Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Kings 7:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 2 Kings 7:2. Then a lord — שליש shalish. This word, as a name of office, occurs often, and seems to point out one of the highest offices in the state. So unlikely was this prediction to be fulfilled, that he thought God must pour out wheat and barley from heaven before it could have a literal accomplishment.

But shalt not eat thereof. — This was a mere prediction of his death, but not as a judgment for his unbelief; any person in his circumstances might have spoken as he did. He stated in effect that nothing but a miracle could procure the plenty predicted, and by a miracle alone was it done; and any person in his place might have been trodden to death by the crowd in the gate of Samaria.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Miracles of warning to Israel (6:8-8:15)

The remaining stories of Elisha concentrate on his dealings with the rulers of Israel and Syria. God was going to use Syria to punish Israel for its sin during the period of the Omri dynasty, but first he had various lessons to teach the two nations.
On one occasion when Israel and Syria were fighting each other, Elisha repeatedly warned the Israelite king of Syrian ambushes (8-10). The Syrian king was furious when he learnt why his ambushes failed, and sent an army to capture Elisha. Instead Elisha took control of the Syrian soldiers and led them to the Israelite capital, Samaria (11-19).
Israel’s king thought this a perfect opportunity to slaughter the enemy, but Elisha directed him to feed them and release them. As a result peace was temporarily restored between Israel and Syria. The whole story was a lesson to both countries that God controlled their destinies (20-23).
Some time later the Syrians returned and besieged Samaria. With people dying of starvation and no help from God in sight, the king blamed Elisha for the trouble and tried to murder him (24-33). Elisha assured the king there would be plenty of food the next day (7:1-2), but when a report reached the king that it had arrived, he was slow to believe (3-12). The report was true, and at least one person was trampled to death as people rushed to buy (13-20).
In spite of the judgment that had begun to fall on Israel, God was still caring for those who were faithful to him. The woman whose son had been raised to life (see 4:8-37) was saved from poverty by being warned of a famine soon to hit Israel. She went and lived elsewhere during the famine, but by God’s control of events she received back all her property when she returned to Israel (8:1-6).

Meanwhile God was continuing to prepare Syria to be his instrument to punish Israel. The king Ben-hadad was seriously ill, but he would have recovered had not Hazael murdered him. Hazael then became king. Elisha wept when he saw the terrible suffering that Hazael would bring upon Israel (7-15; cf. 1 Kings 19:15).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ELISHA'S PROPHECY OF IMMEDIATE VICTORY FOR SAMARIA

"And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if Jehovah should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof."

If there was ever a prophecy that appeared to be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE of fulfillment, this was it! What the captain meant by his remark to Elisha was: "Your God Jehovah could not make that happen if he opened windows in heaven and rained down food on our city." The unbelief of the king of Israel and his evil court are evident in the conversation here. It is a marvel that the king did not proceed with his intention of executing Elisha, but God restrained him. Elisha promptly added another prophecy that likewise appeared to be IMPOSSIBLE of fulfillment, namely, that the captain would see the fulfillment of the promise of plenty of food within twenty-four hours, but that he would not eat any of it!

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

A lord - Rather, “the captain,” as in Exodus 14:7; 1 Kings 9:22; etc. The term itself, שׁלישׁ shâlı̂ysh (derived from שׁלושׁ shâlôsh, “three,”) may be compared with the Latin “tribunus.”

Windows - Rather, “sluices” (compare Genesis 7:11). The “lord” means to say “If Yahweh were to open sluices in heaven, and pour down grain as He poured down rain in the time of the Deluge, even then could there be such abudnance as thou speakest of?”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 7

And Elisha said, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, Tomorrow about this time they will be selling a bushel of fine flour for sixty-five cents, and two bushels of fine of barley for sixty-five cents, right in the gate of Samaria. Now [the prime minister,] the guy upon whom the king leaned, said to the prophet of God, if God would open up windows in heaven, could such a thing be? ( 2 Kings 7:1-2 )

Now it is interesting that so often we try to figure out how God can do His work. God gives us a glorious promise but I want to know how's He going to do it. I've got to be able to somehow figure it out in my mind. Now, the Bible says, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Philippians 4:19 ). Oh, that's great. But how is He going to supply? I've got the bills coming; how's He going to meet the bills this week? How's He going to do it? As though I need to know the methods. Now, I'm always trying to figure out how God can meet my needs. I'm always trying to figure out a way by which God might answer my prayers. And when I figure out a way by which God might answer them, then my prayers are usually direction prayers rather than direct prayers. My prayer turns into my solution. "O Lord, I've got it worked out. If You'll just do this and this and this, Lord, then it's going to come. It will happen."

But God doesn't always follow my directions. And that's where we have problems. Because if He isn't following my directions, then I get upset with Him. I don't think He wants to help me. I don't think He wants to answer my prayer. Why? Because He's not following my directions. I got it all worked out the way God's going to do it. Rather than just direct prayers, I'm telling God how to do His business.

And so this guy tried to figure out, rationalize how that, how in the world, when they're selling a donkey's skull for eighty pieces of silver. How in the world they going to be selling fine flour for sixty-five cents tomorrow. God can go around and open up windows of heaven and dump flour all over the place. And so mocking the promise of God. Now this is through unbelief. He mocked the promise of God because of his unbelief. Because he could not figure out in his mind a way by which God might do what God said He was going to do.

Now I often cannot figure out how God is going to do things, and that's when I really panic. As long as I can figure out a way by which God might do it, I'm usually in good shape. But when they've made the Reader's Digest drawing and my number wasn't drawn in the Grand Sweepstakes, now how God going to do it? He's failed me. I had it all worked out. All He had to do is pull my number out of the box. He couldn't see. Now, I want you to know that God has resources that you know nothing about, and God has ways of working of which you not have not even thought. God says, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are beyond your finding out. My thoughts are not your thoughts" ( Isaiah 55:8-9 ). "My ways are beyond your finding out" ( Romans 11:33 ).

It isn't up to me to discover or to know or to figure out how God is going to do His work. It's only to believe that God is going to work because He said He would. And if God says He's going to do it, He's going to do it. But this fellow through unbelief mocked the promise of God.

And the prophet said unto him, [Fellow, let me tell you something,] you'll see it but you won't eat it ( 2 Kings 7:2 ).

God's going to work in spite of your unbelief, but you're not going to partake. And that's one tragic thing about unbelief, so often it keeps you from partaking even after God has done His work. Now, God has done a glorious work of salvation for you. But many people have not partaken of that glorious work of God through unbelief. Unbelief keeps you from God's work in your life. And you can see the work of God, but not partake of it. You can see what God has done. He did what He promised He'd do. But you yourself cannot partake because of unbelief. Oh, how unbelief can rob you of the things of God and the blessings of God. You're going to see it but you won't eat it.

Now that night, outside of the gate of, or outside of the wall of Samaria,

There were four leprous men [living at the garbage dump] ( 2 Kings 7:3 ).

In those days leprosy was such a loathsome disease that the people were ostracized from the community, and they were forced to live apart from the community. When people approach them, they had to start crying out, "Unclean, unclean," so people wouldn't get too near. Now, these people usually lived outside of the city wall, outside of the area of the wall where the people would dump their garbage. And they would survive off of the garbage that was dumped over the wall. But the famine was so bad in Samaria they weren't dumping garbage. They were selling it. Nothing coming over the wall and these guys are really getting hungry. Of course, you can imagine what it is if they're eating babies in the city what it would be trying to survive off of what's thrown over the wall.

