I don't get that.  It is one of those things that I am looking forward to asking God about some day.  Take a look at this Scripture.

2 Kings 13:14-19(NKJV)

14Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

15And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. 

16Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 

17And he said, “Open the east window”; 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 you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.” 

18Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped. 

19And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”

Here is the mind reader part that I don't get.  Elisha, a prophet, tells the King to "strike the ground" with the arrows.   Elisha doesn't tell the king how many times to strike the ground, just to strike the ground.  The King strikes the ground 3 times and gets yelled at.  "You should have struck five  or six times ".  

Well how was he to know that?  Especially if you think back to the story of Moses.  God told Moses to strike the rock to get water and Moses struck the rock more than one and he got in trouble for that! 

Confusing?  It is to me.  I'm sure that God has a good explanation and I look forward to hearing it some day.