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2 Kings Chapter
Thirteen
2 Kings 13
Chapter Contents
Reign of Jehoahaz. (1-9) Jehoash
king of Israel
Elisha
dying. (10-19) Elisha's death
The victories of Jehoash. (20-25)
Commentary on 2 Kings 13:1-9
(Read 2 Kings 13:1-9)
It was the ancient honour of Israel that they were a
praying people. Jehoahaz
their king
in his distress
besought the Lord;
applied himself for help
but not to the calves; what help could they give him?
He sought the Lord. See how swift God is to show mercy; how ready to hear
prayer; how willing to find a reason to be gracious; else he would not look so
far back as the ancient covenant Israel had so often broken
and forfeited. Let
this invite and engage us for ever to him; and encourage even those who have
forsaken him
to return and repent; for there is forgiveness with him
that he
may be feared. And if the Lord answer the mere cry of distress for temporal
relief
much more will he regard the prayer of faith for spiritual blessings.
Commentary on 2 Kings 13:10-19
(Read 2 Kings 13:10-19)
Jehoash
the king
came to Elisha
to receive his dying
counsel and blessing. It may turn much to our spiritual advantage
to attend
the sick-beds and death-beds of good men
that we may be encouraged in religion
by the living comforts they have from it in a dying hour. Elisha assured the
king of his success; yet he must look up to God for direction and strength;
must reckon his own hands not enough
but go on
in dependence upon Divine aid.
The trembling hands of the dying prophet
as they signified the power of God
gave this arrow more force than the hands of the king in his full strength. By
contemning the sign
the king lost the thing signified
to the grief of the
dying prophet. It is a trouble to good men
to see those to whom they wish
well
forsake their own mercies
and to see them lose advantages against
spiritual enemies.
Commentary on 2 Kings 13:20-25
(Read 2 Kings 13:20-25)
God has many ways to chastise a provoking people. Trouble
comes sometimes from that point whence we least feared it. The mention of this
invasion on the death of Elisha
shows that the removal of God's faithful
prophets is a presage of coming judgments. His dead body was a means of giving
life to another dead body. This miracle was a confirmation of his prophecies.
And it may have reference to Christ
by whose death and burial
the grave is
made a safe and happy passage to life to all believers. Jehoash was successful
against the Syrians
just as often as he had struck the ground with the arrows
then a stop was put to his victories. Many have repented
when too late
of
distrusts and the straitness of their desires.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Kings》
2 Kings 13
Verse 6
[6]
Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam
who made
Israel sin
but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.)
The grove —
Which Ahab had planted for the worship of Baal
and which should have been
destroyed
Deuteronomy 7:5.
Verse 7
[7] Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen
and ten
chariots
and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them
and had made them like the dust by threshing.
He — The king of Syria.
People — Of
his army
or men of war.
Verse 8
[8] Now
the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz
and all that he did
and his might
are they
not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
His might —
For though his success was not good
he shewed much personal valour. Which is
noted to intimate
that the Israelites were not conquered
because of the
cowardice of their king
but merely from the righteous judgment of God
who was
now resolved to reckon with them for their apostacy.
Verse 14
[14] Now
Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of
Israel came down unto him
and wept over his face
and said
O my father
my
father
the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof.
Fallen sick
… — He
lived long: for it was sixty years since he was first called to be a prophet.
It was a great mercy to Israel and especially to the sons of the prophets
that
he was continued so long
a burning and a shining light. Elijah finished his
testimony
in a fourth part of that time. God's prophets have their day set
them
longer or shorter
as infinite wisdom sees fit. But all the latter part of
his time
from the anointing of Jehu
which was forty five years before Joash
began his reign
we find no mention of him
or of any thing he did
'till we
find him here upon his death bed. Yet he might be useful to the last
tho' not
so famous as he had sometimes been.
Verse 17
[17] And he said
Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said
Shoot. And he shot. And he said
The arrow of the LORD's deliverance
and the
arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek
till thou have consumed them.
Eastward —
Toward Syria
which lay north-eastward
from the land of Israel: this arrow is
shot against the Syrians
as a token what God intended to do against them.
Verse 18
[18] And
he said
Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of
Israel
Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice
and stayed.
Smite —
The former sign portended victory
this was to declare the number of the
victories.
Verse 20
[20] And
Elisha died
and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the
land at the coming in of the year.
Moabites invaded —
The mentioning this immediately on the death of Elisha intimates
that the
removal of God's faithful prophets
is a presage of judgments approaching.
Verse 21
[21] And
it came to pass
as they were burying a man
that
behold
they spied a band of
men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was
let down
and touched the bones of Elisha
he revived
and stood up on his
feet.
He revived —
Which miracle God wrought
to do honour to that great prophet
and that by this
seal he might confirm his doctrine
to strengthen the faith of Joash
and of
the Israelites
in this promise of their success against the Syrians; and in
the midst of all their calamities to comfort such Israelites as were Elisha's
followers
with the hopes of eternal life
whereof this was a manifest pledge
and to awaken the rest of that people to a due care and preparation for it.
Verse 23
[23] And
the LORD was gracious unto them
and had compassion on them
and had respect
unto them
because of his covenant with Abraham
Isaac
and Jacob
and would
not destroy them
neither cast he them from his presence as yet.
Had compassion —
The slowness of God's process against sinners even when they remain impenitent
must be construed to the advantage of his mercy
not the impeachment of his
justice.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Kings》
13 Chapter 13
Verses 1-9
Verses 2-13
He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Defection
Just as two roads that diverge from each other at a very sharp
angle
get the wider apart the further they go
till at last half a continent
may be held betwixt them--the little deflection from the narrow line of
Christian duty and simple faithfulness
it is only God’s mercy that will
prevent it from leading thee away out
out
out into the waste plains and
doleful wildernesses
where all sinful
and dark
and foul things dwell for
ever.
Verse 8
The rest of the acts of Jehoahaz.
Records of life
How very little we know even of the men whose lives are written:
“The rest of the acts of Jehoahaz and all that he did
and his might
are they
not Written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel “ No! Another
hand there indeed endeavours to sketch the life
but how much is left out! No human
chronicler can put down all things concerning the subject which he has
undertaken to depict. But the rest of our lives is written. A diary is kept in
heaven; the journal is not published for the perusal of others; but the whole
life
day by day
is put down in the book of remembrance; and we shall be able
to recognise the writing
and to confirm the accuracy of the minute. We cannot
get away from it
there is the writing
and it abides--a perpetual witness for
us or against us. What is the Divine scribe now writing? The pen is going. We
are obliged to use such figures to represent the spiritual reality. The writing
is now proceeding: every thought registered
every deed chronicled
every day’s
work added up and carried over to the next page. It is a solemn thing to live!
We are stewards
trustees
servants sent on messages
and entrusted with
specified duties
and we are expected back with a definite answer and a
complete report of our lives. (J. Parker.)
Verses 10-21
Verses 14-21
Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died.
The death of Elisha
I. A great man
dying.
II. A wicked man
regretting the event.
III. A good man
leaving the world interested in posterity. Elisha
though dying
was excited to
some interest in the future of his country (2 Kings 13:15-19).
IV. A dead man
exerting a wonderful influence. (David Thomas
D. D.)
Verses 15-19
And Elisha said unto him
Take bow and arrows.
The king’s arrows
Elisha was lying ill on his deathbed. His long career of
usefulness and blessing was drawing to a close. He was held in great honour
not only by the people but by the king
and when it was known that he was
coming to the end of his career King Joash came to see him
and when he came
into the room
and saw the prophet lying there
looking so frail and weak
the
young king was greatly affected. He burst into tears
and cried aloud
“O my
father
my father
the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen thereof.” Now Joash
was neither a good nor a great man
but he was still young and not yet
hardened
and he had no doubt a sudden vision of something of the meaning of
the great value of Elisha to the kingdom. Elisha was a man of deeds
and he
called the young man to his composure by saying to him
“Take bow and arrows.”
For a moment Elisha is king
and the king is his servant
and the king turns
and takes up a bow and arrows.
1. God’s hand on ours is our only guarantee of success. When Elisha
had young King Joash take up the bow and arrows and place the arrow on the
string and make ready to shoot
he put his own hands over the hands of the king
to illustrate and impress upon the mind of this young ruler that if he gave
himself to earnest
resolute attack upon the enemies of God and of His people
the hand of God should be with him as a guarantee of victory. The lesson is as
important for us as it was for Joash. God calls ‘every one of us to fight His
enemies and the enemies of mankind. And there is that other warfare in our own
hearts
that campaign against our personal besetting sins. God’s hand must be
on our hand if the arrow shall find its mark and do its execution.
2. We are to smite sin utterly. God seeks to deliver us entirely from
sin
but we may limit the deliverance of God by our own conduct. When the
prophet told the young king to shoot his arrow eastward towards his Syrian
enemy
he exclaimed
“The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance.” But when
to test
the young king
he told him to take up the arrows and smite on the ground with
them
his heart was heavy and his soul indignant as he noticed that he struck
half-heartedly and that after only three strokes he turned about in a lifeless
sort of way as if looking for further directions. Let us not fail of this great
lesson
God seeks our complete deliverance from sin. He desires that every enemy which troubles
us and hinders us from working out the great purposes to which we are called of
Jesus Christ shall be consumed and destroyed. But let us never forget that
whether or not this is accomplished depends at the last upon us. It is a solemn
thing that we
by our nerveless will
by our flabby lack of purpose
by our
mushy indecision may thwart the purpose of Almighty God and continue to live
lives far beneath our privilege. Let us smite
and smite
and smite
and yet again
smite
until
every wicked passion
until every evil appetite
until every besetting sin
shall be smitten to the death in our hearts and Jesus shall be crowned Lord over
all.
3. There is no greater danger to the Christian than lack of
persistence. Over and over again is this urged upon us in the Bible. Joash
failed for lack of persistence. Many a Christian in these later centuries has
failed because he gave up in despair by the way.
4. We are in great danger of being too easily satisfied. It may be
that King Joash thought that three victories over Syria would be enough. It was
not in him to rise up to a high ideal of his mission or to grasp the fulness of
God’s willingness to make him not only the great King of Israel but the great
king of all the world. Because he was easily satisfied his career was short and
disgraceful. (L. A. Banks
D. D.)
Poverty of faith ensures but partial success
We may take this closing incident in the life of Elisha
as an
illustration of the warfare between the soul and its enemies
and the
conditions upon which complete victory is achieved.
1. Israel. Redeemed out of Egypt
in Canaan
where they might have
lived in the enjoyment of triumph over all foes. Not in absolute exemption from
conflict
but trusting in God and obeying Him
they would never have known
defeat. They disbelieved
disobeyed
and as a consequence
there was failure
and defeat. Type of a soul which has passed out of death (Egypt) into life
(Canaan). But it has left its first love
in which it might have abode in the
joys of continuous victory.
2. Israel’s enemies. Syria in particular. We find ourselves attacked
from different quarters at the same time.
3. Promised deliverance.
(a) A definite deliverance--“from Syria.”
(b) A Divine deliverance--“The Lord’s deliverance.”
Spiritual deliverance is promised us. Definite promises of
deliverance from the dominion
love and pollution of sin.
