But a more serious question than that of poverty comes now into view; namely, of sin in all its guilt and uncleanness, for “many lepers were in Israel”; yet were they indifferent to this manifestation of sin in their midst. The Lord Jesus in the day of His visitation of His people witnessed to the excellence and efficacy of that grace in which He came to them as the sent One of God. He came to Nazareth and entering their synagogue, He read from the prophecy of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,” etc., and said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:2121And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:21)). Yet their hearts were closed against Him, their consciences were not awakened; they refused to acknowledge their guilty and defiled condition and their own deep need. “Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus [Elisha] the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:27-2827And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. 28And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, (Luke 4:27‑28)). They stumbled at the sovereign grace of God, and so it is now. “For as ye [Gentiles] in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their [the Jews] unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy” (Rom. 11:30-3130For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. (Romans 11:30‑31)). The meaning of the latter clause is that the Jews refused the mercy shown to Gentiles, so that in the end they may come in also on the basis of pure mercy.
Grace displays itself to the unworthy where there is the confession of our sins and the submission to the righteousness of God instead of the establishment of our own (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)), and the acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ. The fact that there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha’s time was a testimony to the uncleanness of the nation in God’s sight. But instead of exercise of heart before God about it, there was none. Had Jehovah not said: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD Thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee”? (Exod. 15:2626And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)).
From the time that sin found an entrance into this world, God has never ceased to plead with man, testifying to divine goodness in Himself, but to ingratitude and rebellion in the creature. The many uncleansed lepers in Israel in Elisha’s day; the great multitude, in the days of our Lord, of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the waters of Bethesda’s pool; the ten lepers of Luke 17; all alike bore unequivocal testimony to the real state and condition of the nation, and the insufficiency of ceremonial law, which, while contenting the people, did not meet the gravity of sin before God. So with Elisha, as we have seen, there was a similar testimony to the low estate of the people; yet the sovereign goodness of God was there for any truly confessing their need. The great in Israel discerned it not; yet, nevertheless, it could be known in its freeness and efficacy by the “stranger” who came in the expectancy of blessing.
G. S. Byford (adapted)