2 Kings 10:36

REFLECTIONS

READER! let us pause a moment over the perusal of this chapter, and, in the character of Jehu, mark the possibility of possessing great gifts, and great appearances of zeal for God's service, without any real possession of vital godliness. A man may cry out, as Jehu did, Come, see my zeal for the Lord; but if that zeal be truly put to the test, it will be as Solomon saith; as the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise. Let a man profess what he will, void of regeneration, yet all his performances spring from himself. A pool of water, when the rain descends plentifully, will swell and look large, but having no source, when the sun and the drought come on, it dries up. Oh! blessed Jesus! let all my zeal for thee and thy glory, arise from that well of water which thou hast promised, and which is from thyself, springing up unto everlasting life.

In the total overthrow of Ahab's family, mark, I beseech you, the sure termination of the ungodly. The Lord hath said in his covenant engagements, that he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him! Reader! do not forget; the same promise which becomes sure to the believer, because of the faithfulness of God, makes his threatenings to the unbeliever, equally sure and certain. The Lord is not slack (saith an apostle) concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Precious Jesus! where, in that tremendous day, would my soul find shelter, had I not thy righteousness to justify, and thy garment of salvation to cover me. Let a throne of grace witness for me, that now, even now I plead this, under all the accusations of conscience, the deceitfulness of a corrupt heart, the charges of Satan, and the threatnings of the broken law of God. And in that hour, when God shall arise to shake terribly the earth, then shall I plead it with full assurance of faith; nothing fearing any condemning sentence from my Judge, while standing secure in the justifying righteousness of God my Saviour, and triumphing in the covenant promises of my Father's sovereign grace. Lord Jesus! let the view of the treachery and deceitfulness of man's heart, as in the instance of Jehu, lead me to be everlastingly suspecting my own. And let a perfect conviction that thou, and thou only, art the righteousness of thy people, make me more and more earnest to know thee, to love thee, to live to thee, to walk in thee, to act faith upon thee, and to rejoice in thee as my portion, in time and to all eternity. Precious, precious Lord Jesus! even so, Amen.