4. The king’s error. He erred in not resolving on
and expecting
complete success. “He smote thrice
and stayed.” He
as it were
“limited the
Holy One of Israel.” He certainly manifested a lack of faith and of courage. In
the spiritual life we should aim at
and expect
complete success. Be satisfied
with nothing short of this. Not to rest while a single foe has a footing in the
territory which belongs to God. We are to be “more than conquerors.”
5. The king’s partial success. Elisha would not have been “wrath” had
there not been good cause. Elisha was God’s messenger. As when he declared that
there should be plenty in Samaria within a given time
and the lord of the
court was held guilty for not believing the message
so here. On account of
weak faith
we are often only partially successful against our spiritual
enemies. Would Naaman have been cured of his leprosy had he dipped in Jordan
but thrice
and then stayed?
6. The king’s loss through unbelief. He was not aware
possibly
of
the grandeur of the opportunity. Perhaps he treated the prophet’s simple
message with contempt--obeying him merely to indulge the whim of an old and
dying man--failing to look beyond the prophet to God who sent him. Perhaps we
stumble sometimes at the message because we look no farther or higher than the
messenger. He is not talented
famous
but coarse
etc. The king suffered. So
do we when this spirit is indulged. (J. E. Robinson.)
Spiritual archery
There are two acts in this wonderful event. The first concerns the
shooting of the arrow of deliverance
a symbolic and prophetic act; the second
concerns the smiting on the ground with arrows
also symbolical
but providing
as well a test of the character
of the zeal
and of the faith of the King of Israel. Now concerning
these two acts and the several scenes in them let us speak as God may guide us.
I. Shooting the
arrow of deliverance. Notice
1. A call to action. “Take bow and arrows
” said the dying prophet.
There is a deal of meaning wrapped up in this apparently simple suggestion.
Elisha had come to a full end
and like a shock of corn that was fully ripe he
was now bending towards the sharpened sickle. The king
who was not remarkable
all the years of his life for his devotion to God or to His prophets
is now
found trembling and weeping by the side of the sick servant of Jehovah. Then it
is that the dying prophet
with more faith and hope and vigour in him even at
the last article than the sinful king in his prime and power
exclaims as it were
“Weep not
tremble not
faint not
fear not; I am going
but God is with you. God buries
His workmen
but He carries on His work. I die
but God will surely visit you.
Do not let this sad event unduly depress you. I must die
for my time has come;
but so long as you live
live to purpose
take bow and arrows
let not your
hands hang down. Go forth to the battle yet again
and believe in the God to whom I have so
long
though vainly
pointed you; for He is the Lord God of Hosts
the God of
battles still. Dry up your tears; forsake your grief; take bow and arrows; arm
yourself; go forth into the fight
and the Lord my God shall be with you.”
2. I notice next that Elisha gives to the king several strict
injunctions; indeed
the detail to which he condescends is most remarkable. All
through these verses we find a long list of instructions and commands. “Take
bow and arrows.” “Put thine hand upon the bow.” “Open the window eastward.”
“Shoot.” “Take the arrows.” “Smite upon the ground.” The dying prophet
instructs the king in all the minutiae of his immediate duty. The wisest of us
need to be divinely directed.
3. Then followed on the king’s part implicit obedience. “Take
” said
the prophet; “and he took.” So it is throughout. “Put thine hand upon the bow;”
“and he put his hand upon it.” “Open the window;” “and he opened it.” “Shoot;”
“and he shot.” “Smite;” “and he smote.” All through there is a corresponding
obedience on the king’s part to the arrangement and suggestion of the prophet.
So should it ever be with us and God. Let His imperative be answered by
obedient indicative on our part.
4. There follows a hint as to the necessity for personal interest and
effort. Read the 16th verse.
5. There was Divine co-operation
for we read “Elisha put his hands
upon the king’s hands:”
6. Notice next that the window had to be opened. He said
“Open the
window eastward. And he opened it.” In other words
every obstruction and
possible hindrance has to be got rid of. You see the importance of this.
7. Then at last they come to the decisive action. All the rest has
been preliminary and preparatory.
II. The second act
the smiting with
the other arrows. This was a symbolical act
as was the first. The flight of
the single arrow through the open lattice must have been readily understood by
the king
for it was the custom there and then
as in other lands and times
to
throw down the gage of battle
or to hurl a dart
the signal of the war. God
has shot out of every window of this Tabernacle arrows of deliverance
if I may
so speak; but with this purpose
that we ourselves shall follow up those
tokens
and hope and believe that they were prophecies and promises with
meaning which must meet with further fulfilment. It remains for us to shoot the
other arrows
for we have a quiver full of them. The command was to smite with
them on the ground. You see the meaning of that. It is as though Elisha said
“The arrow of God’s deliverance has gone forth; it has already found its mark
and done its work. You have now
if you will but believe it
these Syrians
crouching at your very feet. God has already humbled them
and they are now at
your mercy. Smite upon the ground. They are already at your feet. God has
delivered them into your hands. Smite! Smite!” The king obeys
but with too
little zeal. (T. Spurgeon.)
The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance
How the spiritual drama repeats itself year after year! Again and
again we see young people come up full of enthusiasm
full of the memory of the
great things that noble lives have done
lamenting the glory that has departed
from the earth
feeling a sudden impulse
which like an arrow is shot forth
from the soul
essaying to do some great and noble work; and in that moment the
prophetic voice is heard saying
The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance; there
lies the work of your life. This sudden impulse that takes possession of you in
your youth
and causes you to shoot forth the arrows of the aspirations of your
soul
--these are the things
that show you the way of the Lord. It is God’s
purpose that you should be the deliverer of His people in the particular path
that He has opened before you. How that is going on every day! How every day at
college men are lifting up their hearts
and setting open the windows of their
souls
and looking out
shooting forth the thoughts and hopes and desires of
their soul into this great unknown world! And then what? Then says the
prophetic voice again
Smite upon the ground
Take these arrows and bind them
together
and in a Divine frenzy devote yourself
soul and body
to the work
that God has revealed to you to do. Then comes the critical moment in a man’s
life. He smites thrice
and stays. He says to himself
I need not do my best; I
can do about as well as other men and not be wearied by my work; I have gifts
that will enable me to live
and enable me to attain
perchance
a fortune
and
yet I need not give up the things that make life pleasant; I need not turn
aside from my self-indulgence; I will smite thrice
and stay. So it comes to
pass that this great multitude
surging out into the life of the world year
after year
equipped
crowned as kings for the work of life
smite the Syrians
but thrice. The work of life is but half done. They remain failures
when they
might have triumphed gloriously. Or take another illustration of the same
thing. Here is a woman who has given herself up to a life of frivolity and
vanity. Perhaps she is not to blame for that; perhaps she has had no ideal of
noble things set before her. But some day the casement is thrown open
and she
sees a new life before her
--a life which shall be devoted to husband and
Children and home
a life which shall for the first time remember the great
forgotten who dwell among us. The hand of the prophet is on that woman
and her
soul shoots forth the arrow of a new desire. And the voice says
It is the
arrow of the Lord’s deliverance; there lie the glory
and splendour
and
nobility of your life; there is the path on which God would have you walk
and
you may deliver yourself and deliver those who live about you from the slavery
and misery of the false ideals that thus far have dominated them. Smite
says
the voice of the prophet. Devote yourself
soul and body
instantly
to the new
work that has been revealed to you. And she smites thrice. She goes to see some
poor stricken soul
and she finds it tiresome; she turns aside from some
gathering of frivolity
and her soul is parched. She undertakes some noble work
of self-denial
and she is tired. She smites thrice
and stays
and goes down
with the great multitude
worthless
useless
bringing no fruit to perfection
Listen to one more example of the same thing. Here is a man or woman who has
come on through life
and suddenly awakes to the consciousness of his ignorance
of the Divine revelation in Jesus Christ. It smites upon him. Sometimes for one
cause
and sometimes for another
it comes to pass that men and women living
here in this city suddenly for the first time have a revelation of the glory
and beauty and power of the life of Jesus Christ. And they say to themselves
Is the thing a myth? How has it come to pass that people have dreamed of such a
life? How is it that men and women gather week after week
and day after day
to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ
and desire to serve Him? That man shoots
forth the arrow of his desire for knowledge
and the voice says
It is the
arrow of the Lord’s deliverance. There lies the path by which you shall walk
into the kingdom of truth and be saved from your enemies. And he begins to
read. He reads a little
and he talks a little
and he thinks a little. But he
learns before long that there is opening up before him a great and tremendous
work
and the scepticism of the time finds voice
and whispers
Why waste your
energies to learn that which cannot be known? Devote the energy of life to
something that is practical; turn aside from vain dreams. So he
like the
others
smites thrice and stays
and enters the great company of sceptics
--or
as they like to be called to-day
agnostics
--ignorant of God’s eternal truth.
(Leighton Parks.)
The Lord’s arrow of victory
You see then the full measure of victory which God wants us to
enjoy. “Thou shalt smite the Syrians till thou have consumed them.” You see
too
the limited measure of victory which most Christians experience. “He smote
thrice and stayed.” Three big blessings and we think we have had all. Three
successes over the enemy and we think we have done wonders. But the Saviour
marvels that after all He went through for us
we should be content with such
half measures. We glean from it four rules for complete victory in the
Christian life.
1. Declare war against sin. Elisha breaks in upon the king’s
lamentations with the emphatic words
“Take bow and arrows.” It is time not for
weeping but for warring. The genius of the gospel is not peace at any price
but truth at all costs.
2. Union is strength. This is the meaning of the second act in this
significant drama. “The prophet laid his hands upon the king’s hands.” Like the
officer who sallied forth to capture one of the enemy’s forts
after two
unsuccessful attempts had been made
asking first of all from his general a
grasp of his conquering right hand
so we must know what it is for our weakness
to be encompassed in Christ’s strength.
3. Claim a complete deliverance. This is the meaning of the next
step. The window was opened eastward and through the open window was shot forth
the Lord’s arrow of victory
even the arrow of victory over Syria.
4. Then came the fourth act with its momentous lesson
“Fulfil the
obedience of faith
” and the king failed at this point so that the man of God
was angry with him. How slow we are to learn this lesson. It is what we are in
secret before God that fixes the amount of victory and blessing we enjoy in our
walk and service amongst men. If only Joash had emptied the quiver he would
have consumed the Syrians. If only we will he whole-hearted before God
yielding our will wholly and trusting God’s promises absolutely
we too shall
be completely victorious against the world
the flesh
and the devil. (F. S.
Webster
M. A.)
The challenge arrow
History gives us the explanation of this symbolic narrative. It
appears that in former times war was often proclaimed or renewed by the
despatch of an arrow into the enemy’s lines. Elisha meant to teach the king
that
although he was weak and dying
yet Israel’s cause was not going to die
with him; and that the same power that made Israel strong in the past would
follow the king in his new campaign against the Syrian oppressor. Let us learn
the following lessons from the laying of those old emaciated hands of the
prophet upon the young strong hands of the king. We see there a picture of--
I. The past
directing the present. When we crossed the threshold of the year we did not get
rid of the old; for the past is always stretching out its vanishing hands to
direct and influence the present. The white-bearded face of Elisha well
represents the past
which is over behind us
overlooking our work. The
actions
associations
and habits of the past are still with us. We may turn
over a new leaf
but we cannot unlearn at once the irregularities of the
defective writing on the previous page. We may point the arrow afresh
but the
old hands are inevitably influencing the sweep it takes from the bow. This
influence is exerted by the past
whether it is good or evil. Virtue and piety
reap their immediate
as well as ultimate
harvests. The good deeds of the past
are ever stretching forth their gentle hands to guide and bless not only
ourselves
but others as well. Who can tell the influence of a mother’s prayers
uttered by lips long since sealed in death? In the critical moment of her boy’s
career
it would seem as if a straw would have turned the scale of destiny this
way or that. The young impulsive nature is guided and restrained by the
mother’s prayers answered
the mother’s words remembered
the mother’s influence
exerted; and these have saved him in the hour of danger
II. The Divine
controlling the Human. “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance “ had power in it
not because of the strong hand of Joash who pulled the bow
but mainly because
of the prophetic hands that were laid upon him as he did so. Mere human effort
is fruitless unless a higher power directs and controls the course and goal of
the arrow’s flight. We may spread the sails
but they must be filled with
heaven-sent breezes. We may sow the seed
but God gives the increase. “Man
proposes
but God disposes.” We form plans and projects
we bend the bow
and
throw all our power into the work lying before us
but unless a higher power is
with us
all the determination and foresight we may command are valueless.
