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2 Kings Chapter
Eight
2 Kings 8
Chapter Contents
A famine in Israel, The Shunammite obtains her land.
(1-6) Elisha consulted by Hazael, Death of Benhadad. (7-15) Jehoram's wicked
reign in Judah. (16-24) Ahaziah's wicked reign in Judah. (25-29)
Commentary on 2 Kings 8:1-6
(Read 2 Kings 8:1-6)
The kindness of the good Shunammite to Elisha, was
rewarded by the care taken of her in famine. It is well to foresee an evil, and
wisdom, when we foresee it, to hide ourselves if we lawfully may do so. When
the famine was over, she returned out of the land of the Philistines; that was
no proper place for an Israelite, any longer than there was necessity for it.
Time was when she dwelt so securely among her own people, that she had no
occasion to be spoken for to the king; but there is much uncertainty in this life,
so that things or persons may fail us which we most depend upon, and those
befriend us which we think we shall never need. Sometimes events, small in
themselves, prove of consequence, as here; for they made the king ready to
believe Gehazi's narrative, when thus confirmed. It made him ready to grant her
request, and to support a life which was given once and again by miracle.
Commentary on 2 Kings 8:7-15
(Read 2 Kings 8:7-15)
Among other changes of men's minds by affliction, it
often gives other thoughts of God's ministers, and teaches to value the
counsels and prayers of those whom they have hated and despised. It was not in
Hazael's countenance that Elisha read what he would do, but God revealed it to
him, and it fetched tears from his eyes: the more foresight men have, the more
grief they are liable to. It is possible for a man, under the convictions and
restraints of natural conscience, to express great abhorrence of a sin, yet afterwards
to be reconciled to it. Those that are little and low in the world, cannot
imagine how strong the temptations of power and prosperity are, which, if ever
they arrive at, they will find how deceitful their hearts are, how much worse
than they suspected. The devil ruins men, by saying they shall certainly
recover and do well, so rocking them asleep in security. Hazael's false account
was an injury to the king, who lost the benefit of the prophet's warning to
prepare for death, and an injury to Elisha, who would be counted a false
prophet. It is not certain that Hazael murdered his master, or if he caused his
death it may have been without any design. But he was a dissembler, and
afterwards proved a persecutor to Israel.
Commentary on 2 Kings 8:16-24
(Read 2 Kings 8:16-24)
A general idea is given of Jehoram's badness. His father,
no doubt, had him taught the true knowledge of the Lord, but did ill to marry
him to the daughter of Ahab; no good could come of union with an idolatrous
family.
Commentary on 2 Kings 8:25-29
(Read 2 Kings 8:25-29)
Names do not make natures, but it was bad for
Jehoshaphat's family to borrow names from Ahab's. Ahaziah's relation to Ahab's
family was the occasion of his wickedness and of his fall. When men choose
wives for themselves, let them remember they are choosing mothers for their
children. Providence so ordered it, that Ahaziah might be cut off with the
house of Ahab, when the measure of their iniquity was full. Those who partake
with sinners in their sin, must expect to partake with them in their plagues.
May all the changes, troubles, and wickedness of the world, make us more
earnest to obtain an interest in the salvation of Christ.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Kings》
2 Kings 8
Verse 1
[1] Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had
restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn
wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it
shall also come upon the land seven years.
Sojourn — In any convenient place out of the land of Israel.
The Lord, … — Hath appointed to bring a famine.
This expression intimates, that all afflictions are sent by God, and come at
his call or command.
Seven years — A double time to the former
famine under Elijah, which is but just, because they were still incorrigible
under all the judgments of God, and the powerful ministry of Elisha.
Verse 3
[3] And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the
woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry
unto the king for her house and for her land.
Her house — Which having been forsaken by
her, were possessed by her kindred.
Verse 4
[4] And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man
of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath
done.
Gehazi the servant — Formerly his servant.
The law did not forbid conversing with lepers, but only dwelling with them.
Verse 8
[8] And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine
hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying,
Shall I recover of this disease?
Enquire of the Lord, … — In his health he
bowed down in the house of Rimmon; but now he tends to enquire of the God of
Israel. Among other instances of the change of mens minds by affliction or
sickness, this is one; that it often gives them other thoughts of God's
ministers, and teacheth them to value those whom they before hated and
despised.
Verse 9
[9] So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him,
even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood
before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee,
saying, Shall I recover of this disease?
Thy son — He who before persecuted him as an enemy, now in his
extremity honours him like a father.
Verse 10
[10] And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest
certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die.
Howbeit — Here is no contradiction: for the first words contain
an answer to Benhadad's question, shall I recover? To which the answer is, thou
mayest, notwithstanding thy disease, which is not mortal. The latter words
contain the prophet's addition to that answer, which is, that he should die,
not by the power of his disease, but by some other cause.
Verse 11
[11] And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was
ashamed: and the man of God wept.
He settled — The prophet fixed his eyes upon
Hazael.
Until — 'Till Hazael was ashamed, as apprehending the prophet
discerned something of an evil and shameful nature in him.
Verse 13
[13] And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he
should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that
thou shalt be king over Syria.
A dog — So fierce, barbarous, and inhuman.
King — And when thou shalt have power in thy hand, thou wilt
discover that bloody disposition, and that hatred against God's people, which
now lies hid from others, and possibly from thyself.
Verse 15
[15] And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick
cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and
Hazael reigned in his stead.
Spread it — So closely, that he choaked him
therewith.
Verse 16
[16] And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of
Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat
king of Judah began to reign.
Jehoram — Jehoram was first made king or vice-roy, by his father
divers years before this time, at his expedition to Ramoth-Gilead, which
dominion of his, ended at his father's return. But now Jehoshaphat, being not
far from his death, and having divers sons and fearing some competition among
them, makes Jehoram king the second time, as David did Solomon upon the like
occasion.
Verse 18
[18] And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did
the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in
the sight of the LORD.
He walked — After his father's death.
The daughter — Athaliah. This unequal marriage,
though Jehoshaphat possibly designed it as a means of uniting the two kingdoms
under one head, is here and elsewhere noted, as the cause both of the great
wickedness of his posterity, and of those sore calamities which befel them. No
good could be reasonably expected from such an union. Those that are ill
matched are already half-ruined.
Verse 19
[19] Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his
servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.
Alway — Until the coming of the Messiah: for so long, and not
longer, this succession might seem necessary for the making good of God's
promise and covenant made with David. But when the Messiah, was once come,
there was no more need of any succession, and the scepter might and did without
any inconvenience depart from Judah, and from all the succeeding branches of
David's family, because the Messiah was to hold the kingdom forever in his own
person, though not in so gross a way as the carnal Jews imagined.
A light — A son and successor.
Verse 29
[29] And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the
wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael
king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see
Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
Ramah — The same place with Ramoth, or Ramoth-Gilead.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Kings》
08 Chapter 8
Verses 1-15
Verses 1-6
Then spake Elisha unto the woman.
The potent influence of a good man
I. His counsel is
valuable, and gratefully acted upon. Here we see how the kindness shown by the
Shunammite receives still further reward. There is nothing so fruitful in
blessing as kindness. In the great dilemmas of life we seek counsel, not from
the frivolous and wicked, but from the wise and good. A good man has the
destiny of many lives in his hands; a word from him has great weight.
II. His beneficent
acts are the theme of popular conversation (2 Kings 8:4). A good action cannot
be hid. Sooner or later it will emerge from the obscurity in which it was first
done, and become the talk of a nation, until it reaches even royal ears. All
good actions do not attain such distinguished popularity. There were many good
things that Elisha said and did of which history takes no notice. A good act
may be remembered and applauded for generations, while the name of the actor is
unknown.
III. His holy and
unselfish life is a testimony for Jehovah in the midst of national apostasy. In
the darkest night of national apostasy, Israel was favoured with an Elisha,
whose divinely-illumined life threw a bright stream of light across the gloom.
How deplorable the condition of that nation from which all moral worth is excluded!
IV. His reputation
is the means of promoting the ends of justice (2 Kings 8:5-6). There was surely a
Divine providence at work that brought the suppliant Shunammite into the presence
of the king at the very moment when Gehazi was rehearsing the great works of
Elisha. Justice triumphed; her land and all its produce for the seven years
were restored to her. It requires power to enforce the claims of justice, and
the highest -kind of power is goodness. The arrangements of justice are more
likely to be permanent when brought about by the influence of righteous
principles, than when compelled by physical force. The presence of a holy
character in society is a powerful check upon injustice and wrong. (G.
Barlow.)
Beneficence of the Christian life
The other summer, says Dr. Abbott, while sailing along the shores
of the Sound, I landed at a little cove; there was a lighthouse tower and a
fog-bell, and the keeper showed us the fog-bell, and how the mechanism made it
strike every few minutes in the darkness and in the night when the fog hung
over the coast; and I said, “That is the preacher; there he stands, ringing out
the message of warning, ringing out the message of instruction, ringing out the
message of cheer; it is a great thing to be a preacher.” We went up into the
lighthouse tower. Here was a tower that never said anything and never did
anything--it just stood still and shone--and I said, “That is the Christian. He
may not have any word to utter, he may not be a prophet, he may not be a
worker, he may achieve nothing, but he stands still and shines, in the darkness
and in the storm, always, and every night.” The fog-bell strikes only on
occasion, but all the time and every night the light flashes out from the
lighthouse; all the time and every night this light is flashing out from you if
you are God’s children.
Permanent effects of godliness
Sir Wilfred Laurier has recently given a very striking testimony
to the powerful influence of the Puritan spirit. He was asked why he was
absolutely, in the best sense of the word, an Imperialist. Sir Wilfred replied
that when he was a boy he was brought up in the home of a God-fearing Scottish
farmer, at whose family worship he was present every morning and night. He was
struck by the catholicity of spirit of the farmer, but still more by the fact
that the farmer took the affairs of his house, his neighbourhood, and all his
country in the presence of the Almighty, and sought His blessing upon all. This
experience implanted in Sir Wilfred’s heart an abiding conviction that an
empire based on such community of spirit was made by God to lead the world.
Here is the influence of a humble family worship determining the destinies of
an empire. The lowly farmer in Scotland little realised how far-reaching the
ministry of his family altar would be. Little did he know that while he was
praying and worshipping in apparent obscurity he was moulding the thoughts and
feelings of a great statesman, and so shaping the policy of states. What a
dignity this gives to the home altar, and what solemnity surrounds the lowly
acts of family worship! It can be said of these humble ministries that “their
lines are gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world.” (Hartley Aspen.)
Verses 4-6
And the King talked with Gehazi.
The special providence of Jehovah illustrated
We approach, in this chapter, the end of Elisha’s wondrous but
most useful career. His days are now perceptibly numbered, and one more
recorded event, and he passes from the scene of this world. The text
presupposes that the reputation of Elisha was established as a great and holy
man “Tell me all the great things that Elisha hath done.” The question of the
king is introductory to an interesting illustration of the working of Divine
providence, in bringing together persons and things in a most unexpected
manner, to the furtherance of the ends of justice and the promotion of honesty.
We are here also recalled to an old acquaintance, of whom we have heard nothing
in the prophet’s history for some years, namely, the pious Shunammite; but,
although we find no record of herself and family during this interval, it is
clear that her acquaintance with Elisha had been kept up, and that he may have
been her counsellor and guide in many a difficult position. A prolonged famine
of seven years is approaching. Elisha knows it; for “the Lord had called for
it” (2 Kings 8:1). A partial famine for a
brief space had already been endured at the hands of man--the Syrian enemy
during the siege of Samaria. It does not appear to have worked any good effect in
humbling tim nation. As the smaller judgment is unheeded, the Lord will send a
greater. And let us not omit to observe how partial this visitation is to be.
