Thou man of God!
2 Kings 1:9, 11, 13.
OH that thou and I might so live before
God and men, that they should recognise us as men of God, as God's men!
See how these ungodly captains at once recognised this, in the case of
Elijah. They fretted and chafed against his holiness; but they were forced
to admit it. They tried to impose their orders, or those of their king;
but they realized that Elijah was the servant of Him whom they set at
nought, so far as their own lives were concerned.
If we are really men of God, we
shall be the last to assume the title. Notice that Elijah puts an if
before the title with which he was saluted: "If I be a man of God." Paul
counted himself the least of all saints.
We must be of God. All our goodness
must originate in Him. We can no more boast of goodness than a chamber can
boast of the light which irradiates each corner of its space. The faith
that takes his grace, as well as the grace it takes, is his. We are
absolutely his debtors; and happy are they who love to have it so, and lie
always at the Beautiful Gate of God's heart, expecting to receive alms at
his hand.
We must be for God. This is the only
cure for self consciousness, for that perpetual obtrusion of the self life
which is our bane and curse. Ask that the Holy Spirit may fill you with so
absorbing a passion for the glory of Jesus, that there may be no room to
think of your own reputation or emolument.
We must be in God, and God in us.
This is possible, when we love perfectly. He that dwelleth in love,
dwelleth in God, and God in him. Oh, sea of light, may we lie spread out
in thy translucent waves, as the sponges in southern sapphire seas, till
every fibre of our being be permeated and infilled!
2 Kings 2:2, 4,
6
Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee.
Thrice Elijah spoke thus to his
friend and disciple, to test him. Perseverance, tenacity of purpose, a
refusal to be content with anything short of the best, are indispensable
conditions for the attainment of the highest possibilities of experience
and service. And perpetually in our life’s discipline these words come
back on us, Tarry here! Not that God desires us to tarry, but because He
desires each onward step to be the choice and act of our own will.
Tarry here in Consecration.— “You
have given so much; is it not time that you refrained from further
sacrifices? Ungird your loins, sit down and rest, forbear from this
strenuous following after. Spare thyself; this shall not come to thee.”
Tarry here in the Life of Prayer.—
“It is waste time to spend so much time at the footstool of God. You have
done more than most, desist from further intercession and supplication.”
Tarry here in the attainment of the
likeness of Christ.— “It will cost you so much, if all that is not
Christlike is to pass away from your life.”
Such voice’s are perpetually
speaking to us all. And if we heed them, we are at once shut out of that
crossing the Jordan, that rapturous intercourse with heaven, that
reception of the double portion of the Spirit, which await those who have
successfully stood the test. The law of the Christian life is always
Advance; always leaving that which is behind; always reckoning that you
have not attained; always following on to know the Lord, growing in grace
and in the knowledge of the blessed Savior, and saying to the Spirit of
God, as Elisha to Elijah, I will not leave thee.
2 Kings 3:17
Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be
filled.
This is God’s way of fulfilling the
desire of them that fear Him. We like to see the clouds blown forward
through the sky, and hear the moan of the rising wind; in other words, we
like to see God’s gifts on their way, or to have the sensible emotion of
receiving them. Sometimes we have symptoms and signs that fill us with
rapture; at other times, these are lacking; and we surrender ourselves to
despair. Yet when we see neither wind nor rain, God may be most mightily
at work.
It is so in Church work.— How often
we make our valleys full of ditches! Our machinery is complicated and
perfect; we have spread neither pains nor care. Then we ardently desire
the signs of a powerful revival, and break our hearts if they are not
apparent; while, all the time, if we only knew it, the Divine blessing is
welling up in the ditches, doing more than would be the case if our
highest wishes were gratified. Here and there tears are falling silently,
hearts are being cleansed, lives are becoming yielded to God.
It is so in Christian experience.—
We expect to have our Pentecost as the early Church received hers. We
desire to see wind and rain, and to know that God is baptizing us; but
this is not granted. There is no footfall of hurrying clouds, no coronet
of flame, no gift of tongues. But, deep down, the ditches are being filled
up, yearnings are being satisfied, the capacity for God within us is being
met, though it grows apace. God be praised that the success of His work is
not gauged by outward signs!
A well may be filled as completely
by the percolation of water, a drop at a time, as by turning a river into
it.
2 Kings 4:6
And the oil stayed.