“Except the Lord build the house
they labour in vain that build it.” If this
is true in regard to temporal concerns
how much more should we recognise its
truth in the spiritual sphere. Too long has the enemy oppressed and held
dominion over our hearts and our lives. Let us look to the ground we would
reconquer and reclaim for the King of kings. Let us resolve that this slavery
of our souls to sin shall cease. And as we do so
let us pray for the presence
and power of the “hands of the mighty God of Jacob” to strengthen our weakness
and give us the victory. But while thus trusting in Divine help
notice that it
was the young king who drew the bow. Human effort is as essential as Divine
direction. God’s promise to help does not warrant idleness. The sense of God’s
helping us should not paralyse
but should rather stimulate to doing and daring
greater things than we have ever hitherto attempted. The narrative suggests
that effort must be sustained to be successful. One blow never won a battle.
The king stayed his hand after he had discharged three arrows
and the man of
God was wrath
and said he should have smitten the ground oftener
and then he
would have utterly consumed the foe. So long as God bids us “fight the good
fight”
we must not cease our warring. So long as His hand is urging us we must
smite again and again. Let us not desist
as Joash may have done
from a
feeling of tenderness towards me enemy
nor from unbelief in the efficacy of
the means ordained of God for our deliverance. Both motives have hindered and
crippled the efforts of many a hopeful life. Finally
let us ask ourselves
has
“the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance” been discharged from our bow at all? Have
we declared war against sin and Satan? If not
let us do so before another day
closes. Look up and see God’s hands held out
waiting
and able to help and to
save you
and to rid from the guilt and bondage and pollution of sin. Fight for
your life
and the lives of those around you
and all your arrows shall bring
help and joy and peace to you and yours. (David A. Taylor.)
Three arrows
or six
It is a very difficult task to show the meeting-place of the
purpose of God and the free agency of man. One thing is quite clear
we ought
not to deny either of them
for they are both facts. It is a fact that God has
purposed all things both great and little; neither will anything happen but
according to His eternal purpose and decree. It is also a sure and certain fact
that
oftentimes
events hang upon the choice of men. Their will has a singular
potency. In the ease before us
the arrows are in the hands of the King of
Israel; and according to whether he shall shoot once
twice
thrice
or five or
six times
so will the nation’s history be affected. Now
how these two things
can both be true
I cannot tell you; neither
probably
after long debate
could the wisest men
in heaven tell you
not even with the assistance of cherubim and seraphim. If
they could tell you
what would you know
and in what way would you be
benefited if you could find out this secret? But sometimes a practical question
about these two points does arise. It is correct to say
speaking after the
manner of men
“If men are earnest
if men are believing
if men are prayerful
such and such a blessing will come”; and that the blessing does not come
may
be rightly traced to the fact that they were not as prayerful and as believing
as they ought to have been. Next
reflect what great things may lie in a man’s
hand There stood Joash an unworthy king; and yet m his hands lay
measurably
the destiny of his people. If he will take those arrows
and will shoot five or
six times
their great enemy will be broken in pieces. If he will be dilatory
and will only shoot three times
he will get only a measure of victory; and
poor Israel will ultimately have to suffer again from this enemy
who has been
only scotched
and not killed. You do not know
dear friends
what
responsibility lies upon you. You are the father of a family; what blessings
may come to your household
or may be missed by your children
through your
conduct! Once more
notice what great results may come from very little acts. It was a very
trifling thing
was it not
to shoot an arrow from a bow? Your child has done
it many times in his holidays. He has taken his bow
and shot his little
home-made shaft into the air. This is what the King of Israel is required to
do
to perform this very slight and common feat of archery
to shoot from an
open window
and to drive his arrows into the ground beneath; and yet upon the
shooting of these arrows will hang victory or defeat for Israel so there be
some who think that hearing the Gospel is a little thing. Life
death
and
hell
and worlds unknown
may hang upon the preaching and hearing of a sermon.
I. Let me speak of
some matters in which many men too soon pause. There are some who
having great
opportunities
--and we all have them more or less
--shoot only three times when
they ought to shoot five or six times.
1. One of these matters is in the warfare with the evil within. Some
as soon as they
begin their Christian life
fit an arrow to the string
and shoot down big
sins
such as swearing.
or drunkenness
or open uncleanness. When they have
shot these three times
they seem to think that the other enemies within them
may be tolerated. My brother
thou shouldest have shot five or six times.
2. There are some who shoot three times
and then leave off
with
regard to Christian knowledge. They know the simple truth of justification by
faith; but they do not want to know much about sanctification by the Spirit of
God. Why not
my brother? Canst thou be saved unless thou art sanctified? Some
are perfectly satisfied with laying again the first principles
always going
over those; but they want to know no more. I beseech you
strive to be educated
in the things of God.
3. Some
again
sin in this way with regard to Christian attainments.
They have little faith
and they say
“Faith like a grain of mustard-seed will
save you.” That is true. But are you always to be a little one? A grain of mustard-seed
is not worth anything if it does not grow; it is meant to grow till it comes to
be a tree
and birds lodge in its boughs. Come
my dear friend
if thou hast
little faith
do not rest till thou hast great faith
till thou hast full
assurance
till thou hast the full assurance of understanding.
4. Others
again
seem satisfied with little usefulness. You brought
a soul to Christ
did you? Oh
that you would long to bring another! Do you not
remember what the general said
in the war
when one rode up to him
and cried
out
“We have taken a gun from the enemy”? “Take another
” said the general. If
you have brought one soul to Christ
it should make you hunger and thirst to
bring another.
5. And this spirit comes out very vividly in prayer. You do pray;
else were you not the living children of God at all; but oh
for more power in
prayer! You have asked for a blessing; why not ask for a far greater one?
6. The Church of God
as a whole
is guilty here
as to her plans for
God’s glory. She is doing much more now than she used to do; but even now
though she smites three times
we may say to her
“Thou shouldest have smitten
five or six times.” Oh
that the Church of Christ had a boundless ambition to
conquer the world for her Lord!
II. But now
secondly
let me speak of the reasons for this pausing
Why do men come to a
dead hall so soon?
1. Some of them say that they are afraid of being presumptuous. You
are afraid of being too holy
are you? Dismiss your fear. You are afraid of
asking for too much grace; be afraid of having too little. You are afraid of
conquering sin; tremble for fear of an unconquered sin. There is no presumption
in taking the largest promise of God
and pleading it
and expecting to have it
fulfilled.
2. Perhaps one says
“I have not the natural ability to be doing
more
or enjoying more.” What has natural ability to do with it? When all thy
natural abilities are in
the grave
and thou lookest only to the spiritual strength of God
then thou
shalt see greater things than these.
3. Shall I tell you the real reasons why men pause in their work?
With some
it is because they are too dependent upon their fellow-men. This King
Joash could shoot when Elisha put his hand on his hand; probably Elisha only
did that once
and then left him to himself
and said
“Now
you shoot.” Then
he only shot three times. There are many Christian people who are a great deal
too dependent upon their ministers
or upon some elderly Christian person who
has helped them onward.
4. Another reason why some pause is
that they are too soon
contented. Joash thought that he had done very well when he had shot three
times
and that Elisha would pat him on the back
and say
“How well you have
done!” That kind of feeling creeps over many workers for the Lord.
5. Joash
too
I dare say
gave up shooting because he was
unbelieving. He could not see how shooting the arrows could affect the Syrians;
and he wanted to see.
6. I should not wonder
also
if Joash was too indolent to shoot five
or six times. He did not feel in a shooting humour. Now
whenever you do not
feel in a humour for prayer
then is the time when you ought to pray twice as
much.
7. Joash also probably had too little zeal. He was not wide awake
he
was not thoroughly aroused
he did not care for the glory of God. If he could
beat the Syrians three times
that would be quite enough for him.
III. But now
thirdly
notice the lamentable result of this pausing.
1. When Joash had shot three times
he paused; and therefore the
blessing paused. Three times he shot
and three times God gave him victory. Do
you see what you are doing by pausing? You are stopping the conduit-pipe by
which the river of blessing will flow to you. Do not do that; to impoverish
yourself must certainly be a needless operation.
2. You will suffer in consequence
as this king did; for
after the
three victories
the rival power came to the front again.
3. Others will also suffer with you.
4. Meanwhile
the enemy triumphed.
5. What was even worse
Jehovah Himself was dishonoured.
6. Yet again
glorious possibilities were lost.
IV. The cure for
this pausing.
1. If we pause in our holy service
or in getting near to God
or in
sucking the marrow out of the promises
remember that the enemy will not pause.
2. A cure for this stopping lies in the reflection that in other
things we are generally eager.
3. And lastly
this question ought to prevent us from ever pausing
Can we ever do enough for our Saviour? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The small gains of the irresolute
We have here a more than commonly graphic page of Holy Scripture.
A young king grieving over the death bed of an often neglected prophet; the
feeble hands of the old saint laid on the vigorous hands of his sovereign
as
they held the familiar arrows and bow; the swift course of one arrow shot by
Divine direction towards the land of a dangerous enemy; the handful of arrows
struck a scanty number of times on the ground by the unbelieving youth; and the
wrath of the patriotic prophet (compare the anger of Christ
of whom Elisha may
have been a type
Mark 3:5)
who longed for a widespread
deliverance throughout the Holy Land. It is a picturesque story
but more than
picturesque. It may be reckoned a parable as well as a tale. For--
I. There was a
great opportunity. Though Joash was undeserving (2 Kings 13:11
“he did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord”) God was graciously ready to grant him
complete escape from impending evil (the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance
2 Kings 13:17); even as helpless
sinners have offered to them
through Divine mercy
present pardon and holiness
here
the earnest of complete salvation hereafter.
II. The improvement
of that opportunity required a personal effort. And Joash was experiencing a
measure of religious revival. His visit to the old prophet woke up stirring
associations (tears rolled down his checks as he cried
“My father
” etc.