The good land, the most fruitful of all lands, is to be blasted with its
desolating evidence, while, but a few score miles away, in the country of the
Philistines, there is plenty. Surely “the Lord doth make a fruitful land
barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein” (Psalms 107:34); and His providence can as
easily give plenty here and want there, as the day succeeds the night and the
night the day, even as He teaches by Amos (Amos 4:7). Thus it was here; for Elisha,
summoning the Shunammite to his presence, forewarns and advises her concerning
the coming straitness, “Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn
wheresoever thou canst sojourn” (verse 1). And we can readily see what an advantage
the foreknowledge of Elisha would have secured. It would enable the family to
make a suitable disposition of property, while plenty was still in the land,
and the coming famine hidden from the people at large; and thus she could take
enough with her for their support in the land of the Philistines during that
lengthened period. And thus we may again notice how the Lord repaid her faith
and affection for His servant (Matthew 10:41). Well, time, that never
stands still, pursued its course--and the seven years had passed. What happened
during that period we do not learn. How her son had grown to man’s estate, and
was now probably her stay and comfort in the land of the stranger; “ It came to
pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the
Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her
land” (verse 3). And now the remarkable providence of Jehovah meets our eyes.
The king, we may charitably hope, had profited by the Divine visitation, and he
who cared little for the Lord and his servants during comparative prosperity is
anxious to hear about the great prophet in “the day of his distress.” Or, if we
would take the more unfavourable view of ibis proceeding, we may suppose that
mere curiosity, in an idle moment, prompted the king to request of Gehazi the
leper an account of “all the great things Elisha had done.” And was Gehazi,
though now a leper in body, a penitent in heart, and clean in soul? Had the
fearful correction administered to his sin wrought a salutary end? It is an
interesting thought that “the destruction of the flesh may have been the
salvation of the spirit” (1 Corinthians 5:5); but it can only
be a thought, for the Scripture is silent. How manifest are the leadings of a
special providence! that just at the moment when Jehoram is listening
attentively to this surprising account from Gehazi’s lips, and is perhaps
wanting a confirmation of the wonder in his heart--just at this precise moment,
when he was telling the king “how the prophet had restored a dead body to life”
(verse 5)--the Shunammite herself enters the Court: “Behold, the woman, whose
son be had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land.”
There are two inquiries on which a few words may here be said:--
I. Was it a matter
of chance? and I reply in the negative--It was not a matter of chance. No
converted man would for an instant yield to such an imagination; but there are
many nominal Christians who think and speak of such events as if they were but
a lucky or unlucky combination of accidents, as the case may touch them. Why
was it not a matter of chance? Because to cherish the supposition is to
dethrone Jehovah from His supreme seat of absolute control over all things, as
well as all creatures, living. If we calmly reflect awhile on the point, such
an argument at once places all secondary causes, such as the elements, the
seasons, the maladies, and other external movements affecting outwardly the
human family, as well as the motives and influences bearing upon the internal
economy of man, beyond the inclination of the almighty God over all. It is much
the same in probability as if an individual were to argue that the works of a
watch would go forward, and the wheels run their regular course, without any
mainspring to set them in motion. As opposed to such a view, nothing that
happens can possibly be a matter of chance in a believer’s eye. His own
experience would contradict the
opinion, if he had not the word of Jesus to sustain it (Luke 12:6-7).
II. But was this
unexpected meeting an event in any wise improbable and unworthy of credit? A
brief examination of the narrative may anticipate such a thought, and prevent
its entertainment. There are many here who have experienced, to say the least,
occurrences quite as improbable as this. All the circumstances are natural and
consistent. What more natural than the Shunammite, finding on her return to her
own country that her “house and her land” had been appropriated by another,
should at once seek the king’s presence, and “cry unto him” for the restoration
of her rights? and what more consistent than the fact of such a presence being
sought, and such a petition being offered, at a time when, as we have seen, his
majesty was probably holding a Court, and Gehazi was admitted for some like
end? The result may be viewed as almost a necessary, consequence. The king,
arrested by the singular coincidence, and struck by this unexpected
confirmation, is at once predisposed to lend a favourable ear to the
Shunammite’s prayer, and so, with the characteristic decision of a despotic
judgment, commands officer to see not only “her house and her land” restored,
but even “all the fruits of the field since the day that she had left” (verse
6). The decision was in accordance with the instructions given to Israel’s
judges: “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy from out of the hand of the wicked” (Psalms 82:3-4). This happy result is
calculated to strengthen the faith of all who can feel, with the apostle, that
“the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh
the wise in their own craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19). One who can
grasp this fact in his inmost heart can indeed realise the persuasion of the
Psalmist (Psalms 91:1), “He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” He
feels that whatever seems to make against him is really working for him.
Cherish such a trust in the living God. It will sanctify every event of your
life; it will moderate its joys; it will mitigate its sorrows; it will quicken
activity, while it will temper hastiness; it will arouse indolence, while it
will moderate zeal; above all, it will ever impart contentment with results,
whatever may be the disappointment by the way. But again: this happy end to the
Shunammite will not, I fear, correct the error of those who are sceptical and
incredulous of a special providence. The very circumstance of the means by
which it was compassed being natural and probable will, strange to say, often
have the effect of hardening the mind against better impressions. It is thus
that extremes so frequently meet, and exhibit a character of most perplexing
inconsistency. The incredulous in what is probable will be the most credulous
in what is improbable; and the man who rejects the workings of Divine
providence in natural and common events will be the foremost to receive, aye,
and to contend for, those workings in unnatural and uncommon events. Thus, a
heathen will, as Ezekiel describes, “use divination at the parting of the way,
at the head of the two ways, to know which to take; he will make his arrows
bright, he will consult his images, he will look in the liver” (Ezekiel 21:21); and thus an ignorant and
superstitious but nominal Christian will have recourse to the turning of a pack
of cards, or the winding of tea-leaves round a teacup, or the lines in the
hand, sagely pronounced upon by a mysterious operator, while they would openly
scoff at, or in heart ridicule, the notion of immediate direction being given
to man at a
throne of grace in answer to effectual, fervent prayer. (G. L. Glyn.)
The defrauded widow; or, coincidences in file
God is always unwilling to allow us to suffer, and yet if He
constantly checked suffering great evil would follow. If Israel had not been
visited during the reign of Jehoram with famine, a worse evil would have
befallen the nation; it would have sunk into a deeper state of idolatry; a
plague of corruption and darkness would have stolen over the people and there
would have been a famine of the Word. National calamities fell, but alas! the
innocent had to suffer with the guilty. The woman of Shunem had done what she
could to honour God and His servants, and yet she was involved in the general
distress. One thing.she gained by her piety--a prophet’s warning. He told her
to go and sojourn in a strange land. Intense longing at length merges into
actual movement. Her face is turned homewards. Her weary steps bring her at length within the
walls. None salute her. A kinsman passes, and she hails him, but he, alas!
declares that he has not the pleasure of knowing her. To the very door of her
own home she comes. In the spot from whence she had often given a welcome to
the wayfarer she is questioned by a hireling and coldly met by another kinsman.
To whom shall she go for redress? She goes to the gateway, the place of
justice, and seeks, after the manner of Boaz, to gather a jury to decide
between her and the men who have appropriated her property. All refuse, for one
and another had filched from her something. They are afraid they will have to
disgorge. They are trembling at her reappearance. Let her go again to Philistia
or starve in Shunem. Treatment such as this was, for the poor widow, harder to
bear than famine. She could have borne it from strangers, but from relatives it
is bitter indeed. To whom can she have recourse? Who will execute judgment for
the oppressed? Were Elisha living she knew that he would help. Had he not once
offered to speak for her to the king, or the captain of the host (2 Kings 4:13)? “Why should I not go
direct to the king?” is her sudden thought. She mentions it to her son. “He
will not have time to listen to us, mother; our cause will be such a trifling
affair to a great king.” “Ah, my son, you are right. We are doomed to poverty.
Once I was an honoured woman in Shunem and could help others, now I can only
crave help. Position or possessions are not for us again.” Thus pondering, and
perhaps murmuring, she comes into the presence of the king. She trembles, and
is ready to turn back. Yet she knows Jehoram by his attire and his staff. He is
talking with some aged man, doubtless on weighty matters of state. As she
approaches, and glances again at the companion of the king, she fancies she
recognises those features. Yes, it is Gehazi, the one who had been attendant on
Elisha, the mighty prophet. Jehoram has just asked Gehazi to tell him something
concerning the doings of Elisha, the man to whom he owed his success in the
beginning of his reign. Through him he repulsed the Syrians. He wishes he had
acted subsequently more in harmony with the prophet’s principles. Hence he is
wishful to know more of them. “Who is that?” Gehazi gazes with astonishment.
Can this be the very woman and son of whom he had been speaking? Yes, but how
changed, the woman, and aged. And that young man? ‘Tis the child of prophetic
promise and miraculous restoration.
1. We have in this an illustration of certain coincidences that come
to us in life, and which have oftimes great effect in determining our future.
Some men get into
a certain course and then life runs on smoothly to the end, like a locomotive
on a level line. Others are swept into a current and are turned hither and
thither like the stream or torrent that is checked, narrowed and tossed by, the
rocky inequalities over Which it has to flow or over which it has to leap.
There are certain points in life where We turn completely for good or evil, for
time and for eternity. We may not notice these points. There are moments when
life appears to turn as on a pivot..
The slightest action, most trifling event, may suffice to give the turn, the
complexion, the change of direction to the life. I remember when in great
mental perplexity on one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament,
that I casually met, at Naples, Dr. Symington of Scotland, and in an
afterdinner conversation, and during a stroll along under the castle of St.
Elmo, words and thoughts were uttered that make me to-day a Christian worker
instead of a mere agnostic.
2. God’s hand should be traced in the minutiae of life. The mighty
God of Israel cared for her--a poor lone, rejected, oppressed widow woman. Her
houses and lands were speedily restored. The king acted with alacrity. The
unjust were rebuked. The removers of the ancient landmarks were punished. The
land filchers were frustrated in their scheme. The woman of Shunem could only
exclaim, “Truly there is a God that judgeth.” “He is the father to the
fatherless, and a husband to the widow.” And all who are in any trouble,
sorrow, perplexity, or who have to suffer through the wrong-doing of others,
may always be sure of access to the King of kings, and of the fact that there
is an Advocate with the Father. The Bible is full of hints of the special
working of God. The silver thread of Providence runs through the whole. Christ
taught us that the very hairs of our head are numbered, and that not a sparrow
falls to the ground without the Divine notice. Since Christ’s death all history
shows that God has been working for the welfare of men and the advancement of
His kingdom of goodness in all hearts. Men specially fitted for great works are
born at different periods. All things shall converge towards His great end.
Everything, even that which seems most adverse,--as with the Shunammite woman
seeking her lands--shall coincide to the restoration to Christ of all the
kingdoms of the world to Him. His right it is to reign. The usurpers shall not
only have to give up their usurpation, but shall have to do homage to Him who
hath brought in victory.
3. Now although we believe in the converging of circumstances under
the direction of God, and although we urge upon all the need of looking for
Divine direction and of following the indications of the providence, we would
also utter a warning against always looking for coincidences to guide us in
every circumstance. We might err and be only leaning on an arm of flesh. It is always
best to do that which the heart suggests when acting under the consciousness of
earnest prayer to God. We may not look for signs. We are to act as though all
depended on ourselves, but, at the same time, rest in God’s power by simple
prayer.
4. Sometimes there is a convergence of misfortunes, a coincidence in
sorrow. We have a familiar saying that misfortunes never come singly. There are
periods that try faith severely. A man may lose his situation, fail in
business, be called upon to pay some guarantee for one he trusted, and have at
the same time wife ill, children stricken down with fever. Or he meets with
some accident and is prostrate. Wave of trouble succeeds wave, until it seems
as though there were no more to come, and he exclaims, “All thy waves and thy
billows are gone over me.” Well for him if at such times he, like the
Shunammite, seeks help from the king, and lays hold of that mercy which is
never withdrawn from the most erring, or fails the feeblest. (F. Hastings.)