[These four guys sitting there starving to death], one of them looked with at the others and he said, [Fellows,] why just sit here 'til we die? ( 2 Kings 7:3 )

That's a good question. Why just sit here till we die? In other words, if I don't do anything, I'm going to die. Just sitting here, I'm going to die. Why just sit until I die?

Now there's no sense going into Samaria, for they're starving in Samaria. So they can't give us any food in there anyhow. Let's go over to the camp of the Syrians. And if they kill us, we haven't lost a thing because we're going to die anyhow. But it's possible that they'll have mercy on us and get us a crust of bread. So these four fellows were taking a venture, sort of, in faith. But it's on that philosophy "You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain." I mean, if they kill us what have we lost? We're going to die here anyhow. We're starving to death. So if they kill us, we haven't lost a thing. But they might feed us. We don't know. And so they headed toward the camp of the Syrians, four leprous men.

Now God worked a miracle. As these four leprous men were clanging down the road toward the camp of the Syrians, in that evening darkness the Syrians thought they heard the sound of chariots and horses and a multitude of men. And they said, "Oh, the king of Samaria has hired the Egyptians and they're coming up against us. Let's get out of here." And they started running. And the guy said, "Hey, where you going?" "Egyptians are coming!" Oh, you know, and they started off. And pandemonium broke out in the camp of Syria as the guys all took off running back towards the Jordan River, and across up into the Golan into Syria.

So by the time these four leprous men got to the first tent, there was nobody around. So one guy opened up the tent flap, he says, "Wow, look at that." Tables set with food. Man, these guys pounced on it, began to scarf it up. And some of the treasures that were lying around in the tent, the guys dug a hole, began to bury it. Someone ran to another tent. "Come on over here, another tent." And they ran over there and started grabbing things and burying them. One of the fellows suddenly stopped and said, "Wait a minute. We're doing wrong. We keep this up, mischief is going to come on us. For just right over close by in the city of Samaria people are starving to death tonight. And if we are out here and we just keep this to ourselves, and we just gorge ourselves but don't let them know, then mischief is going to happen to us. We better go back and tell them that there's plenty of food for everybody."

So they came back to the wall of Samaria and the guard was up there pacing back and forth looking for the Syrians, pulling his belt tight, feeling the hunger pang. These guys called up and they said, "Hey man, the Syrian camp is empty and there's plenty of food for everybody. Enough to feed the whole city." And so the guard ran to the king and he said, "I've just received a report. The Syrian camp is empty and there's plenty of food for everybody."

The king said, "It's a trap. Don't let anybody go out. Lock the gates. Those Syrians they're sly people. They know how hungry we are, so they've just pulled back into the bushes and are hiding back in the bushes and they're waiting for us to open the gate of the city and come flooding out. And as soon as we open the gate, then they'll come pouring in and they're going to wipe us out. Don't let anybody go."

Look again at the tragedy of unbelief. Here God has provided, just like He promised He would, but unbelief keeps them from even partaking of God's glorious provision. One fellow said, "King, there are five horses left in town that hadn't been eaten. Why don't you let five of us guys go out and we will scout around, see if we can find any of the Syrians." And the king said, "Alright, go." And so these guys got on the five remaining horses in town, and they went riding down towards the Jordan River, and they came back in the morning and said, "It's true, king, there's not a Syrian around on this side of the Jordan River. All the way to the Jordan River we found sandals and coats and stuff that they threw off so they could run faster. They're gone."

And so the king said to this guy that leaned, that he leaned upon, sort of his prime minister, who the day before said to the prophet of God, "If God would open the windows in heaven, could such thing be?" The king said, "You go down and you watch the gate as the people go in and out." So this guy went down to watch the gate and the people in their hurry and in their desire to get out trampled him to death. So the word of the prophet came to pass. He saw it, but he didn't eat it. The tragic price of unbelief. "

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then a lord, on whose hand the king leaned,.... Not figuratively, in whom the king confided, but literally, on whose hand he rested, and by whom he was supported, being a form and matter of state, while he and Elisha were talking together, or on whom he leaned as he came to him; this was a principal lord, the third to the king, as his title seems to denote; the word by which the Septuagint renders it is by Suidas u interpreted of such that held three spears in the hand together; and this was an honourable post, for a king to lean on him; such state was used by the king of Syria, 2 Kings 5:18 and by the kings and queens of Persia; so Gorionides w says of Esther, that on the third day; she put on her beautiful garments and glorious ornaments, and took two of her maidens with her, and put her right hand on one of them, and leaned upon her in a royal manner, or as was the manner of kings: the same

answered the man of God; the prophet of the Lord, as the Targum:

and said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? it is impossible it should be, if he was to open the windows of heaven as at the flood, and let down showers of wheat and barley, in like manner as he rained manna in the wilderness:

and he said; the prophet in reply to him:

behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof; wheat and barley sold at the above price, but should not taste of it, as a punishment of his unbelief.

u In voce τρισταται. w Heb. Hist. l. 2. c. 4.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.   2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

      Here, I. Elisha foretels that, notwithstanding the great straits to which the city of Samaria is reduced, yet within twenty-four hours they shall have plenty, 2 Kings 7:1; 2 Kings 7:1. The king of Israel despaired of it and grew weary of waiting: then Elisha foretold it, when things were at the worst. Man's extremity is God's opportunity of magnifying his own power; his time to appear for his people is when their strength is gone,Deuteronomy 32:36. When they had given over expecting help it came. When the son of man comes shall he find faith on the earth?Luke 18:8. The king said, What shall I wait for the Lord any longer? And perhaps some of the elders were ready to say the same: "Well," said Elisha, "you hear what these say; now hear you the word of the Lord, hear what he says, hear it and heed it and believe it: to-morrow corn shall be sold at the usual rate in the gate of Samaria;" that is, the siege shall be raised, for the gate of the city shall be opened, and the market shall be held there as formerly. The return of peace is thus expressed (Judges 5:11), Then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates, to buy and sell there. 2. The consequence of that shall be great plenty. This would, in time, follow of course, but that corn should be thus cheap in so short a time was quite beyond what could be thought of. Though the king of Israel had just now threatened Elisha's life, God promises to save his life and the life of his people; for where sin abounded grace doth much more abound.

      II. A peer of Israel that happened to be present openly declared his disbelief of this prediction, 2 Kings 7:2; 2 Kings 7:2. He was a courtier whom the king had an affection for, as the man of his right hand, on whom he leaned, that is, on whose prudence he much relied, and in whom he reposed much confidence. He thought it impossible, unless God should rain corn out of the clouds, as once he did manna; no less than the repetition of Moses's miracle will serve him, though that of Elijah might have served to answer this intention, the increasing of the meal in the barrel.

      III. The just doom passed upon him for his infidelity, that he should see this great plenty for this conviction, and yet not eat of it to his comfort. Note, Unbelief is a sin by which men greatly dishonour and displease God, and deprive themselves of the favours he designed for them. The murmuring Israelites saw Canaan, but could not enter in because of unbelief. Such (says bishop Patrick) will be the portion of those that believe not the promise of eternal life; they shall see it at a distance--Abraham afar off, but shall never taste of it; for they forfeit the benefit of the promise if they cannot find in their heart to take God's word.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Beware of Unbelief

June 6, 1875 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, it the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof" 2 Kings 7:2 .