What a sorrowful confession! There
was no reason why it should stay. There was as much oil as ever, and the
power which had made so much could have gone on without limit or
exhaustion. The only reason for the ceasing of the oil was in the failure
of the vessels. The widow and her sons had secured only a limited number
of vessels, and therefore there was only a limited supply of the precious
oil.
This is why so many of God’s
promises are unfilled in your experience.— In former days you kept
claiming their fulfillment; frequently you brought God’s promises to Him
and said, “Do as Thou hast said.” Vessel after vessel of need was brought
empty and taken away full. But of late years you have refrained, you have
rested on your oars, you have ceased to bring the vessels of your need.
Hence the dwindling supply.
This is why your life is not so
productive of blessing as it might be.— You do not bring vessels enough.
You think that God has wrought as much through you as He can or will. You
do not expect Him to fill the latter years of your life as He did the
former. You can trust Him for two sermons a week, but not the five or six.
This is why the blessing of a
revival stays in its course.— As long as the missioner remains with us, we
can look for the continuance of blessing. But after awhile we say, Let the
services stop; they have run their course, and fulfilled their end. And
forthwith the blessing stops in mid-flow. Let us go on pleading with the
unsaved, and bringing the empty vessels of our poor effort for God to fill
them up to the full measure of their capacity.
2 Kings 5:14
Like unto the flesh of a little child.
Is there any fabric woven on the
loom of time to be compared in perfect beauty to the flesh of a little
child, on which, as yet, no scar or blemish can be traced? So sweet, so
pure, so clean. It was a wonderful combination, that the strong muscles
and make of the mighty man of war should blend with the flesh of a child.
But this may be ours also, if we will let the hand of Jesus pass over our
leprous-smitten souls. At this moment, if you let Him, He will touch you
and say, “Be clean,” and immediately the leprosy will depart, and you will
return to the days of your youth—not forgiven only, but cleansed—not
pardoned only, but clad in the beauty of the Lord your God, which He will
put on you.
We do not count a little child to be
free from the taint of sin. It is conceived in sin, and inherits the evil
tendencies of our fallen race. Its innocence of evil is not holiness.
Jesus gives us more than innocence, He makes us pure and holy. But there
are other childlike qualities which our Savior gives. The humility of a
little child, who is unconscious of itself, and who is not perpetually
looking for admiration. The unselfishness of a little child, who seeks its
companion to share its luxuries and games. The trust of a little child,
which so naturally clings to a strong and loving heart, willing to follow
anywhere, to believe in anything. The love of a little child, who responds
to every endearment with sunny laughter and soft caresses.
There is a great difference between
childish and childlike. The former is put away, as we grow up into Christ:
the latter we grow into, as we become more like our Lord. The oldest
angels are the youngest: the ripest saints are the most childlike.
2 Kings 6:17
Behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire roundabout
Elisha.
So it is with each of God’s saints.
We cannot see, because of the imperfection of mortal vision, the harnessed
squadrons of fire and light; but the Angel of the Lord encampeth round
about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. If our eyes were opened, we
should see the angel hosts as an encircling fence of fire; but whether, we
see them or not, they are certainly there.
God is between us and temptation.—
However strong the foe, God is stronger. However swift the descending
blow, God is swifter to catch and ward off. However weak we are, through
long habits of yielding, God is greater than our hearts, and can keep in
perfect peace. “Trust ye in the. Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is
the Rock of Ages.”
God is between us and the hate of
man.— Dare to believe that there is an invisible wall of protection
between you and all that men devise against you. What though the heathen
rage, and the people imagine a vain thing! No weapon that is formed
against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise in judgment
shall be condemned.
God is between you and the deluge of
care.— What thousands are beset with that dark specter! They have no rest
or peace either day or night, saying, “Where will the next rent, the next
meal, come from?” How different the life of birds, and flowers, of
children, of Jesus, and all holy souls. Oh, rest in the Lord, and put Him
between you and black care.
God is between you and the pursuit
of your past.— He is your reward; and as He intercepted the pursuit of
Pharaoh, so He stands at Calvary between your past and you. The assayer of
retribution is arrested by that Divine Victim— what more can we ask!
2 Kings 7:9
This day is a day of good tidings.
It was indeed. The enemy that had so
long hemmed them in had dispersed, leaving a great spoil behind. The
famine which had driven the people to awful straits was at an end, and
there was now plenty of everything. It was inhuman for these four lepers
to be content with eating and drinking, and sharing out the spoil, when
hard by a city was in agony. Common humanity bade them give information of
what had happened.