Verses 7-15
Elisha came to Damascus.
Striking characters
We have here--
I. A dying king.
1. This dying king was very anxious. “Shall I recover of this
disease?” This was the question he wanted Elisha to answer. Not, you may be
sure, in the negative. Knowing some of the wonders that Elisha had performed,
he in all likelihood imagined he would exert his miraculous power on his
behalf, and restore him to life. All men more or less fear death, kings perhaps
more than others. If ungodly, they have more to lose and nothing to gain.
Observe,
2. His anxiety prompted him to do strange things.
II. A Patriotic
Prophet. “And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him (Ben-hadad), Thou mayest
certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die.”
“There was no contradiction in this message. The first part was properly the
answer, to Ben-hadad’s inquiry. The second part was intended for Hazael, who,
like an artful and ambitious courtier, reported only as much of the prophet’s
statement as suited his own views.” We have here--
III. A self-ignorant
courtier. “And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do
this great thing?” The conduct of this man as here recorded suggests two
general remarks.
1. The germs of evil may exist in the mind of a wicked man, of which
he is utterly unconscious.
2. By the force of circumstances these germs become developed in all
their enormity. (Homilist.)
Verse 10
Thou mayest certainly recover.
Ignorance of the future
The subject which I propose to discuss is the moral effect of
ignorance of the future.
I. The avidity
with which men seek to know the future. People are almost always ready to
believe that something unusually good is to befall them; that their lot is to
be exceptional; that their future is somewhere to be discovered by divination,
by the lines on their hands, by the courses of the heavenly bodies. Take your
stand by the fortune-teller, to whom has betaken herself a young girl, who, in
her ignorance and simplicity, wants to know what human lot is coming to her;
whether she is to marry or not; whether her husband is to be rich or poor; what
is his complexion, the colour of his hair and eyes, his occupation, and all
those minutiae about him with which her teeming fancy busies itself. Recall the
little simple devices, such as pulling in pieces a daisy as certain sentences
are repeated, to which children and young folks resort; they all arise from a
curiosity about the future, and an impression that lodged somewhere in the
earth, or air, in daisy or constellation, is the secret that we wish to know.
There is no doubt about the influence of good and evil supernatural agencies in
our lives; there is no doubt, too, that the events of our lives are closely
watched by the inhabitants of two worlds. If good spirits, why not bad? There
are two ways in which a man may confront the future; one, looking into God’s
face, trusting in God’s promises, asking the support of the Everlasting Arms;
and the other, turning to invoke the spirits of darkness; making a league with
the devil to get counsel and help from the infernal world. And I look upon all
this desire to penetrate the veil of mystery which encompasses the
future--except as we walk by faith with the Invisible One, as we believe in God
and link our destiny with God by keeping His laws--as immoral and unchristian.
II. Ignorance of
the future, if that future is to be disastrous, is always a blessing to us;
while, if it is to be advantageous, it is an inspiration. And it is between
this possible disaster and advantage that men make all the progress, whether
intellectual or spiritual. In all motion which is artificially produced, such
as the movement of a carriage or land, or on rails, or the movement of a vessel
through the water, there are always two elements; two forces acting and
reacting. There is that which propels--the motive power; and that which resists
it, and the result is motion. When the driving-wheels of a locomotive do not
take hold of the rail--that is, when the rail is covered with frost or ice so
that there is no resistance to their revolution--there can be no progress: the
great iron sinewed horse is but a plaything, whirling his wheels like a top.
These two elements are in the flight of the bird: the stroke of the wing and
the resistance of the air. When inventors are making efforts to find some
machine which will navigate the air, they seek first lightness. But it is the
weight of the bird, as well as the stroke of the wing, that gives it power to
make such beautiful evolutions in the air. The air is to the body of the bird
what the water is to the hull of the vessel--a medium of resistance. As the wheels
of the steamer, as the screw of the propeller, as the oar or the paddle of the
rower is resisted by the water, progress is made. It is just so in human life.
The patriarch Job says: “What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
shall we not receive evil?” It is encountering a mixture of good and evil that
makes character. It is the contingency of good and evil; the uncertainty
whether it shall be one or the other, that is the mainspring of human action.
People ask, why did not God make man so that he could not sin? It is like
asking why God did not make matter so that an object could move without meeting
resistance; why God did not make the bird so that it could fly without
breasting the powers of the air. Walking is only falling forward and regaining
one’s self. The regaining prevents the accident. The babe begins with the first
motion, but is not yet competent to the second. And no man walks with God
without finding a leverage for his soul in the evil that is in the world; only
he wants none of it in him. In one sense we are forewarned respecting the
future. We have general principles given us. These principles are often cast
into the form of maxims. For example, we say that “Honesty is the best policy,”
with primary reference to business; that let a man make ever so much money by
dishonest dealing, he is injuring his business all the time; he is only getting
rope to hang himself. The young lad who is studying at school hears this; he
does not think it applies to his relations to his teacher and his books, but it
does. When, in after life, he confronts business questions or business
interests, and finds he cannot solve queries which were solved by his neglected
text-books, or his faithful teacher, he discovers it. It is no time to dismount
and tighten the
saddle-girth when the battle is on us. There is not one of us who would not
have been a sadder man in life to know beforehand the calamities that came to
him the last twelvemonths. Let him take up his cross daily, it is not
to-morrow’s cross that we can take up to-day, even if we would take it up. And
what is called borrowing trouble is taking up to-morrow’s cross--always an
imaginary one--before to.morrow comes. The Saviour says, “Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof,” meaning that if we manage to grapple with the evil of
to-day and overcome that, it is all God expects of us; it is victory. And then,
on the other hand, the certainty of good fortune is always enervating. God
helps the men who help themselves. They fall into the line of His purposes;
they see the tide which, taken at its flood, leads on to fortune. Tell a young
man that at the age of forty he will be worth a million dollars, and you have
done him an injury.
III. Ignorance of
the future is a protection against temptation to employ indirect and sinful
methods of securing what we have been assured will take place. Take this case
of Hazael to illustrate the temptation that comes to a man who knows that he is
to occupy a high position. You would say he would argue in this manner: Well,
if I am to be King of Syria, let the God, whose prophet predicts it, make me
king; I will not lift a finger; least of all will I try to find a short cut to
the throne. This was the way Macbeth deliberated:--
“If chance will make me king,
why chance may crown me,
Without my stir.”
A man’s aspirations and capacities are often prophecies of what
God means to do by him. If he should say to himself, “I deserve such and such
position, and it matters not how I get it”; if then he should address himself
to the work of supplanting such another occupant of the place, or aspirant for
it, he may secure the position indeed, but he has introduced into his cup of
life that which will embitter it for ever. There is no moral greatness in
having place. Place without fitness for it; place with the recollection of
dishonour or misdirection in seeking it, is really a disgrace to a man. Hazael became
King of Syria as Macbeth became King of Scotland, by attempting to accomplish
by crime what was already written down in the future. But what was Hazael as
King of Syria, what was Macbeth as King of Scotland, with the predecessor of
each assassinated to make open the path to the throne? The very night of
Duncan’s death, while he still lay there, the murder undiscovered, and there came
some one knocking at the castle gate, Macbeth says:--
“Wake Duncan with thy knocking;
I would thou could’st!”
For example: there is an achievement, a possession that I wish, I
think I deserve it, have
fitness for it, could honour my Maker if I were gratified in my desire, could
benefit my fellow-men. Now comes the test of my character. If I am willing to
fulfil the conditions of merit, to serve God where He has placed me, up to my
best ability; to wait His time for recognition and promotion; if promotion should
come, then it has sought me; I have entered into no unholy alliances, I have
not broken the golden rule. I have coveted no man’s silver, gold, or place. If,
on the other hand, I say to myself, God intended this for me, and I mean to
have it, and I begin to clamber over the heads of people, as men sometimes try
to get out of a crowd, I carry with me the sense of my own unworthiness.
IV. Ignorance of
the future on our part does not interfere with God’s certainty respecting it.
It should bring us to confide in that certainty. Only certainty somewhere can bring us security.
It is usual to put this in the other way, as though God’s certainty respecting
a future event might possibly prevent the exercise of our freedom when putting
out our force to compass or defeat it. But in man’s sphere, man is just as free
as God is in His sphere. And without some certainty, what is the use of
freedom? Hazael is to be King of Syria. This should content him, But being an
unscrupulous man, and the King of Syria being sick, and in that particular to him, his
confidential servant, an easy victim, as Duncan came conveniently--the devil’s
opportunity--to the castle of Macbeth, Hazael spreads a wet cloth over the
king’s face, smothers him, and he dies, and the vacant throne is ready for
himself. The certainty that he was to be King of Syria did not affect his
conduct. Mark that. His knowledge of the certainty did. It tempted him to
compass, by foul means, that which, if he had waited, would have happened so,
as we express it. God is no less in the future events of this nation than he
was in the future events of the Syrian kingdom, or the kingdom of Israel;
Hazael was no more certain, historically certain, certain in the mind of God to
succeed Ben-hadad than some man is to succeed the present President. But the
certainty of God is on another plane from the contingency that is in the
affairs of men. The storm of rain and sleet which encases the woods as with
armour of silver, which makes every branch like a spear which the winds poise
and tilt as though for some encounter in knight-errantry, was predicted by the
weather bureau twenty-four hours before it came; was fore-known and
fore-recorded and published to the nation. But the certainty did not affect the
action of the atmosphere combinations needful to produce the storm. The
atmospheric forces north, south, east, west, were held in hand or let loose
according as was needful to the result. Up in His own sphere God presides,
insuring human freedom, touching the springs of action, carrying out His own
plans, making all things work together for the good of His children and for His
own glory. Our ignorance of the future does not disturb His affairs. God makes
the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He restrains. He lets
wicked men go just as far as they need to prove their freedom, and then He
stops them and takes the advantage, not of what they thought to do, but of what
they did. This is the most wonderful kind of alchemy. (J. E. Rankin, D.
D.)
Verse 13
Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?
Self-deception
No doubt the Syrian was perfectly sincere in this question. He had
seen the tears which roiled down the aged prophet’s wrinkled face as he thought
of the woes which, by the strong right hand of the rough soldier, would come to
his beloved people. He had heard the startling announcement that he should go
forth on a mission of destruction, swift, terrible, and unsparing, and his mind
could not admit the idea that his heart could become thus ruthless, or his arm
thus potent. He was but a captain of the Syrian host, living only on the favour
of his master, and he could not understand how he could have the power to effect
such wondrous deeds. He was not yet dead to the common feelings of humanity,
and could not think that thus wantonly, thus brutally, thus recklessly, he
could plant his iron heel on all most sacred and tender in human life. Yet he
went away from the prophet straightway to enter on his career of ambition and
blood. The next day saw him standing as an assassin by the bedside of the
master who had loaded him with favours,--the next he was sitting as a proud
usurper on the throne--and, step by step, he rushed on in that downward course
of crime that had been sketched out for him, verifying every word that the man
of God had uttered, and filling up the measure of those iniquities which drew
down the stroke of judgment. Thus miserably was Hazael self-deceived. Probably
he had never spent a solitary hour in studying his heart, and thus ignorant of
himself, he cherished a confidence in himself and his own virtue, the utter
folly of which was soon manifest. Was his case an exceptional one? Nothing is
more common than such mistakes of men as to their own character, their special
dangers, their power of resistance to evil. Men who have wonderful acquirements
and extensive knowledge, who can discuss the problems of philosophy, and are
familiar with all the discoveries of science, nay, who are great students of
human character, and the influences by which it is formed; men who, in fact,
pride themselves upon their acquaintance with human nature, display the most
wretched ignorance, and fall into the most miserable errors in relation to
themselves. There are none of us, perhaps, wholly exempt from the evil, though
in the case of some it is more fully developed; but wherever it is, it must be
a source of weakness to the soul. To believe we are strong where we are
lamentably feeble,--to knew nothing as to the sin which easily besets us, and
to be unprepared to resist its attacks,--to cherish assurance of easy victory
when we are laying ourselves open to certain defeat, is surely no slight injury
to the soul. It exposes to dangers against which we ought ever to be on the
watch. Of this self-deception, its causes and results, it is our purpose to
speak here, hoping to draw from the case of Hazael lessons of solemn and
impressive warning.