The people of Samaria had cast off their allegiance to Jehovah, and worshipped other gods, and therefore, according to his solemn threatening, the Lord visited them with sore judgments. They were so blockaded by Syrian armies, that food failed them altogether, and in their hunger they devoured human flesh, and the most abominable offal. They could not open the city gates, for they knew that the adversary, if he once entered, would sack and ransack the city, and put them all to the sword, and therefore they remained cooped up within the city walls to perish. In their dire extremity the Lord had mercy upon them and remembered that they were the children of Israel, the seed of Abraham, his friend, and therefore he would not utterly destroy them, but gave them space for repentance. He turned an eye of pity upon the famished thousands and promised them relief from the sore famine which had wasted them. How rich in mercy is the Lord our God! Sin must be multiplied exceedingly ere his long suffering ceases; he is unwilling to execute the sentence of his wrath. Judgment is his strange work. He is ever ready with his mercy, he waiteth to be gracious, yea, he is always beforehand with us in his grace, but he is very slow footed in punishment; he pauses by the way and deliberates, and before he deals a blow he often expostulates with himself and cries, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?" Verily he is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Perhaps one reason why the Lord was pleased in Samaria's extremity to visit it so graciously was the presence of Elisha there. There was at least one man in the city who had power with God in prayer, and perhaps a band of the sons of the prophets was with him, so that there were in the apostate city some few holy men, "faithful among the faithless found," and these acted as a handful of salt and preserved the city. Solomon tells us in the Proverbs that one wise man preserved a city, and this was a case in which one godly man did so. The Lord had respect unto his servant, and, for the sake of the man of God, Samaria was saved. Well was Elisha styled the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, for he was a better defense than ten thousand cavalry. Ye cannot measure the beneficial influence of godly men, they are universal benefactors. We hear men speak of the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and the other stars which smile from above upon this earth below, but we too much forget the influence of the stars below upon the heavens above. Power proceeds upward as well as downward, even as the angels ascended as well as descended upon the ladder which Jacob saw. A good man's prayers move the arm which moves the world. The Lord met the need of Samaria by a most merciful promise, all the more full of grace because it bore upon its front the assurance of speedy fulfillment. The prophet was commissioned to declare, "Tomorrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel." They had only four-and-twenty hours to wait; yet once more must the sun go down and rise, and then there should be no more pinching hunger or cruel famine throughout Samaria. The timing of the supply was most kind, he gives twice who gives quickly, and so the speedy promise was doubly precious. The plentifulness of the promise made it the more gracious, for so cheap would the wheat and barley become that they Should be sold at a figure far less than that which had been paid for doves' dung, whatever that may have been, and less than the price of such unwholesome meat as might be gathered from an ass's head, which had been sold for fourscore pieces of silver. The best food, even fine flour, was to be openly vended at a low rate at their very doors. They would not need to send to Egypt or fetch corn from afar, but it was to be brought to their gates, and sold at a price which would enable all to purchase. It was very great goodness on the Lord's part to meet the famine-stricken multitude with such a right royal word of cheer. But observe how God's prophet is answered not as one would have thought, with words of thanksgiving and tears of gratitude, but with the reverse. They did not fall down and on their knees exclaim, "O God, how good thou art!" They did not lift up a single word of praise, as surely they should have done: the only response was a supercilious sneering, contemptuous, unbelieving utterance "If the Lord should make windows in heaven might such a thing be." O base ingratitude! Ungenerous return for such great mercy! Mark well the Lord's answer to the unbeliever's scorn. There is nothing which he will so little endure as unbelief, and unbelief in the face of unusual mercy becomes doubly provoking. In the name of the Lord the prophet at once responded "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof." The Lord has a speedy answer to the unbelief which dares defy him: if men call God liar, they shall ere long have sufficient proof in their own persons that his threatenings do not lie. We shall try this morning to gather from the text the lesson which it was intended to teach us. May God bless us in so doing, helping us by his Holy Spirit. First, let us observe the conduct of unbelief; secondly, the divine answer to it; and, thirdly, the appointed punishment of it. I. First let us notice repentingly, for we have been guilty of this sin ourselves, THE CONDUCT OF UNBELIEF. You will observe that unbelief dares to question the truthfulness of the promise itself. The prophet had said, "To-morrow, about this time, shall two measures of barley be sold for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel;" and directly in the teeth of this "Thus saith Jehovah" comes the contemptuous denial of the lord on whose hand the king leaned. Unbelief does not hesitate to say that what God declares will not be fulfilled, although it frequently veils its speech, and usually imagines some sort of argument upon which to base its denials. Sophistry comes to the aid of incredulity and endeavors to buttress its bowing walls. If you had asked the sneering nobleman why he spoke so Distrustingly, he would have replied, "Why, the promise is far too great to be fulfilled. It is out of all character and reason. How can there be flour enough in this city in twenty-four hours to be sold at a measure for a shekel? Why, you could not get a measure of fine four for ten thousand shekels; it cannot be had for love or money, and there is not a measure of barley left in all the country around Samaria, for the Syrians have plundered every homestead and granary. Do you not see that the thing this prophet talks about is utterly impossible? His talk is preposterous. We might have believed him if his prediction had been a tenth as large, but he has overdone it, and no attention ought to be paid to his maunderings. Has not your unbelief, my brethren, sometimes made out a case for mistrust from the greatness of the promised good? When first the Lord was drawing you with cords of love, was not the very greatness of his mercy one of the severest trials of your faith? When you found that he would blot out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities, did not your heart say, "How can it be?" Well do I remember with what power and sweetness the words of Isaiah once came to my soul to remove this doubt "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways." We forget this glorious declaration, and we fall to measuring God's capability of blessing by our capacity of believing, and because the favor is wonderful we think it improbable. Is not this ill reasoning? Can anything be great with God? Can any marvel be too miraculous for the Lord? The matter is hard in itself, but is it hard for omnipotence? It is a massive blessing, but can it be too large for the infinitely gracious hand to bestow? Surely the Holy One of Israel is not such an one as thyself, wherefore then dost thou limit him as if he could give no more than thou canst give. May divine love deliver our souls from this net of unbelief, which so easily entangles us. Low thoughts of the divine power greatly dishonor God, and deprive us of much comfort. Is he not a great God, and is it not like him to do great things for his people? His resources are infinite, and therefore he is able to verify his promises, however great they may be. He did not promise in ignorance or in haste, his word is not a thing of yesterday, therefore he will not fail to keep his promise to the letter. Perhaps had you enquired of this lord he would have said to you, "Oh, but it will be such a new thing. I have lived in Samaria, and I have not seen flour exposed for sale at any price for months. The householders have hoarded it up, as if each ounce of it were a jewel. Each man has taken care to secure what he had for his own family; and now there is none left anywhere, even in private stores, and yet you talk of selling wheat and barley at the gate of Samaria! Blessed would the eyes be which should see such a thing for many a day! I never expect to see it, and a thousand prophets should not induce me to indulge such a dream. We shall perish by famine or by the sword of the Syrians, for this promise will not be kept." Fly brethren, has not our unbelief sometimes fed upon the novelty of the promised blessing? It seemed a new thing to you sinners that the Lord should in a moment pass by your sins, and make you righteous in the righteousness of Christ: yet the new thing has come to pass. When we hear of a more than ordinarily successful Christian work, many brethren who have not been favored with such prosperity cannot believe it to be true. Had they seen two or three people converted and added to the church in a year, they would have said, "This is the finger of God," but if they hear of forty or a hundred, or even a thousand converted during a gracious revival they are very sceptical. The conversion of thousands under one sermon they admit may have taken place in Old Testament times, but that is a long time ago; we cannot expect to see such things now. Thus they reason in their hearts, and insinuate that the Lord's arm has waxed short. Oh, brethren, if God has given us a promise which has not yet been fulfilled, and if there never has before occurred anything like it, this is no excuse for our disbelieving the divine word. Has he not promised, "Behold I will do a new thing"? (Isaiah 43:19 ). Did he not say to his people Israel, "I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them." Is not everything new when for the first time the Lord reveals it? Moses might have doubted God's promise to smite Egypt with plagues, for these plagues were novelties. He might have doubted the Lord's power to lead his people through the Red Sea, for when had a sea been divided for a nation to pass through it dryshod? He might have doubted God's power to feed the hosts in the wilderness, for when had bread been rained down from heaven, and when had water leaped from a rock? The Lord, who works great wonders, shews us mercies "new every morning." He is not tied down to a monotony of procedure, his blessings are as varied as his creations, he delights to surprise us with fresh manifestations of love; and thus it is clear that the novelty of the blessing is no excuse whatever for our unbelief. I dare say the scoffing nobleman would have said "It is the suddeness of the thing which renders the promise so incredible. To-morrow! What! abundance of food to-morrow! Nay, that is too much. Say that in three months we may be supplied and we may believe it, but to-morrow is going too far. How could wheat and barley be brought in such plenty to Samaria in the time, even upon swift horses and dromedaries? Suppose the Syrians were to leave us to-morrow, yet the country has been devoured by them, and you must import wheat from some distant land. It is not at all likely that this could be done on a sudden. Do not strain our faith too much, give us a month or two at any rate." My brethren, now-a-days I find that this point of suddenness often staggers unbelieving minds. "What! the church revived on a sudden! How can it be? True doctrines may perhaps be spread in England by slow degrees, after generations have come and gone, but to expect the gospel