Let us take care lest some mischief
befall us, if we withhold the blessed Gospel from a dying world. We know
that Jesus has died and risen again, and that His unsearchable riches wait
for appropriation. We have availed ourselves of the offer; but let us see
to it that so far as we can, we are making known that the wine and milk
may be obtained without money and without price.
Mischief always overtakes a selfish
policy; whereas those who dare to share with others what they have
received, not only keep what they have, but find the fragments enough for
many days afterward.
Let us tell men that the Savior has
overcome our foes, and has opened the kingdom of heaven to all who
believe. Let us speak from a full heart of all that He has proved to be.
Let us invite men to share with us the grace which hath neither shore nor
bound.
One ounce of testimony is worth a
ton weight of argument, and overpowers all objection. The Lord, on whom
the king leaned, derided the possibility of the prophet’s prediction; and
no doubt had plenty of adherents. But the leper’s report swept all His
words to the winds. They had known, tasted, and handled. Let us remember
that we are called to be witnesses of what God hath done for us.
2 Kings 8:11
And the Man of God wept.
Elisha foresaw all the evil that
Hazael would inflict on Israel, and it moved him to tears. Though he was a
strong man, able to move kingdoms by his message and prayer, yet he was of
a tender and compassionate disposition. This was he who one moment
upbraided the king of Israel for his crimes, and the next called for a
minstrel to calm his perturbed spirit with strains of music. The men that
can move others are themselves very susceptible and easily moved.
The nearer we live to God, the more
we deserve to be known as men and women of God, the more will our tears
flow for the slain of the daughters of our people. Consider the ravages
that drink, and impurity, and gambling, are making among our people;
enumerate the homes that are desolate, the young life that is wrecked as
it is leaving the harbor, the awful dishonor done to woman; and surely
there must come times when tears well up for very humanity’s sake, to say
nothing of the pity which they acquire who look at things from God’s
standpoint.
Jesus beheld the city and wept over
it. Give us this day, O Son of Man, Thy compassion, Thy love, Thy tears,
that we may speak of Thy grace graciously, of Thy love tenderly, and even
of Thy judgments with brimming eyes.
A broken heart, a fount of tears:
Ask, and it shall not be denied.
Wouldst thou avert such issues;
begin with the cradled babes of your homes. Win them for God; teach them
how to curb passion and subdue themselves. Tenderness and wisdom may
arrest the making of Ben-hadads.
2 Kings 9:22
Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace?
We all want peace. Of every
telegraph messenger, as he puts the buff-colored envelope into our hands,
we ask almost instinctively, Is it peace? If there is a rumor of war, a
depression in trade, a bad harvest, a sudden calamity in our neighborhood,
we instantly consider the effect it may have on the tranquillity and
prosperity of our life.
By peace we too often mean the
absence of the disagreeable, the unbroken routine of outward prosperity,
the serene passage of the years: not always eager for anything deeper. And
if other and profounder questions intrude themselves, we instantly stifle
or evade them. Like Herod, we shut up the Baptist in the dungeon. Like the
Roman general, we make a desert and call it peace. Men will flee from a
Gospel ministry which pursues them into close quarters, and arouses
unwelcome questions that break the peace.
There cannot be true peace so long
as we permit the infidelities and charms of some Jezebel of the soul-life
to attract and affect us. Jezebel may stand for the painted world, with
its wiles and snares, or for the flesh, or for some unholy association of
the past life, like that which clung to Augustine. But there must be no
quarter given to the unhallowed rival of our Lord. Whatever its charms, it
must be flung out of the window before we can be at peace.
“Then, and not till then, we shall
see Thee as Thou art; Then, and not till then, in Thy glory bear a part;
Then, and not till then, Thou wilt satisfy each heart.”
If you are entirely surrendered to
the Lord, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard
your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”
2 Kings 10:31
Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel.
Jehu was the Cromwell of his time.
He swept away the symbols of idolatry with ruthless destruction. Nothing
could withstand his iconoclastic enthusiasm. But he failed to keep his own
heart, and therefore his dynasty lasted for but one generation. It is a
deep lesson for us all.
