It is surprising how little impression seems to have been produced upon the people generally by the wondrous manifestations of power and grace hi connection with Elisha. They might pay him outward respect, but that was all. Neither Israel nor Syria was seriously affected thereby, although, as we have seen, both nations in turn had profited by the goodness shown. For as to Syria, “The Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.” The leader of the Syrian army had been cured of leprosy, and a considerable number of the king of Syria's soldiers, caught as in a trap in the midst of Samaria, instead of being destroyed, were by Elisha's word royally entertained and sent back in safety to their master. Thus if for a time matters between Israel and Syria might improve, it was not so for long. Pride was wounded, and the Syrians waited their opportunity, which came at last. “And it came to pass after this that Ben-hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his host and went up and besieged Samaria, and there was a great famine in Samaria” (2 Kings 6:2121And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? (2 Kings 6:21)). War with all its attendant horrors was there impoverishing and brutalizing. Nevertheless, the hand of God was working in more ways than one. He would not cease to warn His people of the consequences of their fatal obstinacy, and not until every means had been exhausted did God ultimately dispossess them of their land. What we are now entering upon had long ago been graphically predicted in Deuteronomy 28:52-5852And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. 53And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: 54So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: 55So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. 56The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, 57And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. 58If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; (Deuteronomy 28:52‑58).
The king of Israel could not at times but be sensible of the power of God, but he soon forgot, and his attitude in general, alas! was one of indifference. We see how easily indifference may change into pronounced hostility to the truth, and, of course, to any one who at any time may stand as its representative. In point of fact, the spirit of grace is no more acceptable to the natural man than that of righteousness. “And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him; and he said, Behold this evil is of Jehovah; what should I wait for Jehovah any longer” (vers. 30-33)?
To so grievous a condition had sin brought the nation, and so insensible were the people to the voice of God! But Elisha finds in the acknowledgment of the hand of God stretched out in judgment the only hope of deliverance for the city. It would seem that the prophet is here before us as mediator; and the only just basis of mediation is the acknowledgment of the truth. In the sin of the golden calf, the confession of Moses on behalf of the nation was, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.” Joshua, with less spiritual discernment than Moses, failed to grasp the cause of Israel's failure and defeat at Ai, and it was necessary therefore that God should reveal to him that Israel had sinned (Joshua 7:6-116And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. 7And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! 8O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! 9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? 10And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? 11Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. (Joshua 7:6‑11)). The truth here was, “Behold, this evil is from Jehovah.” None in Israel cared to own this, while their king had almost run his course, for little time now remained to him. “The son of a murderer” had now proved himself to be, in spite of his rent garments and sackcloth within, possessed of the same murderous spirit as Ahab in his avowed hostility to God's servant. The king's hypocrisy is now openly disclosed and his guilt clearly revealed. Elisha's exclamation, “Behold, this evil is from Jehovah; why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?” was clearly connected with this disclosure. Now that the lowest depth of iniquity was sounded, there was nothing to wait for but that God should glorify Himself in showing mercy to whom He would show mercy. He remembered the 7,000, the sons of the prophets, etc., while the king himself was but ripening for judgment (chap. 9:24).
His conscience too was so seared that he could take a profane oath binding himself to the commission of murder, but it was in the heart of God at this time to deliver His people once more, and none should hinder. Neither the wickedness of the king nor the cynical unbelief of the courtier should prevent the carrying out of God's purpose. He had wrought many times before when His soul was grieved for the misery of His people. Only unbelief would deprive any of the blessing. God is able to fulfill His own predictions, as also to bring the provisions of His grace within the reach of all. Things could not have been worse in Israel—iniquity in high places, infidelity rampant, God's merciful intervention unsought by the people, and the king himself ready to destroy the one by whom so much blessing and so many deliverances had come to Israel! With a conscience unaffected by anything that had happened, he was fully prepared to incur the guilt of slaying the prophet of Jehovah, to whom he had basely ascribed the calamities that had overtaken his people.
One or two points of interest call for notice here as illustrating the way in which the salvation of God is realized, and who are the people that get the blessing. “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour he sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the lord on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if Jehovah 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. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate; and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: it they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household” (chap. 7:1-9).