I. Let us mark its
causes. Men do not care to know themselves, and therefore do not study their
own hearts. They want know every thing and every one but themselves. They would
fain tear away the veil of mystery, and learn the wonders of the spiritual,
traverse the Universe, measure the Infinite, and understand the Eternal. But
they care not for knowing that which concerns them most--the true character of
their own souls. Self-examination is a duty which we are always able to put
off. The results of negligence’ are not at once apparent to ourselves, while
others are scarcely able to detect them at all, and thus it is too often
postponed to what we deem the more urgent pressure of other calls. It shares
the common fate of work that may be done at any time--no time is fixed for it
at all. So long as all goes prosperously without, as there is no violent shock
to disturb the too complacent estimate we are apt to form of ourselves and our
own performances, or so long as we are occupied in the active duties of the
world or the Church, there is but little opportunity, and less disposition for
us to turn the thoughts in upon ourselves with the view of ascertaining the
true state of our own hearts. Very often does affliction thus become a blessing
to our souls. It compels retirement,--it affords leisure for thought, Pit shuts
out from us a thousand influences that bewilder and mislead,--it disposes to
careful searching of heart. Just in the same proportion are times of unbroken
prosperity dangerous, from their inevitable tendency to hurry the spirit on in
a whirl of perpetual excitement and pleasure,--to intoxicate it with high
thoughts of its own capacities and achievements,--to induce a sense of security
at the very hour that the danger may be most imminent, and the necessity for
stern, manly resistance greatest. But we must not forget that with all our
efforts to know ourselves,--however sincerely they may be commenced, and
however diligently prosecuted--there are influences which will deceive and
baffle our most careful scrutiny. We can scarcely conceal from ourselves the
fact that circumstances often reveal to a man himself, and to others what he
really is, and that in a good as well as bad sense. There are powers which
sometimes lie undeveloped in the mind just because there have not been
opportunities for their display, until some sudden circumstance arise to call
them forth, and the man rises to the grandeur of the occasion. So, even in our
own experience, we have often seen hours of affliction call forth heroic
qualities of heart, which in brighter and happier days lay inactive. There are
often depths of depravity in human hearts unsuspected and unrevealed till some
temptation, perhaps more subtle or more powerful than ordinary, or coming
possibly at a time of special weakness, serves to disclose the sad secret. The
enemy has planned an assault with consummate craft, he comes in some unguarded
hour, and then there start up, wormed into sudden life, passions that had lain
utterly dormant, and men are drawn into sins from the very mention of which at
other moments they would have recoiled with horror. Hazael might have passed
through life with the reputation of a bravo captain, a loyal subject, a
faithful friend; others would never have dreamed of the fierce passions that
were surging within his breast, and seeking some outlet, had not temptation
assailed him, and revealed the cruelty, the ambition, the lust which converted
him into a traitor, a murderer, a monster. So may it be with us. These hearts
are both deceitful and desperately wicked, and their deceit is shown chiefly in
hiding their wickedness. Ever are they blinding us to the existence of the
evils we have most to dread, and persuading us that we possess some good which
has no reality but in the fancies of our own deluded pride and self-confidence.
They are like treacherous pools grown over with rich verdure, that conceals the
dark deep waters of death that lie below. Experience is truly the sternest of
teachers; there are no lessons so valuable as his; none, perhaps, that are so
likely to be remembered. Yet here he is continually found powerless. Our hearts
find a thousand excuses. Pride induces forgetfulness, and so we fall into the
same error, to expiate it by the same penalty. It seems to require a thousand
warnings to make us feel what Solomon teaches, himself having learned it only
by a discipline the most humbling, “He that trusteth his own heart is a fool.”
There is, too, a blinding influence in self-love, which aids the deception of
which we speak. The standards by which, for the most part, we judge ourselves
are very different from those which we apply to other men. To all this Satan
ministers by the craft with which he ever seeks to work out his purposes. He is
like a skilful general who does not at once unmask his batteries and attack the
fortress in its strongest points, but, on the contrary, makes gradual
approaches, accustoms his troops to victory, and depresses his foes by slight
advantages gained at weak places in the lines of defence, meanwhile husbanding
his resources and concealing his preparation, until the time comes to spring
the mine and lay low the citadel. Rarely is it his policy to seduce at once to
some heinous transgression.
II. The result. It
is here in the
case of Hazael, and it has been seen in multitudes besides. Men, unconscious of
their own feebleness, blind to the dangers which surround them, assured of
their own security, and infatuated by that wretched self-love which makes them
believe that they cannot sink to the same depths of sin as others, go on until
they are betrayed into some act of wickedness which covers them with shame. It
was thus with Peter. Little could he calculate the results of that self-dependence which
he was nurturing within his breast; he could never lose his love or forfeit his
loyalty to the Master to whom his heart was so strongly attached. The Lord
warned him in common with others. Or take the case of Lot: a young man, full of
life, energy, and spirit, he was about to part from his honoured uncle, having
chosen the fair city of Sodom for his residence. True, the people were very
wicked, but the land was very rich. True, he must dwell in the midst of much
that would vex his righteous soul. But what of that? there was money to be
made--his herds would increase--he would be a great man, and that with him, as
with too many still, was the grand, the deciding point--he need not be partaker
in the sins of those among whom he dwelt; he worshipped God, and could worship
Him in Sodom even as elsewhere. Is it not ever so? Tell that fierce,
passionate, wayward youth, who will grow up to be the murderer: “Those
unguarded lusts, to which thou art giving the reins, will drive thee to foulest
crime, and involve thee in most terrible destruction--thou art sowing the wind,
but shalt reap the whirlwind--thy heart will become the abode of every vile
principle--thy life one dark catalogue of sins against God and man--thy death
will be one of ignominy and shame.” Would not his answer be: “Is thy servant a
dog, that he should do this thing?” Or he who is now railing against the truth
of God, as if it were a lie. There was an hour when he dared not have spoken
thus. Had you stood by him when first he listened to the demon voice that
whispered in his ear the suggestions of doubt, or when he lisped forth in
stammering accents his own first defiance of the Gospel; when first he joined
in the laugh against the truth, fancying himself clever, and bold, and brave,
because he had ventured to shock what he called the prejudices of some earnest
servant of God, by holding up to contempt what he deemed most sacred--had you
as an anxious friend given him then the faithful warning, “Beware; thou art
taking the first step on a downward path; thou shalt go on and on to a contempt
of all religion; thou shalt become a poor miserable sceptic, having no faith in
thine own wretched creed, yet labouring to draw others to an acceptance of
it”--he would have laughed you to scorn. “What! am I not to think for myself?
must I walk in the old ruts, and receive the old dogmas, and utter the old
shibboleth? because I am not a slave of prejudice am I become an infidel?” “Is
thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?” There is here to-day a young
man just losing the early fervour of his profession--that first love which
seemed once to be so intense that nothing would ever check or damp it. He is
growing more careless; some wound to his self-love, or some idle fancy, has
driven him from a post of Christian labour; he is just beginning to cast off
restraints by which he has hitherto been held. Had you the gift of inspiration
could you hold him up before himself as he will be by and by, a cold,
heartless, profitless professor, whose religion is to him little more than a
burden, content with a formal attendance on a Sabbath morning at the house of
God--would he not start back with horror from the vision, and exclaim, “Oh no!
I cannot come to that state of wretched lukewarmness; I do not choose to be
bound as others are; I like to take my own course, but I would not sink to such
a level as that.” There is a man wholly wrapt up in the world. He never thinks,
talks, works for anything else. He might as well, nay, far better, have no
soul--he treats it with such utter indifference. Was he always thus? Ah, no!
There was a time when he trembled--kindled with emotion--felt that one day or
other he would be a Christian. He fancied he could pause at his own pleasure;
he never thought it was possible for him to sink into the selfish unfeeling
worldling that he now is. If this be the true account of human nature, if such
be the weakness of our own heart, how manifest the folly and guilt of that
pharisaic spirit in which so many indulge--justifying themselves and condemning
their brethren. Then how does the whole show us the need of that great
provision which God has made! Such being our hearts, thus wayward, thus
deceitful, thus ignorant, what need for that Holy Ghost who alone can give
wisdom, strength, holiness! (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)
Hazael: evil detected
The first mention of Hazael is in the First Book of Kings (1 Kings 19:15), where we are told
that Elijah after his return from Horeb anointed him to be a king. The next
time he is spoken of it is as a Prime Minister to the King of Syria, and a
messenger sent to the prophet. Strangely enough, Ben-hadad sends to make
inquiry of one who is a servant of the God repudiated by his own nation. The
king wishes to know whether he will recover from his illness. He sends a
present by the hand of Hazael. Some selfish design was detected therein by the
prophet. The prophet, in reply to the inquiry, says that Ben-hadad may, in the
ordinary course of things, recover, but he soon sees that a fatal end is at
hand; he suspects a sinister design in the messenger. Shuddering awe steals
over the prophet. Tears begin to flow down the cheeks, but no word comes from
the lips. A vision is before Elisha’s eyes. Hazael waits. At length he asks,
“Why weepeth my lord?” Then the prophet foretells what Hazael himself will do,
desolating lands and destroying the defenceless. Hazael exclaims, “Am I a dog,
that I should do this great thing?”--meaning either that he was not so low down
as to do such evil, or that he, a mere dog, could not accomplish so much. This
in harmony with the revised rendering, The probable intention was to repudiate
the opinion formed of him by the prophet as being evil and unworthy. He half
suspected the tears had reference to the evil he would do, and yet he seems not
to have acknowledged to himself how powerful were the germs of evil in him for
working wrong to others, and especially how treacherous were his secret
plottings against the king.
1. The wicked propensities in our hearts are oft hidden from us. We
are ignorant of the capabilities for evil and for good that lie in us. Hazael
knew not his own heart. He would not have acknowledged that he was so
ambitious, unscrupulous, or murderous. We have all a realm of mystery within.
There are many offshoots in the dark passages of the heart. Few dare to lift
the thick veil that hangs over some of them. We have secret rooms, only
revealed by the moving of sliding panels. The panels are sometimes not easily
distinguishable. We are deceived in ourselves. We are not born utterly
depraved, but our natures, like a silent machine, turn out incessantly sins of
various shades and degrees of enormity. One piece of ploughed ground in winter
appears as brown and free from weeds as another, but let the rains descend and
the spring sunshine rest upon it, then up will come the weeds choking the young
crop of grain. So with hearts. One man may be like another for a time, but soon
circumstances will show what evil is hidden in the soul of one and goodness
developed in the other. Both may be ignorant of what can be developed. Irwine
the common-sense vicar said to his former pupil Donnithorne: “A man can never
do anything at variance with his own nature. He carries within him the germs of
his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of
ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion
that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom.”
2. If certain evils existent in germs in our souls were revealed, we
should possibly deny their presence. We are like Hazael, unwilling to have a
poor or bad opinion of ourselves. We see our portrait reflected in the camera,
but we go away and “straightway” forget what manner of men we are. That
amiable-looking boy at school would repudiate the possibility of his ever
breaking a mother’s heart by his wildness and gambling. That proud bridegroom
would repudiate the possibility of his ever speaking harshly or treating
brutally that trusting, orange-blossom-crowned girl whose rounded arm rests on
his, and whose full eyes reflect his love. The “I will cherish” becomes at
times the “I have crushed.” That cultured man, noble in mien and lofty in
position, would repudiate the suggestion that his little weakness would one day
bring him down to the level of the poor fellow, who with tattered garb and
blotched face hangs round the corner public waiting to earn a copper by holding
a horse. Circumstances are so powerful in developing changes of mind we little
conceived. The evil course we enter upon is like getting on a trolly on the
inclined plane; if we once lose power over it, we go rushing down to
destruction at a rate constantly accelerated.