2 Kings 13:14). Much as the
anniversary of a confirmation vow
a return after absence to a religious home
or the voice of a forgotten counsellor once more heard
may touch affectingly
the conscience of a backslider. But--
III. The inadequate
effort of little faith had a correspondingly slight result. Perhaps Joash
thought the striking of arrows on the ground too trivial an action for very
frequent repetition; perhaps he did not wish his companions to suppose him very
obedient to a religious teacher; perhaps he was languid from the mere habit of
attending to all sacred duties listlessly; perhaps he was in a hurry to be gone
to some other occupation. But want of trust in the Divine revelation must have
been the main cause of his curtailed exertion. And the measure of his receiving
was proportioned to the small measure of his seeking. God faithfully gave him
three victories
after his three strokes
but only three (2 Kings 13:25). Too many have in
like manner lessened the measure of their peace
holiness
and hope
by not
perseveringly using means of grace which might be vastly profitable. (D. D.
Stewart
M. A.)
The story of a bad stopping
Is not the lesson evident? Smiting but thrice and staying--only
half-doing
not pushing to the finishing in grand faith and unrelaxing
purpose--is not that the trouble with multitudes of men? Here
then
is our
story of a bad stopping.
1. In the direction of success in the daily life men often make a bad
stopping. They smite but thrice and stay. Success is duty. The difference
between men as to making the most of themselves is due
oftener than we are apt
to think
to this simply
whether they smite but thrice and stay
or whether
they not only smite thrice but
--go on smiting. “But it is hard
” men say. Yes;
but everything that gets up in this world must struggle up. One relates how
Arago
the Trench astronomer
tells
in his autobiography
that in his youth he
one day became puzzled and discouraged over his mathematics
and almost
resolved to give up the study. He held his paper-bound text-book in his hand.
Impelled by an indefinable curiosity
he damped the cover of the book
and
carefully unrolled the leaf to see what was on the other side. It turned out to
be a brief letter from D’Alembert to a young man like himself
disheartened by
the difficulties of mathematical study
who had written to him for counsel.
This was the letter: “Go on
sin
go on. The difficulties you meet will resolve
themselves as you advance. Proceed
and light will dawn and shine with
increasing clearness upon your path.” Arago went on
and became the first
astronomical mathematician of his time
“But I am too old
” men say. But use is
the law of growth; and the quickest way to bring upon one’s self the worst sort
of senility is to withdraw from life and the interests and duties of it. “But I
would be humble
” men say. Yes; but if you do not amount to much
there is all
the mere reason you should make the most of yourself. And a true humility is
never a withdrawing from service
but is always a readiness to set one’s self
to even the lowliest service for the love of God and fellow-men.
2. In the direction of overcoming evil habits men often make a bad
stopping. They smite but thrice and stay. As some one says
such men are like a
man who
attempting to jump a ditch
will never really jump
but will for ever
stop and return for a fresh run.
3. In the direction of resisting temptation men often make this bad
stopping. They resist thrice
but at the fourth assault they yield.
4. In the direction of advance in the Christian life men often make
this bad stopping. Plenty of Christians through a long life do not get much beyond
the initial stage of justification.
5. In the direction of becoming Christian
men often make this bad
stopping. They smite in the way of at least a partial and outward change of
life
etc.
but when it comes to a total and irreversible surrender of the self
to the Lord Jesus
they stay. (W. Hoyt
D. D.)
God’s purpose and man’s response
A beautiful verse higher up the chapter tells us that “the Lord
gave Israel a saviour” in answer to a repentant king’s prayer. A study of the
history reveals the fact that the deliverer was the grandson of the praying
man. The text explains why the Divine mercy skipped a generation. The son of
the royal penitent was tried and found wanting; therefore deliverance had to
wait until his son
in turn
sat on the throne.
I. The Divine
purpose symbolised. The shooting of an arrow
or the flinging of a dart into an
enemy’s country was anciently a declaration of war. It signified that the
archer and those he represented claimed the territory into which the missile
was flung
and unless their challenge was successfully resisted would occupy
it. Now eastwards from Samaria
the scene of this interview
was the district
which the Syrians had taken from Israel. It was the direction from which their predatory
bands came. To the north-east lay Syria itself. The shooting
of the arrow was
plainly a declaration of war against Syria. That the prophet’s hands were upon
the monarch’s when it was discharged
signified that it was God who flung down
the challenge. Now a challenge to combat by the Almighty is
of course
a
prophecy of victory for Him. Here then
by vivid symbolism
we have the Divine
purpose to deliver Israel from Syrian oppression declared. God’s purposes in
the spiritual realm are revealed with equal clearness to us. It is His will
that the world shall be evangelised and every Christian perfected. He has shot
His arrow over the world. The incubus of devilry that now oppresses it is to be
annihilated. The shadow of the Cross is upon every land. Every Christian
too
is to be perfected. We are saved rom hell: we are to be saved from sin. Our
spirits are the Lord’s: our bodies arid minds are to become His also. All our
spiritual enemies are to be conquered
and each wandering thought brought “into
captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Over the entire life of the believer the
Saviour’s arrow has been discharged. But these glorious purposes are to be
accomplished through human instrumentality. Although the prophet’s hands were
upon his
it was King Joash who shot the arrow. God intends to conquer the
world and our own bad hearts by our agency. In His might
we are to take
possession of the world for our Redeemer. Further
as God’s agents we should
use the wisest means to fulfil His purposes. Joash had to take and use bow and
arrow. One might say that only a bow and arrow were used that all the glory
might be given to God! But that would be a wrong inference. Bows and arrows in
the hands of Chinese troops to-day excite the derision of Europeans. But in the
days of Joash
they comprised the most formidable artillery that could be
employed in warfare. The symbolic lesson was that Joash was to use the wisest
means--to employ all his military might--to effect the deliverance God had
planned. We
also
are to do our best for God. We are to plan wisely: we are to
labour diligently. We are to make the most of ourselves. Our powers should be
trained to their utmost degree of efficiency. Not only for winning others
but
also for saving our own souls we should use the best means.
II. A human
response invited. The King of Israel has been
as it were
in the
council-chamber of the Eternal. He has been shown
figuratively but clearly
the Divine will. He is now taken back to the region of practical
everyday
life. That is God’s purpose
says his mentor. Now show your acceptance of it
and responsiveness to it. Take the remaining arrows. “And he took them.” “Smite
upon the ground”--that is
Smite the ground with the arrows; in other words
Shoot them into the earth. “And he smote”--or shot--“thrice
and stayed.” Now
here is a mystery. In the seventeenth verse we read
“Thou shalt smite the
Syrians in Aphek
till thou have consumed them”: here
“Thou shalt smite Syria
but thrice.” In the one place we have the Divine purpose; in the other
that
purpose as limited by the degree of human responsiveness to it. We are surely
taught that God’s plans depend for their fulfilment upon our acceptance of them
and co-operation in them. This I say
is a mystery. Nothing happens apart from
God. His will is surely done. That is most certain. Yet we may refuse to
co-operate with Him
and so hinder
if not frustrate
His purpose. That also is
undeniable. God’s elect will be saved
yet the blood of souls may cling to the
skirts of a faithless watchman. God’s will shall be done
but we may be
condemned for hindering it. God’s sovereignty does not lessen our
responsibility. How to harmonise these apparently incongruous truths
we do not
know. Let us be content to accept them both
although for the present we do not
see the relation between them. Joash is an example of low content. He had no
ambition to be a David or a Solomon. A comfortable
easy-going life was all he
desired. He wanted to be free from the yoke of Syria
but did not aspire to play
the role of national hero. We are all too like him in his ignoble satisfaction.
In the world we are ambitions. We long for wealth; we thirst for fame. The
higher we can climb
and the sooner we can attain
the better we are pleased.
But we have no sacred ambition to dare and to do greatly for God. How few pant
after holiness or burn with desire to see the world won for Christ! And
therefore we shoot but three arrows
when we ought to shoot five or six times.
God forgive us our low content
and inspire us with loftier ideals! Let us not
be satisfied with what may reasonably be considered all that could be
expected--with the formal discharge of recognised duties. Let us form a high
conception of what God expects from us
and dare greatly in the attempt to achieve
it
Perhaps Joash was indolent. He lacked energy and perseverance. He had no
tenacity of purpose
nor measure of continuance in well-doing. Certainly that
is the fault of most of us. We serve God by fits and starts. There are times
when we live near Him
and give the devil trouble. We grow rapidly in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Oh
if we could only
keep on that level
we should soon become holy! But we do not. Lassitude creeps
over us. Reaction sets in. We relapse into indifference. But the real secret of Joash’s
remissness was
in all probability
unbelief. The Syrians were a powerful
nation. Israel was weak through long oppression. And whether we acknowledge it
or not
it is unbelief that stays our hands also. The cold fingers of unbelief
laid upon the arm that draws the bowstring
cause it to fall paralysed to the side. The world
the flesh
and thy devil are so real and powerful. There they were
rioting and
ravaging
in the days of our fathers. There they are
ruining souls to-day. And
there
surely
they will be to the end of the chapter! Is it conceivable that
sin can lose its fascination for us
that all our inclinations towards it can
be stamped out
and we
old sinners
be changed into the radiant image of the
Christ of God? Is it credible that in the outside world drunkenness will be
abolished
impurity exterminated
wars ended
and the world
hoary in
wickedness
“bound by gold chains about the feet of God”? Hardly! So the arms
that are stretched to shoot are palsied. We smite only two or three times.
According to our faith is our effort
--and our success. All possibilities are
in God. To convert them into actualities
we must believe and endeavour and
persevere. We have the objective promise. There must now be the subjective
appropriation of it. These two things together spell success. Man without God
is impotent. God without man does not choose to work. “God and one man are a
majority against the world.”
III. A human failure
deplored. “He smote thrice
and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him.”
For Joash
by his want of faith and energy
had lost for ever the honour that
might have been his. God’s will will undoubtedly be done
but if we fail to
rise to it and work for it
it will fling us from its triumphant path
and
summon others to its side
while we are left to suffer incalculable and eternal
loss. No doubt we shall become perfect in heaven
but eternity itself will not
compensate for the lack of holy culture here. Christ will win
but we may be
denied a place beside Him when
in His chariot of victory
He passes through
the eternal gates and the everlasting doors. Erasmus might have been the leader
of the reformation of the sixteenth century. He published the Greek New
Testament
and also a Latin translation of it. He taught the importance of
knowledge of the Scriptures. He gave the initial impulse to the mighty movement
which resulted in Protestantism. But when he saw how great a matter a little
fire was kindling
Erasmus
timid and fearful
shrank back. Luther and others
stepped forward and covered themselves with immortal glory
while Erasmus left
a name which is pronounced half with honour and ball with contempt
as that of
a learned man who proved a moral weakling
one who saw the light but feared to
walk in it. Let us have a holy ambition to excel in the kingdom of God. Let us
patiently continue in well-doing
shooting not three arrows
hut five or six.
Through Joash’s failure
too
Israel suffered. The bondage to Syria continued.
Oppression by the foreign invader went drearily on. How far the Christian
Church is responsible for the fact that on the eve of the twentieth century the
world is so far from God
we cannot tell. It is a question which one shudders
to face. Still
it is undoubtedly true that the poverty of our response hinders
the completion of God’s gracious purposes. God was dishonoured by the monarch’s
laxity. The Syrians
who blasphemed His name
continued to rule in His land.
And by our unspiritual lives and lax efforts God is dishonoured to-day. If we
only rose to His purposes and became holy men and women and earnest and
successful workers
how greatly He would be glorified! As it is
we don’t
remain at concert-pitch long enough for the music to rise to His praise. We so
soon give in that we bring contempt on the power we profess to work by. Let us
rouse ourselves from spiritual sluggishness. Let us shoot
not three arrows
but five or six
or a dozen. (B. J. Gibbon.)
