This Chapter opens with relating a circumstance of sin in the conduct
of Ahaziah. Elijah is commissioned to send an awful message to him.
The king, in consequence, commands the prophet to appear before him.
His messengers are destroyed. Ahaziah dieth, and Jehoram succeeds him
in the kingdom.
2 King... [ Continue Reading ]
Reader! to what a wretched state was Israel reduced, in consequence of
their idolatry! It is almost incredible to conceive how the mind of
any man could ever be so degenerate as to fancy a dumb idol could
speak. The name of this dunghill god is remarkable. The devil himself
is called Beel-zebub. And... [ Continue Reading ]
It is somewhat remarkable that the prophet Elijah, and John the
Baptist, should have been as much alike in dress as they were in their
commission. Our dear Lord pointed to John as the Elias of the gospel.
If ye will receive it, (said Christ) this is Elias which was for to
come. Matthew 11:14. Observ... [ Continue Reading ]
This is a most interesting passage. Observe the rage and folly of the
king, in sending to seize upon the prophet. Did he hope to alter the
sentence by destroying the prophet? Could he indeed conceive so
desperate a thing, as to think that the Lord's servants would be
unprotected in the Lord's cause?... [ Continue Reading ]
Had not this wretched captain with his fifty, heard what had taken
place? If the king was hardened and bound with the blindness of
iniquity! was it needful that he should follow him to his ruin? This
man exceeded in presumption, if possible, the former. For he had not
only the awful example of his r... [ Continue Reading ]
How lovely doth this third captain appear, in thus intreating for
mercy! He comes to Elijah because it was the king's command! But he
comes to sue for favor. Reader! when the sinner, humbled under a sense
of sin, and conscious of his undeservings, comes to the Lord God of
the prophet's son, Elijah's... [ Continue Reading ]
We are not told who this angel was. But may we not conjecture? When we
recollect how much our Almighty Jesus, who is expressly called the
angel of the covenant, delighted to manifest himself, in those early
ages of his church, as if thereby, he meant to teach the faithful,
that he longed for the ful... [ Continue Reading ]
Oh! how faithful is the prophet, when the Lord God of the prophets
strengthens him! And, oh! how timid is the sinner, when the hand of
God is upon him! Behold, Reader! the sure end of the ungodly: he shall
not, be cannot stand in the judgment; nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous. The wa... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS
BEHOLD, my soul, awfully behold, in the sad example of Ahaziah and his
captains of fifty, with their fifties, how sin hardens the heart, and
renders men ripe for punishment! See in them thine own picture by
nature; and, but for grace, how justly the features would be marked
still. To wh... [ Continue Reading ]