2 KINGS 1
FIRE FROM HEAVEN
2 Kings 1:2
Ahaziah's sickness was caused by a fall
through a defective lattice or fence work, which surrounded the upper
stories of his house; either around the flat roof without, or enclosing one
of the galleries which looked down on the open court of the palace within.
There was a special instruction about this (Deut. 22:8). We should be
careful of our battlements, to see that they are in good repair, and we
should build them in all threatened places. The habit of abstinence from
strong drink is one piece of lattice work which in these days we should very
carefully maintain. If we do not fall for want of it, others may. All good
habits are strong battlements.
2 Kings 1:2-14 His mission to Baal. --
Ahaziah's messengers necessarily passed
Jerusalem on their way to Ekron. It was, therefore, a direct insult to
Jehovah to ask the help of the heathen oracle. As Elijah said, it was as if
there were no God in Israel. See how the pride of man rages against the will
and way of God! But in vain! The strongest regiments that come up against
Him and His servants shall be broken in pieces. Around Elijah there was an
invisible cordon of angels, as real as the soldiers of Ahaziah; and so it is
with all who live by faith. These are unhurt in lions' dens; unsinged by
flames; hidden in the secret of his pavillion; safe folded beneath his
feathers. No weapon that is forged against them can prosper; and every
tongue that rises in judgment against them they condemn.
These successive fifties perished because they shared in the contemptuous
arrogance of their monarch; but as soon as one man spoke in a different tone
(2 Kings 1:13), the awful destruction of would-be captors stayed. With the
froward He shows Himself froward; with the merciful, merciful (Ps.
18:25-26).
But how different the dispensation in which we live! Our Lord distinctly
forbade His disciples attempting to imitate this episode; and in referring
to it the Saviour said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; my
mission is not to destroy, but to save" (Luke 9:54-55). We should breathe
the spirit of our age -- the age of the Holy Ghost, of revealed love, and of
grace abounding over sin. The fire in which we must believe is that of
Pentecost, which destroys not souls but sin. Oh, that we had the power of
calling it from heaven, to consume sin and transform sinners!
"Thou Spirit of burning, come!"
2 Kings 1:15-16 Elijah before the king. --
Elijah, who had before dreaded the royal
court, and fled from it, seems to have lost all fear, and goes boldly to the
bedside of the dying monarch, raised on an alcove in the side of the room;
and he returns unscathed, being defended by the gracious care of God (Ps.
27:1-3).
2 KINGS 2 THE FIERY CHARIOT
In this chapter -- one of the greatest of the Old Testament -- we see how a
man who one day lay on the desert sands and wished to die was translated
that he should not see death. A special vehicle was sent to bring him home
to his Father's palace! Oh, you who are sitting in the shadow of death,
there are days of rapture and transfiguration in store for you -- only be
still and wait patiently. Your God will come! The waters shall part before
you, and the fire shall bear you to your home. Be strong; yea, be strong!
2 Kings 2:3 The sons of the Prophets. --
From the days of Samuel there were
schools or colleges in which young men were trained for the office of
teachers and prophets throughout the land. They were instructed in the law,
and the principles of religion, and cultivated the art of sacred psalmody (1
Sam. 10:5, etc.). The greatest prophets were not always selected from their
ranks. Elijah, notably, was not. But they seem to have given the young men
the benefit of their tutelage. These sons of the prophets had been made
aware of the approaching rapture of their venerated leader. Elisha was also
aware of it (2 Kings 2:3-5).
2 Kings 2:6-7 They two! --
How close their kinship! Each noble, but
in a different way; one supplying the other's lack. Who can estimate the
blessing of such fellowship, tested and tried by repeated experiences borne
in company? The older man by repeated invitations gave the younger the
chance of dropping off, if he wished; and Elisha's tenacity of purpose
showed the quality of his soul. Difficulties in Christian living frequently
suggest our turning back. But if we comply, we miss the radiant vision and
mighty enduement. Let us dare to persevere, with undeviating, unswerving
faith, till we are clothed in living power.
2 Kings 2:8-12 Elijah's last journey. --
Rivers part before men who believe in the
living God. The Spirit of God can work through a flimsy cloak, as well as by
an outstretched rod. The double portion (2 Kings 2:9) is the heritage of the
eldest son and heir. Its reception in this case depended on that spiritual
affinity which could behold the movements of the spiritual world. To none
but the purged eyes of faith would that radiant vision have been evident. To
see it was a proof of the spiritual character of Elisha's faith; and the
parted river (2 Kings 2:14) witnessed the acquisition of his master's power.
That same Spirit is for us. This is the meaning of Pentecost (Acts 2:39).
2 Kings 2:13-22 Elisha's ministry was sweet, beneficent, gentle. The healing
of the waters at Jericho was especially significant. But there was judgment
also, as his "strange work" We must not think of these children (2 Kings
2:23) as boys and girls. The same word is used of Joseph at 39, and of
Rehoboam at 40. They were probably young men ("young lads" R.V. marg.)
connected with the false idolatry, which had its seat in Bethel.
2 KINGS 3
MOAB'S REBELLION
2 Kings 3:1-3
Jehoram's reign was marked by some
measures of reform. He discountenanced the Baal worship, though he clave to
Jeroboam's calves.
2 Kings 3:6-12 The alliance. --
How strange it is that, after the
terrible lesson received in his alliance with Ahab, Jehoshaphat drifted into
an alliance with his son! The lack of water (2 Kings 3:9) threatened to so
weaken the armies of the three kings as to make them an easy prey for Moab.
It was very absurd on their part to charge the Lord with their disasters (2
Kings 3:10). They should have enquired of the Lord before they started; but
like many others since their day, they left that for a stage of the
enterprise when disaster was upon them. Experience is not enough to keep us
from making fatal mistakes. Nothing but the grace of God and daily
watchfulness can avail for that. But even when we have turned aside from
Him, God will not desert us, and will answer our appeal for help as He did
for these kings and their armies.
To pour water (2 Kings 3:11) on the hands of another is to act as his
servant.
2 Kings 3:13-20 Elisha's message. --
He quotes the very words of Elijah (2
Kings 3:14, and 1 Kings 17:1). He recognizes the presence of Jehoshaphat as
a reason for clemency. The influence of music calms his agitation and
predisposes him for the Divine communications. How often we have to make
preparations for the advent of Divine blessing, long before we see any signs
of the blessing itself! Our expectant faith is the valley full of ditches,
and God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think; but in
all God's gifts there is the need for co-operation. He alone can send the
water, but we must trench the ground. We must prepare the receptacles, which
He alone can fill. It is for us to erect buildings, to organize the
machinery, to gather meetings, to invite men to hear the Word, to prepare
and deliver the message, to build up Sunday-schools, and the other
associations of mission and church work; but the living water can only come
by the way of the throne. Its advent is often unannounced. There is neither
wind nor rain. A gracious influence suffuses the congregation. Heads are
bowed, tears fall silently, lives are changed: God's heritage is refreshed,
and many confess what He has done for their souls. Let us pray for this
result; doing our work carefully and abundantly, not limiting time or pains
in digging the ditches, assured that God will abundantly answer.
2 Kings 3:21-25 The destruction of Moab. --
The Moabites were deceived by the red
tinge of the water caused by the rays of the rising sun; and concluding
hastily that the Israelites had mutually destroyed themselves, they moved
forward to a terrible defeat. Their cities were beaten down (2 Kings 3:25),
their wells stopped, and their land invaded.
2 Kings 3:26-27 Mesha, king of Moab. --
This is the king who caused the
celebrated "Moabite Stone" to be erected. This interesting monument,
discovered in 1868, corroborates Mesha's tribute to Israel, and his revolt,
as recorded in this chapter. The sacrifice of his son (2 Kings 3:27) was the
precedent of Moabite victories over Israel and Judah in the territory
occupied by them in the land of Moab.