Verse 16
And Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands.
The spirit of power
This is part of one of the strangest narratives in the Old
Testament. Elisha is on his death bed
“sick of the sickness” wherewith he
“should die.” A very different scene that close sick chamber from the open
plain beyond Jordan
from which Elijah had gone up; a very different way of
passing from life by fiery chariot than by wasting sickness! But God is as near
His servant in the one place as in the other
and the slow wasting away is as
much His messenger as the sudden apocalypse of the horsemen of fire. Here is a
prophet dying; and his last words are not edifying moral and religious
reflections
nor does he seem to be much concerned to leave with the king his
final protest against Israel’s sin
but his thoughts are all of warfare
and
his last effort is to stir up the sluggish young monarch to some of his own
enthusiasm in the conflict with the enemy. It does not sound like an edifying
death-bed. People might have said
“Ah
secular and political affairs should be
all out of a man’s mind when he comes to his last moments.” But this man
thought that to stick to his life’s work till the last breath was out of him
and to devote the last breath to stimulating successors who might catch up the
torch that dropped from his failing hands
was no unworthy end of a prophet’s
life.
I. Here we have
power communicated. We
too
if we are Christian men and women
have a Gospel
of which the very kernel is that there is to us a communication of power. And
the very name of that Divine Spirit whom it is Christ’s greatest work to send
flashing and flaming through the world
is the Spirit of Power. And so the old
promise that ye shall be clothed with strength from on high is the standing
prerogative of the Christian Church. There is not merely some partial
communication
as when hand touched hand
but every organ is vitalised and
quickened; as in the case of the other miracle of this prophet
when he
stretched himself on the dead child
eye to eye
and mouth to mouth
and hand
to hand; and each part received the vitalising influence. We have
if we are
Christian people
a Spirit given to us
and are “strengthened with might by the
Spirit in the inner man.” Then
further
let me remind you that this power
which is bestowed on condition of contact
is given before duties are
commanded. Further
this strength communicated is realised in the effort to
obey Christ’s great commands. Joash felt nothing when the hands were laid upon
him
but
perhaps
some tingling. But when he got the bow in his hand
and drew
the arrow to its head
the infused power stiffened his muscles and strengthened
him to pull; and though he could not distinguish between his own natural
corporeal ability and that which had been thus imparted to him
the two
co-operated in the one act
and it was when he drew his bow that he felt the
strength.
II. And now
look
at the perfected victory that is possible. When the arrows
by God’s strength
operating through Joash’s arm
had been shot
the prophet says
“The arrow of
the Lord’s victory . . . thou shalt smite . . . till thou have consumed.” Yes
of course
if the arrow is the Lord’s arrow
and the strength is His strength
then the only issue corresponding to the power is perfect victory. There is no
reason as from any defect of the Divine gift to the weakest of us why our
Christian lives should have ups and downs
why there should be interruptions in
our devotion
fallings short in our consecration
contradictions in cur
conduct
slidings backward in our progress. There is no reason why
in our
Christian year
there should be summer and winter; but according to the
symbolical saying of one of the old prophets
“The ploughman may overtake
the
reaper
and he that treadeth out the grapes him that soweth the seed.” In so
far as our Christian life is concerned
the perfection of the power that is
granted to us involves the possibility of perfection in the recipient. And the
same thing is true in reference to a Christian man’s work in the world; God’s
Church has ample resources to overcome the evil of the world. The fire is
tremendous
but the Christian Church has possession of the floods that can
extinguish the fire.
III. The partial
victory that is actually won. “Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times;
then hadst thou smitten the Syrians till they were consumed. But now thou shalt
conquer but thrice.” All God’s promises and prophecies are conditional. There
is no such thing as an unconditional promise of victory or of defeat; there is
always an “if.” There is always man’s freedom as a factor. It is strange; I
suppose no thinking
metaphysical or theological
ever has solved
or ever
will
that great paradox of the power of a finite will to lift itself up in the
face of
and antagonism to an infinite will backed by infinite power
and to
thwart its purposes. “How often would I have gathered . . . and ye would not.”
Here is all the power for a perfect victory
and the man that has it has to be
contented with a very partial one. A low expectation limits the power. This man
did not believe
did not expect that he would conquer utterly
and so he did
not. You believe that you can do a thing
and in nine cases out of ten that
goes nine-tenths of the way towards doing it. Small desires block the power.
Where there is an iron-bound coast running in one straight line
the whole
ocean may dash itself on the cliffs at the base
but it enters not into the
land; but where the shore opens itself out into some deep gulf far inland
and
broad across at the entrance
then the glad water rushes in and fills it all.
Make room for God in your lives by your desires
and you will get him in the
fulness of His power. The use of our power increases our power. Joash had an
unused quiver full of arrows
and he only smote thrice. (A. Maclaren
D.
D.)
Verse 20-21
And Elisha died
and they buried him.
The resurrection of a man in the tomb of Elisha; life derived from
the holy dead
Death is no respecter of persons; the most illustrious
as well as the most
obscure
must bow before his cold sceptre
and depart from the scene of life.
This miraculous incident was designed and calculated to make a wholesome moral impression
on the mind of the age. It had a tendency to
I. What are the
spiritual remains of the holy dead which have a quickening power? What are
those remains of the holy dead
which
like the bones of the old prophet
have
a power to quicken the dead? The answer may be comprised in one
sentence--Gospel thoughts
and Gospel virtues. Such thoughts have a life-giving
force. They are the voice that calls up the soul from its grave of sensuality
and sin; they fall upon the dead spirit like the quickening rays and refreshing
showers of heaven upon the seed that is buried in the soil. What effect they
had when uttered by the apostles! By them they woke the slumbering mind of
their age
and turned the world upside down; and from the days of the apostles
to this hour
whenever they have been brought into direct contact with soul
there has been the touch of life. Who has not felt their power? How often
as
they have fallen from the lips of a Christ-inspired minister
have they passed
like an electric fire through the audience
startling them with new and strange
emotions. Every Gospel thought is charged with a life-giving power. But we say
Gospel virtues as well as thoughts. Gospel virtues are but Gospel thoughts in
feeling and in action; they are thoughts in their fullest development
and
strongest power. It is the Gospel incarnate
made flesh
dwelling and working
amongst men.
II. Where are the
spiritual remains of the holy dead which have a quickening power? Where are
they to be found?
1. In the memory of men. It is a solemnising thought
that the
spirits of living men are the resting-places of the thoughts and virtues of men
that are gone.
2. In sacred literature. Books are filled with the spiritual remains
of the holy dead. They are valuable chiefly on this account.
III. How are the
spiritual remains of the holy dead which have a quickening power to exert their
quickening power? It was by contact with the bones of Elisha that life came to
this dead man; and it is by contact with these Gospel thoughts and virtues
that
spiritual life is to be produced. The life of a grain of corn
which contains
the germs of future harvests
depends upon contact with certain elements. The
energy of explosive matter depends upon contact with fire. A piled mountain of
powder is powerless until it is brought into contact with the spark. It is even
so in this case; unless we bring our spirits in Conscious contact with these
remains they will avail us nothing. How is this contact to be obtained? By
devout reflection. The most sacred things and the most powerful elements of
truth may be deposited in the memory
yet
unless we prayerfully reflect upon
them
they will be foreign to our hearts; we shall never feel their quickening
touch.
1. That every age is increasing
in responsibility. As good men depart
the world grows richer in the means of
spiritual improvement: every soul that lived a holy life here
left behind it
elements of life.
2. We must not judge of men’s usefulness by the results of their
lifetime.
3. That wonderful revelations may be anticipated on the Day of
Judgment. (Homilist.)
The power and purpose of the posthumous life
Death is not the great termination; it is only the great
interruption. We are endowed with a being which yearns for endless existence.
We have a profound feeling that only eternal existence would justify the
Creator in our making. All over the world
especially as men advance in power
of reflection
the more fully do they become convinced that the original
instinct of the human heart is a Divine implantation
and that man shall
measure his duration with the duration of eternity. But when we have said this
we have not said all; when we talk of the boundary
death
being an
interruption
we are not thinking mainly of eternal existence in the unseen.
There is an impression prevalent among us that
when we come to that boundary
stone of our being
we are for ever done with this planet; that we have
completed our course
and that there is nothing more to be said; the places
that knew us will know us no more; our career is finished; the world henceforth
must lack interest and charm for us; we have no more place among the dwellings
of men. But that is just the thought I desire to dispute
and I wish to remind
you that the interruption which we call death does not deliver even from this
world. It only changes the mode of our activity and influence in this world.
For there is a life even after the body has perished
and the voice has gone
dumb for ever--there is a voice
there is a life that continues among the
children of men. And it is to this our attention is drawn by the peculiar
narrative read in your hearing. It is not surprising
that the bones of a
prophet should make a man alive
nor that the voice of an Abel should sound
with strange force down through the generations. When we come to think of the
great duties of life
while
of course
we win consult the living
are we not
nearly always directed to the dead? A young man has to go out from England
and
he knows not whither he is going; his mother admonishes him to take Abraham as
his guide
who also went out into Ur of the Chaldees
but who took God with
him. A young man is going into a great city
he is to be tempted and tried
and
his minister admonishes him to read Daniel
who
in the midst of Babylon
kept
his windows open towards Jerusalem
and held communion with the Highest.
Another lad is bound to enter upon the great responsibilities of life
and Paul
summons to him the admonitions of a Timothy
or some other servant of God whose
influence still continues. And when the conscience is burdened with guilt
and
the soul burns for peace
it is not to some living minister
to some living
Church
to some living power
but it is rather to the death of Jesus Christ
and through that death up to His throne
that the inquiring soul is pointed.
And just here we touch on the historic marvel of the ages--Jesus Christ. He
illustrates transcendently my thesis. We are fascinated by His earthly
career--its purity
simplicity
graciousness
beauty--all attract us. And yet
after all allowances are made for the sick healed
the dead raised
and the
outcasts reclaimed
how immeasurably greater has been His posthumous influence
than was His brief
humble life! So palpable is this that some theological
schools maintain that this surviving influence is what He meant when He
promised the mission of the Holy Ghost. It is claimed that just as we feel the
spirit of Browning
or of Morris
or of Ruskin
when we meditate on their
works
so
whenever we think of religion
the spiritual effluence of our Lord’s
life is deeply realised. I am not persuaded that this restriction of His
promise is warranted; but still we must all admit that the Christ of to-day is
more potent than was the Christ of Nazareth
and that
as the ages roll
He
becomes an ever-increasing power on the thought
conscience
and conduct of the
individual
and on the movements and development of society as a whole. So
that
turn as we may
we find that patriarchs and apostles
and fathers and
mothers
and poets and school teachers
and enthusiasts and men of letters
and
politicians and statesmen
and preeminently the Christ
all these from out the
unseen
are moulding us and shaping us. But wherein lies their peculiar power
because certainly this posthumous life is a most potent life? How are you to
explain it? I suppose one reason why it has such influence with us is
that it
is the most independent life. The dead respect no one. We are frail
fallible
liable to change; but when the curtain falls
the work is ended. If it is an
incomplete thing
like the statue of Moses
it must for ever remain unfinished.
No tears can change it
no regrets revolutionise it. There it abides. “What is
written is written.” Moreover
this is an enlarged life. It becomes universal.