to spread through the country in a few months is perfectly absurd." Some, perhaps, among my present hearers dare not Lope that this south of London can be immediately stirred, as I believe it will be, and they dare not expect conversions at once, such as I venture to look for. Some dread everything sudden, and feel sure that if any gracious gift come suddenly it will prove to be like Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night and perished in a night. They give the world the express trains, and condemn grace to travel in the luggage van. Why do they dream that the Lord is slow? Why do they limit the rapidity of his actions? He created the world in six days, could he not recreate it in the like space? He destroyed the race in the days of Noah in forty days, can he not do his saving work with equal speed? Is it not written, "He rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind"? O unbelief, how darest thou say, "in a year" when God says "to-morrow"? If he says "tomorrow" it will be to-morrow to the tick of the clock. "To-morrow, about this time," said the prophet, and so it was. Let us not be as those spoken of by the prophet Haggai, who said, "The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." Let us lay aside this postponing of expectancy, and believe that God can do wonders to-day, even to-day. Ah, sinner, yolk cannot believe that God can save you in a minute, but he can; in less time than it takes the clock to tick he can cause you to pass from death to life, and cast all your transgressions behind his back. At this very moment, if thou wilt look to Jesus Christ, the work of grace shall be accomplished. The publican who confessed his sin had not to tarry long for his justification, but received it ere he went down to his house. This cavilling peer would also have justified his unbelief by saying, "Where can you find the means for accomplishing this promise? So much corn and barley are to be sold, you say, but where is it to come from? There are no corn factors here, and if there were their stocks would have run out long ago. No great underground store-rooms remain to be discovered, I am sure of that for I have ordered a minute search in every place where food could be hidden away." "No," he said, "There will be no cheap food, for there are no means by which it can be had." Has not our unbelief too often run on that tack? We too often want to see how the Lord will perform his word. We begin calculating, like the disciples, that two hundred pennyworth of bread will not be enough for the multitude, and as for a few loaves and fishes, we cannot believe that they will be of any avail among so many. Of course, if we have to engineer according to the laws of mechanics, we must calculate our forces and demand means proportionate to the results to be produced; but why apply the slender line of mechanics to the omnipotent God? Nay, I think we do worse, for we hardly carry out our calculations correctly in reference to the Lord's working; if we did we should calculate that given omnipotence, difficulties exist no longer, and impossibilities have disappeared. If the Lord be indeed almighty, then how dare we question as to ways and means? Ways and means are his business and none of ours, and with him no such question can ever arise. I should not wonder, too, if the nobleman's unbelief arose partly from the realisation of the scene which would be presented if the promise were indeed fulfilled. Had he been told that there would be a great deliverance wrought for Jerusalem when it was besieged I dare say he would have believed it; but for Samaria ! What here? Here on this spot? In these streets which have so long heard the wailing of weeping women and the groans of famished men! Plenty of corn and barley in four-and-twenty hours! He could not realize that. It is easy to believe that God will keep his promise in Australia, it is not always so easy to believe that he will do it here. That the Lord will be very gracious to my afflicted brother over there I do firmly believe, but do I always believe that he will be gracious to me? You have been in many troubles, and you have been helped through them, and you believe that God would help you a second time through those same troubles if they were to return; but this particular one that you are now in, there is something so peculiar about it that you cannot quite realize that you will be supported under it. We have generally got a large quantity of faith when we do not want it, but when faith comes to be needed how much of it evaporates. The time to believe in the promise of God is when the famine is sore in the city: but, alas for the nobleman, he could not realize the blessing, he could not suppose it to be possible. But now, putting the whole of these causes for distrust together, is there any force in any or all of them as a reason for doubting God? If God has said it he will certainly do it. Why, then, do we doubt him? Now observe, secondly, that unbelief often shows itself by shutting up the Lord to one mode of action. This man thinks that perhaps there might be food in Samaria if God would make lattices up in heaven, or, as some read it, open sluices in heaven, out of which you would see the barley and flour pouring down. That would be the only way as far as he can see by which God could feed the people. Perhaps he recollected the manna in the wilderness, and how it seemed to drop from the clouds of heaven. Well, God might do it in that way; he goes the length of half admitting that perhaps he might do it in that way. That is how unbelief does: we say, "Yes, God may deliver me in my time of trouble, if such-and-such a friend's heart be touched." God is shut up to touching that friend's heart, according to our notion. The sinner thinks that he might be saved if he could get to hear Mr. So-and-so, or if such-and-such an impression could be fell within, but according to his notion the Lord is shut up to converting him under one minister and bringing him to Jesus in one particular way. That is many a man's notion of revival "If you could get Mr. Eloquent to come and hold a course of services in our town he would wake us up, but I do not see any other way." Do you not call that unbelief? God calls it so. Why, brethren, if the Lord wished to feed Samaria, he could have done it by multiplying the food that was there, just as he multiplied the widow's oil; or he could have continued the quantity of food undiminished, just as he did the barley cake and the little oil of the widow of Zarepta. God has a thousand ways of accomplishing his purposes. He might have turned every stone in Samaria into a loaf, and made the dust of its streets into flour, if so he willed. If he sent food in the wilderness without harvests, and water in the wilderness without wind and without rain, he can do as he wills and perform his own work in his own way. Do not let us think of limiting the Holy One of Israel to any special mode of action. When we hear of men being led to break out into new ways of going to work, do not let us feel, "This must be wrong;" rather let us hope that it is very probably right, for we need to escape from these horrid ruts, and wretched conventionalisms, which are rather hindrances than helps. Some very stereotyped brethren judge it to be a crime for an evangelist to sing the gospel; and as to that American organ, dreadful! One of these days another set of conservative souls will hardly endure a service without such things, for the horror of one age is the idol of the next. Every man in his own order, and God using them all; and if there happens to be some peculiarity, some idiosyncrasy, so much the better. God does not make his servants by the score as men run iron into moulds; he has a separate work for each man, and let each man do his own work in his own way, and may God bless him. Once again, notice that unbelief does not after all believe that even if God were to work in her way the thing would have been done. Did you notice a little note of interrogation in the text, "Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" Now, look through your spectacles, and you will see at the end of the word "be" a note of question. He meant to say that if God did make windows in heaven even then he could not feed the starving multitudes in Samaria. If the men, who say, if God severe to do so-and-so we might see a great blessing, Severe pressed home, it would be discovered that they do not believe that it would be done even then. Unbelief is such a presumptuous denier of the veracity of God, that it does not give him credit for being able to keep his promise in any shape or way, nay, not even by the most extraordinary deeds. May the Spirit of God drive such unbelief as this out of our hearts. It may be there at this very moment, and we may be unconscious of it. Let us search and look and drive this traitor out, for if anything can harm ourselves and the church and the world, it is disbelief in the fidelity of God. II. Now let us pass on to the second head, THE DIVINE ANSWER. Here stands God's servant Elisha, who has spoken in God's name, and there stands the great nobleman, who I have no doubt very much despises the poor prophet, and he answers him with a sarcasm, thought to be witty, I dare say; many laughed at it and thought it quite extinguished the good man. But notice the conduct of the Lord's servant. He does not argue with the man, not at all. We have had a great deal too much of arguing with unbelievers. Whenever a rotten book comes out some ministers take care to read it all through, and then they go and tell their people all about it under the presence of answering it, and the people forget their answers, and only recollect the poison which the ministers unwisely disseminate. There would not be a tenth part of the infidelity that there now is if the ministers would let it alone. It is like a pool of filth, it is all the worse for being stirred, let it alone. It has not enough vitality to live of itself, it is only our opposition that makes it vital at all. So Elisha had no argument for him, nor need we be very careful to answer those who deny the truth of God. They shall answer for it to their God, not to us. And there was no adoption of the unbeliever's means. God did not say by his servant Elisha, "Well, to oblige you I will go out of my way, and make windows in heaven, if you think it the best way of provisioning the city." Not at all. When there are objections taken to modes of usefulness which God evidently blesses it is not for us to alter them because the popular voice is against them, or some very wise people have condemned them. I think that is a reason for going on with them, and when the world suggests that holy work ought to be done in this way or in that, the very best thing is to let those who like the proposed plans try them themselves. God does not shape his course to please the wisdom of men, and if the Lord means to save souls in this part of London he will do it in his own way, and unbelief may say what it likes, he will not abate one jot or tittle of his own purpose, but bless the people as seemeth good in his sight. In due time the promise was kept. That lord's unbelief did not alter the mind of God. The promise was kept; the wheat and the barley were sold at the prices named. His lordship's indignation and sarcasm did not postpone the fall of prices for a single hour. Lord or no lord, nobleman or no nobleman, it made no difference whatever, the flour and the barley were there. And herein is our great joy, that although there has been much infidelity in our country, much loose talk about the doctrines of the gospel, much insinuation that the whole thing is worn out and out of date, God will not, because of these semi-infidels, withhold the blessing from his own true people who really believe his word. Our God will answer the infidelity of this age, nay, has answered it during the last two or three years. There has come news to us, brought by those who were despised, that there is corn for the people. Some who were no ordained messengers, but laymen outside the city, have made a discovery; we did not look that they should do it, but they have brought information that there is plenty of food to be had by the starving crowds, and now the gospel is preached to the multitude, and they are told that Jesus Christ is able to save, that he is ready to give them salvation. What follows? Why, we have seen it already, we have seen it in the Tabernacle for many years, and we shall see it generally all over England, I hope, soon. The people go rushing out to find this bread, and as they pour forth in armies they tread infidelity under their feet. There it stands, this boasted modern thought, this vaunted culture, it looks upon the preachers of the simple gospel and those who go to hear them as a set of fools. Infidelity will not believe that the gospel of Jesus is the bread of the soul; the crowding of the people is the answer. See how eagerly they devour the word! See how they rejoice in it! Listen to their songs like the voice of many! Unbelief is trodden down as mire in the streets. Brethren, if you want to answer infidelity, preach the gospel; tell the people that Jesus Christ is able to save sinners. Lift high the bloodstained cross, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound. This will make a stir, this will agitate the masses. There is nothing like it. Christ's gospel is like fire flung amongst the standing corn, it makes a wondrous conflagration. Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, the people must come to hear it, they are not masters of themselves, they cannot stay away; and as they hear it, and as they feed upon it, and joy comes unto them, and peace, and new life, facts will answer theories, salvation will be the best reply to the witticisms and the sophistries of unbelief. Do not enter into arguments, but test the gospel practically. Somebody says that yonder lifeboat is not of the right color. I see a number of men in the rigging of yonder sinking vessel: they cannot hold on much longer. Here, good fellows, do not stand debating about the boat, jump into it, pull out to the vessel, get the men on board, and bring them to shore. Hurrah! Here they are! Is not that the best reply to every objection? There they are! If they tell us that the gospel which we preach is not true, we point to many here present whose stories of reclamation from vice and deliverance from despair and uplifting into light and life and holiness are proofs that the gospel is divine. There they are! Facts, facts, facts, these are God's replies. The noble lord was silenced in death by the facts of the case. III. Thirdly, our text teaches us THE APPOINTED PUNISHMENT OF UNBELIEF. It is allotted to unbelief that it shall see with its eyes what it cannot enjoy. This is always fulfilled, although in different ways. The unbeliever says he will not believe what he cannot see: God's answer is, that he shall not enjoy what he does see. There was the flour, there was the barley; the man could see these, but he could not enjoy them. Unbelievers do not really enjoy the things of this life. The mass of them find that wealth does not yield them satisfaction, their outward riches cannot conceal their inner poverty. To many men it is given to have all that heart can wish, and yet not to have what their heart does wish. They have everything except contentment. If you will not accept in faith the spiritual gifts which God promises, then the temporal gifts which the world promises shall tantalize you; you shall eat and not be satisfied, you shall have, but not have enough; you shall spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not. If you will not have things unseen, things seen shall become a mere shadow to you. This is one punishment of unbelief. Another is this: oftentimes men in connection with spiritual things, being unbelievers, have their minds convinced but their hearts are not converted. They see enough of the work of God to make them know that the Lord he is God and that Christ is a Savior, that faith brings pardon, that the Holy Spirit renews the heart; they know all these things and yet they never taste of them. They are as orthodox as orthodox can be as to their creed, but there is nothing in their heart. The living water flows by their lips, but, as they stoop to drink, it flees away as in the fable of Tantalus of old. Often also they see God's work in others but never feel it in themselves. Their wife has found peace, but they have not; their dear child has been converted, but they are not: the brother has seen his sister rejoicing in the Lord, but he knows no such joy; the sister has seen her sister lay hold of Christ, but she has never done so herself. This makes missing the blessing so much the more unhappy a circumstance, for to be starving when everybody else is fed is dreadful. I would not have been in that nobleman's place for all the world, to see the people all satisfied and himself not able to partake thereof, and yet it is so with some of you. Do you know that this will lead to an eternal tantilisation? for unbelievers in hell, according to Christ's own description, will look up and see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, but they themselves will be cast out. Surely it must be one of the hells of hell to see heaven and to have a great gulf fixed between you and it. You shall have good things if you believe your God, but if you will not believe in him neither shall you receive them. The punishment is natural, and fair, and appropriate. If certain persons believe that gold is to be found in a mine and others do not, is it not right that if there be gold there those who believed in it and sought after it should have it? Should he who ridiculed the idea come in for his share too? Nobody would think so. It is the very least thing that can be expected of us to believe God, for he cannot lie, and if we refuse credence to the word of God it cannot be thought to be a hard measure that the blessing should not be given to us. If ye will not believe ye shall not be established. O unbeliever, it will be your lot to know that God speaks the truth, but never to know that truth in your own soul; to know that he is gracious, to know that he is ready to forgive, to know that he lifts sinners up to his own throne through the blood of the Lamb, and yet never to be forgiven, never to be saved, never to be glorified. I am afraid there are some in this house of prayer who are going hard on towards such a doom. I do not mean strangers who have dropped in here once, but I mean those who have sat here many years, and yet have never believed. In this next month you will see God's grace working in the south of London, but it will not come near you: you are an unbeliever, and you have been so for many years; there is no reason to expect you will ever be altered, the probabilities are you will remain just as you are. The rain will fall around you, but never upon you; the barn floor will be civet, but your fleece will be dry. God grant it be not so, but it is to be feared it will. Now, in closing, I want to apply my subject to the special circumstances under which we are found to-day, at the commencement of the special services for the south of London. Dear friends, I do earnestly trust that all of you resident in this region who love the Lord will unite your best energies to make this movement a success. I mean chiefly by prayer for the blessing, by giving your attendance at such meetings as are called for Christian conference, by endeavoring to take your friends, your children, and your neighbors, if they are unconverted, to the place, and by doing everything you can to win souls, as the Holy Ghost shall enable you. It may be just possible that some of you are standing aloof. Now, I cannot condemn any brother for doing that if his reasons are such as satisfy his conscience, for there is no movement, however excellent, but what from some point or other it is open to criticism, and if a brother's criticism be conscientious and honest, it is not for me to judge him for a moment. But I should like to put this question to some Do you not think that at the bottom of almost all objections raised against this work there is unbelief? It is an unusual thing, and there is excitement why not? Somebody says he does not see any remarkable talent in the two brethren what of that? I am sure the brethren do not pretend to any talent whatever, for more unassuming men I never saw in my life, and that is one reason why God blesses them so much. For one reason and another good people hold off, but does it not all amount to unbelief? Our friends in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, bear indisputable testimony to the fact that souls were saved in large numbers, and that the churches were edified, and the tone of religious feeling improved. We cannot doubt the testimony of faithful, well-instructed brethren, and I think if we hold back it will resolve itself into this, that we do not believe in God's working just now upon a large scale by simple instrumentality. For my part, I would like to put it to myself thus, could I justify myself in standing back when I come to my dying bed? Here are two men who have for months consecrated themselves to the preaching of the gospel with no object in the world but the winning of souls for Christ. Baser calumny than to assert that they have a selfish motive never fell from the lip of Satan himself. They have no design nor object to gain but the sole glory of God. They seek conversions, conversions to Christ only; and brethren, if there were a thousand faults in them, who am I or who are you to judge them, and to say we will not help them in such a work and with such motives? Brother, do you mean God's glory? So do I. Do you mean the salvation of souls? So do I. Brother, do you preach salvation by the precious blood? So do I. Brother, do you believe in regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost? So do I. Do you tell sinners to believe and live? That is exactly what I am telling them; and if we are agreed in this, for my part I cannot conceive any excuse for any man's holding back unless he has so much work of his own to do that he has no time to spare, in which case let him at least bid them God speed. If we do not help now we may live to regret it. For some reason or other the crowds are willing to hear the gospel, and there seems to be a unity among Christians about the thing. However it comes about, let us accept it from God, and use it. There is a tide which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune as well in heavenly things as in secular, and let us take this tide, however God may have sent it to us, and use it to our best: for if not, if unbelief hold us back, it may happen to us even as to Moses, who, for his unbelief, never entered into the promised land: he saw it, but never entered it; and we may see, and see with gladness, God blessing the church, but we may have no part of the blessing in our own church. Do we wish to see the clusters of grapes that come from an Eschol into which we cannot enter. It may even happen to us as it happened to this that God may see fit to take us out of the way. I have marked it, do not think me superstitious, when any truly good man has stood in God's way God has made very short work with him, he has taken him home, or he has laid him aside by sickness. If you will not help, and will hinder, you will be put aside, and perhaps your own usefulness will be cut short. Or it may happen, worst of all, that if we refuse help when the time of blessing had come we shall remain among our fellow Christians, but for many years we shall be wretched and unprofitable. A blessing was coming and you did not seem to want it, so the Lord sent it somewhere else, and you will be a doubting, miserable, carping, critical, faultfinding Christian as long as you live, never eating the dainties, but always pointing out errors in the cookery; never delighting in the joy of your Lord nor making your harps to ring for joy over converts, but always playing the part of the elder brother who was angry and would not go in, though it was his own brother that had come home and his own father who had killed the fatted calf. God save us from this, and cause us from this very day to shake off unbelief and to go forward rejoicing in the Lord! Amen.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