2 KINGS 4 THE
SHUNAMMITE'S SON
Elisha's ministry was one of redemption. He was ever counter-working on the
effects of sin and evil. In this he was a type of Jesus, who is
"the universal Remedy of all evil broken
forth in nature and the creature; the Destruction of misery, sin, darkness,
death, and hell; the Resurrection and Life of all fallen nature; the
unwearied Compassion, the longsuffering Pity, the never-ceasing Mercifulness
of God to every want and infirmity of human nature" (W. Law).
2 Kings 4:1-7 The widow's oil. --
God cares for the poor. How much they
miss who do not go to Him about their temporal wants! "He is the God of the
widow" The oil went on pouring so long as there were vessels. If only there
had been more expectancy and a larger number of vessels, there would have
been a more plentiful supply. Thus does Jesus fill our empty vessels with
the Holy Ghost. He puts no limit on their number or size; but always stands
ready to fulfil all our need, only lamenting when there is not a vessel
more. God's only limitation is that which we impose by our unbelief. His oil
will never cease, so long as we have empty vessels to bring.
What blessings often come to us within closed doors! (2 Kings 4:4, and Matt.
6:6).
2 Kings 4:8-37 The Shunammite's son. --
A real man of God needs but little for
the supply of his wants (2 Kings 3:10, and Phil. 4:12). How much greater joy
than favor with the king was the birth of a son to an Israelite woman! (2
Kings 4:17). Sunstroke was a common cause of death (Ps. 121:6). So sure was
the mother in the life-giving power of the prophet, that she needed not to
tell her husband of the lad's death. Why should she grieve him, when the
child would soon be again in health (Heb. 11:35)? She felt convinced that
God could not mock her; and that, when he gave, it would be a gift worthy of
Himself (2 Kings 4:28). How often we put the staff of doctrine and precept
on the face of our beloved and unconverted children, without result! In the
home and school there must be a definite contact between soul and soul, as
between the body of the prophet and that of the child. Walk your house in
intercessory prayer, and persevere even until seven times (2 Kings 4:35).
As the prophet in the Shunammite's house, so also does Jesus come into our
hearts, when we make Him welcome; and coming, He gives life, and life more
abundantly -- first the life of birth, and then life through death. The law
cannot revive dead souls. It lies impassive on their faces. But He
communicates it, as a spark from His own body.
2 Kings 4:38-44 The pottage and the loaves of barley. --
Miracles of benevolence and healing were
akin to Elisha's gentle spirit. Is not this also the domain of the Gospel,
to counterwork the ancient curse of the ground, to meet the hunger of men?
The benediction of God will turn an evil into a blessing (Mark 16:18) and
will multiply a little to feed many (Ps. 132:15). Jesus turns the poison
into food, extracting the harm that we had carelessly gathered for
ourselves; and multiplies our slender resources, so that they avail for
many.
2 KINGS 5
NAAMAN, THE SYRIAN
Naaman had everything that this world
could give, with one sad exception -- health. "But he was a leper:' Though
there is more evenness in our earthly lot than any of us realize, there is a
"but" in every life, which is meant to bring us to God.
2 Kings 5:2-4
The little maid sought the peace of the
home to which she was carried captive (Jer. 29:7). She was "the interpreter"
the one of a thousand, who spoke true and health-giving words. Where she
found herself, therein she abode with God (1 Cor. 7:21-23). What a blessing
a Godly servant, though but a little maid, may be to a home! Let no one
forsake their post in a godless household; because there may be some Naaman,
whose life will be given back from death as the result of some simple
testimony for God.
2 Kings 5:5-7
The journey to Israel was undertaken
under the impression that healing might be obtained by influence and wealth
at the word of a king. The lordly soldier had to learn to receive it as a
gift in a humble, obedient, and believing spirit. Our physical health and
other blessings may depend on the state of our hearts much more largely than
we sometimes realize.
2 Kings 5:8-14 Elisha's method of cure. --
As a first step, to teach Naaman
humility, Elisha sends a message detailing the means of recovery. "But
Naaman was wroth" How often do we find that the aristocratic sinner has his
own notions of the treatment he merits! It hurts the pride when the officer,
the nobleman, or the child of fashion is treated like any ordinary sinner.
"Behold I thought" figures very largely with us all. And we must take care
not to minister to that kind of pride. Elisha had a special reason in the
course he adopted in dealing with this commanding nature. But where the
leprosy of sin is eating out the heart and there is no other hope, humility
will succeed to rage. Sorely wounded, the soul will gladly catch at any
means of cure, though it be bathing in the despised Jordan.
The sevenfold dipping in the Jordan may fitly symbolize the perfect washing
in the cleansing blood of Christ (Zech. 13:1). We may be young again -- the
pure flesh of a little child, united with the manly strength of the warrior
(2 Kings 5:14). Naaman's -bowing in the house of Rimmon may have been
condoned under special circumstances which we cannot fully estimate; but it
is no precedent for us.
2 Kings 5:20-27 Gehazi. --
What process of decay had been at work in
Gehazi's mind to allow of this downfall? His sin was greed of riches, as was
Achan's (Josh. 7); certainly his privilege as the prophet's servant
aggravated his iniquity. What a contrast to the earnestness of the new
Gentile convert! (2 Kings 5:15, Matt. 8:11; Luke 4:27).
2 KINGS 6
ANGELIC ENVIRONMENT
2 Kings 6:1-7 The lost axe-head. --
It was remarkable that the college became
so strait in days of persecution. Yet this is the general experience of the
Church (Exod. 1:12). True religion is not above personal exertion, and every
man ought to take a beam (Mark 13:34). How often does the Lord step in, by a
personal exercise of His power, to regain the losses caused by our blunders!
If He can make dead metal float, He can surely make dead hearts live.
2 Kings 6:8-12 The all-seeing eye. --
God knows the secret plottings of His
foes, and He will either counterwork them, or deliver His own (2 Peter 2:9).
The wicked may well be greatly troubled, as they learn that the whispers
even of the bedroom are heard in heaven. How foolish to think that the
prophet could discover plottings against the king, but not against himself!
2 Kings 6:13-18 The surrounding Host. --
Though an host should encamp against us,
our hearts need not fear. More are they for us, than those against us. This
assurance made the prophet calm in the midst of danger.
Our blessed Lord was always conscious of the enveloping presence of these
horses and chariots of fire. He had only to ask the Father, and He would
give Him twelve legions of angels. He reminded His judge that he could have
had no power at all, unless it had been given Him. And we also are
ministered to. And may God give us the open eye, that we may behold the
unseen, and walk as those to whom the mysteries of the eternal world are
unveiled!
2 Kings 6:19-23 The enemy foiled. --
Elisha, strong in the knowledge that
God's protecting hand was over him, was able with the greatest composure to
lead the army to Samaria, where he introduced them to the man whom they had
come to seek, and where he "prepared great provisions for them" (Prov.
25:21, 22)
2 Kings 6:24-33 The siege of Samaria. --
What a striking fulfilment of Deuteronomy
28:53-57! But "Dove's dung" may have been a kind of a leguminous plant. The
king lamented the calamity, but did not repent of the sin which caused it.
The truth which he enunciated was right, that all punishment is of the Lord;
but the inference was wrong (2 Kings 6:33). We must learn to bow our heads
to the Divine dealings, and to accept God's chastisement (Lam. 3:39-40).
2 KINGS 7
UNEXPECTED DELIVERANCE
2 Kings 7:1-2 The prophet's assurance.
--
These were the prices of peace. The gate
was the market-place. Peers are not infallible, and those who are most
accustomed to rely on large material resources are sometimes least able to
believe the unseen and eternal. The poor are rich in faith. How unwilling is
man to believe that God can or will do as He says! Dare to believe even to
the opening of the heavens (Mark 11:23). Unbelief shuts a man out of the
enjoyment of the greatest abundance; and makes a famine amid harvest plenty.