We are all more or less provincial. We are hedged in by our narrow
local
limitations. It is difficult for us to rise above them. But when we die
that
is all cast aside. Do you suppose when I read Thomas a Kempis I think of him as
a Roman Catholic? Not at all. I read his noble words as universal truths; he
has ceased to be aught but a Christian. Very well; when death has emancipated
us
and we are free of our limitations
then the posthumous life surges onward
influencing and controlling men. And we never really think of Jesus Christ as a
Jew when we pray to Him
and carry to Him our burdens and our guilt. The world
has lost sight of the localisms of His ministry. To us He is neither Jew
Greek
nor Barbarian. He is quite beyond all racial distinctions. He is the
“Son of Man”--the representative of humanity. When He lived He may have been to
His followers provincial--but now He has lost the complexion of the old Hebrew
race
and has become world-wide
cosmopolite
universal. Moreover
I suppose
this power is to be traced to its continuity
to--its indestructibility. There
is a charm in that which lasts. The purpose of the posthumous life. I have
tried to analyse the power
and what is the purpose? Why is it that God permits
us all to share in this posthumous life? And why is it that God reminds you
through me of our posthumous life? It is to impart a higher sense of
responsibility. It is to teach you in your little day
it is to assure you that
your influence will not die with you
however humble you may be. You are starting
currents that will flow into the sea of existence beyond your day. You are
throwing a stone into the mighty sea of being
and the waves will extend in
ever-widening circles until they beat on the shores of eternity. Great is it
for a man to live; awful the responsibility. It is likewise the purpose to add
new dignity to humanity. For it is responsibility that makes dignity. You are
engaged in a work that is marvellous in its power and in its range. Try to
understand it
you will be anxious to be fully equipped
you will be anxious to
realise fully what the meaning of God’s Word
when it talks to you about a
judgment to come. Nor do I think I am far wrong in asserting that we have in
this posthumous life a suggestion of what the scientists call the survival of
the fittest. True it is “the evil that men do lives after them
” and it is not
true that the “good is oft interred with their bones.” There is a famous
picture of the battle with the Huns which decided the fate of Europe. It
presents the field at night covered with the slain
but over and above the
wounded and the dying the ghosts of both armies are seen in deadly conflict.
Though dead
they yet fight. So it is with truth and error
right and wrong
virtue and vice
and with the hosts of those who in former ages were arrayed on
the side either of light or darkness. The conflict continues
and ultimate
victory must rest with the cause of justice and honour. (G. C. Lorimer
D.
D.)
Elisha’s last miracle
1. The Jews thought this the crowning miracle of Elisha. Certainly it
is unique in the pages of Holy Scripture
and it has also the distinction of
being peculiarly offensive to modern thought. The author of Ecclesiasticus sums
up his praise of Eliseus
“After his death his body prophesied. He did wonders
in his life
and at his death were his works marvellous” (Sirach 48:13-14).
2. Let us look at the circumstances. Elisha was dead and buried. His
funeral
according to Josephus
had great pomp. The Moabites were still
unsubdued
and infested the land of Israel. Some men were bearing a corpse to
burial
when they suddenly “spied a band of men
” and
in their eagerness to
escape
thrust the corpse into the open tomb of the prophet
and
upon contact
with the sacred body of Elisha
the man “revived and stood up on his feet.”
3. That the men did this with any idea of restoring the man to
life
seems scarcely worth discussion. Their intention is manifest in the text. The
Israelites did not believe that the dead could raise the dead
though Elisha
had raised the dead
when alive
by means of prayers and actions; nor would
they have willingly deposited the body of a sinner in the resting-place of the
holy prophet. Fear in the emergency led to this action
and accounts for it
God overruling it to His own purposes.
I. The miracle.
1. I should like to notice at the outset what a very short and
unadorned account we have of this marvel. It is related within the limits of a
single verse. How calm and restrained is the narrative! It gives the simple
fact
without any embellishment or note of admiration. This in itself betokens
an inspired writer. A similar instance of conciseness and composure may be
found in St. Mark’s account of our Lord’s ascension and session to the right
hand of the Father: “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them
He was
received up into heaven
and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).
2. This is the record of a miracle
and the credibility of miracles
is admitted to be a common point of assault in the present day. Perhaps
this
arises from looking too much at the miraculous from the lower rather than the
higher side. In other words
to fasten our thoughts upon it as an infringement
of natural law rather than to regard it as a Divine work
wrought for a moral
purpose. The overruling of a lower law by a higher cannot be accurately
described as an “infringement
” for it is a part of universal law. A miracle is
an exceptional occurrence
to awaken man to a sense of the Divine presence and
power.
3. But this miracle is especially “offensive” to the sceptic
because
of the instrument which God employed in effecting it--a dead body. When there
is a living agent who operates
whether prophet or apostle
the wonder-working
is not so far remorea from human experience. The spiritualist resents the idea
that there can be sanctity and “virtue” in human remains. And yet
as it has
been often shown
there are other miracles in the Bible of a kindred nature
as
for instance
the cures wrought through the touch of the hem of Christ’s
garment (Mark 5:28-29)
through the “handkerchiefs
and aprons” of St. Paul (Acts 19:12)
and the shadow Of St. Peter
(Acts 5:15).
4. It may be admitted that miracles wrought through martial Objects
seem more in keeping with the New Testament than the Old; for now God’s Son has
entered into relations with matter through the Incarnation
thereby elevating
it
and imparting to it new qualities. But God uses what instrument He wills
and when He wills
for the accomplishment of His purposes; and
as we shall
see
the miracle in the Old Testament may be a type and picture of future
truth--a dramatic representation
so to speak
of Christian mystery.
II. What it
teaches.
1. The sanctity of Elisha. This event seems to be in his history a
sort of counterpoise to the rapture of Elijah. Both were victories over death--the one
by his
passage up to heaven without subjection to the “last enemy” (1 Corinthians 12:26); the other
overcame death after he was dead and buried.
2. The power of God
3. As the miracle was calculated to invest the memory of Elisha with
a fresh halo of reverence
and to exhibit the Almighty power of God
so was it
designed to breathe hope into the hearts of the depressed Israelites at a
period in their history when they needed something to encourage them
and to
revive their confidence.
4. Beyond
however
the temporal purpose
there was
we believe
a
typical and prophetic significance in this wonder. Does it not point to
Christ’s death as the means of bringing back life to man? Although all His acts
were redemptive
His death was the principal. “We were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). He “by His death hath
destroyed death” (Proper Preface
Easter). Our reconciliation was effected “in
the body of His flesh through death” (Colossians 1:22). But the miracle not
only pictures the efficacy of Christ’s death; it teaches also that to know its
quickening power we must be in union with Him. It was when the man “touched the
bones of Elisha
he revived.” There was contact before there was life. So there
must be union with Christ
sacramental
moral
spiritual
if we would be
restored; for only “if we have been planted together in the likeness of His
death shall we be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5). But the union must be moral
as well as sacramental--the one the outcome of the other--for “he that saith he
abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked” (1 John 2:6); that is
the life which
God has given within must be
is bound to be
shown forth in the outward
imitation of Christ’s life. And this union must be spiritual
the spirit of man
corresponding with the guidance of the Holy Spirit--an obedience of love.
5. The text
too
is a type of bodily resurrection
though a return
to mortal life.
III. Lessons.
1. Let us be careful
in our view of nature and of the fixity of
natural law
that we do not make God into a “mechanical Deity” (Mozley). The
soul
made in the image of God
is “conscious of will” in itself
and therefore
“declares for a Deity with will”; upon which the power of miracle follows.
2. God can use what may seem to be the most unlikely instruments for
the fulfilment of His designs
inert matter to be the vehicle of life and
grace.
3. Observe how God fores to honour His saints
and thereby to make
His power to be known (1 Samuel 2:30).
4. Lastly
let us be mindful of the truth that the death of Christ is
the meritorious cause of all our gifts and graces
and that through union with
Him alone have we spiritual life--“The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God
and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25)--the life of grace in the soul
here
the life of glory in the body also hereafter. (Canon Hutchings.)
The resurrection at the tomb of Elisha
Several views have been taken of this incident. By some it has
been regarded as a mere Hebrew myth; others have supposed that there was an
inherent virtue
or life-giving power
in the bones of Elisha
and that the
same power exists in the bones of all men of extraordinary goodness. From this
point of view it has become a corner-stone of the doctrine of the efficacy of
relics. With regard to the first
the occurrence is related as a historic fact
as much as any other in the Old Testament
or as much as the raising of the
daughter of Jairus in the New Testament. If it is to be rejected because it is
a marvel
almost all the historical books of the Bible may be set aside for the
same reason. As to the second view
experience contradicts it. We will
therefore accept the fact as it stands
assuming that “it was not the prophet’s
bones which brought the dead to life
but the living God.” Notice therefore--
I. That the
resurrection of a dead man
through the medium of the bones of another man is neither contrary to reason
nor to the teaching of other parts of scripture. If God gave life to man at
first
it is surely in His power to restore it by any means
or without any
visible means
and it is not more extraordinary than the clothing of the rod of
Aaron with beauty and fruitfulness
or the dividing of the Red Sea at the
outstretching of the rod of Moses. The rod was the medium
but God gave the
power; the prophet’s bones were the medium
the life-giving power was God’s.
II. That such a
miracle was in keeping with the wonderful life of the prophet Elisha. He was a
man raised up by God to do a special work. The whole of his public life was
marked by miracles. As his predecessor
Elijah
had been honoured by a
miraculous exodus from the earth
so it seems fitting that some similar mark of
honour should be given to Elisha
either at the time of his death
or after it.
III. The probable
intention of the miracle. It was
probably intended to revive
in the mind of Israel
hope in God
as to the future of the nation. Elisha
on his dying bed
had foretold the
deliverance of Israel from the yoke of Syria: their present sufferings from the
Moabites would naturally discourage the heart of the people
and lead them to
forget the promise
which was not yet
it may be presumed
completely
fulfilled. This resurrection by means of hope in Elisha’s Elisha’s dead body
would be the means of a resurrection of God. Suggestions:
1. God would have the dust of departed saints remind us of their holy
lives.
2. The dust of the godly dead may bear witness that they are still living. Its very
contrast to the body when it was animated by the living soul
seems to testify
to the fact that they must still be living. We speak of the body as theirs
thereby recognising the fact of their existence. The bones are hero called
Elisha’s bones
suggesting
at least
his continued existence although
disunited from his human body.
3. God retains His relationship with His children
even with their
bodies
after they have left the world. The miracle here recorded is a proof
that God was still the God of Elisha. (Outlines from Sermons by a
London Minister.)
