The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 230

Even the most usefnl public :nen, and the most popular too, cease to attract groat puhlie attention ns they pass into years. Often they become as "dead men out of ~ight," albeit they are useful. Though all men have to die, death is uot the same to all men. It has a widely different significance to different men. 'l'o the good man it is Jifo breaking through exuviie and taking wing t.o revel in a sunny universe. It is tbe "mortal putting on immortality." II. A WICKED MAN REGRETTING THE EVENT. "And Joash the King of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, 0 my father, my father I" Why did he weep? Not because he bad any sympathy with the character of the departing man. His moral sympathies were in antagonism to those of the prophet. Not because he felt that the prophet himself would suffer Joss. He was not thinking of the prophet's gaining or losing by death. Not because he knew that the event would be a Joss to the Ji,ing in general. He oared nothing for his race, not he; but because he knew that the prophet was the " chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." His chariots and horsemen were gone, and Elisha was his only hope. JI[. A GOOD MAN LEAVING THE WORLD INTERESTED IN POSTERITY. Elisha, though <lying, i;till took an interest in the future of his country. "Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows," etc. (vers. 16-19). Elisha. seems to have been touched by the king's tears; and he held out the hope that he would yet become victorious over the Syrians: The symbolic action which the prophet recommended, putting his hand upon the bow, opening the window, shooting the arrow, smiting the ground, does not, I think, necessarily mean that the prophet approved of the future wars of the king, but merely indicated the fa.et. He foretold his success; for, in three campaigns against the Syrians, he recovered the cities which they bad ta.ken from his father. He was also successful in the war with Amaziah King of Judah. But the point worth notice is the interest felt in the future by the prophet in his dying hours. Had he not done with life? Would he not soon be in his grave? What would the world be to him in the future? An interest in posterity seems to be an instinct in humanity. There is a nerve in humanity tba.t runs through all races and a.ll generations, linking men together. "No man liveth to himself;" all men are in one. The more moral goodness a. man has in him the more sensitive this nerve becomes. Hence the best men in all ages have been the men who made provision for posterity. IV. A DEAD MAN EXERTING A WONDERFUL INFLUENOE, cc 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." The incident which takes place in his grave is as strange as it is significant and suggestive, The bearers of a dead man, struck with terror at the approach of enemies, instead of carrying the remains to their appointed resting-place, pushed them into the sepulchre where slept the bones of the illustrious Elisha.. No sooner did t,he corpse touch the sacred relics of the great seer than it quivered with life, and the dead man, to the astonishment of all, revived, and stood on his feet. This miraculous incident was designed and calculated to make a wholesome moral impression on the mind of the age. It had a. tendency to demon- strate to all the Divinity of the prophet's mission, to show the honour with which the Eternal treats the holy dead, to prove the existence of a Power superior to death, and to foreshadow a future state. Whilst I would at all times studiously endeavour t.o avoid the mistake of what is called spiritua.lizing God's Word, I feel that it is lawful to use an incident like this as an illustration of spiritual realities. The incident which occurred in the grave of Elisha on this occasion, viz. the deriving of life by contact with the holy dead, is, in the material department of things to which it belongs, sublimely singular. Such an event as this, perhaps, will never occur again; but a thing analogous to this in the spiritual domain is, thank God, of frequent occurrence. The dead minds of earth a.re constantly deriving life from contact with the spiritual remains of the dead.-D. T. Vere. 1-7.-Isro,el', humiUaUon under Jehoahaz. The story of the reign of Jehoahaz, Jehu'e son, is a eLory of unmitigated misfortune. We note- I. JBHOAHAZ's EVIL REIGN. 1. The downward movement in Israel. With ihe ott. xm. 1-25.] THE SECOND BOOK OF' THE KINGS. 275