We may keep other people’s
vineyards, and neglect our own. We may give good advice to our friends,
but fall into the very faults against which we warn them. We may pose as
infallible guides, but fall into the crevasses and precipices from which
we had carefully warned our companions. Jehu avenged the idolatries of
Ahab, but he departed not from Jeroboam’s calves.
Before you rebuke another, be sure
that you are free from the faults that you detect in him. When you hear of
the failings of some erring brother, ask yourself whether you are
perfectly free from them. And never attempt to cast out the mote from your
neighbor’s eye till you are sure that the beam has been taken from your
own.
Take heed to your heart. Its
complexion colors all the issues of life. Do not be content to be strong
against evil; be eagerly ambitious of good. It is easier to be vehement
against the abominations of others than to judge and put away your own
secret sins. But while we keep our heart with all diligence, we cannot
afford to be independent of the keeping power of God. We must yield
ourselves to Him, reserving nothing. The King must have all. The light of
His face must fill every nook and corner of the soul. And every power that
opposes itself to His dominion, must be dragged beyond the barriers and
ruthlessly slain.
2 Kings 11:12
They made him king, and anointed him.
This dexterous overthrow of Athaliah
by the bringing of the youthful king, who had been hidden in the secret
chambers of the Temple, accommodates itself so obviously to a reference
to. the inner life, that we must be pardoned for making it.
Is not the spiritual condition of
too many children of God represented by the condition of the Temple,
during the early years of the life of Joash? The king was within its
precincts, the rightful heir of the crown and defender of the worship of
Jehovah: but, as a matter of fact, the crown was on the head of the
usurper Athaliah, who was exercising a cruel and sanguinary tyranny. The
king was limited to a chamber, and the majority of the priests, with all
the people, had not even heard of his existence. So, unless we are
reprobates, Jesus is within the spirit, which has been regenerated by the
Holy Ghost; but in too many cases He is limited to a very small corner of
our nature, and exercises but a limited power over our life.
There needs to be an anointing, an
enthroning, a determination that He shall exercise His power over the
entire Temple of our Being; the spirit, which stands for the Holy of
Holies; the soul, for the Holy Place; the body, for the outer court.
Holiness or Sanctification is not a
quality or attribute which can be attributed to us apart from the
indwelling of the Holy One. If we would be holy, we must be indwelt by Him
who is holy. If we would have holiness, we must be infilled by the Holy
One. But there must be no limiting of His power, no barrier to His
control, no veiling or curtaining of His light. The veil, if such there
be, must be rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
2 Kings 12:4
The money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the
Lord.
The margin suggests that the thought
of giving for God’s house would ascend in a man’s heart, till it became
the royal and predominant thought, swaying the whole man to obedience. It
is a beautiful conception!
For the reconstruction of the Temple
there were two classes of revenue: the tribute money which each Israelite
was bound to give, and the money which a man might feel prompted to give.
Surely the latter was the more precious in the eye of God.
Does it ever come into your heart to
bring some money into the house of God? Perhaps the suggestion comes, but
you put it away, and refuse to consider it. The thought begins to ascend
in your heart, but you thrust it down and back, saying, Why should I part
with what has cost me so much to get! Beware of stifling these generous
promptings. To yield to them would bring untold blessing into heart and
life. Besides, the money is only yours as a stewardship; and the thought
to give it to God is only the Master’s request for His own.
The great mistake with us all is,
that we do not hold all our property at God’s disposal, seeking His
directions for its administration; and that we forget how freely we have
received that we may resemble our Father in heaven, and freely give. Too
many, alas! are anxious to hoard up and keep for themselves that which God
has given them, instead of counting themselves and all they have as
purchased property, and using all things as His representatives and
trustees. Let us make a complete surrender to our Lord, and from the heart
sing,
Take my silver and my gold, Not a
mite would I withhold.
2 Kings 13:18
He smote thrice and stayed.
A striking spectacle. The dying
prophet, with his thin hands on the muscular hands of the young king, as
he shoots his arrow through the eastern window; the exhortation to smite
the remaining arrows on the ground; the bitter chiding that the king had
struck thrice only, instead of five or six times! What lessons are here?
The Lord Jesus put His hands upon ours. Here is the reverse to the
incident referred to. Ours are weak, His are strong; ours would miss the
mark, His will direct the arrows, if only we will allow Him, with unerring
precision. We shoot, but the Lord directs the arrow’s flight to the heart
of His foes.