However, the next chapter (2 Kings 3:1-27) brings us at once into earthly circumstances. "Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah." There was no doubt a painful state of things most offensive to God. Not that the king of Judah was not pious, but that his testimony was ruined by his alliance with the kingdom of Israel. Accordingly, then, we find there is great weakness here, though God deals in nothing but tender mercy and goodness. The king of Moab provokes a rebellion against the king of Israel, and Jehoram goes to put it down. He calls upon Jehoshaphat to fulfil his treaty obligations, and, with the king of Edom, goes against the refractory king of Moab. But they come into difficulties. They are in danger of being themselves overthrown.

"Alas!" said the king of Moab, after they had been for some time without water and food for the cattle "alas! that Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab." Jehoshaphat knew better. "Is there not here a prophet of Jehovah," says he, "that we may enquire of Jehovah by him?" And one of them tells him of Elisha. Jehoshaphat at once recognized him. He knows that the word of Jehovah is with him. So they go down to him; and Elisha says to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay; for Jehovah hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab." False confidence soon yields to real despair, but faith can be calm and wait upon God. "And Elisha said, As Jehovah liveth before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee."

There is no doubt in this a rebuke, and a stern one, but we shall find that the action of the prophet is full of grace. "But now bring me a minstrel." He felt, as it were, that he was out of tune with his proper ministry. The presence of the wicked king had disturbed the heavenly tone of his soul. "Bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of Jehovah came upon him. And he said, Thus saith Jehovah, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith Jehovah, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye and your cattle and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of Jehovah; he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand." Thus an answer of mercy comes instead of judgment. "And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that behold there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water." This very thing misleads the Moabites, for they fancy it is blood. "And they rose up early in the morning and the sun shone upon the waters, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood" for God was pleased that so it should appear. "And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another; now therefore Moab to the spoil." They were caught in their own trap. "But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rode up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; but they went forward smiting the Moabites even in their country. And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about and smote it. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom; but they could not." The defeat not only was immediate but hopeless, so much so that the king was guilty of an act that filled the people of Edom with indignation against Israel. "For he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel, and they departed from him." This then was another signal manifestation of the mercy that God had caused to shine through Elisha.