2 Kings 7:3-11 A welcome discovery. --
It was the extreme of misery that made
these lepers count as a matter of indifference what became of them; but how
soon their misery was exchanged for great joy! Such are the experiences of
human lives: one day in despair, the next satisfied with all that the heart
could wish. And most truly is this so with those who turn to Christ. The
leper is cleansed, the hungry fed, and the impoverished soul enriched. God
opens windows in heaven to supply our need. Look up beyond the mountains for
His help. Nothing is impossible to Him. He turneth the shadow of death into
the morning.
Indeed it is not well in a day of good tidings to hold our peace. If we do,
punishment will surely overtake us. We do not become poorer when we give;
and we have no right to keep to ourselves the Bread of Life, for lack of
which men perish. The example of these poor men may well stimulate us, when
we have discovered the unsearchable riches of Christ, to tell others the
story.
2 Kings 7:12-20 Samaria supplied. --
Though this had been predicted, it was
too good to be believed. How little had Israel expected to be supplied thus!
God can feed His people with the treasures of the wicked, fleeing though no
man pursues. The threatenings of God are as certain as His promises. If the
latter are fulfilled (2 Kings 7:18), so shall the former be (2 Kings 7:20).
May we never be in this plight of seeing others included at the Divine
banquet, and ourselves shut out! (Luke 13:28). Unbelief will shut us out of
the enjoyment of the blessings of the Gospel. They may be all around us, so
that we can see them with our eyes, and yet not eat thereof. In the clay
when, through the opened Heaven, God rained down the abundance of
everything, he alone failed to partake who was blinded by unbelief. Beware,
O Christian soul, lest thou miss aught in the day of the Lord's
deliverances!
2 KINGS 8
"THE MAN OF GOD WEPT"
The Shunammite, to whom Elisha was so much indebted, appears again in the
sacred story (2 Kings 8:1-6). That kindness of hers was remembered long
after.
What a blessing it is to have a man of God for a friend! There are symptoms
and warnings of coming danger to which holy souls are sensitive; and we are
wise to regard them, as did the woman whose son Elisha had restored to life.
Enter into thy chambers, until the storm be overpast. Lives which are thus
ordered by the will of God are blessed, not only spiritually, but
temporally. They are guided in their going out and coming in, as this woman
was, who reached the presence of the king at a moment which was specially
auspicious. An hour earlier or later would have missed the mark. Her return
was precisely ordered to take place at the moment when Gehazi was telling
her story to the king. Commit thy ways unto the Lord, and thy works shall be
established. Let God choose for thee, and life will be full of coincidences
in which His handiwork is seen.
2 Kings 8:7-15 Hazael. --
Elisha came to Damascus, evidently at the
Divine bidding, just when Ben-hadad was sick. The sickness was not in itself
mortal, yet he would die from another cause. Not only in the face of Hazael,
the rough soldier, but in the thought of God, the prophet read his destiny,
as the ruthless destroyer of the Jewish people.
Elisha's tears (2 Kings 8:11) resemble those of Christ. In this, as in so
many other respects, he anticipated the life of our Redeemer. The
unconcerned stare of men of the world; the agony of human suffering caused
by sin; the declension of God's own people beneath the perverting influence
of idolatry -- these are themes to make our eyes fountains of tears. Oh, for
fellowship with the sufferings of Christ! Would that men of God today had
more of the gift of weeping over the miseries of men!
How little do we know what we shall be! None of us know the evil of our
hearts. In our calmer moments we would count it impossible to do crimes
which in the heat of passion we will commit tomorrow (2 Kings 8:15). O my
soul, walk closely with God! He only can keep you in that hour when you will
be rudely disallusioned of the notions of your own goodness.
2 Kings 8:16-29 Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah. --
Jehoram gives a terrible example of how a
woman may mar a man's life. He had a good father, but a bad wife. And the
latter influenced him more than the former did (2 Chron. 21). The lamp was
kept burning for David's sake (2 Kings 8:19, and Ps. 132:17). Surely that
same grace can keep the fire burning in your heart. Ahaziah, who succeeded
him, was no better. Misled by his mother, he followed in the dreary steps of
Ahab. The close intimacy between the two houses led to alliance in war, and
to a common fate.
2 KINGS 9
JEHU ANOINTED KING
2 Kings 9:1-10 Jehu anointed king. --
The anointing of Jehu was a part of God's
commission to Elijah in Horeb (1 Kings 19:16); but the ceremony was
accomplished by Elisha as the prophet's successor, most probably in
accordance with Elijah's expressed desire. The urgency of the nomination
caused Elisha to send one of the young prophets to Ramoth-Gilead, thereby
saving himself the toils of the journey. It is the province of youth to
work, endure hardships, and make haste.
Jehu was appointed to the kingship for special reasons, i.e., to cut off the
house of Ahab, and avenge the blood of the prophets. It is a great
opportunity when God lays His hand on any as chosen vessel (Acts 9:15). But
it is a terrible responsibility. May He never be compelled by our sins to
lay us down, as those whom He can no longer employ!
2 Kings 9:11-20 Jehu's revolt. --
God's servants are often accounted mad (2
Kings 9:11); but the message which they bear is well understood by those who
are ready to hear it. The situation was accepted by the soldiers under the
command of Jehu; and the placing of their garments "on the bare steps" (R.V.,
mar.) was their act of homage. The measures to keep the tidings from the
king's ears were taken with great precaution; and since Ramoth-Gilead was at
some distance from Samaria, and no one was allowed to bear the tidings, the
revolt had gained great importance, before the least suspicion reached the
metropolis.
2 Kings 9:18 "Is it peace?"
A question which we instinctively ask as
we open the telegram, or the letter in the strange handwriting. And they ask
it with greatest alarm who know that their life is not rightly ordered. The
man who is wrong with his fellowman is always expecting wrong from them.
Instead of sending messenger after messenger to scout the country, it would
be far better to adjust the wrongs at home. Then God becomes a sure Rock of
Defense, and the soul ceases to be afraid of evil tidings, because it trusts
Him.
2 Kings 9:21-37 Jehu's punishment of Ahab's house. -- (Read also 2
Chron. 22).
The meeting in "the portion of Naboth the
Jezreelite" (2 Kings 9:21) doubtless reminded Jehu of Elijah's denunciation
of Ahab upon the same ground; and after the death of Jehoram he turned to
his captain with the words of the prophet, which had evidently left an
ineffaceable impression upon his heart. "In some sense Ahab's blood was
licked by dogs, as it flowed from the gaping wounds of his son" Long after
Ahab had passed away, the curse of his life blighted other lives (Jer.
32:18). We cast shadows which reach beyond the natural term of our lives. We
sow seeds, the harvest of which is reaped by our posterity. There is not one
whose life is not a savior of life unto life, or of death unto death. Lamb
of God, grant us thy peace, the peace of forgiveness and of a holy life; so
that there may be an afterglow to our sunset, lingering with blessing.
Jezebel's heart was proud and unbroken. She thought to make the conqueror
the slave of her power or charms. But she could not avert her fate. How
often does truth ask: "Who is on my side?" Let us heed the summons, and dare
to look out in answer (2 Kings 9:32). God's mills are here seen grinding,
though slowly, yet to powder.
2 KINGS 10
"THE HOUSE OF AHAB"
2 Kings 10:1-17 The extermination of Ahab's family. --
This was a very terrible act of
vengeance. Yet for the well-being of the race, God is sometimes obliged to
cut off evil-doers, lest the plague spread with its poison, till there be no
health or safety left. The brethren of Ahaziah were slain by Arabians (2
Chron. 22:1). The word brethren is a wide one, covering many degrees of
relationship. The elders of Jezreel had been Jezebel's tools against Naboth;
now they are Jehu's tools against her own house. Jehonadab was a man of
unusual strength of character (1 Chron. 2:55; Jer. 35). Jehu boasted of his
zeal; and such boasting generally covers insincerity. The really earnest man
has no need to advertise himself. God was no party to the deceit and fraud
of his behavior. Jehu might have achieved the same result by unobjectionable
methods. God still cuts off the persons and families of notorious evil
doers, though by more unobtrusive processes (Ps. 16:4).
