Vere. 1, 2.-The unbelieving lord. The spirit of despair had taken possession of Jehoram. It was at this point the.t Elisha interposed with his promise of deliverance. I. PnEDIOTED DELIVF.RANOE. Elisha made what must have seemed an incn·dible announcement. 1. The city was at that moment suffering the extremest horrors uf famine. By the same hour on the morrow food would exist in plenty. 2. Such food as was then obtainable was of the coarsest, most loathsome, and most revolting nature. By to-morrow they would be dieting on tine flour and barley in abundance. 3. 'l'hcir li'\O TTTR SECOND BOOK OF TIIE KINGS. [en. v11. 1-20
<lisgustin~ food wRs only to be had at famine prices. To-morrow a measure of fine flour would be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel. 4. To-day they were fast hclcnguered. To-morrow flour and barley would be sold in the open gates of Samaria. ~fter this," is anything too hard for tbo ~ord?" (Gen. xviii. 14). If men will not seek b1m, God leaves them to feel the extremity of their own helJ?lessness before be interposes. Then he shows himself" plenteous" in mercy (Ps. ciii. 8). Who can doubt that, if king and city had sought God earlier with sincere hearts, the deliver- ance would have come sooner? Thus by his own frowardness does the sinner stand in the way of his own good. II. RATIONALTSTIO DOUBT. 'rhe spirit of incredulity, which must have been in many minds when Elisha made this surprising announcement, found expression in the utter- ance of the captain on whose hand the king leaned, "Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heann, might this thing be?" 1. The author of this sceptical scoff was a person in liigh rank. The atmosphere of a court, and the position of a courtier, are not favourable ,to the development of piety. They a.re more apt t-0 develop, as here, a worldly, sceptical, cynical spirit, with small faith in God, virtue, and truth. Piety is to be looked for rather in the cottages than in the palaces of a people, though there are notable exceptions. "Not many mighty," etc. (1 Cor. i. 26). 2. The lang'IJ,(lge is that ef soornful, incredulity. It is the speech of a rationalist. Judged by the standards of sense and of natural reason, the sudden access of plenty which Elisha predicted wae impossible. If the Lord opened windows m heaven, it might be looked for, but not otherwise. And who expected help from that quarter? Thus the worl~ly wise lord reasoned, sneering at Elisha's word as the imagination of a heated bra.in. He is the type of all rationalists. Interpositions from heaven are the last things they a.re dis- posed to believe in; and in any case they will not believe God's Word unless they can see how it is to be fulfilled, and on what natural principles the unusual event is to be explained. As in the present case there was no possibility of help from within the city, and no prospect of the Syrians leaving when the city was just about to fall wHhin their power, and no evidence that food in such abundance could be obtained at a day's notice even if they did leave, Elisha's promise could only be assigned to the category of delusion. The S!Jirit of faith is the opposite of this. It takes God at his word, and leaves him to find out the means of accomplishing his own predictions. III. THE PUNISHME:!."T OF UNJIELIEF. Elisha. entered into no argument. He left hie word to be proved or disproved by the arbitrament of time. But he told the great lord who-so much wiser than Elisha-had scoffed at its fulfilment, what the penalty of his unbelief would be. He would see the promised plenty indeed, but he would not eat of it. ls not this the fate of every unbeliever? God's word stands sure:, it comes to pass in due time; but the intellectualist, the scoffer, the doubter, the man who was too wise to believe, finds himself shut out from participation in the blessi.ng.-J. O.
Vere. 3-11.-nefour lepers. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." I Speculation might have exhausted itself in vain in conjecturing how Elisha's pre- diction was to be accomplished. Nevertheless, the wonder was performed by a series of events as simple as it was unlooked for. I. A POLICY OF DESPAm. 1. The lepers at the gate. We are first introduced to four lepers at the entering in of the gate. They were outside, and had hitherto subsisted by food handed out or thrown to them from within. But now the fa.mine in the city made such assistance impossible, and the four men were dying of hunger. Poor, pitiable objects, the last persons to whom any one would have thought of looking for a glimpse of hope on the situation within the walls. Yet these despised lepers were to be, in a sense, the ea.viours of the city. Vie cannot but reflect on the humble and seemingly unlikely instruments God often chooses to accomplish his ends. He puts the "treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. iv. 7). As if to abase human pride, he purposely selects instrumentalities which the wisdom of man would scorn. 2. JJire alternatives. Brought fa.ce to face with dea.th, the poor lepers are forced to the earnest consideration tin. vn. 1-20.) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 161