Our success is commensurate with our
faith. If we strike but thrice, we conquer but thrice. If we strike seven
times, we attain a perfect victory over the adversary. Is not this the
cause of comparative failure in Gospel effort? Souls are not saved because
we do not expect them to be saved. A few are saved, because we only
believe for a few. It is one of the most radical laws in the universe of
God, and one which our Lord repeatedly emphasized, that our faith
determines the less or more in our own growth, and in the victories we win
for Christ. Do not stay, O soul-winner, but smite again and yet again in
the secret of thy chamber, that thou mayest smite Satan, and compel him to
acknowledge thy mite.
Let us not stay, though the energy
of earlier days may be ebbing fast. The sanctified spirit waxes only
stronger and more heroic, as Elisha’s and Paul’s did, amid the decay of
mortal power., The Lord will say to us, as He did to Paul, “My grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Kings 14:6
Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
So ran the law of Moses. It forbade
the imposition of punishment on the relatives of the wrong-doer, but it
had no mercy on him. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” was the
succinct and conclusive verdict of the older law, in this reflecting the
spirit and letter of one yet older, which ran, “The day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
First, we were dead in our sins.—
Ephesians 2:5 puts this beyond all doubt. In the sight of God, all who
walk according to the course of this world, and obey the prince that now
worketh in the children of this world, are dead in trespasses and sins.
However much they may be alive as to their souls, they are dead as to
their spirits, entirely destitute of the life of God.
Second, we have died for our sins.—
2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (r. v.) establishes this fact, and shows that in
Jesus, we who believe in Him, are reckoned to have died in Him when He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. In God’s estimate, His death is
imputed to us; so that we are reckoned as having satisfied, in Jesus, the
demands of a broken law. It has no more to ask.
Third, we must die to our sin.—
Romans 6:11. Reckon that you have died, and whenever sin arises, to menace
or allure you, point back to the grave, and argue that since you died in
Christ, you have passed altogether beyond its jurisdiction, for you have
yielded your members as weapons of righteousness unto God. And having been
crucified with Christ, you now no longer live, but Christ liveth in you.
Let it become your daily habit to place the grave of Jesus between
yourself and all allurements of the world, the flesh. and the devil.
2 Kings 15:9, 18, 24, 28
The sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
This chapter anticipates the final
overthrow of the kingdom of the tribes. It describes the corruption and
disorganization of the people which made them the easy prey of Assyria.
One puppet-king after another was set upon the throne to fall after a
brief space of rule, and four times over it is said that they followed in
the steps of Jeroboam, ‘‘who made Israel to sin.” The seed sown two
hundred years before had at last come to maturity, issuing in the ruin of
the nation. What a comment on the inspired words, “Sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death.”
Twelve times in the story of the
kingdom of Israel, we are told that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, made
Israel to sin. The institution of the calves on his part seemed to be a
piece of political wisdom, but it was an infraction of the Divine law; and
what is morally wrong can never be politically right. The house cannot
stand unless the foundation can bear the test of the Divine plummet. The
kingdom of Israel fell, to prove to all after-time that the disregard of
God’s law is a foundation of sand, which can never resist the test of
time.
Why is Jeroboam so frequently called
“the son of Nebat”? Why should the father be forever pilloried with the
son, except that he was in some way responsible for, and implicated in,
his sins? There was a time when perhaps Nebat might have restrained the
growing boy, or led him to the true worship of God; or perhaps his
parental influence and example were deadly in their effect. How important
that parents should leave no stone unturned to promote the godliness of
their children, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.
2 Kings 16:10
King Ahaz sent to Urijah the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it.
The fashion of this world passeth
away like a fleeting dream; or like the panorama of clouds that
constitutes a pavilion of the setting sun, but which, whilst we gaze,
tumbles into a mass of red ruin. And yet we are always so prone to imitate
King Ahaz, and visit Damascus with the intention of procuring the latest
design, and introducing it, even into the service of the sanctuary.
Man naturally imitates. He must get
the pattern of his work from above, or beneath; from God or the devil:
hence the repeated injunction to us all, to make all things after the
pattern shown on the mount. If we would be rid of the influence of worldly
fashion, we must conform ourselves to the heavenly and divine. The pattern
of the Body of Christ, of the position of each individual believer among
its members, and of the work which each should accomplish, was fixed
before the worlds were made. The best cure for worldliness is not
unworldliness, but other-worldliness. The best way of resisting the trend
of people around us is to cultivate the speech, thought, and behavior of
that celestial world to which we are bound by the most sacred ties, and
whither we are travelling at every heartthrob.