The work of extermination by Jehu was very thorough: "He smote all that
remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel" great men, familiar friends, and
priests -- until none remained; and in this he set an example for us to
ponder and imitate. There must be no compromise with evil in our hearts or
lives. We must not spare one known wrong which rears itself against the
obedience of Christ. It may seem important; it may robe itself in the garb
of religion: but it must die. Oh, for that ruthless sword! that relentless
vengeance.
2 Kings 10:18-32 Jehu's decline. --
Jehu was earnest enough in uprooting all
traces of Baal-worship, but his zeal against idolatry was not accompanied by
personal holiness. He took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord with all
his heart (2 Kings 10:31). When the succession to the throne had been
secured by the promise of God to his fourth generation, he rapidly
deteriorated, permitting the sins of Jeroboam. It is comparatively easy to
denounce the sins of others, to be orthodox in our creed, and strong in our
denunciation of those who are treacherous to Evangelical truth; and yet we
may be permitting in our heart grievous wrongs on account of which God will
have to cut us short. Judge yourselves, that ye be not judged. Take the beam
out of your own eye, that you may see clearly to take it out of another's.
Be careful that your own heart-life is free from the sins you are so quick
to discern. Remember that conscience often drives us to find relief by
venting on others the remonstrances which it denounces against the sin of
the heart.
2 Kings 10:32-36 Israel's decay. --
They were short in their duty to God,
therefore God cut them short in their extent, wealth, and power. Hazael was
the cause of this, fulfilling Elisha's anticipations (2 Kings 8:12). Those
tribes suffered first whose choice had been determined by the attractions of
the land. Those who choose for this life only are often the first to suffer
the loss of all, as Lot did.
2 KINGS 11
JOASH MADE KING
2 Kings 11:1-3 Athaliah well
deserves the title given her in 2 Chronicles 24:7. She usurped the throne,
and played the part of her mother, Jezebel, in Judah. Though Joram had been
a wicked man and a bad king, he seems to have been able to recognize the
value of piety in others; and so he had secured, as a husband to his
daughter, the good priest, Jehoiada. The husband influenced the wife; and in
the general massacre which Athaliah perpetrated, Jehosheba rescued the
youngest child of Ahaziah, who was, in fact, her nephew. His nurse and he
were hidden in a room where the mattresses were kept, and which was used
perhaps for some sudden influx of priests at festal times. Is not this
hidden prince a type of the hiding of the true Prince in the recesses of our
hearts, while some Athaliah occupies too large a share of the government?
2 Kings 11:4-12 The boy king. --
It was a joyful moment, that
manifestation of the hidden prince. Many loyal hearts must have renounced
all hope of such a thing as seeing again an offspring of David's line. But
God kept His word. The Word of God was a befitting gift (2 Kings 11:12, and
Deut. 17:18-19).
There are suggestions in this chapter
which may apply to our inner life as believers. There is a strong, wicked
Athaliah principle in most of us, which strongly opposes all that is of God.
It usurps His place, and murders His seed. And the holy but lowly Joash germ
of the regenerate life is too often secreted in some remote attic of the
nature for long years. Thank God it cannot be discovered or destroyed. It is
hidden with Christ in God. But it is exposed to great opposition, and the
conflict in the outward life is in the highest degree painful. Then there
comes a moment when suddenly it breaks from its hiding-place; and, in some
moment of revival or consecration, assumes its rightful position on the
throne. What predominates in you -- flesh or spirit, self or Christ,
Athaliah or Joash?
And is not this also a type of coming events? Surely before long the Lord
Jesus, who is now hidden, will be manifested (Col. 3:4), and those that have
hated Him will be ashamed.
2 Kings 11:13-21 Reformation. --
The death of Athaliah led the way to a
thorough change throughout the kingdom. There was a double covenant: the
demolition of the Baal-house, which had sadly profaned the holy city; and
regulations for the proper performance of the worship of God. Then came joy
and quiet; as there always must when evil is cast out, and the life adjusted
with the holy law of the Most High.
2 KINGS 12
THE TEMPLE REPAIRED
2 Kings 12:1-3 An auspicious beginning. --
So long as the good priest lived, the
young king did well. We owe more than we know to the influence of Godly men
like Jehoiada; and it would be our constant prayer that God would raise up
such men in these last days. Nay, let us seek to be such ourselves, acting
as an antiseptic against pollution, and salt against corruption. Our speech,
our behavior, our daily life, should be so healthful and wholesome as to
check the growth of evil. But we should not be content with this. There is
much positive good that needs doing.
2 Kings 12:4-16 The renovation of the Temple. --
The sacred structure had suffered
terribly under Athaliah (2 Chron. 24:7). The king might well take an
interest in the building where he had spent his earliest years. The first
attempt at raising a fund was a failure. It was in the wrong hands; surely
the priests were not the proper parties to receive or collect moneys, which
were dwindled away in their own maintenance. But when once an opportunity
was given to the people to give their freewill offerings, the sum soon grew
to a large amount, which enabled the workmen to proceed.
It was not very businesslike, perhaps, to have no contract with the men who
did the work in the temple building. But the fact of it not being needed is
a beautiful tribute to their faithfulness. We need more men of this stamp.
They often set off in dark relief the characters of those who, like these
priests, might have been expected to be the foremost in such holy work.
God's noblest servants do not so often come from the classes specially
trained, as from those of whom nothing was expected.
The house of God is always needing repair. Such are the breaches caused by
false friends or open foes in the moral and religious life of the people,
that there is ample scope for the most strenuous effort.
2 Kings 12:17-21
Invasion and assassination
followed close on each other. Joash revolted from God, and the hand of the
Lord was against him (2 Chron. 24). The reign began in sunshine, but was
sadly overcast. How much we need to ask that He who has begun the good work
in us may perform it to the end!
2 KINGS 13
DEATH OF ELISHA
2 Kings 13:1-9 Jehoahaz in Israel. --
At first sight there seems a discrepancy
between 2 Kings 13:1 and 2 Kings 13:10. We must account for the longer
period by supposing that his father admitted Jehoahaz to some share of power
during his lifetime. It is very interesting and pathetic to read of the
compassion of Jehovah, notwithstanding the evil done in His holy sight. He
heard the prayer of the king, in spite of all the evil he had done, and
answered it by sending a saviour. In their distress men cry unto the Lord,
and He saves them out of the stormy sea; but how often they forget Him, and
repay His kindness by idolatry and neglect! "The Lord gave Israel a saviour;
...nevertheless they departed not from the sins of Jeroboam" (2 Kings
13:5-6). Oh, that the love of God, so undeserved and yet so free, might lead
us to repentance!
2 Kings 13:10-19 Jehoash. --
The grandson of Jehu, he followed in the
idolatries which had become indigenous to Israel's soil. The death of Elisha
was a most memorable event. It was now sixty years since he had commenced
his public work as Elijah's servant. In strong contrast to the sins around
him, Elisha stood as a witness for God, and much holy light shines around
his closing record. The King of Israel seems to have expected to see
chariots of horsemen, as in the translation of Elijah. Did Elisha expect it?
This was not to be his end. But the path of his soul from his dying bed was
swift and sure. It does not matter how or where we die, in any case Jesus
waits to receive us to Himself.
What a model of prevailing faith and prayer Elisha's dying converse with the
king affords! We do not consume our foes, because we strike only thrice and
cease. We should put no limit on God by our restrained prayer and meager
faith. Let us go with Him as far as we may, and only stay when He says, Ask
Me no more.
2 Kings 13:20-25 Miracle at Elisha's grave. --
The dead body was the means of giving
life. Surely Elisha was living still; for God is not God of the dead, but of
the living (Matt. 22:32). And is it not a parable of how the grave of Jesus
is the means of life? You must die in order to live.
Mark the posthumous influence of a good man! His example, his word, his
books, are full of holy power; and many a dead soul touching his remains
lives. Oh, that we may live through death; and when dead, may our memory and
influence still speak, and energize, and work for God.