But we find further in the next chapter (2 Kings 4:1-44), and in a very beautiful way not in these outward events that the world calls great, but in that which in my judgment is a still more blessed pledge, a witness of the real greatness of God. The greatness of God is far more shown in His care for souls, for individuals and in his ability to think of the least want and of the least necessity of His people. "Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear Jehovah; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons as bondmen." Elisha asked her what she wished him to do, and what she had in the house. "And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil." Now it is according to what we can receive that God loves to bless us. "Go, borrow thee," says he, "vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed." It is only so that the blessing stays. There never can be a stay to the blessing as long as there is a heart ready to receive it. What a remarkable illustration! "Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt."

But this is not all. There is no doubt the rich supply of that which is the well-known type too, of what is essential of the Spirit. But further, "It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman" that is, a person of consequence "and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread" for Elisha was not as Elijah. Elijah was more after the pattern of John the Baptist who repelled the advances of men; who rebuked, if he came across those who were in exalted station but living to dishonour God. Elisha, on the contrary, was a witness of grace, and he therefore does not turn away from the habitations of men into the desert, but could, as we see, pass in to eat bread with this Shunammite. "And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick; and it shall be when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither."

So on one day that he was there, he bethought him of a return of love for the love that was shown to him. And he called the Shunammite, and when she stood before him, he said unto her, "Behold thou hast been careful for us with all this care what is to be done for thee? Wouldst thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host?" We can hardly conceive such an enquiry from Elijah; it was perfectly in keeping with Elisha; and I am anxious to bring out strongly the contrast between this twofold ministry. "And she answered, I dwell among mine own people"; she was right, she was content; and godliness with contentment is great gain. "He said to Gehazi, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid" but so it was according to the word of the prophet.

Yet in this world, even the mercies and the gifts of God are not without deep trial, and so it was that the Shunammite's son for the more that he was loved and valued as the gift of God, most especially by his mother, sorrow was her portion was taken sick, comes home to his mother and dies. "And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. And she called unto her husband and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God and come again." The husband little knowing what was the matter, wonders, but the point is yielded, and she sets out and comes in full haste to mount Carmel. And the man of God seeing her afar off, remarks upon it to his servant Gehazi. And when she came to him she caught him by the feet, so that the servant wished to repel her. But the prophet knew right well that there was some worthy cause for an action so peculiar. "Her soul is vexed within her," said he most surely, "and Jehovah hath hid it from me" even the one that was the witness of grace none the less. "Then she said, Did I desire a son, O my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?"

He understands. He says to Gehazi, "Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way." He was to go peremptorily, heeding no one, saluting no one. He had his mission to lay the prophet's staff upon the face of the child. This would not satisfy the faith of the mother. The staff would not do. The prophet, and nothing else than the prophet, must go. She said, "As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her."

So here again was another test of faith, and she was right. "And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the, child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Yes, she was right. "Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him saying, The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto Jehovah. And he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm."

All the world might have done it in vain. God was pleased so to draw out the mind and heart of the prophet. It was not merely to be a cold request or even an earnest one. It showed in the most vivid manner that God had an interest in the prophet and answers faith. "Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up and stretched himself upon him; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son and went out."

Here then was not merely the gracious reply of what was good, but the power that was superior to evil, in its form most terrible to man upon the earth, superior to death. And this too in perfect grace. It was not that the Shunammite had asked him for the blessing, for it was he who had sought to give the blessing. But at the same time God wrought in her heart to expect another, and she was not disappointed.

Yet it was not merely in this way; for now we find a dearth in the land. And the sons of the prophets were there. "And as they were seething pottage, one of them put in some wild gourds, which were poisonous. So they poured out for the men to eat, and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot." It is the same character of gracious power.

Further, another thing it was unselfishly gracious; for when the prophet was presented with twenty loaves of barley and full ears of corn in the husks thereof, he says again, "Give unto the people that they may eat." We remember the remarkable difference in the case of Elijah, who tested the faith of the poor widow by asking first for himself. Not but what he knew the power that would meet her need, but still he tested her after so severe a sort. But in this case, thoroughly characteristic of Elisha's ministry, what is sent to him, he gives to others. And his servant, astonished, asked him, "What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith Jehovah, They shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat and left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah." There is no stinting with God. But it is not merely in the midst of the distressed, and the mourning, and the needy, and the dying, or dead, of God's people. The grace of God, when once it begins to flow, breaks over all boundaries.

And this is what we learn in the chapter that now follows (2 Kings 5:1-27) and that we have authority from God to interpret it so, can be easily shown. Our Lord Himself shows that the very essence of the teaching of this chapter is the grace that went out sovereignly to visit the Gentiles. There were many lepers in Israel, but it was not there that grace worked. If grace works it will prove its own character, it will prove its own sovereignty, it will prove its own wisdom. God was looking for the neediest where He could be least expected where there was evidently no claim upon Him. Naaman the Syrian, commander in chief of the most powerful Gentile army opposed to Israel, was the one that God was pleased to visit with His mercy and in a manner altogether peculiar, and most encouraging. A little maid of Israel, a little captive maid, becomes the instrument of making it known. But the king of Israel's own powerlessness comes out, for he knew right well that it was not in man to cure leprosy; it was one of the things that God kept in His own power. However, here was exactly the opportunity of the prophet.

I have already referred to the fact, and it is even more remarkable in Elisha's case than in Elijah's, that it is more in deed than in word that we find these two prophets manifesting God. Acts may be as prophetic as words, and their acts were so. We are entitled therefore to give them the fullest meaning they can bear a meaning, of course, guided by scripture elsewhere; for we must bear in mind that symbolic language is just as precise as the ordinary language of every day, and I should say rather more so. It is not everyone that can understand it so easily, but when the heart gets accustomed to the language of the book of God, it is not found so very difficult. There must, of course, be the hearing ear and the attentive heart; but I say again that the symbols of scripture are as fixed in their meaning as the plain language of it.

Now, in this case, we have the Gentile coming to the prophet, and he comes as Gentiles will do, very full of their own thoughts and their own expectations. But the heart must prove its own utter ignorance and folly; it is only so that the full blessing may come. However, to Jordan he must go. His own rivers would not suit just because they were his own. The river of God that is the river for the leper. And there he goes down into the waters of death, for such is the meaning of Jordan not merely for the Jew to enter in, but for the Gentile by grace to receive the full blessing of God. And this, too, when Israel had utterly departed from the living God, and was under a cloud. This chapter puts it very strongly, for I have no doubt that guilty, covetous and unbelieving, is as rightly descriptive of the state of Israel now as then.

Naaman was of the Gentile race; but, alas! the Jew is accursed with the leprosy from which the Gentile is delivered. And such was the state, not merely without a blessing, but under a judicial curse from God. The Gentile then is delivered, and we see the beautiful picture of a man not only set free, but with conscience active because he was set free. I do not say that he was all right; it is in vain to expect that all at once, but he was on the right road. And beautiful it is, beloved friends, to learn the lesson I think we all need it sometimes not to hurry souls, and not to be anxious to form them according to our own mould or our own measure.