A dead man’s power
Elijah was carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Elisha died
in his bed like other men. Josephus tells us that he had a great funeral. With
the death of Elisha there was a distinct letting down in the position of Israel
among the peoples round about them
and it was not long before outlying tribes
that had been respectful and friendly became arrogant and dangerous. The
Moabites soon began to invade the land
not with any large army
but with
plundering bands that were very aggravating
and very mischievous. It was the
occasion of one of these raids by the Moabites that furnished the opportunity
for this miracle. Elisha had been buried
according to the custom of the people
at the time
in a cave in the side of a hill
excavated out of the rock. A
while after his death there was another death in the community
and the
neighbors were carrying the dead man to his burial. The Jews of that time
didn’t use coffins
and the body was bandaged and wrapped instead. As these
people were carrying the remains of their friend to some tomb in the vicinity
of the tomb of Elisha
they suddenly discovered
not far away
a company of armed Moabites
and saw
that they had not time to go to the place they had intended for burial. The
tomb of Elisha was nearest
and they rolled back the heavy stone from the door
and put the dead body into the cave with that of the body of the prophet. But
no sooner had the body which they carried touched the bones of Elisha than the
life came back to it
and the man revived and no doubt returned home with his
friends. We may find a probable motive for this miracle in the fact that it
called world-wide attention
so far as world-wide went in those days
to
Elisha. It gave him great prestige among his own people. They said about him
that he was the prophet “whose dead body prophesied
” and the memory of
Elisha’s faith in God
his devout and prayerful life
his pure and noble
career
meant more to the people
than it could have meant before. This would seem a sufficient reason for the
exercise of the Divine power in thus honouring the dead body of the prophet. It
is for us to find the spiritual significance of the miracle for teaching to our
own souls.
1. We may learn from this incident that the influence of a good man
or a good woman does not terminate with life on earth. How true that is in our
national life. Who would for a moment contend that the influence of George
Washington ceased with the citizens of the American Republic when his body was
buried at Mount Vernon? His influence is greater to-day
perhaps
than ever
before. And if we turn from these great historic illustrations and come into
the narrower but tenderer sphere of our own life horizon
how true it is. How
true it has been with us that some of the most important influences in making
us the people we are to-day have come from those whose bodies have long slept
in the grave.
2. It is certainly a serious and important question for us to ask
ourselves
whether the life we are now living is of such a character that after
we am dead men will be influenced by it for good. There are those who hear me
who can bear witness that they are even now under the curse of dead men. The
influence of people who have gone to their account still comes back to them
and affects them
and makes it harder for them to be good and easier for them
to do wrong. I can imagine nothing more terrible than that. No doubt Dives
remembered that during his lifelong association with his brothers all his
influence over them had been evil. He had sneered at goodness; he had mocked at
conscience; he had recklessly disobeyed God
and he felt that hell would be
more bearable if he did not have it upon him to remember that he had brought
his five brothers to hell with him through his influence.
3. If we are to be such vital personalities for goodness that our
influence while we live and after we are gone from the earth shall be a
revivifying power to awaken goodness in other souls
we ourselves must come
into personal touch with Jesus Christ
who alone can bring to life and power
all possible goodness in our hearts. The man who was buried in the grave of Elisha was
not revived until his body came in personal.contact with the bones of the
prophet. So we
though we be dead in trespasses and in sins
snail be revived
to righteousness and spiritual living when we are brought into personal contact with the spiritual
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was buried in the tomb of Joseph nearly
nineteen hundred years ago
but He arose from the dead
and He ever liveth at
the right hand of God to make intercession for us. (L. A. Banks
D.
D.)
Death of Elisha
I. Good men never
outlive their usefulness. Elisha had pursued a brilliant career
after the
mantle of Elijah fell upon him
for a series of years; then for more than forty
years his name is not mentioned in the national annals. It is not certain that
God has nothing more for men to do because they are permitted for a period to
remain in obscurity after having been prominent. It would have been sadly to
misinterpret Providence
if
when quietly caring for the schools of the
prophets and contrasting those days of more humble service with his former days
of miracle-working and eminence
he had grown fretful and been disposed to
question whether life were worth the living unless it could be a grand life.
When Luther’s voice was confined within the walls of the castle of Wartburg
and his soul was alternately chafed and bowed down with despondency under
confinement which secluded him from what he supposed to be his great work
he
was not released from further duty. He did not read on those gloomy walls God’s
declaration that there was no more for him to do. No
he was being trained in
his imprisonment for still greater service; and he went forth at last more
powerfully to struggle because kept in durance so long. When obstacles rise in
our path which we feel ourselves too weak to remove
or heights are before us
which we cannot scale
or duties demand vigour and perseverance which we cannot
manifest
we may not declare that we are no longer Called to serve. God will
furnish some station for every watchman
some field for every worker. Every
part of a Christian’s life has its bearing on the whole
and no part is
useless
even to the end
unless we so determine. God had this brilliance of
old-age service in view throughout Elisha’s long years of faithful quiet
devotion to his trust
and in not one year was the Master unmindful of the
servant or the servant toiling in vain.
II. A good man will
be anxious
even to the end
respecting the cause of God. The king seems to
have come to the prophet’s house only to express his sympathy and respect.
Convinced that he could not live
he wept over the face of the man of God
and
called to mind his own exclamation when he saw Elijah parting the heavens in
his ascent: “O my father
my father! the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen
thereof!” With a kind of abrupt eagerness
as though he felt that he had little
time
Elisha called for the bow and arrows--which but for his purpose would be
much out of place in such a scene--and by two forms of illustration which were
appropriate
he summoned the king’s attention to what he knew to be most
important for him. The thought prominently in his mind was twofold: that the
king and the people must feel that deliverance from their fears could come only
from God; and that the extent of this deliverance would depend on both their
faith and effort. If he could not merely say this
but impress it on the king
his high office as prophet would again be magnified
and Israel would again be
saved by his agency. The opportunity to do this caused the duty of life to be
superior to the possible experiences of the final hour. Heaven was
for the
moment
eclipsed by the earth
and the welfare of his people was of more value
than his own. The great need of the Church is such complete consecration to God
and identification with His cause in purpose and life. Individual comfort
money
position
are little; the glory of God
the kingdom of Christ
are
everything. Men change
trot God will abide; men die
but God will live. The
venerable Eli heard the messenger from the camp of Israel say that his people had
suffered loss in battle
with only ordinary signs of sorrow; that his own sons
had been killed
with only the tears which the father could not restrain; but
when he said that the ark of God had been taken by the enemy
the aged priest
fell back from his seat and died
“for he was troubled for the ark of the
Lord.” Joshua after the defeat at Ai must have felt the dishonour that would
come on himself--must
have been distressed on account of the loss of Israel; but he was unable to
express his feelings as he thought of the reproach the Canaanites would heap on
their God
and could only exclaim
“What wilt thou do unto thy great name?”
Many other instances might be quoted. They all make known the same spirit--a
spirit that regarded the highest interests at the cost of any lower--that could bear anything but the
overthrow of what they prayed might abide. It has been the same in all ages
and had supreme exhibition in the Lord Jesus Himself. This was the language of
His mission and life and death. “Father
glorify Thy name
” was His perpetual
prayer; and He and His Father were one in purpose and act as everything
personal was lost in the object for which He came.
III. The good man’s
influence lives after his body dies. Our posthumous influence does not receive
enough of our thought. A man may be forgotten
his name may be unknown
and
strangers may tread upon his grave or disturb his ashes to make room for their
own dead
but the works he made in life will be seen and the power he possessed
will be felt by those who follow him. How often does the form of some friend of
other days come back in our thoughtful hours to cheer our sadness or excite our
tears! How often do the words of wisdom or folly uttered long since by him
awaken echoes in the cells of memory
and his example come up before us now!
Whether connected with scenes of wickedness or with the hallowed exercises of
devotion
all these affect our character
modify our influence on others
and
insensibly perhaps
but really
change our life. Our graves
in a sense
have a
power as had Elisha’s. This is the natural consequence of our social relations
for even existence with another affects both that other and ourself. “No man
liveth unto himself
and no man dieth unto himself
” is a law of our moral
nature; and character in its very elements is immortal. We feel to-day the
influence of men in the earliest times. The vibrations of that subtle medium of
communication between soul and soul through which are conveyed the thoughts and
feelings of men over the whole world shall never cease
and from age to age
they bear their burden to affect the thoughts and feelings of all within their
range. So
on the other hand
the labourer in the cause of evil has a power
equally endless. We must not measure the curse to mankind of a wicked life by
its immediate effects. Paine
that man for whose infamy apologists and
defenders have sprung up in our day seeking to hide his deformity
has gone to
judgment
but his works and his sins remain to wither and blight wherever they
reach
accumulating power as they stretch on. (J. Ellis
D. D.)
The bones of Elisha
I. We have in this
incident a striking illustration of the posthumous influence of good men.
Nothing in the material world is lost. A grain of sand
however long you crush
it
can never be destroyed. You may change its form
--crush it into yet smaller
particles
--cause it to enter into new combinations
but you can do no more.
The water that is absorbed from the sea is not destroyed; it descends again in
showers to enrich the earth. In like manner
human character and influence last
for ever. Every man has an influence; in this sense
no man liveth to himself.
There is about us all an unconscious influence
what may be termed our personal
atmosphere; and there is our conscious influence. The least action or word
even a look
--all make their impression; and issue in results
long after their
time. The motion of your hand
or the sound of your voice
produces a
succession of pulsations which
like Tennyson’s “Brook
” “go on for ever.” As
we thus influence the natural world
so we influence the moral and spiritual
world. This unseen yet mighty power
which we all possess
and of which we
cannot divest ourselves--which lives in us
and works through us every moment
clothes our lives with a terrible solemnity. Not only is our influence felt
during life
it is even felt after we are dead. Our usefulness
or hurtfulness
in life
remains in active operation after we are gone. “It may be swallowed up
in the great social aggregate
like the rivulet in the river
or absorbed like
the dew in the mists and vapours; but it does not
it cannot perish. It
survives all the personal fortunes of the individual from whom it emanates on
earth; it outlasts the monument
however enduring
that is raised over his
dust.” Founders of empires
legislators
patriots
philosophers
inventors
reformers
Christian teachers
--all these live through all ages--
Their speaking dust
Has more of life than half its breathing moulds.
Bad men
as well as good
leave their mark behind them; and
perpetuate their influence long after they are dead. Hundreds of years after
Jeroboam’s death
we find the people of Israel over whom he reigned walking in
his footsteps
committing “the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel
to sin.” The writings of Voltaire and Paine and Hume and Byron are a curse to
humanity to this day. Thank God! the evil shall be stamped out; while the good
shall bear fruit for ever. “The memory of the wicked shall rot; but the
righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.”
II. Good men live
after death in the results of their actions. Their conduct centuries
and even
millenniums ago
tells on mankind to-day. Abraham’s obedience to God’s command;
the legislation of Moses; Paul’s acceptance of the Christian faith; Wickliffe’s
translation of the Bible into the English tongue; Luther’s renunciation of
popery; all these mark great epochs in the history of mankind
and are felt in
the national life and social manners and religious progress of this nineteenth
century of the Christian era. It would be easy to instance men of our own time
whose influence will reach on for good through all future generations. William
Carey
John Williams
David Livingstone
Michael Faraday
Abraham
Lincoln--these and others whom I might name--who shall attempt to calculate the
blessings accruing from their character and work? Sometimes
those actions
which seem to us the least noteworthy
are most fruitful
and live with
mightiest power. The poor widow
when casting her two mites into the temple
treasury
was wholly ignorant of the fact that Christ saw her
and would so
signalise her self-sacrifice as to make it a pattern for universal imitation.
So with ourselves
passages in our lives which awaken no interest in us at the
time
or which
if of interest to ourselves
we may not for a moment think of
identifying with others
may prove pregnant with great and lasting issues.
