2 Kings 8:29

REFLECTIONS

READER! let us pause over our review of this chapter, for many are the gospel instructions we may take home to our own hearts under the Holy Ghost's gracious teachings. In the restoration of the Shunammite's land, let us recollect with holy joy that our Jesus hath effectually secured our inheritance, notwithstanding there hath been for many a seven year a famine and poverty indeed in our souls. Jesus our king will restore the whole, and infinitely more than we lost, by the apostacy of our first Father, Yes! thou dearest Lord, thou hast accomplished the redemption of all our mortgaged possession, and it is thou which will finally put us into the enjoyment of them again; thou art indeed thyself our inheritance, our portion, our joy forever.

In the account of Hazael, Reader, let us not overlook the general character of all men by the fall. That you and I perpetrate not such crimes, is not from any difference in nature, but wholly from the preventing and restraining grace of our God. Oh! blessed Jesus, teach me by such views how to appreciate thy great salvation more and more, and with the greatest thankfulness of soul, give thee all the glory, that I am kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And Reader, let the view which the Holy Ghost hath here given us in the character of Hazael, when by a change from an humble station to the highest, the seeds of iniquity were thus ripened, and brought forward to the production of its deadly fruit, Oh! let it teach us how much wiser and more gracious the Lord is than we are ourselves, in choosing the lowest stations for his people, to keep them from evil. Yes! dearest Lord, I thank thee for the very place thy wisdom hath appointed me. I know it must be the best because thou hast ordained it. Thy love, as well as thy wisdom, was in it. Bring me therefore, Lord, according to thy promise, as a poor, blind, ignorant creature, in a way that I knew not; leave me not to my own understanding, but give me grace to be always committing my ways unto the Lord, and to acknowledge thine hand in all; for thou hast said thou wilt direct my paths.

One thought more, Reader, before we quit this chapter, in that precious account which is given us concerning Judah, that the Lord would not destroy Judah for David's sake. Oh! the blessed thought! oh! the soul-reviving consideration, amidst all the discouragements of sin, and the feats of unbelief! Judah's Lord still lives, still reigns, and the efficacy of his blood and righteousness is of everlasting duration. Learn, my soul, henceforth to live out of thyself upon this covenant God in Christ. In him is all thy fullness and sufficiency. And in so improving and using Christ, according to God the Father's gift and design concerning him, all happiness and security must be found. In thy name, blessed Jesus, would I rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness may my soul be exalted.