2 KINGS 14
AMAZIAH, KING OF JUDAH
2 Kings 14:1-7 Amaziah in Judah. --
There was a gleam of better things in
this reign, although not of the best (2 Kings 14:3). Good traits were to be
found in Amaziah's character, among which was his humanity to the children
of his father's murderers; the slaying of whom, although expressly forbidden
(Deut. 24:16), was probably dictated as a policy by fear of their rising up
to avenge their fathers' death. There was also his willingness (as recorded
in 2 Chron. 25) to forego the assistance of the army of Israel, when met by
the remonstrances of the man of God. He obtained a great victory over Edom
(who were in a state of revolt, see 2 Kings 8:22) because he dared to trust
God; but he fell a victim to the idols of Edom. "He brought the gods of the
children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed himself down
before them" (2 Chron. 25:14).
2 Kings 14:7 Selah, or Petra, was largely excavated out of rock,
hence its name. Oh, to live in the Rock!
2 Kings 14:8-22 His defeat and death. -- After the idolatry which
followed the campaign against Edom, it seemed as if God's Spirit left him,
and gave him up to his own devices. He gave himself up to arrogance and
vainglory; challenged the king of Israel to combat; and exposed himself and
his people to disastrous defeat. To what lengths of folly and sin may we not
go when once we get away from God!
It is always a foolish thing to run into collision with any who are willing
to live peacefully with us. The beginning of strife is like the letting out
of water, which may become a flood before which the instigator will be swept
away. The parable was rather humbling in its comparisons, but it conveyed
beneficial advice. How often are men allured to ruin by their first
successes! The great enemy of souls hides the hook by the gaudy fly, the
pitfall by the layer of soil. If a man persist in spite of all warnings
given by friends or foes, he must bear the consequences of his own folly. We
have a glimpse in the parallel record of the pride and arrogance of the
king, which culminated in this disastrous challenge and overthrow (2 Chron.
25:16).
2 Kings 14:23-29 Jeroboam II in Israel --
This king was the fourth of Jehu's
dynasty. How like God, to abundantly fulfil His promise (2 Kings 10:30).
This was the longest reign of any of the kings in Israel. The Syrians had in
past reigns cut Israel short; at Hamath in the north, and all down the
Jordan to the Dead Sea. The victories which marked the reign of this
intrepid soldier, and which were the means of the restoration of Israel of
the lost territory, were granted by the goodness of God, who was touched by
the miseries of His people, and the remembrance of His covenant. The people
should have used this season for repentance; but they put this from them.
Their iniquities were too deep-seated to warrant that full deliverance which
God was prepared to have given them. There was some lessening of the bitter
bondage, as though to show what God would have done; but not more, since
they would not repent. He is long-suffering indeed, and not willing that any
should perish; yet our sins seem often to compel Him to proceed to
extremities, that by fire He may deliver us from all evil.
Jonah, Hosea, Joel, and Amos prophesied at this period. They foretold the
earthquake which took place in this reign; the invasion of locusts and
caterpillars; and the terrible dought.
2 KINGS 15
ISRAEL'S DOWNFALL
2 Kings 15:1-7 Azariah or Uzziah in Judah. --
Uzziah's reign was very splendid;
fifty-two years of almost unbroken prosperity; the story of it is told in 2
Chronicles 26. The inspired historian here only emphasizes that the glory of
his days went down in darkness. We learn from the other record, that at the
close of his reign, being deprived of the invaluable direction of Zechariah,
he sought to combine in himself the offices of priest and king, a
prerogative which could only be realized in Christ (Zech. 6:13), and that
for this he was branded with the awful curse of leprosy, which compelled his
absence from the temple, till the day of his death.
2 Kings 15:8-31 The last kings of Israel. --
For more than thirty years preceding its
dissolution, the northern kingdom was terribly distracted. Disintegration
and slavery always follow in the wake of idolatry and disobedience. So it
befell in Israel. Anarchy, idolatry, high-handed wrong, and immorality,
swept like a hurricane over the land. Rent with revolution, destitute of
strong wise men fit to hold the helm, unable to withstand the successive
invasions of Assyria, it was indeed in a pitiable plight.
2 Kings 15:32-38 Jotham, king of Judah. --
A true conception of the state of the
land may be obtained from the earlier chapters of Isaiah. Wantonness, pride,
luxury, oppression, rode roughshod over the land. Yet it was at this very
crisis that the prophet saw his marvellous vision (2 Kings 6:1). Punishment
could not be longer averted. "The Lord began to send" (2 Kings 15:37). These
men were unrighteous and unholy; yet they are said to have been God-sent.
And so always, while wicked men think only of executing their own malignant
designs, they are really subserving the plans of the Most High (Acts
4:27-28). But the full weight of this blow was averted during the
comparatively good reign of Jotham, to fall with double force during that of
his wicked son.
We are only safe and happy so long as we do what is right in the sight of
God. Rightness is blessedness. If only we will dare to take God's faith, we
shall have God's companionship; not only as light, but as salvation. To do
the will of God is the only clue to abiding for ever.
2 KINGS 16
JUDAH INVADED
2 Kings 16:1-4 Ahaz in Judah. --
He not only passed his children through
lines of fire, but seems to have burnt some of them (2 Chron. 28:3). He
dared to bring back the abominations of the heathen. His actions would be
well-nigh incredible, did we not know something of the fickleness and evil
of our own hearts. Bitter indeed was the return made to the great
Vinedresser for all the care He had expended on the vine that He had planted
in the very fruitful hill. Verily it brought forth wild grapes. All the
abominations of Canaan were practiced by the people whom God had taken to
Himself as His peculiar possession. Such a descent from the song of
redemption at the Red Sea would have appeared impossible. But it came
nevertheless. God foresaw it all, yet He did not relinquish His purpose. It
is a great comfort to know that our God can never be surprised at any evil
thing He sees in us. He loved us, notwithstanding His clear prevision of all
we would cost Him. And though such love must chastise, yet it will never
leave us, until it has brought us back to itself.
2 Kings 16:5-9 The confederacy of Israel and Syria. --
Isaiah divulges their object (Isa. 7:6).
It is most desirable to read Isaiah 7, 8, 9, in which the prophet calms the
fear of the people, under the shadow of this great calamity. If Judah had
only relied on these successive promises, and had left God to interpose on
their behalf, there would have been certain deliverance and victory. But,
instead of this, a bribe was offered to the king of Assyria to do what the
Almighty would have done.
How great was the blunder and crime of calling in the help of Assyria to
break up the confederacy! it was in the teeth of Isaiah's most eager
protestations; and it was the first step towards the invasion of the land by
that very nation whose help was like the broken staff, which pierces the
hand of him who leans on it.
2 Kings 16:10-16 Idolatry. --
The heavenly-designed altar was replaced
by one modelled after that in Damascus, and sacrifices offered to false gods
(2 Chron. 28:23). Delivered from his foes, Ahaz began to copy their
idolatrous practices and to imitate the workmanship of their altars.
Apparently he did not reason that the repetition of their sins would reduce
him and his country to their fate. We wonder at the exchange, and yet how
often do we substitute our own thoughts and plans for God's! Let us see to
it that we guard our altar intact (Heb. 13:10). What a wily and unprincipled
priest was here! (2 Kings 16:16).
2 Kings 16:17-20 The spoiling of the Temple. --
The laver was for the ablutions of the
priests. The covert for the larger congregations of the Sabbath. The entry,
from the royal palace to the Temple. Evidently Assyrian influence was very
much in the ascendant; and everything was done to secure a uniformity
between the ritual at Jerusalem and that of their powerful neighbors. Let us
turn from this sad apostasy to the predictions of our Emmanuel (Isa. 8:8).
2 KINGS 17 CAPTIVITY
2 Kings 17:1-6 Hoshea in Israel. --
The measure of their iniquities was now
full. Israel in vain sought to avert its fate by appealing, not to the Lord,
but to the king of Egypt. But Egypt was no match for the powerful kingdom
which was arising on the banks of the Euphrates. To lean upon Pharaoh was to
trust a broken reed. What agony must have been endured during the three
years' siege! Shalmaneser changed the inhabitants (2 Kings 17:6 and 2 Kings
17:24), a policy which was continued by Esarhaddon (Ezra 4:2). The object
was to keep the country tilled, and to make rebellion less likely and easy.