We look in vain for any evidence of faith working in the heart of the people. There is nothing approaching it. Nothing seemed more improbable than that deliverance should come within such narrow limits of time; and indeed it must come quickly, or not at all. Truly it was Israel's extremity, and deliverance was only to be found in full submission to death. The four lepers proved it; their condition was indeed desperate, as was that of the nation, and worst of all of the king and the great ones. But these last were more guiltily responsible, for the word of God had come to them. Nevertheless, they had dared to reason as though Elisha did not know what he was saying, and as if God were promising what He had no power to perform. Israel had lost faith in God; they had no apprehension of His loving-kindness any more than of His truth. Infidelity is never more hateful than where the most light is to be found. Knowledge stands in the way. To be simple, and subject to the word of God, is the only sure way of blessing, for the springs and channels of human knowledge are poisoned. “And Jesus said, For judgment am I came into this world, that they which see not may see, and that they which see may become blind.... And they said to him, Are we blind also? Jesus said to them, If ye were blind ye would have no sin; but now ye say, We see; your sin remains” (John 9:39-4139And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9:39‑41)).
In the case before us the sequel showed there was no physical impossibility in what Elisha had predicted, nor was it the first time in Israel's history that such a display of the power of God to move the heart of man had been known (see chap. 3:23). God can work in influencing armies as well as individuals; so too in a subordinate way can evil spirits (see Psalm 78:4949He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. (Psalm 78:49); 1 Kings 22:19-2319And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. 21And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. 22And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. (1 Kings 22:19‑23)); while the sarcastic retort of the captain on whose hand the king leaned loses all its point in the light of a subsequent scripture—Mal. 3:1010Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10). The difficulties that man puts in the way of the accomplishment of God's promises are puerile and nugatory. They all vanish before the simple faith that takes God at His word, and says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Specially important is it to maintain this in a day like the present, when there is such an effort on the part of many to frustrate the grace of God by carnal reasoning. The enterprising, inventive spirit of the day would set no bound to the possibilities of man's genius while questioning everything which the word of God insists upon. The servant of God has no need to meet this infidel-spirit by argument, but by solemn warnings of coming judgment. God is very patient and would have His servants patient with the simplicity of the inexperienced, and the real difficulties arising from various causes which many find in their reading of the scriptures. But the greatest difficulty of all is to become as a little child and to justify God in all that He has said. Timothy is instructed in the divine way of meeting error— “But foolish and senseless questionings avoid, knowing that they beget contentions. And a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend; but he gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness setting right those who oppose if God perhaps may some time give them repentance to acknowledgment of the truth, and that they may awake up out of the snare of the devil who are taken by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:23-2623But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 24And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. (2 Timothy 2:23‑26)).
While the great ones of Israel were unaffected by the announcement of immediate plenty, God was preparing competent witnesses to its reality, who could say, “We have seen and bear witness.” All this is in harmony with the ways of grace previously noticed as characteristic of our prophet's ministry. Just as God was pleased to use the simplicity and faith of a little captive maid to bring Naaman and Elisha together, and then the simple reasoning of the servants to overcome the reluctance of Naaman to avail himself of such a remedy as Elisha proposed, so God was pleased to make use of the testimony of these four leprous men to relieve the famine-stricken inhabitants of Samaria. Those lepers had nothing to lose, but everything to gain; their condition could not have been more helpless or worse than it was. They had the sentence of death in themselves, and they accepted it. Something of the spirit of the gospel is surely foreshadowed here. The testimony of God is to man's complete ruin and coming judgment, yet it leaves him not without hope. “And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this judgment: so Christ also having been once offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time apart from sin to those that wait for him unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27, 2827And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27‑28)). “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). “Through this Man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe if one declared it to you” (Acts 13:38-4138Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. 40Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; 41Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. (Acts 13:38‑41)). The gospel could not be revealed in all its fullness in Old Testament times as it is now made known since the death and resurrection of Christ, but it is surprising how often the mercy of God is seen even in those early days. In health and prosperity, the sinner turns a deaf ear to the gospel, but when these fail, and death stares him in the face, then the convicted, repentant sinner becomes ready to accept the proffered salvation.
This position is outlined by the scriptures before us in the case of the lepers, etc. In Samaria itself there was no faith, not even when the lepers brought the tidings into the city. The word of God by Elisha (7: 1, 2) found no place in the hearts of the inhabitants. “So they came and called unto the porter of the city; and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and they told it to the king's house within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left us in the city (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed): and let us send and see” (vers. 10-13). Thus faith in Israel was indeed at a very low ebb; they must see before believing; and even when they did see they thought it was a trap laid by the enemy. The Spirit of God is particular to notify the literal fulfillment of the prophet's word. “And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. And that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if Jehovah should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died” (vers. 17-20). Even thus shall it be when He shall come, and every eye shall see Him; when He shall be glorified in His saints and be admired in all them that believed (2 Thessalonians 1:1010When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (2 Thessalonians 1:10)). But those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, will then believe the lie-who had pleasure in unrighteousness. Alas! everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power will then be their inevitable doom. But to-day is a day of salvation for all who now come to the Savior believing God's testimony to the finished work of His Son.
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)