This introduction of the altar of a
heathen shrine into the holy temple of Jerusalem, reminds us of the many
rites in modern religious observances which have been borrowed from
paganism, and warns us that the Church has no right to go to the world for
its methods and principles. Let the world do as it may in its discussions
about truth, its efforts to attract attention, and its organizations; our
course is clear, not to build altars after its fashion, nor model our life
on its maxims.
2 Kings 17:41
These nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images.
It was a curious mixture. These
people had come from Babylon, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and were settled in
the land from which Israel was deported. In their desire to propitiate the
God of the country, they added His worship to that of their own gods (2
Kings 17:32), though they did not really fear Him (2 Kings 17:34). There
was an outward recognition of the God of Israel, which was worse than
useless. Are you sure this is not a true description of your own position?
You pay an outward deference to God by attending His house, and
acknowledging His day, whilst you are really prostrating yourself before
other shrines. The one originates in a superstitious fear, a desire to
stand well with your fellows; but it is in the direction of the other that
your heart really goes. You come as His people come, sit as His people
sit, kneel as His people kneel; but your heart is far apart, and you only
do as you do that you may follow your own evil ways with less fear of
discovery.
With all of us there is too much of
this double worship; but let it be clearly understood that it is only
apparent, not real. No man ever really serves two masters, or worships two
gods. Whatever conflicts with God in heart or life is our chosen god.
Whatever appears to share our heart with God really holds our heart. God
will never be in competition with another. He must either be all or none.
The soul that endeavors to divide
its service between Jehovah on the first day, and its graven images all
the other days of the week, might as well discontinue its religious
observances, for they count for nothing: except to blind it to its true
condition.
2 Kings 18:20
Now on whom dost thou trust?
It was no small thing for Hezekiah
to rebel against the proud King of Assyria. Hamath and Arpad, Samaria and
Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah, reduced to heaps of stones, were sufficient
proofs of the might of his ruthless soldiers. How could Jerusalem hope to
withstand? Rabshakeh could not comprehend the secret source of Hezekiah’s
confidence. It was of no use for him to turn to Egypt. Pharaoh was a
bruised reed. And as for Jehovah! Was there any likelihood that He could
do for Israel more than the gods of the other nations had done for them?
Not infrequently does the puzzled world ask the Church, “In whom dost thou
trust?”
Our life must to a large extent be a
mystery, our peace pass understanding, and our motives be hidden. The
sources of our supply, the ground of our confidence, the reasons for our
actions, must evade the most searching scrutiny of those who stand outside
the charmed circle of the face of God; as it is written, “Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard . . . what God hath prepared.”
We all ought to have the secrets
which the world cannot penetrate. Doubt your religion if it all lies on
the surface, and if men are able to calculate to a nicety the
considerations by which you are actuated. We must be prepared to be
misunderstood and criticized, because our behavior is determined by facts
which the princes of this world know not. We do not look up to the hills,
because we look beyond them to God; we do not trust in silver or gold, or
human re source, because God is our confidence. We cannot but seem
eccentric to this world, because we have found another center, and are
concentric with the Eternal Throne.
2 Kings 19:14
And Hezekiah spread it before the Lord.
Amid the panic that reigned in
Jerusalem, the king and the prophet alone kept level heads, for they alone
had quiet, trustful hearts. We hardly realize the crisis unless we compare
it with the march of 200,000 Kurds or Turkish soldiers upon some peaceful
Armenian community. Israel had no earthly allies. Her only reinforcements
could reach her from heaven, and it was the care of these two saintly men
to implicate their cause with that of the living God (2 Kings 19:4). This
is the faith that overcomes the world, which realizes that God lives here
and now in our home and life and circumstances. His cause is implicated in
our deliverance; His name will be disgraced if we are overwhelmed, and
honored, if preserved. He is our judge, Lawgiver and King, and is
therefore bound by the most solemn obligations to save us, or His name
will be tarnished.
When therefore letters come to you,
anonymous or otherwise, full of bitter reproach; when unkind and malignant
stories are set on foot with respect to you; when all hope from man has
perished, then take your complaint— the letter, the article, the speech,
the rumor— and lay it before God. Let your requests be made known unto
Him. Tell Him how absolutely you trust. Then malice and fear will pass
from your heart, whilst peace and love will take their place: and
presently there will come a swift message of comfort, like that which
Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying on the behalf of God,
“That which thou hast prayed to Me, I have heard.”