3. All the hidden sin of the soul can be revealed by God. Elisha was
enabled to reveal Hazael to himself. God gave him the power. God’s knowledge of
us is not the result of observation and judgment, as man gains knowledge of his
fellow, but is absolute knowledge. Christ when on earth needed not that any
should testify of men, for He “knew what was in man.” Without attempting to
prove to men that they were sinners, He held up the torch of truth before the
conscience, and made men convict themselves; as when Peter said, “Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”; or when the young ruler went away sadly
because he had great possessions; or when accusers of a weak woman sunk away
from Him who said, “He that is without sin let him cast the first stone at
her.” As a skilful musician can place his fingers on the keys and bring out
sweetest music or reveal the defects of the instrument, so Christ touched the
human soul and revealed its hidden truth or sounded its discordant notes. He
shows us that to be sinful is bad enough, but that to be hardened and unabashed
therein is frightful.
4. When the sinful state is revealed, alas! warning is not always
taken. Hazael should have taken the words of the prophet as an intimation that
he was to be merciful to others and to himself. But, however he may shake and
shudder at the image of himself presented, he turns not away from the evil. The
“means to do ill deed made ill deeds done.” Every man has need to be watchful.
The cable is not stronger than the weakest link, nor the character than the
hidden meanness. The secret sin does not grow in a day, though it may germinate
in a moment. A Scotch preacher beautifully illustrated this by referring to the
tiny seed dropped by the passing bird into a crevice of a rock, and which,
sprouting, grew, and in process of years by its mighty roots moved the massive
rock until it toppled over into the loch. So we must beware of the trifling
thought of sin. We must search by the power of God’s Spirit. Let us be sincere
in the searching, and firm in the eviction of the hidden evil. Is it evil
temper, cheating, backbiting, murdering character, sly tippling or open
drunkenness, harshness and cruelty? Away wit]i it, in God’s strength! (F.
Hastings.)
“Is thy servant a dog?”
Hazael came to the prophet to inquire whether his master would
recover from his sickness. The answer is ambiguous. So far as the disease
itself was concerned, he might recover. Yet his days were numbered; and the
purpose to kill him was already being formed in the heart of his hitherto
faithful servant. The prophet saw before him not only the king’s enemy, but
also the man who would one way inflict dire evils upon Israel. The thought of
the horrors about to come to his people made the man of God weep. Hazael asks
the cause of his sorrow. Elisha tells him frankly, and in the plainest terms,
what was in the no very distant future. Hazael starts back with horror when he
sees in this prophetic mirror the image of his own baseness. “Is thy servant a
dog?” The prophet seems to evade the question; and yet in his reply we have the
full and complete explanation, if not to Hazael, at least to us, of all that
occurred. “The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.” Is this
man, then, a base and guilty hypocrite? Is he a man who hides under the cloak
of pretended affection for his master and reverence for humanity his fiendish
designs? The answer we give to these questions will determine for us the use to
be made of this portion of sacred history. I am willing to take the man’s own
estimate of himself as being, on the whole, the best and the truest. I believe for
the moment he was really appalled at the description of his future life; and
that when he uttered this exclamation, he was unable to realise it possible that he
should ever be guilty of the deeds named by the prophet. How, then, you may
say, are we to account for the fact that he actually did all that Elisha
foretold, if he was not a hypocrite? There are some who think the subsequent
murder an accident, so far as Hazael was concerned. I fear this theory is
destitute of proof. At all events, we have the record of his dealings with
Israel fully corroborating the statements of the prophet.
I. Hazael failed
to take into account the influence of circumstances upon human character. There
is a doctrine of circumstances utterly at variance, not only with the teachings
of Scripture, but also with the experience and deepest convictions of
mankind--a doctrine which asserts, or appears to assert, that circumstances
make men, and that the only difference between the noblest saint and the basest
criminal is a difference simply in the structure of the brain, and the
character of the surroundings. Some men teach this, but no man believes it, or
acts upon it, either in his feelings respecting his own deeds, or his judgments
of the moral character of the actions of his friend. But we must, while
rejecting a doctrine so monstrous, yet remember that, in a very real sense,
circumstances have a power over character and life.
II. Circumstances
bring men into new temptations never felt before. Hazael, King of Syria, or
even with the throne within his reach, would be a very different person from
Hazael, the honoured servant of his master. Hazael’s language must not be
regarded as hypocritical, but as the language of one who had not sounded the
depths of his own character, and who knew nothing of the changes the altered
circumstances would bring to him.
III. My text seems
to suggest that much of what passes for virtue amongst us may simply be vice
not manifested by circumstances. How much do women who are sometimes boastful
owe to the fact that the world is harder in its judgments on their sins than in
the case of the other sex! How much to the fact that they are more protected by
circumstances! Let conscience utter its voice! Not always because you were
holier or truer to God than your brother; but because you were never exposed to
his temptations, because in the providence of God you have been more protected
from yourself or others. The rich man knows nothing of the temptations of the
man hard pressed by circumstances, and hence his hard and unjust censures. The
poor man, protected by his very poverty, knows not the temptations of those
nursed in the lap of wealth; hence, when he hears of the sins of the other, he
flatters himself on his superiority. He owes it not to his moral heroism, but
to his surroundings. I have spoken much of the power of circumstances. Let no
man think he is the creature of his surroundings. By God’s grace he may rise
above them and triumph over them, making his very passions minister to his
success, and making his enemies his benefactors. (J. Fordyce.)
“Is thy servant a dog?”
In the theory of the people of those times, some of the gods could
do some things, and other gods could do some other things. There were special
gods, just as there are special physicians--physicians for the eye; physicians
for the ear; physicians for nervous diseases; physicians for surgical
operations; physicians for every separate department of healing. Though each
may do something of everything, yet each has some specialty. And so it was with
these gods. There were gods of hills, and gods of valleys, and gods of this
nation, and gods of that nation, they thought. According to their notion there
was a great variety in the talents and capacities of these gods. Therefore,
when any man had any enterprise to accomplish, or any sickness to be cured, he
naturally sought the aid of a particular sort of god, as we naturally seek a
certain kind of practitioner when we are afflicted with a disease. It is not at
all strange, therefore, when Ben-hadad lay sick, and heard that Elisha was
there, that he should have said to himself, “I will try his God.” “The king
said unto Hazael” (who seems to have been his prime minister in general), “Take
a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord,
by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?” That was Oriental. Gifts were
not then considered wrong, and whenever anybody wanted anything it was quite
natural that he should take something with him and get it by purchase; but such
things in modern times take on a different aspect. This venerable old prophet,
well advanced in years, fixed his eyes upon this miscreant with such a piercing
glance that the man’s face became confused, and his colour went and came. It
was the most penetrating speech possible. “And Hazael said, Why weepeth my
Lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the
children of Israel: their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young
men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up
their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that
he should do this great thing?” It does not seem that the fact that he was to
be the King of Syria disturbed him. Nor was it this that agitated the prophet.
It was the sight of the great cruelty that would follow under his hand when he
came to the throne. The prophet saw, rising in vision before him, wasted
provinces; he saw blood flowing down like rivers of water; he saw rapine and
cruelty most barbarous on every side of him. It was the sight of these terrific
national disasters that brought tears to the eyes of the prophet; and it was
the horror of such an administration as was pictured to him that seemed to
strike Hazael with surprise and revolt. “So he departed from Elisha, and came
to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He
told me that thou shouldst surely recover.” Well, it was almost true; but that
which is almost true is a lie. He told the king a part of what Elisha had said,
but he did not tell him the rest. He did not say, “The prophet declared that
thou shalt surely die, although thou mayest recover.” He did not tell him that
the prophet said that he might recover--that there was nothing in the way of
his recovery so far as his disease was concerned. His declaration was, plainly,
“He says that thou shalt recover.” The king was very sick; he was too feeble to
help himself; and perhaps when he was in a slumber Hazael said within himself,
“I won’t kill him; I will just put a wet cloth over his face.” So he dipped the
cloth in water and laid it over the face of the king, who was unable in his
extreme weakness to throw it off, and was suffocated. “It is such an easy way,”
Hazael might have said, “for him to die! I have not shed his blood, thank God.
I did not even choke him. I might have done it; but I did not. I kept my hands
off from the Lord’s anointed. I only laid a wet cloth on his face; and if he
could not breathe it was not my fault. Every man must look out for himself.” He
might have reasoned in this way; but it is not likely that he did, because he
probably had not conscience enough to make it necessary. Having in this mild
manner disposed of the king, he became the ruler in his place; and as to what
his reign was we are not left in doubt. We know that he swept through the land,
and carried his armies across Palestine, and clear into the territory of the
Philistines. We know that he laid siege to Jerusalem, and was bought off from
it by a present of all the golden vessels contained in the temple. We know
that, in his despotic career, all his victories were stained with blood. We
know that there was no end to the destruction of property which he caused. We
know that not one-half of the wickedness which he performed was foretold by the
prophet. We know that he destroyed men, women, and children without stint. And
though we have not a complete history of the wrongs which he committed, we know
that a monster who would do what we are informed that he did do would not leave
anything undone, in the way of cruelty, which it was in his power to do. Now,
you will take notice that at the time when Hazael came to the prophet, and this
vision of his cruelty was made known to him, he must have had a genuine
revulsion from it. It is probable that when the prophet told him what he saw it
shocked him. I think it quite likely that when the prophet told him that he
should reign instead of the king, he said within himself, “Yes, that is what I
have been after; that is what I meant to do”; but when the prophet showed him
what should be the character of his administration, I have no doubt that he
said, believing what he said, “I am not capable of any such thing as that.” He
was not yet in power. He was still an under-officer. He had never been tested.