But, after all, the Assyrian was the rod of the Divine justice (Isa. 10:5).
2 Kings 17:7-23 The Divine indictment against Israel. --
This chapter reads like a page from the
records of the great white throne. God humbles Himself to explain the
reasons for His treatment of His people. He shows that it was not without
cause that He dealt with them as He did. The story of Israel's sins, in
spite of His earnest entreaties, the melancholy record of God-rejection and
neck-hardening, of divination and enchantment, of faithlessness and
disobedience, is set down without omission or compromise; and side by side
is the golden tissue of goodness and mercy. It is a strange contrast. And
yet if the true story of our inner experience could be written, how much
there would be in common between it and this. Let us ponder those deep
expressions, "they sold themselves to do evil" (2 Kings 17:17); "Jeroboam
drove Israel from following the Lord" (2 Kings 17:21). Note also the
expression in 2 Kings 17:15, that we become like the objects we follow (Ps.
115:6). Israel was never restored; but remained dispersed among the nations,
many of them being added to the Church in after days, as addressed in 1
Peter 1:1-2 (see R.V.).
2 Kings 17:24-41 The story of the new settlers. --
When Israel was taken from the land it
was peopled by mongrel races from Babylon (which was already under the power
of Assyria), and from other places. Every nation served its own gods, and at
the same time gave some kind of allegiance to Jehovah as the local
protecting deity of the land whom it was necessary to propitiate. It is a
strange story; and yet there are many among us who, while really following
the idols of their own evil hearts, give a nominal reverence to the name of
God, partly because they think it polite, and partly because they wish to
maintain a fair appearance among their fellows. They go to a place of
worship with the intention of appeasing God; while they make for themselves
many an idol besides (Matt. 6:24; 1 John 5:21).
2 KINGS 18
SENNACHERIB
2 Kings 18:1-12 Hezekiah. --
There was to be some hard fighting, in
Hezekiah's reign, for existence and liberty. The foes of God and His people
would come about them as an angry sea encircling a sand bank. The skies were
dark with the gathering storm when Hezekiah ascended the throne, which his
father had blackened with his crimes. It was wonderful that such a father as
Ahaz should have had such a son; but he probably had a good mother (2 Chron.
29:1, 26:5). He at once commenced a course of reform; and made the best
preparation possible for meeting all the contingencies of his time by
putting away the evils which had alienated the Divine protection.
In the rooting out of idolatry, and in the destruction of the brazen
serpent, which had become a kind of fetish, in the same way as the crucifix
has become now, he must have raised an immense amount of opposition; but he
did not swerve to the right or left. What a magnificent testimony is in 2
Kings 18:6! There is no such way of meeting temptation and danger as by
putting the heart right with God. Cleave to Him; depart not from following
Him; keep His commandments: so shall the Lord be with you, and whithersoever
you go forth, He will prosper you.
2 Kings 18:13-16 Sennacherib. --
It must have been a vast disappointment
when the Assyrian came to invade Judah. But the invasion would probably give
a great assistance to the cause of reform, arresting and warning many who
thought the king too particular. It was a great mistake to bribe
Sennacherib; and, like so many of our expedients, it did not avail. What a
lamentable pity that Hezekiah did not, from the commencement of his trouble,
throw himself on the protecting care of God! If the king had only trusted
this time as he did the next, there would have been no need for the bribe.
God would have delivered His people.
2 Kings 18:17-37 Rab-shakeh. --
Three years after, the generals of
Sennacherib beleagured the city, in very close quarters. It is thought by
some that this bold blasphemer was an apostate Jew, hence the added force of
his words. He tried to prove that the Jews had forfeited Divine protection
(2 Kings 18:22); that the Assyrians had come at the bidding of Jehovah (2
Kings 18:25); and that He would not be able to do more for His people than
other gods (2 Kings 18:34).
The Jews met the taunts of Rab-shakeh in silence. It was wise policy. It is
infinitely better to hand over our wrongs to God, who will avenge our cause
and see that right is done, than to defend ourselves by argument and force.
The only exception is when a simple explanation may relieve the cause we
love from some evil imputation. Rab-shakeh could not understand the attitude
of the king and people. Men of the world cannot read our secrets. God's
hidden ones are as great a mystery as Christ was; but one day they will be
manifested with Him.
2 KINGS 19
SENNACHERIB OVERTHROWN
The lesson of this chapter needs but few
words. There is no such resort for the troubled soul as God Himself. Twice
did Hezekiah seek the face of the Lord.
2 Kings 19:1-7 The royal anguish. --
In the first instance, when Hezekiah
heard the blasphemous words so proudly spoken before the walls of Jerusalem,
he went up into the house of the Lord, and entreated Isaiah to join him in
supplication. That bowed form of Hezekiah before the altar of God, while his
servants and ministers were with Isaiah, is a beautiful emblem of the true
way of meeting trouble. And it is very blessed, when our cause is so
identified with God's, that we can appeal for help on that account.
All through this crisis Isaiah acted the part of a patriot and hero. He
poured forth words of burning eloquence and fire, denouncing the Assyrian,
predicting his doom, and encouraging the people. The one figure which stands
out in bold relief amid the storm is that of the intrepid prophet, who even
dares to compose a funeral ode for the burial of the imperious invader.
There is hardly anything in all literature so sublime as Isaiah 10, 11, 12,
13, 14.
2 Kings 19:8-34 The blasphemous letter. --
The siege of Jerusalem was postponed till
Sennacherib could undertake it in person, and the hostile forces drew off.
But a letter was sent full of insult and blasphemy and proud certainty of
ultimate success. For the second time, Hezekiah sought the face of the Lord,
and prayed before Him. This was not the last letter which has been written
with the ink of gall and bitterness, and sent to the servants of God. It is
always best to lay such before God, and leave Him to answer them (2 Kings
19:14).
There is great beauty and earnestness in the king's prayer (2 Kings
19:15-19). Supplications for help blend with holy argument and reasonings
and allusions to the effect of the issue on the Divine glory.
In each case God sent an answer of peace through Isaiah. The second of them
is a magnificent ode, full of heroic and ecstatic faith, and breathing the
spirit of undaunted and unwavering trust. That was probably the sabbatic
year, for the produce was promised to be sufficient for two years; but in
any case, the sabbatic calm had entered the prophet's soul. They that
believe enter into rest. And as in the center of the candle flame there is a
vacuum of perfect safety, so amid alarm we may find in Christ's care a
resting-place so happy and secure that we too may relieve ourselves of our
burdens and sing triumphal odes on the very eve of the battle. There is no
lack to them that trust in God.
2 Kings 19:35-37 The enemy's destruction. --
How brief and significant the record! One
of the angels was enough; how strong they must be! It is very foolish to
wage war with God. Out of this memorable episode sprang Psalm 76.
2 KINGS 20
HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER
2 Kings 20:1-7 Hezekiah's sickness. --
One trouble often follows another. With
Hezekiah the invasion of Assyria was followed by severe sickness. This was
apparently in the same year; hence, "1 will defend this city" (2 Kings
20:6).
Accumulated troubles present a platform for accumulated deliverance. We may
understand from the prophet's announcement that the natural result of the
disease would have been death. But an arrest was put on the ordinary course
of things by the miraculous interposition of God, in answer to prayer.
Who does not know what it is to turn the face to the wall in unutterable
anguish? We must get where God alone can read us. When we cannot be as
private as we would wish, let us not discontinue our devotions, but be as
private as we can. Hezekiah may have quoted the promise made to David (1
Kings 8:25), and longed for a respite; partly because life and immortality
were not brought to light, and partly because he may have desired to finish
his reforms. God always see our tears and hears our prayers, though He does
not always answer us promptly and satisfactorily to our poor sense. The figs
were, perhaps, rather the means of stimulating faith than the cause of cure.