Thus we see, though the prophet could have answered at once as to the difficulty that Naaman presented, he leaves him in the hands of God. He had done that which ought well to awaken and exercise the conscience of the Gentile. He would rather leave him than give him premature knowledge. There is nothing that often more stifles the divine life. When people want to use their little well they should be disciplined in the right use of the little they know already. This was the case then with Naaman. Gehazi, alas! Disappears: he has gone out from the presence of God as Israel is now, as it were, gone out from God's presence.

In the next scene (2 Kings 6:1-33) we have Elisha still in the same career of grace. The sons of the prophets find the place where they dwell is too strait for them, and they say, "Let us go to Jordan," and there they take beams, and so on, for the construction of their large dwellings. "But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. And he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed."

Now here again we see the same thing. It is not reprimand. No doubt there was carelessness, but it is the grace that can meet every need, the little just as much as the great. And I do not hesitate to say that true greatness shows itself in its capacity to take in the little. "And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. Therefore, said he, Take it up to thee; and he put out his hand and took it."

In what follows we have what is on a totally different scale, that is, the deliverance that appears from the enemy. Elisha's servant was alarmed, but the prophet prays for him. The film is removed from his eyes, and he sees how true is the word that more were on their side than on that of their adversaries. Elisha's prayer then is answered by the Lord and the mountain was seen to be full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. "And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto Jehovah and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness." But then there is all the difference even between this act and Elijah's. Where Elijah sends anything of the sort, he leaves them to it. When Elisha seems to depart for a season from grace, it is only to show the fuller grace in the end just like our Lord, who, when appearing to be deaf to the Syro-Phenician's request, only meant to send her away with a greater blessing, and a deeper sense of the Lord's goodness.

So now, Elisha leads these very, blinded, men into Samaria, into the city which least of all they would have wished so to enter. They were helpless prisoners so much so that the king of Israel wants to smite them; but the prophet stays his hand. "My father, shall I smite them?" "Thou shalt not smite them. Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master." And what was the effect? "The bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. To have smitten them would have only provoked another campaign. To have smitten them with blindness and to have restored their sight, and then to have fed them with bread and water in the very heart of the enemy's land, brought the immediate surrounding of the power of God so impressively before their eyes that the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. It was no doubt a most effectual blow, but it was a blow of mercy and not of judgment.

What next follows I may be brief upon. We are all more or less familiar, no doubt, with the great famine in Samaria, and how the Lord changed everything, and changed so surprisingly, and by such simple means. The distress was excessive. The king of Israel was most helpless, and all was in confusion. "And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If Jehovah do not help thee whence shall I help thee?" "And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat him; and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may eat him, and she hath hid her son." No wonder that the king rent his clothes, and wore sackcloth; but there was no fear of God on the contrary, there was a murderous intent against the prophet of God.

The blame was laid upon him. "But Elisha sat in his house and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him; but ere the messengers came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer" (for indeed he was) "hath sent to take away mine head." But there is no fire that comes down from heaven to consume him quite the contrary. He said, "Behold this evil is of Jehovah; what should I wait for Jehovah any longer." There was no fear of God before the king's eyes. There was no confidence in God; and the fear of, and confidence in, God go together.

Now what does Elisha say? "Hear ye the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." There was to be then the utmost abundance, and that, too, the very next day, where there was this most excessive famine even to the eating of poor little children. We can understand how that unbelieving lord should challenge the word of the prophet and say, "Behold, if Jehovah would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" He did not expect that God was listening, and that God was answering, for his prophet instantly replies, "Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof." And so it was.

Then we have details of the four lepers brought before us, and the fleeing away of the Syrians, and the abundance that was left behind, and the way in which they themselves had found the mercy of God meeting them in their distress. They became the heralds of it to others that were only less distressed than themselves. Thus was the word accomplished, and there was abundance of food for the people. The word was fulfilled to the letter, but not yet was the ministry of Elisha exhausted.

For in the next chapter (2 Kings 8:1-29) he goes and says to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Arise, and go thou and thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn." What was he going to do? To inflict a famine upon the land? Nay. We do not hear that it was he that prayed for it, but we do hear that it was he that warned this Shunammite, so that she should be preserved from the bitter consequences of the famine. It was an intervention of grace and not an execution of judgment. The Shunammite woman is told to go where she can. "It shall come upon the land," says he, "for seven years. And the woman arose and did after the saying of the man of God. And she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years." And when the full time of dearth was passed, this woman returned.

Can one doubt that as Gehazi represents Israel in their unbelief, and the solemn judgment of God upon them, because of it, and that too when the Gentile receives the blessing (for nothing more irritated Israel, as we see in the New Testament, than the Gentile receiving such a blessing of God), so here we find this woman is the sign of the return of Israel after the long period. The full term of famine has passed over the land once favoured of God, but now given up to the miserable curse. She returns again, then, out of the land of the Philistines, and she comes and cries to the king for her house and land. And the king was talking at that very moment with Gehazi (or what remained of this miserable man) of the wonders he had once seen, but no longer had an active personal interest in. And this is all that poor Israel can do. This is all that Gehazi does in the courts of the king.

So the Jew may talk of his traditional glory, but he has got none now. All that he can have now is to his shame. He is a wanderer and a vagabond on the face of the earth. No matter what he may be, such is an Israelite now. He is under the very badge of shame. He carries on his brow his sentence as a wanderer and a leper before God. But there are bright hopes for Israel, and to Israel they will surely come. Not to this generation the generation that cast out the Lord and has continued in its unbelief it will still come under the desperate judgments of God. But there is a generation to come. I believe therefore that as Gehazi is the type of this generation, the woman now returning after the seven years is the type of the generation to come. And she has all restored to her, and the fruits of the field. She not merely enters upon her land intact, but all that she should have had during the long seven years is all given back; for the Lord will repay with interest all that is due to Israel. And what will He not count due when He is pleased to take up the cause of His ancient people? Thus, then, we have Elisha still in the activity of grace.

And he comes to Damascus, and there he acts more strictly as a prophet than we have usually seen him, though I do not doubt that all was prophetic. All his actions were prophetic, as I have been endeavouring a little to show you here. And Elisha tells Hazael, in answer to the request of the king of Syria, that his master was to die, but that there was no necessity that he should die. Alas! he was to die by the treacherous hand of man; and the man was there. It was none other than this Hazael. Elisha said to him, "Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover; howbeit Jehovah hath showed me that he shall surely die." This was a riddle. "And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed." For deep thoughts passed in the prophet's mind as he looked upon the face of the murderer the murderer in prospect. "And the man of God wept." Well he might as he thought of such ways upon earth. "And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. And Hazael said, But what! is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, Jehovah hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria." And so it came to pass. And the chapter pursues the public events of the kingdom, on which I need not dwell more than just to finish the story of Elisha.

But in 2 Kings 9:1-37, Elisha again is found. "He called one of the children of the prophets and said unto him, Gird up thy loins and take this box of oil in thine hand and go to Ramoth Gilead. And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi and go in and make him arise up from among his brethren." And so it was done. The young man went and anointed him for his work. He gives him his terrible commission, and Jehu does not fail of accomplishing it the commission of destroying, cutting off from Ahab every male. "And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel," the portion of sin, of covetousness and blood. But here I must close for the present.