God knew the contents of the missive
before you did; but He likes to read it again in the company of His child!
2 Kings 20:10
Let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
It is impossible for us to
understand how this could be. The shadow of the declining day waxes ever
longer, and only a miracle could change its appearance on the dial. It may
suggest some significant thoughts about shadows that may still go back.
The shadow of a wasted life.— Of
course, there is a sense in which the wasted years will never come again;
they have passed beyond recall. But the shadow may go back on the dial of
our life when we truly repent, and turn again to God, for He hath
promised: “I will never leave thee, neither forsake thee.” And “I will
give back the years that the canker worm and caterpillar have eaten.”
The shadow of happier days.— These
seem to have gone. For long you have noticed the growing twilight, and it
has seemed impossible ever again to have the lightsomeness and spring of
one or two decades back. But be of good cheer, for when a man comes into
that fellowship with God which sorrow and temptation teach, when with
growing years he attains added grace, we are told that he shall return to
the days of his youth.
The shadow of early affection.— Have
you lost loved ones, so that your life is like a house the windows of
which, one after another, have become shuttered and dark? But love is not
forfeited forever. Those who forsake all for Christ’s sake shall get all
back again in Him. His love comprehends all human love. The relationships
of His kingdom surpass in tenderness and tenacity those of the warmest
earthly ties. Thy brother shall rise again, and thou shalt hear him call
thy name, and shalt sit with him in the Home of Life.
2 Kings 21:1
And his mother’s name was Hephzi-bah.
Hephzi-bah means, “My delight is in
her” (Isaiah 62:4). How strange, supposing that her name was any
indication of her character, that such a woman should have borne such a
son; for “Manasseh did wickedly above all the Amorites did which were
before him.” A godly ancestry, however, does not guarantee a holy seed.
Hezekiahs and Hephzi-bahs may be the parents of Manassehs. That this may
not be so:—
Let us guard against the
inconsistencies of our private life.— The child of religious parents
becomes habituated to their use of expressions in public which betoken the
highest degree of holiness, and is therefore quicker to notice any
inconsistency in temper or walk. Is there not a subtle temptation also for
those who work much for God in public to feel that a certain laxity is
permissible in the home? Will not late after-meetings at night compensate
for indolence in the morning, and will not protracted services be the
equivalent for private prayer? May not irritability to servants or
children be accounted for by the overstrain of our great work? Hence,
inconsistency and failure to realize our lofty aims, which are quickly
noticed, beget distaste for our religion.
Let us guard against absorption in
public religious duty to the neglect of the home.— Does it never happen
that the children of religious parents are put to bed by nurses who are
heedless of their prayers, because their mothers have undertaken a
mission? Do not boys sometimes grow up without the correcting influence of
the father’s character, because he, good man, is so taken up with
committees?
Let us guard against an austerity of
manner, which prevents us being the companions, play-fellows, and
associates of our children.
2 Kings 22:20
Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace.
As a matter of fact, Josiah’s death
was not a peaceful one. He persisted in going into conflict with Pharaoh-necho,
king of Egypt, against the latter’s earnest remonstrance (see 2 Chronicles
35:20–22); and, in consequence of his hardihood, met his death. His
servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo (2 Kings 23:30). Is
there, then, any real contradiction between the prophet’s prediction and
this sad event?
Certainly not! The one tells us what
God was prepared to do for His servant; the other what he brought on
himself by his own folly. There are many instances of this change of
purpose in the Word of God. One of them is known as “His breach of
promise,” or “altering of purpose” (Numbers 14:34, marg.). He would have
saved His people from the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, but
they made Him to serve with their sins and wearied Him with their
iniquities. He would have gathered Jerusalem as a hen gathers her brood,
but she would not.
Let us beware lest, a promise being
left us, we should seem to come short of it; lest there be in any of us an
evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, and frustrating
some blessed purpose of His heart. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God bath
prepared for them that love Him”; but we may limit the Holy One of Israel,
and so restrain Him by our unbelief as to stay the mighty works which are
in His plan for us. He may desire for us a prosperous life and a peaceful
death; but we may close our dying eyes amid disaster and defeat, because
we willfully chose our own way.
2 Kings 23:25
Like unto Josiah was there no king before him.