With all our care we cannot add one cubit to our life; but God can. He
assigns the number of years we have to live, and knows exactly when their
number will be up. Oh, to spend each hour as being His gift as much as were
the fifteen years of Hezekiah's life. God does not always prolong life in
answer to prayer, and we should always leave such matters submissively with
Him; because He may see reasons why it would be far better for us to be
removed at once from this world of temptation and sorrow.
2 Kings 20:8-11 The sign. --
The dial was probably a series of steps
on which an upright pole cast a shadow, the hours being marked by the
concurrence of the shadow with the edge of the steps. It appears that there
was a partial eclipse of the sun in Jerusalem at this time, on January 11,
B.C. 680, but it is not likely that this would account for this remarkable
phenomenon, which was doubtless due to some Divine power which we cannot
understand. But the shadow might be affected, without any necessary
interference with the movements of the planetary system.
2 Kings 20:12-21 The penalty of ostentation. --
What a lost opportunity not to show these
men that the sun was, after all, but a servant in the hand of Israel's God!
If Hezekiah had been taken away by early death, he would never have incurred
the terrible words of 2 Kings 20:17. Let us watch against the sin of show
and pomp. At the best we are only caretakers and stewards. We have nothing
that we have not received. But if we forget this, and yield to pride and
vainglory, we are liable to forfeit all.
2 KINGS 21
MANASSEH'S WICKEDNESS
2 Kings 21:1-9 Manasseh's sins. --
Such sin is revealed in this chapter as
recalls the worst abominations of the heathen; and this of the redeemed
people of God, incited by the son of the good Hezekiah! A pious father
cursed with a wicked son -- not the last time, alas! And it is the more
wonderful, as he was born after the marvellous deliverances in the State, as
well as in the royal home. He carried his sacrilege into the precincts of
the holy Temple, and introduced the very worst forms of idolatry. How sad
the record, that they did even more evil than the nations whom the Lord
destroyed before Israel!
2 Kings 21:10-18 The predicted doom. --
There could be only one result to all
this: that the Lord's help should be withdrawn, and that they should be left
to reap the bitter harvest of their sins. God does not cast us off till we
have cast Him off; and even then He punishes us by withdrawing to His place
only till we acknowledge our offense and seek His face again. Our only
defense and salvation consist in our union with God; His deliverance around
us, His grace within. But directly we yield to sin, it is as if some
obstruction had come into the channel of communication; and the waterfalls
in the fountain, but not because of any failure in the cistern.
The line and plummet (2 Kings 21:13) were used to mark off those, in a long
line of captives, who were reserved for life or condemned to death. The
wiping of the dish is very expressive. The people endorsed their king in
what he did, and they were therefore to share his fate. The blood of
innocents (2 Kings 21:16) aggravated their case. The Lord was about to leave
His people to suffer the results of their sins, that they might learn by
contrast what an awful thing it was to forfeit His protecting care (Hosea
5:14-15).
In this reign, Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Isaiah lived and
prophesied. It is recorded by tradition that the last of these was sawn
asunder (Heb. 11:37); and perhaps the blood of the other four was included
in that which Manasseh shed. The more sin, the more warning voices; but the
greater light, the darker sin.
2 Kings 21:17-18 Manasseh's death. --
We learn from 2 Chronicles 33 the story
of Manasseh's repentance and acceptance with God. In his affliction he
sought the Lord. Such is the gain of pain. But his personal repentance could
not obliterate the terrible results of his sins or their effect in incurring
the penalty of captivity. We may be pardoned; but there is a harvest which
even pardon does not avert.
2 Kings 21:19-26
Amon's reign was short and inglorious,
and was ended by assassination (2 Kings 21:26). He was not stayed by the
example of his father's sins or regrets from following the sinful courses to
which from childhood he had been inured. "He forsook the Lord, ...and walked
not in the way of the Lord" (2 Kings 21:22). As the twig is bent the tree
grows. Oh parents, remember that example is more decisive than words. You
may adopt for yourselves, in maturer life, a holier and better course; but
you can never eradicate the evil influences exerted on your children.
2 KINGS 22
JOSIAH, THE BOY-KING
2 Kings 22:1-2 Josiah's good reign. --
Aged eight on his accession to the
throne, he seems from the first to have chosen the paths of goodness. In the
midst of his father's court, that young life grew up as a young palm in the
desert waste. Perhaps one of the prophets, or some attendant, had made him
the subject of special care and love, teaching him in the ways of the Lord.
In his sixteenth year, while he was still young, he began to seek God yet
more earnestly; and four years after the religious life within him prompted
him to begin a great work of reform (2 Chron. 34:2, 3).
2 Kings 22:3-7 The repair of the Temple. --
Other reforms had been probably effected
throughout the land; but it was not till the eighteenth year of his reign
that this great work of the cleansing of the Temple, and the restoration of
the holy rites, actually began. This is work to which we must all give our
heedful care. The temple of the body must be kept pure for the Holy Ghost;
and the inner shrine of the spirit should be maintained=in perpetual repair.
The money for the Temple work seems to have been contributed voluntarily,
but there was a beautiful piety in the workmen which made them deal
faithfully. There is no doubt that real religion makes better masters and
servants; hence so many find it worth their while to feign it.
2 Kings 22:8-14 The discovery of the
Book of the Law. --
It is at such times, when rubbish is
being cleared, and breaches made good, that the Word of God is found; and it
comes home to us with new freshness, and becomes first the critic, and then
the joy of our hearts. This was the Temple copy, laid beside the ark in the
most holy place (Deut. 31:25, 26). Some say that it had been hidden by some
faithful priest during the ungodly reigns of Manasseh and Amon.
Probably Shaphan would read Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30; and there was plenty in
these chapters to fill the young king with dismay, if, as was not
improbable, the whole was totally new to him. Oh, to read the Bible always
with a particular reference to oneself! -- and then, like Josiah, to proceed
at once to put its injunctions and precepts into practice. There is great
encouragement here. One copy of the Scriptures, like a seed long buried,
suddenly fructified, and led to a reformation. So was it when Luther began
to read that copy of the Vulgate at Erfurt. One copy of the Bible is enough
to upheave a nation.
2 Kings 22:14-20 The mission to Huldah. --
Ahikam was a friend of Jeremiah (Jer.
26:24); Achbor, or Abclon, a leading courtier. Zephaniah may have been too
young; Jeremiah was at Anathoth. So, as the need was urgent, they went at
once to Huldah, the wife of Shallum, well known for her prophetic gifts.
There was evidently a Godly remnant in Jerusalem, who had survived the
massacre of the former reigns; of these Huldah was one. Women should always
live in the uplands, beholding sights and hearing voices which are hidden
from the rest of us. The greatest peculiarity is a thoughtless and
irreligious woman.
The college was the name, not for a school, but for a particular quarter of
the city. The decree had gone forth as against Sodom; but as in the case of
Lot, so here, the people of God are delivered.
2 KINGS 23
RENEWING THE COVENANT
2 Kings 23:1-3 The Law is read. --
What the king had found good for himself,
he gave to his people. It is a good habit to circulate the Scriptures. And
how beautiful it was that this covenant should be formed. Let us give
ourselves to be only, utterly, and always for God; and then set ourselves to
destroy evil, beginning with ourselves.
2 Kings 23:4-20 Idolatry destroyed. --
It is almost incredible to find that the
emblems of the most obscene idolatry had been set up in the Temple, and that
the holy place had been desecrated by abominable rites. But is there not a
solemn warning to us all? Baal-worship is simply the adoration of human
energy, and the Asherah the license of love. May there not be more of these
than we know, even in Christian hearts!
The brook Kedron runs along the east and south of the city, dry in summer,
but after heavy rains a torrent bed. There the impurities of Temple and city
were emptied. The grove of 2 Kings 23:6 was the mystic tree. Some of the
levitical priests, who had fallen into the habit of officiating in high
places, were degraded from their office, though still maintained from the
Temple revenues. Topheth (2 Kings 23:10) was so called from toph, a drum,
which was used to drown the cries of terrified children made to pass through
the fire at this place. The filth of the city was collected here and burned;
hence the allusion of Mark 9:44.