Sometimes a man’s name may be forgotten
yet his works remain. We know not who
invented the plough
his name has perished; but the instrument remains one of
the most useful inventions
and indispensable to civilisation. History has not
preserved the names of the men who first crossed the sea to preach the Gospel
to our forefathers here in Britain; but what wondrous results have followed
their apostolic mission! Our own country has been raised thereby to the highest
point of greatness
and sits queen among the nations; while from us the Gospel
has sounded forth to the ends of the earth. We must die
and after a few years
our names may be forgotten; but some action of our life
of which at the time
no heed is taken
may become fruitful
even to the distant future
with richest
good.
III. Good men live
after death
in their writings. A man embalms his thoughts and feelings
the
best part of his nature
in his books. “Books
” says John Milton
“contain a
potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are. A good
book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit
embalmed and treasured up
on purpose
to a life beyond life.” There is such a quickening power in some
books that the dullest and deadest minds that come into contact with them are
quickened by their inspiration. The books of Moses
the Psalms of David
the
proverbs of Solomon
the predictions of the Hebrew prophets
the four Gospels
the apostolic letters
the visions of John
are among the supreme powers that
govern and guide the world. Confucius and Plato and Aristotle still sway their
sceptre over human souls. Bacon and Shakespeare fashion men with plastic power.
Who shall reckon and tabulate the results of Augustine’s City of God
of Paleario’s Benefit of Christ’s Death
of the Imitation
of Christ
of Calvin’s Institutes
of Luther’s Commentary
on the Galatians
of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
of Baxter’s Saints’ Rest? Who shall the influence measure of the
hymns of Gerhardt and the Wesleys and Watts and Cowper and Doddridge? Dead
souls have been born again through them; dark souls enlightened; weak souls
made strong; sorrowful souls inspired with gladness and joy. Their
Distant voices echo
Through the corridors of time
and make the Church
of God resonant with praise. The influence of Christian writers is seen in an
interesting light
in the way in which one book becomes the parent of another
through successive generations. About the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign
a
Puritan minister
called Edmund Bunny
met with a book written by a Jesuit
priest
named Parsons; and
excluding the Popery
he recast the book and
published it with a new title. A copy came into the hands of Richard Baxter
then a boy in Shropshire; and its earnest appeals led to his conversion. He
grew to manhood
became a laborious preacher of the Gospel
and a voluminous
writer. Among other books
he wrote the Call to the Unconverted
twenty thousand copies of which are said to have been sold in a single year.
Twenty-five years after Baxter’s death a copy of this book fell in the way of
Philip Doddridge
a youth at St. Alban’s
and brought him to God. He became a
Christian minister and author
writing
in addition to other works
The Rise
and Progress of Religion in the Soul
which has been translated into several languages
and made useful to many
souls. Thirty-three years after the death of Doddridge
William Wilberforce was
setting out on a journey to the South of France
and
at the suggestion of a
friend
took a copy of this book to read on the journey. The perusal of it led
to his consecration to Christ. He found time
amid all his political and
philanthropic duties
to write his Practical View of Christianity
a work which has passed through more than one hundred editions
and which
among the upper classes of society especially
has been a powerful leaven of
righteousness. When Legh Richmond was a young curate in the Isle of Wight
still ignorant of the Gospel
a college friend sent him a copy of Wilberforce’s
book. He began to read it
and could not leave off till he came to the end. The
result he thus describes: “To the unsought and unexpected introduction of Mr.
Wilberforce’s book
I owe
through God’s mercy
the first sacred impression
which I ever received as to the spiritual nature of the Gospel system.” Another
copy of the same work taught Dr. Chalmers the way of salvation
and made him
such a distinguished preacher of Christ’s Gospel. Legh Richmond
as you know
afterwards wrote the touching story of The Dairyman’s Daughter;
and Dr. Chalmers preached and published some of the ablest and most effective
sermons of the age. Who knows how this genealogy may lengthen as time goes on;
and what other books may trace back their ancestry to the copy of Bunny’s Resolution
lent to Richard Baxter’s father.
IV. Good men live
after death
in their spoken words. In this way: a faithful preacher of the
Gospel in a town or district will make a mark that remains for ages. Take such
cases as Fletcher of Madeley
Jay of Bath
Hall of Bristol
Raffles of
Liverpool
Parsons of York
M’Cheyne of Dundee. The places where these men
lived and laboured must be impregnated with their speech of past years
as with
salt. In the came manner
the words of men of greater note and influence live
on a larger scale.
V. Once more
good
men live after death
in the memory and experience of survivors. “The immortal
dead
” says George Eliot
“live again in minds made better by their presence.” We remember and copy their
example. In our recollection of their excellences
we forget their faults
if
faults they had. (W. Walters.)
Elisha prefiguring Christ
1. In the facts and incidents of his early history we may find Elisha
prefiguring Christ. He came from Jordan
gifted by the hand of Elijah with the
power of the Spirit; and surely there is some resemblance here between him and
our Blessed Lord
baptized by John in the same river of Jordan
when the Holy
Spirit like a dove abode upon Him. Nor can I forget the eminently religious
home in which Elisha was brought up at Abelmeholah
“the meadow of the
dance
”--reminding me of another home in Nazareth
where even a child
understood what it was to be about “His Father’s business.” Is there nothing
also
in the fact that Elisha was called from the plough to be a prophet
and
that up to the period when He began His public ministry
the Master
with the
sweat standing in bead-drops on His lofty brow
stooped low and worked hard at
a carpenter’s bench.
2. In close connection and intercourse with matters of this world
we
may find Elisha prefiguring Christ. Like John the Baptist
Elijah to a large
extent lived out of the world--away from and above it
in stern sublimity.
Elisha
on the other hand
as we have seen all through the course of these
lectures
was a citizen of the world
and mingled--as we would say in present
day language--in all the great national and political movements and events of
his time. In like manner
one of the chief complaints against the Divine Author
of Christianity was this: His publicity--“The Son of man came eating and
drinking”--and His apparent insurrection against constituted authority. The
first was true
for “He could not be hid”; the second was false
for His kingdom was not of
this world
else would His servants fight. The Elijah-like type of
character--the hermit
the recluse
the solitary--was not reproduced in Jesus
Christ. Such a type of character
in fact
was essentially unfitted for a
religion that was to conquer the world. Christianity was to be a religion for
common life.
3. In his intimate communion with the other world
find another
important and apt-to-be-forgotten element in Elisha prefiguring Christ. Elijah
and John the Baptist had little or nothing of this. True
Elijah was fed by the
ravens
and miraculously sustained by an angel under the juniper tree; yet he
had no such revelations and glimpses of the unseen world--beyond “the still
small voice”--as were vouchsafed to Elisha. “And the Lord opened the eyes of
the young man
and he saw: and behold the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha.” “I
even I only
am left
” was the wail
of Elijah: to Elisha
on the other hand
was given
in a manner the most
extraordinary
the anticipation by hundreds of years of the great Christian
doctrine of the Communion of Saints. “Ye are come unto Mount Zion
and unto the
city of the living God
the heavenly Jerusalem
and to an innumerable company of
angels
to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn which are written
in Heaven
and to God the Judge of all
and to the spirits of just men made
perfect.”
4. In what I shall term the discerning of spirits
and the reading of
the thoughts and intents of the heart
we have another line of parallel in
Elisha prefiguring Christ. “Went not mine heart with thee
” said the prophet to
Gehazi. When Jehoram
at the siege of Samaria
sent the executioner to take the
prophet’s life
“See ye
” said the man of God
“how this son of a murderer hath
sent to take away mine head.” Now how innumerable are the illustrations in the
life of Christ of Divine prescience and discerning of spirits
as furnished in
the four Gospels
I need not stay to tell. “He knew what was in man.” And it is
by bringing things to the Master’s test that we
as by a new and subtle sense
can detect insidious unbelief
and transmit the faith of the Gospel pure and
inviolate
as the beloved disciple assures us in a passage which is full of much
solemn truth. “The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you; and
ye need not that any man teach you
but as the same anointing teacheth you of
all things
and is truth
and is no lie
end even as it hath taught you
ye
shall abide in Him.” The one infallibility in the universe is in Christ
because Christ is God. There is another side to this thought. If Christ knows
what is in man
He is just the Saviour for us
“the sympathising Jesus.”
5. In moral magnetism of character we see Elisha--in an infinitely
lower
I admit
but still a sufficiently important and admissible sense--in his
work and ministry prefiguring Christ. The attractiveness of Elisha’s character
we have had ample occasion during these lectures to see. I think our great
painters have seldom been less successful than in painting pictures of Christ.
I have seen scores of them; but the face has either been too effeminate
or too
colourless and uncharacteristic
and sometimes even too despotic--of all things
in the world--to satisfy the portrait of the Bible
or the unpainted portrait
of the heart. The best life of Christ is in the four Gospels
and the best
pictures of Christ are there also. (H. T. Howat.)
Posthumous influence
It was a touching memorial to their comrade
the warrior of Breton
birth
La Tour d’Auvergne
the First Grenadier of France
as he was called
when
after his death
his comrades insisted that
though dead
his name should
not be removed from the roils. It was still regularly called
and one of the
survivors regularly answered for the departed soldier
“Dead on the field.” The
eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is such a roll-call of the dead.
It is the register of a regiment
which will not allow death to blot names from
its pages
but records the soldiers who have
in its ranks
won honourable
graves and long abiding victories.
Power of the dead
A dead man
if he happen to have made a will
disposes of wealth
no longer his; or if he die intestate
it is distributed in accordance with the
notions of men much longer dead than he. A dead man sits on all our
judgment-seats
and living judges do but search out and repeat his decisions.
We read in dead men’s books
we laugh at dead men’s jokes
and cry at dead
men’s pathos! We are sick of dead men’s diseases
physical and moral
and die
of the same remedies with which dead doctors killed their patients! We worship
the living Deity according to dead men’s forms and creeds! Whatever we seek to
do
of our own free notion
a dead man’s icy hand obstructs us! Turn our eyes
to what point we may
a dead man’s white immitigable face encounters them and
freezes our very heart! And we must be dead ourselves before we can begin to
have our proper influence on our world which will then be no longer our world
but the world of another generation
with which we shall have no shadow of a
right to interfere. (N. Hawthorne.)
Resurrection not unreasonable
This incident comes to us from the workshop of the great chemist
Faraday. One day when Faraday was out
a workman accidentally knocked into a
jar of acid into a silver cup. It disappeared
and was eaten up by the acid
and could not be found. The acid held it in solution. The workman was in great
distress and perplexity. It was an utter mystery to him where the cup had gone.
When the great chemist came in and heard the story
he threw some chemicals
into the jar
and in a moment every particle of silver was precipitated to the
bottom. He then lifted out the silver nugget and sent it to the smith
where it
was recast into a beautiful cup. If a finite chemist can handle the particles
of a silver cup in this way
what cannot the infinite Chemist do with the
particles of a human body
when dissolved in the great jar of the universe. He
can handle the universe as easily as Faraday can handle an acid jar
and can
control it at will. Whatever the particles of the resurrected body may be
Paul
says it is going to be changed so as to become a spiritual body. (Christian
Age.)
Christianity’s power to raise the dead
A great fable sometimes encloses a great truth. It is an old story
of the Empress Helena
how she went to the Holy Land to find the Cross.
Excavations were made
and they found three crosses; but how were they to know
which was the true one? So they took a corpse
and put it upon one and another;
and
as soon as the corpse touched the Saviour’s
Cross
it started into life. Now
you are demonstrating the divinity of
Christianity
and that is how you test it--it makes these dead men live..
──《The Biblical Illustrator》