He did not know what supremacy would work in him. He had not had the
responsibility of a kingdom laid upon his shoulders. He did not know how he
would be affected by the indulgence which would come with the control of
unbounded wealth. He did not know what would be the growth of pride in him. He
did not know what would be his appetite for praise. He did not know how his
vanity would be wrought upon. He did not know what fury would be kindled in him
by opposition. He did not know what despotic measures he might be compelled by
circumstances to adopt. He doubtless felt as we often do in regard to things
which we see others do, when it seems to us impossible that we should ever do
them although we are made up of the same stuff that they are; and when his
future was disclosed to him, when the veil was rent, and he saw himself as he
was to be, at the various stages of his subsequent history, he shuddered at the
sight of it: and he said, “Do you count me a dog?” and there was no other name
so low as that in the Orient. “A dog,” “A dead dog,” “A dog’s head,” these seem
to have been the terms that measured the utmost contumely and contempt; and he
said, “Am I a dog, that you prophesy these things concerning me?” It was
absolutely impossible that he should do them, it seemed to him; and yet he went
on and did them. There may be a question as to whether the prophet was right in
laying before Hazael a statement of the things which were to be fulfilled, that
would be in the nature of yeast, and raise up in him ambitions which could make
him faithless to his king; but it does not appear that the plan of destroying
the monarch and occupying his throne was then for the first time in Hazael’s
mind. The prophet did not bring this plan to pass by tampering with his
fidelity in holding out to him the prospect of the sceptre and the crown. The
natural tendency of disclosing the prophet’s vision to Hazael, if Hazael had
been an honest man, instead of inducing him to such a career as lay before him,
would have been to set him to watching himself, that he might prevent the
fulfilment of so dishonouring a prophecy. This case is full of material for
inspiration. One of the first points that I wish to make in connection with the
brief history is, that no one can say beforehand what will be the effect on him
of a given situation or a given temptation. A man may be able to say: “I shall
not sin by avarice: I may be put in circumstances where I shall break down
through self-indulgence; but I shall not break down through avarice. I may be
overcome by various appetites; but avarice is not one of them.” A man may know
himself to be safe in that particular regard. Many a man can say: “Whatever may
overcome me in the way of sinfulness, it is not going to be cruelty.” Many a
man is justified in saying: “I know that no circumstances will ever make me
brutal, although there may be circumstances that will make me wicked.” But, as
a general thing, men know so little about themselves that it would not be safe
for any man to say: “I can tell how I should act in any situation where I may
be placed; I know that no temptations can get an entrance into my heart; I know
how this, that, and the other influence would affect me; I know how I should
act if I had power.” As when men look forward into life they are ignorant of
what they would do if they were in such and such situations, or if such and such
things were given them; so when men look forward into life they can form no
just estimate of what they would do in avoiding evil One man says: “Nothing
could ever make me a drunkard.” Another man says: “I do not think anything in
the world could make me a thief.” Neither of them knows how he might be wrought
upon until he has been under temptation and trial. Lord Clive, when he got back
to England, and was thinking of his administration in India, and reflecting
how, after having conquered the provinces, he went into the treasure-house of
the rajahs, and saw gold without measure (there silver was counted as nothing;
it was always at a discount), and beheld baskets full of rubies and diamonds,
was reported to have said: “My God! I tremble when I think of the temptation
that I was under. I wonder that I came out honest.” In looking back upon it,
and thinking of it, he felt as though tie would not like to go through the same
experience again. He feared that it would not be safe to trust himself the
second time under those circumstances. This is the testimony of a full-grown
man in regard to an extreme instance of liability to temptation, and you cannot
tell, until you have been tried, what you would do in a given situation. Men do
not know what effect flattery will have on them. Here is a bank of snow that
lies quietly and stubbornly over against the north wind, all through January,
all through February, and during the fore part of March; and it says, “Do you
suppose I would give way to the mild and weak influence of spring after having
resisted the chilling blasts and pinching frosts of winter?” And yet the sun
comes smiling, and laughing, and tickling, and flattering, little by little;
and the bank changes its mind; and gradually it sinks, and sinks; and by and by
it is all gone. A man might just as well undertake to say what he would do if
he were overtaken by a plague, as to say what he would do if he were placed
under such and such circumstances of life. How can a man standing on the cool
mountains of Vermont tell what he would do if he had the yellow fever in New
Orleans?:No man can tell, judging from the present, what he will do if he is
situated so and so in the untried future. But one thing we know: that in regard
to all the more generous sentiments and feelings, pondering upon them, thinking
about them, rather tends to enable us to attain them; and that, on the other
hand, in regard to all the inflammatory sides of human nature--the appetites
and passions--pondering them tends to strengthen them. The mere holding of
illicit and unlawful things in a man’s mind is itself a preparation for his
bondage to them. It is not safe for a man to carry about mere thoughts of evil.
It is not safe for a man to imagine what he would do if he had a chance to
steal, and to turn the subject over in his mind. I have no doubt that Hazael
thought a good deal about this matter of succession; and I have no doubt the
moment there was a chance--especially the moment the prophet told him there was
a chance--for him to become king he was prepared to execute the plan which
beforehand lie had revolved in his mind and held in suspense there. I have no
doubt that he said to himself a good many times, “Why should Ben-hadad be on
the throne any more than I? He is no better than I am. He is not so capable as
I am. I do not know why a sick king should rule any more than a well general.
It would not be a bad thing for me to put him out of the way and take his
place. And if I did, what would happen? What would I do with his family? Not that I have any
idea of doing any such thing; but in case I should do it what would be the
outcome?” And when a man has thought of a thing in that way once, and twice,
and many times, pursuing it day and night, then after a time it pursues him,
and there is a preparation in him for the execution of such deeds as he has
contemplated in case that exigencies arise which afford him the opportunity.
And it is not safe for any man to ponder vice, crime, anything that
corrupts the fibre, the integrity, the purity of his soul. No man knows what is
the fermentation that will go on through his passions, when they are fired in
the direction of evil--for there is a fermentation that goes on through the
passions. I can describe it by no better name than that. We hear it spoken of
in philosophy as a ruling idea--as a monomania. We see manifestations of them
in many directions throughout life. Many men come under the influence of this
fermentation, and it heats them; they think of it till they get hot under it.
Many men in regard to the passions open a lurid imagination, and bring in
torrid thoughts, and their soul reeks and ferments. Men are murderers, and
adulterers, and thieves, and drunkards, and gluttons in the realm of the
imagination. And so it is with men in regard to the warfare of life. They
suppose that others are going to break down, but that they themselves are safe;
they think that there is no danger so far as they are concerned; and yet a
whole magazine which they are carrying about with them, being set on fire, explodes,
and pours out upon them elements of destruction. Go to the gaol, and you will
find there persons imprisoned for crime who in the beginning did not think that
they should ever become culprits, and who, if the idea ever occurred to them,
said, “I never shall become one.” It is probable that there is not one in a
hundred of those who are in gaol for crime, and whose life is smirched for
ever, that, when young, looked forward to any such career as he has gone
through. (H. W. Beecher.)
The devil’s tinder-box
I. The fact that a
man has a natural abhorrence of a certain sin is no guarantee that he will not commit that
very sin. Hazael is true to human nature. Sin is insidious, and one sin is
evolved out of another sin. Sin sometimes is like a snowball that is rolled
down hill where the snow is deep. It grows very fast. Beware of the beginnings
of sin, for there is no tropical growth that can develop so rapidly as a sin
which springs up in the hot-bed of a heart that is untrue to God.
II. A good
disposition and a general desire to do right is no guarantee that one will not
end his career in outbreaking sin. Hazael was undoubtedly a suave,
pleasant-humoured, amiable man. Ben-hadad had been a great king, and a very
good judge of men, and Hazael’s conduct had been such that his master put
implicit trust in him. Hazael was politic and amiable and all things to all
men, but no one suspected him of definite purpose to do an evil thing, and it
is not probable that he had such purposes.
III. Definite
principles of righteousness are the only guarantee that one will maintain a
good career to the end. Lacking these, Hazael was overthrown. Lacking these,
you will be overthrown. You are like a ship that has had an accident at sea
and, uncontrolled, has been drifting about at the mercy of wind and wave; but
some skilled engineer has gone down among the chaos of broken machinery and
mended it, and the captain, with the wheel in his hands again, and with all the
force of the great engines in the heart of the vessel answering his command,
goes bravely forward in the teeth of the gale. The man or the woman with a
genuine desire to be good, but with no definite committal, drifts about at the
mercy of circumstances. But on the day when you give your heart to Christ,
permit Him to come into your heart and take command, you begin a career that is
steadily onward, doing right whatever the circumstances or the conditions that
may surround you.
IV. We should
beware of the character of our secret meditations. Beware of the things you
think about when you are alone, when you are day-dreaming; the things you allow
to come back into the mind and sun themselves in the warmth of your imagination
and desire. Why should you be so careful as to the character of these things?
Now that is a most important question, for I am sure it is a very insidious
temptation to people who have many good desires and good impulses, people who
would shrink from any open proposition to do evil, to assume that there is no
harm in allowing the imagination and musing-room of the soul to harbour
unlawful guests. Yet see what it did for Hazael. That prophecy was like a flash
of lightning into the devil’s tinder-box that was in Hazael’s mind and heart.
If his mind and heart had been pure and good he would never have dreamed of not
waiting until God opened the way for him to be king. But his imagination and
heart were all primed, and the devilish fuse was laid, and it needed only the
lighted match to transform this man Hazael, whom everybody supposed, and who
thought himself to be, an amiable good kind of a man, into a liar and a
murderer.
V. External
circumstances over which we have no control are often a potent factor in our
lives. The coming of Elisha to Damascus and his prophecy concerning Ben-hadad
and Hazael, were factors which brought Hazael’s career to a focus. Something
may happen to-morrow which you know nothing about now, which may cause you to
commit a sin which you would not to-night believe to be possible. (L. A.
Banks, D. D.)
On the character of Hazael
In this passage of history, an object is presented which deserves
our serious attention. We behold a man who, in one state of life, could not
look upon certain crimes without surprise and horror; who knew so little of
himself, as to believe it impossible for him ever to be concerned in committing
them; that same man, by a change of condition, transformed in all his
sentiments, and, as he rose in greatness, rising also in guilt; till at last he
completed that whole character of iniquity which he once detested. Hence the following
observations naturally arise.
I. Sentiments of
abhorrence at guilt are natural to the human mind. Hazael’s reply to the
prophet, shows how strongly he felt them. This is the voice of human nature,
while it is not as yet hardened in iniquity. Some vices are indeed more odious
to the mind than others. Providence has wisely pointed the sharpest edge of
this natural aversion against the crimes which are of most pernicious and
destructive nature; such as treachery, oppression, and cruelty. But, in general,
the distinction between moral good and evil is so strongly marked, as to stamp
almost every vice with the character of turpitude. Present to any man, even the
most ignorant and untutored, an obvious instance of injustice, falsehood, or
impiety; let him view it in a cool moment, when no passion blinds, and no
interest warps him; and you will find that his mind immediately revolts against
it, as shameful and base, nay, as deserving punishment. Hence, in reasoning on
the characters of others, however men may mistake as to facts, yet they generally
praise and blame according to the principles of sound morality. With respect to
their own character, a notorious partiality too generally misleads their
judgment. But it is remarkable, that no sinner ever avows directly to himself,
that he has been guilty of gross and downright iniquity. Such power the
undeniable dignity of virtue, and the acknowledged turpitude of vice, possesses
over every human heart. These sentiments are the remaining impressions of that
law which was originally written on the mind of man.
II. That such is
man’s ignorance of his own character, such the frailty of his nature, that he
may one day become infamous for those very crimes which at present he holds in
detestation. This observation is too well verified by the history of Hazael;
and a thousand other instances might be brought to confirm it. Though there is
nothing which every person ought to know so thoroughly as his own heart, yet
from the conduct of men it appears, that there is nothing with which they are
less acquainted. Always more prone to flatter themselves than desirous to
discover the truth, they trust to their being possessed of every virtue which
has not been put to the trial; and reckon themselves secure against every vice
to which they have not hitherto been tempted. As long as their duty hangs in
speculation, it appears so plain, and so eligible, that they cannot doubt of
performing it. The suspicion never enters their mind, that in the hour of
speculation, and in the hour of practice, their sentiments may differ widely.
Their present disposition they easily persuade themselves will ever continue
the same; and yet that disposition is changing with circumstances every moment.
The man who glows with the warm feelings of devotion imagines it impossible for
him to lose that sense of the Divine goodness which at present melts his heart.
He whom his friend had lately saved from ruin, is confident that, if some trying
emergency shall put his gratitude to proof, he will rather die than abandon his
benefactor. He who lives happy and contented in frugal industry, wonders how
any man can give himself up to dissolute pleasure. Were any of those persons
informed by a superior spirit, that the time was shortly to come when the one
should prove an example of scandalous impiety, the other of treachery to his
friend, and the third of all that extravagant luxury which disgraces a growing
fortune; each of them would testify as much surprise and abhorrence as Hazael
did, upon hearing the predictions of the Prophet. Sincere they might very
possibly be in their expressions of indignation; for hypocrisy is not always to
be charged on men whose conduct is inconsistent. Hazael wan in earnest, when he
resented with such ardour the imputation of cruelty. In such cases as I have
described, what has become, it may be inquired, of those sentiments of
abhorrence at guilt, which were once felt so strongly? Are they totally erased?
or, if in any degree they remain, how do such persons contrive to satisfy
themselves in acting a part which their minds condemn? Here, there is a mystery of
iniquity which requires to be unfolded. Latent and secret is the progress of
corruption within the soul; and the more latent, the more dangerous is its
growth. No man becomes of a sudden completely wicked. Guilt never shows its
whole deformity at once; but by gradual acquaintance reconciles us to its
appearance, and imperceptibly diffuses its poison through all the powers of the
mind’ Every man ham some darling passion, which generally affords the first
introduction to vice. One vice brings in another to its aid. By a sort of
natural affinity they connect and entwine themselves together; till their roots
come to be spread wide and deep over all the soul. When guilt rises to be
glaring, conscience endeavours to remonstrate. But conscience is a calm
principle. Passion is loud and impetuous; and creates a tumult which drowns the
voice of reason. It joins, besides, artifice to violence; and seduces at the
same time that it impels. For it employs the understanding to impose upon the
conscience. It devises reasons and arguments to justify the corruptions of the
heart. The common practice of the world is appealed to. Nice distinctions are
made. Men are found to be circumstanced in so peculiar a manner, as to render
certain actions excusable, if not blameless, which, in another situation, it is
confessed, would have been criminal. By such a process as this, there is reason
to believe, that a great part of mankind advance from step to step in sin, partly
hurried by passion, and partly blinded by self-deceit, without any just sense
of the degree of guilt which they contract. It is proper, however, to observe,
that though our native sentiments of abhorrence at guilt may be so born down,
or so eluded, as to lose their influence on conduct, yet those sentiments
belonging originally to our frame, and being never totally eradicated from the
soul, will still retain so much authority, as, if not to reform, at least, on
some occasions, to chasten the sinner. It is only during a course of
prosperity, that vice is able to carry on its delusions without disturbance.