This chapter is a marvellous record
of cleansing and purging. We are led from one item to another of drastic
reform. Nothing was spared that savored of idolatry. Priests and altars,
buildings and groves, came under the searching scrutiny of this
true-hearted monarch; and, as the result, it was possible to keep such a
Passover as had not been observed during the days of the judges or the
kings (2 Kings 23:22).
How much our enjoyment of the solemn
feast depends upon our previous efforts to put away from our lives all
that is inconsistent with the law of God. We hardly realize how
insidiously evils creep in. Before we are aware, we have fallen beneath
God’s ideal, and adopted the customs of our neighbors, or of those with
whom we come into daily contact. All such declension hinders our joy in
keeping the Passover. It is needful, therefore, that there should be times
when we turn to God with fresh devotion, and in the light of His holy
truth pass the various departments of our life under review, testing
everything by the Book of the Law. In Josiah’s case, the sacred volume was
recovered from long neglect; in our case it needs to be re-read in the
light of higher resolves. This would be like a new discovery. Our ultimate
rule must always be the will of God, appreciated with growing clearness,
and used as a standard by which to judge the habits and tenets of our
life. We read the Bible for purposes of a truer knowledge of God and His
ways, and for spiritual quickening; but let us also use it more frequently
as the bath of the spirit. Let us bathe in it. Let us revel in it as the
grimy children of the slums in the laughing wavelets of river and sea.
2 Kings 24:13
He carried out thence all the treasures of the House of the Lord.
Amongst these departed treasures
must have been much of the sacred furniture of the Temple, and the holy
vessels; because, in the days of Belshazzar, we find them brought out to
grace the royal banquet. Belshazzar drank wine from them with his lords,
wives, and concubines, whilst they praised the gods of Babylon, who had
given them victory over their foes. Amongst the rest was the golden
candlestick, whose flame afterward illuminated the inscription of doom,
written by God’s hand upon the palace wall. By the command of Cyrus these
precious vessels were finally restored (Ezra 5:14), and carried back to
Jerusalem, by a faithful band of priests (Ezra 8:33).
The whole story of the captivity is
full of solemn lessons.— The Church of God must make her choice between
one of two courses: either she must keep from all entangling alliances,
and from vying for temporal power; or she must face the liability of being
brought under the power with which she would fain assimilate. Israel
wanted to be as the other nations around her, imitating their
organization, and allying herself now with one, and then with another; in
consequence she was swept into captivity to the very nation whose fashions
she most affected (Isaiah 38).
Have we never tasted the bitters of
captivity?— Borne away from our happy early homes to live among strangers,
set to repugnant tasks, removed from all that made life worth living, we
have known the exile’s lot. Alas! if it be so; yet, even in our captivity,
where the Lord’s song is silenced, and our harps hang from the willows, if
we repent, and put away our sins, and turn again to the Lord, He will not
only have mercy, but abundantly pardon, and bring us again that we may be
as we were in times past.
2 Kings 25:30
Every day a portion, all the days of his life. (r. v.)
Is it to be supposed that the king
of Babylon took more care of Jehoiachin than God will take of us!
Jehoiachin had resisted his suzerain, and cost him a great expenditure of
men and treasure; but nothing which had transpired in the past hindered
this provision of a daily supply. Will God do less for you, His child?
Would it not come as a relief if you were to be told that, from this
moment till you die, you could always have a sufficient provision of all
the necessaries of life? But if you are a child of God, that promise has
already been made! Do not be anxious, but believe that God’s word is at
least as sure and as efficient as man’s.
The allowance was continual.— It did
not begin with plenty, and gradually dwindle to scraps. The supply was
maintained year after year. Will God drop off your supplies, think you,
because He forgets, or because His power is exhausted? You know that each
supposition is alike untenable. What He has done, He will do. The
storehouses of nature open to His key. His are the cattle on a thousand
hills.
Every day a portion.— Jehoiachin had
not the provisions of a year or a month put down at his door; but as each
day broke he was sure of the day’s portion. It may be that God is dealing
thus with you. Only manna for the day: daily strength for daily need.
All the days of His life.— Jesus is
with us “all the days”; and He is the bread of God, in whom is every
property necessary for life. All the days are included in God’s care for
us, of birth and death, of sunshine and shadow. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow you all the days of your life, and you shall dwell in the
House of the Lord forever.
