Consider more particularly, how you are affected with all those "great and precious promises which he has given us" in Christ Jesus. Are you enabled to receive them " without staggering at them through unbelief?" This is your duty, this your privilege, this the pledge and earnest of all that God himself can bestow upon you.]
g Gen. iii. 6, 16—19, 24. ^ 2 Pet. iii. 3—6.
i Heb. iii. 18, 19. See also especially Zech. i. 6.
^ Heb. iv. 11. 12 Tim. ii. 13. >" Isai. Ixvi. 2.
n Jam. i. 6, 7. « Matt. viii. 13.
2 Kings viii. 12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I knoio the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel.
TO reconcile Divine foreknowledge with the con- tingency of human events is a difficulty, which pro- bably will never be solved in this present state of our existence. Yet, if it cannot be explained, it may be illustrated in some measure, and in such a way as to afford considerable satisfaction to the mind. In the history of which our text is a part, there is a circum- stance which reflects some light upon it. Benhadad, king of Syria, was ill ; and, hearing that Elisha was come into his county, he sent his servant Hazael, with very large and munificent presents, to inquire whether he should recover of his disease. The question being asked by Hazael, Ehsha told him, that his master " might certainly recover ;" but yet "should surely die^" Here we see the termination of the disorder doubtful in one view, but certain in another : he might recover, because his constitution was strong enough to withstand the disorder; but he should not recover, because God foresaw that a measure would be resorted to, which would render the disorder fatal. Thus it is also with our spiritual maladies : they may, with the use of God's appointed remedies, be healed; but God knows infalhbly whether we shall make use of those remedies, and, consequently, sees already what the event will be : in his eyes, it is as certain as if it had already taken place ; but his view of it does not at all affect its contingency with respect to us.
Not intending to prosecute this subject any far- ther, we merely glance at it, as introductory to that on which the issue of the king's disorder turned. There was in the heart of Hazael a root of evil, which would induce him to destroy the king, in order to gain possession of his throne : and that root springing up, would bring forth such terrible fruits, as could not be contemplated without the most pungent sorrow. This the prophet saw, and deeply lamented ; insomuch, that Hazael, astonished at the fixedness of the prophet's countenance, and at the tears which he shed, asked him with great
a ver. 10.
370.] ELISHA PREDICTS HAZAEl's ATROCITIES. 511
emotion, ** Why weepeth my lord?" The prophet told him, that he wept at the prospect of the horrible cruelties, which, however incapable of committing them he might now think himself, he would certainly ere long commit.
This is the point to which we would now call your attention : and it is well calculated to shew us,
I. How unconscious we are of our own depravity — Hazael could not conceive it possible that the prophet's predictions respecting him should ever be fulfilled—
[Doubtless the predicted evils were very terrible^: nor do we wonder that Hazael should ask so pointedly, " Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing •= ?" But he was a stranger to his own heart, and ignorant of the effect which a change of circmnstances may produce in our dispo- sitions and conduct The event soon verified all that
the prophet had spoken concerning him : foi', immediately on his return to his master, he gave a false report of the prophet's answer, and (probably under a pretence of using the best means for his recovery) adopted a measure, which he had reason to expect would speedily put a period to his existence. Having by these means succeeded to the throne, he soon waged war with Israel, and committed all those shocking cruelties, at the very mention of which he had once shrunk back with horror '^.]