But, amidst the dark and thoughtful situations of life, conscience regains its
rights; and pours the whole bitterness of remorse on his heart, who has apostatised
from his original principles. We may well believe that, before the end of his
days, Hazael’s first impressions would be made to return.
III. That the power
which corruption acquires to pervert the original principles of man is
frequently owing to a change of their circumstances and condition in the world.
How different was Hazael the messenger of Benhadad, from Hazael the king; he
who started at the mention of cruelty, from him who waded in blood! Of this sad
and surprising revolution, the Prophet emphatically assigns the cause in these
few words; The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. That
crown, that fatal crown, which is to be set upon thy head, shall shed a
malignant influence over thy nature; and shall produce that change in thy
character, which now thou canst not believe. Whose experience of the world is
so narrow, as not to furnish him with instances similar to this, in much
humbler conditions of life? So great is the influence of a new situation of
external fortune; such a different turn it gives to our temper and affections,
to our views and desires, that no man can foretell what his character would
prove, should Providence either raise or depress his circumstances in a
remarkable degree, or throw him into some sphere of action, widely different
from that to which he has been accustomed in former life. The seeds of various
qualities, good and bad, lie in all our hearts. But until proper occasions
ripen and bring them forward, they lie there inactive and dead. They are covered
up and concealed within the recesses of our nature; or, if they spring up at
all, it is under such an appearance as is frequently mistaken, even by
ourselves. This may, in one light, be accounted not so much an alteration of
character produced by a change of circumstances, as a discovery brought forth
of the real character which formerly lay concealed. Yet, at the same time, it
is true that the man himself undergoes a change. For opportunity being given
for certain dispositions, which had been dormant, to exert themselves without
restraint, they of course gather strength. By means of the ascendancy which
they gain, other parts of the temper are borne down; and thus an alteration is
made in the whole structure and system of the soul. He is a truly wise and good
man, who, through Divine assistance, remains superior to this influence of
fortune on his character, who having once imbibed worthy sentiments, and
established proper principles of action, continues constant to these, whatever
his circumstances be; maintains, throughout all the changes of his life, one
uniform and supported tenor of conduct; and what he abhorred as evil and wicked
in the beginning of his days, continues to abhor to the end. The instance of
Hazael’s degeneracy leads us to reflect, in particular, on the dangers which
arise from stations of power and greatness; especially when the elevation of
men to these has been rapid and sudden. Few have the strength of mind which is
requisite for bearing such a change with temperance and self-command. From the
whole view which we have now taken of the subject, we may, in the first place, learn
the reasons for which a variety of conditions and ranks was established by
Providence among mankind. This life is obviously intended to be a state of
probation and trial. No trial of characters is requisite with respect to God,
who sees what is in every heart, and perfectly knows what part each man would
act, in all the possible situations of fortune. But on account of men
themselves, and of the world around them, it was necessary that trial should
take place, and a discrimination of characters be made; in order that true
virtue might be separated from false appearances of it, and the justice of
Heaven be displayed in its final retributions; in order that the failings of
men might be so discovered to themselves, as to afford them proper instruction,
and promote their amendment; and in order that their characters might be shown
to the world in every point of view, which could furnish either examples for
imitation or admonitions of danger. In the second place, We learn, from what
has been said, the importance of attending, with the utmost care, to the choice
which we make of our employment and condition of life. It has been shown, that
our external situation frequently operates powerfully on our moral character;
and by consequence that it is strictly connected, not only with our temporal
welfare, but with our everlasting happiness or misery. He who might have passed
unblamed, and upright, through certain walks of life, by unhappily choosing a
road where he meets with temptations too strong for his virtue, precipitates
himself into shame here, and into endless ruin hereafter. In the third place,
We learn from the history which has been illustrated, never to judge of true
happiness, merely from the degree of men’s advancement in the world. Always
betrayed by appearances, the multitude are caught by nothing so much as by the
show and pomp of life. They think every one blest who is raised far above
others in rank. (H. Blair, D. D.)
Benhadad and Hazael-Elisha in tears
The cure of Naaman the Syrian was long remembered in Damascus. It
is not surprising, therefore, that Ben-hadad the king, although an
idolater--finding himself in the grasp of a disease that threatened his life--should
have been anxious to consult the prophet Elisha. The answer of the prophet was
ambiguous. So far as the disease itself was concerned, the king might recover;
but the purpose to kill him was already in the heart of his very commissioner.
The man of God bursts into a flood of tears. The fairest lands and cities of
Israel, Hazael would utterly destroy. The hope of Israel--her young men--would
be ruthlessly slain. And there were other nameless and almost incredible
barbarities. The courtier is rooted to the earth with horror. He repudiates the
image of the prophetic mirror. At the thought of such crimes, he recoils from
his own future self. “Is thy servant a dog?” he exclaims in indignation, “to
commit such a mass of iniquities?” Elisha makes no reply, save this; he would
be soon king of Syria, and then he left Hazael to infer the rest.
1. Let me remark, to a heart not wholly corrupted, such
self-repudiation as this of Hazael is natural. Are we to look on this Syrian
prince, as he stands in the presence of Elisha, merely as a hypocrite? I think
not. I believe his recoil from his future guilt, as here narrated, was
perfectly genuine. I believe that when he uttered the words, “Is thy servant a
dog?” he was quite unable to realise that he could ever be the author of the
crimes predicted. The story, therefore, is true to nature. Suppose Cain had
been told he would one day lift his club against his brother and fell him to
the ground, would he not have said, and said with quite as much passionate
feeling as Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog?” Can we doubt that David would have
uttered the same language, had any one predicted his conduct in the matter of
Uriah? I believe the time was when Judas even would have started back, in
deprecating protest and shuddering terror, asking in relation to the awful
crime he afterwards committed, “Is thy servant a dog?” This is only the voice
of human nature, not yet hardened in iniquity. When no passion blinds him and
no interest warps the feelings of his heart, the most ignorant and untutored
man will often revolt from sin and crime.
2. Although to a heart not wholly corrupted, such self-repudiation as
this of Hazael is natural, man’s ignorance of his own character is such that he
may one day be guilty of the very sins which for the present he believes to be
impossible. Elisha was right; Hazael was wrong. He did not know his own heart.
“Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” We know who said
that. Christ knew Peter better than Peter knew himself. “Before the cock crow
twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” Let us pause here and gather up a few solemn
lessons for ourselves.
Oh! had he stayed by bonnie Doon,
And learned to curb his passions wild,
We had not mourned his early fate,
Nor pity wept o’er Nature’s child.
Southey, speaking of the first Napoleon, has this remark: “He had
given indications of his military talents at Toulon; he had also shown a little
of a remorseless nature at Paris in his earlier years; but the extent either of
his ability or his wickedness was at this time known to none, and perhaps not
even suspected by himself.” New circumstances bring new temptations. That lad,
brought up in the quiet of the country, enters on a city life. In a few years
the old habits, in fact the very old ways of thinking and looking at things,
are all changed. Be gentle in your judgments upon others; be severe, most
severe, in your judgments upon yourself. (H. T. Howat.)
Hazael: a revealer of human nature
I. The sense of
virtue in human nature. When the prophet with tears told Hazael the heartless
cruelties he would perpetrate--he seemed to have such a sense of virtue within
him that he was shocked at the monstrosity, and said, “What! is thy servant a
dog?” We need not suppose that he feigned this astonishment, but that it was real,
and that it now produced a revulsion at the cruelties he was told he would soon
perpetrate. Every man has a sense of right within him; indeed, this sense is an
essential element in our constitution, the moral substance of our manhood, the
core of our nature, our moral ego; it is what we call conscience.
II. The evil
possibilities of human nature. This man, who was shocked at the idea of
perpetrating such enormities at first, actually enacted them a few hours
afterwards. The elements of the devil are in every man, though he may not know
it. The vulture eggs of evil are in all depraved hearts; it only requires a
certain heat of the outward atmosphere to hatch’ them into life. The virtue of
many men is only vice sleeping. The evil elements of the heart are like
gunpowder, passive, until the spark of temptation falls on them. The greatest
monsters in human history were at one time considered innocent and kind. “Many
a man,” says a modern author, “could he have a glimpse in innocent youth of
what he would be twenty or thirty years after, would pray in anguish that he
might be taken in youth before coming to that.” What is the moral of this? The
necessity of a change of heart.
III. The
self-ignorance of human nature. How ignorant of himself and his heart was Hazael
when he said, “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?” Men do
not know what they are. Self-ignorance is the most common of all ignorance; the
most culpable of all ignorance; the most ruinous of all ignorance.
IV. The resilient
velocity of human nature. To-day this man seemed in sympathy with the just and
the good, to-morrow his whole nature is aflame with injustice and cruelty;
to-day he soars up with the angels, to-morrow he revels with the torturing
fiends. Souls can fall from virtue swiftly as the shooting stars. One hour they
may blaze in the firmament, the next lie deep in the mud. (Homilist.)
The progressive power of sin
Two meanings are possible to these words. They may indicate a
horror of what the prophet had revealed, and a shrinking from such baseness;
or, simply a feeling that such bloody deeds are possible only for a king, and
that he was no king, but a dog, rather. Both interpretations have this in
common, that a look into the future reveals surprising things. No man’s life
turns out exactly as he expects, often the reverse. The prophet’s eyes were
opened by God to behold the career of Hazael; he saw him murder his king,
ascend the throne, and at the head of devastating armies overrun Israel, and
give the land up to pillage and blood. Hazael starts back in surprise, if not
in horror; he has not the power to do it, if he would; perhaps he means he
would not if he could. But it all proved true, nevertheless; and Hazael’s
experience is, for Substance, that of men in these days. No sinner knows what
he may be left to do. The characters and destinies of men are surprises even to
themselves. The least sin, if unchecked by repentance and amendment, will grow
into the greatest.
I. See how habits
are formed. When one act is followed by another of the same sort, it is as when
foot follows foot, and a path is beaten. A single drop, distilling from the
mossy hillside, does not make a stream, but let drop follow drop, and the
stream will flow, and gather force and volume, till it hollows the valleys,
chisels the rocks, and feeds the ocean. So habits, strong as life, come from
little acts following one another, drop by drop, “Every one is the son of his
own works,” says Cervantes, and Wordsmith, more beautifully still, “The child
is the father of the man.”
II. See how one sin
begets another. Just as the graces come, not alone--there were three of them,
the ancients said, so one virtue leads another by the hand; and music lingers
in the echo, which sometimes is softer than the parent voice. So, too, in the
inverse kingdom of evil, one wrong necessitates another, to hide it, or
accomplish its ends It is a small thing to lie, when one has committed a crime
which will not bear the light; and a common thing to add to one crime another
greater than itself. “Dead men tell no tales,” and when the telling of tales
cannot be prevented otherwise, the silence of the grave is invoked; and the man
becomes a murderer, who before was only too cowardly to have a less sin known.