Not satisfied with removing every vestige of idolatry from his own
dominions, Josiah made a tour of the land once inhabited by the ten tribes;
and especially destroyed the ancient altar at Bethel, as had been predicted
more than three hundred years before his birth (1 Kings 13:2). From that
time the desolation foretold by Hosea and Amos has never been disturbed; and
Bethel, the house of God, has literally become Bethaven, the house of
nothing.
2 Kings 23:21-28 The Passover observed. --
When the old leaven was cleared away,
they could keep the feast. There came to it, not only Josiah's own subjects,
but many of the remnant people of the ten tribes (2 Chron. 35:1-19).
When the purgation of evil is complete so far as we know, we may turn to eat
the Passover; and we shall be at one with all the scattered people of God in
the act of solemn commemoration.
2 Kings 23:29-37 Josiah's death, and afterwards. --
These events are more fully related in 2
Chronicles 35:20-27. The end of Josiah was very tragic; it was the result of
his own folly and presumption. A long God-fearing life may end in
self-incurred disaster, unless we carefully walk with God to the very end.
There is never a moment in the life of the most matured saint when he may
lean to his own understanding. The defeat of Josiah at Megiddo is confirmed
by Herodotus, and by sculptures on Pharaoh's tomb. Jehoahaz, a younger son,
was taken prisoner by Pharaoh, and carried to Egypt, where he died (Jer.
22:10-12). Jehoiakim, notwithstanding the pressure which lay on him, did
evil, and hastened his ruin.
2 KINGS 24
CARRIED INTO BABYLON
2 Kings 24:1-6 Jehoiakim's reign. --
Mark the emphatic statement of the second
verse, "The Lord sent against him" bands of foes. Nebuchadnezzar now first
appears upon the scene. He was then at the beginning of his reign (Jer.
25:1), and little realized that he was only an axe with which God hewed, the
rod of His anger, the staff of His indignation. Ungodly men are sometimes
permitted to vex God's people for their chastisement; the best way of
escaping them is to turn instantly to God in confession and prayer. The
Chaldees were evidently the flower of his kingdom (Dan. 2).
Note the entail of Manasseh's sin (2 Kings 24:3)! He had lived, been
forgiven, and died years before; but Judah was irrevocably doomed for his
sin. The poison had eaten so deeply into the heart of the people, that only
the severest measures could eradicate its effect. "At the commandment of the
Lord came this upon Judah:'
"He slept with his fathers" (2 Kings 24:6) simply means that he died; for
this king was not honored with the rites of burial (Jer. 36:30).
The battle of Carchemish, referred to in 2 Kings 24:7, was one of the
decisive battles of the world (see Jer. 46:2).
Note that Daniel was among the captives carried away by Nebuchadnezzar in
this reign (Dan. 1:1-2), together with a portion of the sacred vessels of
the Temple.
2 Kings 24:8-16 Jehoiachin. --
The three months' reign of this king is
not inconsistent with Jeremiah's prophecy concerning Jehoiakim (Jer. 36:30).
Nebuchadnezzar in person joined "his servants" in the siege of Jerusalem;
and the king, the queen-mother, and the royal family "went out" (2 Kings
24:12), and surrendered to the Babylonian monarch. They were carried into
exile, according to Jeremiah's prediction (Jer. 22:24-25), together with
"all Jerusalem, and all the princes, the mighty men of valor, and ten
thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths" (2 Kings 24:14);
leaving behind only the "poorest of the people of the land:'
The sacred vessels of the Temple remaining from the previous seizure were
also carried away, and were put to profane uses in the land of exile (Dan.
5:2-3); they were not returned to Jerusalem until the days of Cyrus (Ezra
1:7-11). The false prophets, who soon after the departure of the sacred
vessels predicted an early return, were resisted by Jeremiah with the Divine
approval; Hananiah -- one of the foremost of the misleading voices -- dying
"in the same year" (the fourth year of the captivity, Jer. 28:1) according
to the message of Jeremiah (Jer. 28:15-16), who (Jer. 29) specified seventy
years as the time-limit of the captivity. The prophet Ezekiel was also among
the captives at this exodus, and he dates his prophecies from this year
(Ezek. 1:2; 40:1; 29:17). Kish the Benjamite, the ancestor of Mordecai, was
also among the captive-band (Esther 2:6). It is very necessary to study the
prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel as illustrating the history of this
period.
2 Kings 24:17-20 The last of the Kings. --
Mattaniah was the uncle of the previous
king, and his name was changed by Nebuchadnezzar to Zedekiah (God's
Justice). He was young, and his heart was reckless and impenitent. Led on by
ambassadors of neighboring states, he was enticed into a league with them
against Babylon, in the teeth of Jeremiah's remonstrances, who wept tears of
blood over the infatuation of his fellow-countrymen. Zedekiah, blinded to
all warning lights as to truth and honor (Ezek. 17:15), effectually brought
upon his people a yet more overwhelming destruction. How foolish and
hardened is that departure of the heart from the living God which deprives
it of rudder and chart, and leaves it to drift before the tide! The fear of
God is the beginning of wisdom, and only those have sound understanding that
keep His commandments.
2 KINGS 25
DESOLATION
2 Kings 25:1-3 Jerusalem again
beseiged. --
Angered by this last traitorous revolt,
the king of Babylon resolved to put an end to the separate existence of the
kingdom. This was the third siege of Jerusalem. Owing to the strength of the
fortifications, it lasted a year and a half, until the people were reduced
to the most fearful deprivations, and perpetrated atrocities which are
almost inconceivable (Lam. 2:20-22; 4:3). Jeremiah earnestly persuaded the
king to surrender (Jer. 38:17); and if only the prophet had been allowed to
sway the king's counsels, much of the misery of the siege would have been
averted; but it seemed as if a judicial blindness had been allowed to veil
his eyes, and to harden his heart to his destruction.
2 Kings 25:4-21 The final scenes. --
Two prophecies, apparently contradictory,
were fulfilled (Jer. 32:4; Ezek. 12:13). The former prophecy, where it is
said the king's eyes shall behold the eyes of his captor, was true; yet only
as far as the time of his surrender. Ezekiel's word that "yet shall he not
see the land though he die there" foretold his dire fate in the loss of his
eyesight. With Babylonian savagery Nebuchadnezzar, after slaying the king's
sons before his eyes, quenched the light for ever, and the king was "bound
with fetters of brass and carried to Babylon" (2 Kings 25:7).
The retribution was terrible: Zedekiah
blinded and a captive; the Temple, after four hundred and twenty years of
varying fortunes, in ashes; the city walls and buildings razed to the
ground; the remnant of the precious things carried off; the principal men
put to death, while a miserable handful of eight hundred persons were driven
into captivity.
2 Kings 25:22, etc. The remnant. --
The poorest only were left, under
Gedaliah, Jeremiah's friend (Jer. 26:24; 40; 41). His murder by Ishmael, who
was jealous of him, was the last drop of anguish in the prophet's cup. In
spite of his earnest protestations, the people deserted their own land, and
settled in Egypt (Jer. 44:1), and the land was left desolate for seventy
years to keep her sabbaths. Thus ended the kingdom of Judah; and thereafter
the Jews became a scattered people: though destined to pass through two more
extreme agonies, one of which befell them under Titus, the last awaits them
still.
Such is the vengeance of God. He pleads along with man; but if he will not
turn, then He whets His sword, and becomes the terrible avenger of sin. Such
a story as this makes it possible to understand the anguish of the
Hereafter, where men receive the reward of bad things done in the body. But,
amid all, we recall the tears of the Book of Lamentations, like the tears of
the Son of God. There is that in God which weeps while He chastises, which
cries, "How shall I make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim?" Nor are
tears all. He is the Redeemer. He gathers again the outcasts of Israel.
There will be a return from the captivity, because "He delighteth in mercy"