Sin is like the letting out of waters, at first a trickling stream a finger
might stop, at last a flying flood sweeping man and his works alike into ruin.
Sin is a fire; at first a spark a drop might extinguish, at last a
conflagration taking cities on its wings, and melting primeval rocks into dust.
III. Consider, also,
what complications grow out of the providence of God. If nothing new happened,
a man might, in some measure, control his sin; but the new and unexpected is
always taking place, and therefore the sinner must do something else, something
he did not expect and did not wish to do, but the doing of which is
necessitated by what has occurred; anal failure in this is failure in all. Men
do not leap at a bound into crime; they are pushed into it by a force from
behind. They would often stop if they could--they even mean to--but they are
launched into a current, which, without their aid, widens and deepens, and,
peradventure, becomes a Niagara. There are two lessons to be learned:
1. Fear to sin. It is the fundamental lesson of life. “Stand in awe
and sin not.” Beware of doctrines, the practical effect of which is to make you
think less of the evil of sin. Let Sinai and Calvary be your teachers. The laws
of God in this world are terribly severe. Expect at least as much in the world
to come. The love of God does not prevent an infinite amount of suffering in
tiffs life; it is presumption to believe it will in the next. The love of God
is no indiscriminate indulgence; it is not less love for the law than for those
who fall beneath its infraction. The world of to-day proves it; the world in
all ages does.
2. Another lesson. Behold your eternal future in the moving present.
As the oak is in the acorn, and the river in the fountain, so the man is in the
child, and so eternity is in time. So eternal destinies are ripening as fruits
of time. (W. J. Buddington, D. D.)
The prophet’s tears
What wonder that Elisha wept? Who would not weep if he could see
what is coming upon his country? Whose heart would not pour out itself in blood
to know what is yet to be done in the land of his birth or the country of his
adoption? If the men of long ago could have seen how civilisation would be
turned into an engine of oppression, how the whole land would groan under the
burden of drunkeries and breweries, and houses of hell of every name; if they
could have seen how the truth would be sold in the market-place, and how there
would be no further need of martyrdom, surely they would have died the violent
death of grief. The heart can only be read in the sanctuary. You cannot read it
through journalism, or criticism, or political comment, or combinations of any
kind which exclude the Divine element; to know what Hazael will do, let Elisha
read him. The journalist never could have read him; he might have called him long-headed,
intrepid, sagacious, a statesman; but the prophet said, “Their strongholds wilt
thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt
dash their children, and rip up their women with child:” thy course is a course
of havoc. It is only in the sanctuary that we know what things really are. When
the pulpit becomes a very tower of God, a very fort of heaven, then the
preacher will be able to say, as no other man can say, what the heart is, and
what the heart will do under circumstances yet to be revealed. But whence has
the preacher this power? He has it as a Divine gift. (J. Parker, D.
D.)
Startling
My subject, as suggested by the words before us, is the common and
too often fatal ignorance of men as to the wickedness of their own hearts.
I. Let us expose
and expound this ignorance. Our ignorance of the depravity of our own hearts is
a startling fact, Hazael did not believe that he was bad enough to do any of
the things here anticipated. “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this
great thing?” He might have been
conscious enough that his heart was not So pure but it might
consent to do many an evil thing; yet crimes so flagrant as those the prophet
had foretold of him, he thought himself quite incapable of committing. Ah, the
ignorance of Hazael is ours to a greater or less degree! God only knows the
vileness of the human heart. There is a depth beneath, a hidden spring, into
which we cannot pry. In that lower depth, there is a still deeper abyss of
positive corruption which we need not wish to fathom. God grant that we may
know enough of this to humble
us, and keep us ever low before Him!
II. But now I turn
to the practical use of our subject, looking at it in two ways.
what it forbids and what it suggests. The depravity of our nature
forbids, first of all, a venturing or presuming to play and toy with
temptation. When a Christian asks, “May I go into such a place?”--should he
parley thus with himself? “True, temptation is very strong there, but I shall
not yield. It would be dangerous to another man, but it is safe to me. If I
were younger, or less prudent and circumspect, I might be in jeopardy; but I
have passed the days of youthful passion. I have learned by experience to be
more expert; I think, therefore, that I may venture to plunge, and hope to swim
where younger men have been carried away by the tide, and less stable ones have
been drowned.” All such talking as this cometh of evil, and gendereth evil.
Proud flesh vaunteth its purity, and becomes a prey to every vice. Let those
who feel themselves to be of a peculiarly sensitive constitution not venture
into a place where disease is rife. If I knew my lungs to be weak, and liable
to congestion, I should shrink from foul air, and any vicious atmosphere. If
you know that your heart has certain proclivities to sin, why go and tempt the
devil to take advantage of you? But, again, knowing how vile we are by nature,
knowing indeed that we are bad enough for anything, let us take another
caution. Boast not, neither in any wise vaunt yourselves. Presume not to say,
“I shall never do this; I shall never do that.” Never venture to ask, with
Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” My
experience has furnished me with many proofs that the braggart in morality is
not the man to be bound for. Above all, avoid those men who think themselves
immaculate, and never fear a fall If there be a ship on God’s sea the captain
of which declares that nothing can ever sink her, stand clear, get into the
first leaky boat to escape from her, for she will surely founder. Give a ship
the flag of humility, and it is well; but they that spread out the red flag of
pride, and boast that they are staunch and trim, and shall never sink, will
either strike upon a rock or founder in the open sea.
III. And let this
fact, that we do not know our own baseness, teach us not to be harsh, or too
severe, with those of God’s people who have inadvertently fallen into sin. Be
severe with their sin; never countenance it; let your actions and your conduct
prove that you hate the garment spotted with the flesh, that you abhor the
transgression, cannot endure it, and must away with it. Yet ever distinguish
between the transgressor and the transgression. Think not that his soul is lost
because his feet have slipped. Imagine not that, because he has gone astray, he
cannot be restored. If there must be a church censure passed upon him, yet take
care that thou dost so act that he, in penitence of spirit, may joyously
return. Be thou as John was to Peter.
IV. Leaving now
this point of caution, let us consider, by way of counsel, what positive
suggestions may arise. H we be thus depraved, and know not the full extent of
our depravity what then should we do? Surely, we should daily mourn before God
because of this great sinfulness. Full of sin we are, so let us constantly
renew our grief. We have not repented of sin to the full extent, unless we
repent of the disposition to sin as well as the actual commission of sin. We
should deplore before God, not only what we have done, but that depravity which
made us do it.
V. And when thou
hast done, take heed that thou walkest every day very near to God, seeking
daily supplies of His grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 16-29
Verses 17-24
Jehoram--began to reign.
Lessons from the life of Jehoram
This is a short fragment of a king’s history, the history of
Jehoram. Brief as it is, it contains many practical truths.
I. That piety is not
necessarily hereditary. Parents, as a rule, transmit their physical and
intellectual qualities to their children, but not their moral characters.
Jehoram was a bad man and a wicked king, but he was the son of Jehoshaphat, who
was a man of distinguished piety, and reigned wisely and beneficently over
Israel for twenty-five years. Of him it was said that “the more his riches and
honour increased the more his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 17:5-6). But how
different was his son! One of the first acts of his government was to put to
death his six brothers, and several of the leading men of the empire. But
whilst piety is not necessarily hereditary, because children are moral agents:
what then? Are parents to do nothing to impart all that is good in their
character to their children? Undoubtedly no! They are commanded to “train up a
child in the way it should go when it is young.” Where the children of godly parents
turn out to be profligate and corrupt, as a rule some defect may be traced to
parental conduct. Even in the life of Jehoshaphat, we detect at [east two
parental defects.
1. In permitting his son to form unholy alliances.
2. In granting his son too great an indulgence. He raised him to the
throne during his own lifetime. He took him into royal partnership too soon,
and thus supplied him with abundant means to foster his vanity and ambition.
II. That immoral
kings are national curses. What evils this man brought upon his country!
Through him the kingdom of Judah lost Edom (which had been its tributary for
one hundred and fifty years), which “revolted” and became the determined enemy
of Judah ever afterwards (Psalms 137:7). Libnah, too, “revolted at
the same time.” This was a city in the south-western part of Judah assigned to
the priests, and a city of refuge. It has always been so. Wicked kings, in all
ages, have been the greatest curses that have afflicted the race. Another
practical truth is--
III. That death is
no respecter of persons.
1. Death does not respect a man’s position, however high.
2. Death does not respect a man’s character however vile. Jehoram was
a bad man, and utterly unfit to die: but death waits not for moral preparation.
(David Thomas, D. D.)
Baneful influence of a wicked wife
Jehoram, the son of good Jehoshaphat, walked in the evil ways of
the kings of Israel, and he wrought that which was evil in the sight of the
Lord. For--mark the reason given by the inspired historian-jehoram did that
which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, for “He had the daughter of Ahab to
wife!” What secrets were indicated by that one reason! What a whole volume of
tragedy is wrapped up in that brief sentence! The responsibility seems to a
large extent transferred from him and placed upon his wife, who was a subtler
thinker, a more desperate character, with a larger brain and a firmer will,
with more accent and force of personality. “Be not unequally yoked together:”
do not look upon marriage lightly; do not suppose that it is a game for the
passing day, a flash and gone, a hilarious excitement, a wine-bibbing, a
passing round of kind salutations, then dying away like a trembling echo. Beware
what connections you form, and do not suppose that the laws of God can be set
aside with impunity. Our family life explains our public attitude and
influence. What we are at home we are really abroad. Wives, do not destroy your
husbands: when they would do good, help them; when they propose to give to the
cause of charity, suggest that the donation be doubled, not divided; when they
would help in any good and noble work, give them sympathy, and prayer, and
blessing. We never knew a man yet of any enduring public power that was not
made by his wife, and we never knew a public yet that fully appreciated the
value of that ministry. It is secret; it is at home; it does not show, it is not chalked on a
black-board, it is not gilded on a high ceiling, it is silent--but vital. We
have seen a man go down in his church life, and we have wondered why, and it
was his wife, the daughter of Ahab, who was degrading him, narrowing him and
dwarfing him in his thinking and sympathy. We have seen a man go up in his
public influence, and we have found that it was his wife who was encouraging
him, helping him, telling him that he was on the right way, and wishing him
good luck in the name of the Lord. See to it that your home is right: have a
beautiful home--morally and religiously; a sacred house, a sanctuary where joy
is the singing angel, and then, when you come abroad into the market-place,
into the pulpit or into parliament, or into trading and commerce, or into any
of the social relations of life, you will bring with you all the inspiration
that comes from a home that blooms like a garden or glows like a summer sun. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Verses 25-29
In the twelfth year of Joram.
Kinghood: the conventional and the true
Looking at King Ahaziah, as here sketched, two points strike our
attention.
I. A king by
physical heredity. This man came from the lineage of kings.
1. This arrangement is not Divine. All that can be said is that God permitted,
not ordained their existence.
2. This arrangement is absurd. That a man should become a ruler
because of his birth is an outrage on common sense. They only will be future
kings who are royal in character, in intelligence, and philanthropy. The greatest
man of the community will become its king. What is called loyalty is a debased
and selfish flunkeyism, not a devout homage for the good. Are we not commanded
to “honour the king”? Yes, but it is implied that he is honour-worthy. Are we
to honour such men as Henry VIII., Charles II., and other such monarchical
monsters, which, alas! abound in history? No; denounce them, hurl them from
their thrones.
II. A monster by
moral descent. He was the descendant of one of the most ruthless and most
corrupt of that Hebrew people who were fast “filling up the measure of their
iniquities.” This man, like the offspring of all wicked parents, would inherit
the spirit, imbibe the principles, and imitate the example of his parents. (D.
Thomas, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》