The place where we dwell is too strait for us. 2 Kings 6:1-6 A church-extension enterprise Homilist. If there was a church in Israel at all, the school of the prophets undoubtedly constituted a part of that church. They were a communion of godly men. I. This church-extension enterprise was STIMULATED BY THE PRINCIPLE OF GROWTH. The old sphere had become too narrow for them, they had outgrown it. This is a principle on which all church-extension should proceed, but in these modern times it is not only ignored, but outraged. Although statistics show that the churches and chapels in England fall miserably short of the accommodation necessary for the whole population, it is three times greater than is required for the number of attendants. II. This church-extension enterprise was CONDUCTED IN A MANLY MANNER. 1. The best counsel was sought before a step was taken. 2. Each man set to honest work in the matter. "Take thence every man a beam." III. This church-extension enterprise ENCOUNTERED DIFFICULTIES UNEXPECTED. "And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water: and he cried and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed." IV. This church-extension enterprise OBTAINED SUPERNATURAL HELP WHEN NEEDED. When the man who had lost his axe and was crying out in distress, Elisha, the "man of God" said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it." ( Homilist. ) Age and youth A. Jubb. Few questions are more perplexing than the question as to what should be the character of the relationship between the old and the young. Many of our young people are impatient of the restraints which older people would put upon them, while those who have had long experience of the world are apt to be equally impatient of the impulsive ardour and restlessness of youth. I. CONSIDER THE CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUTH. These are well known, and failure to recognise them must mean failure in all dealings with them. "Wisdom comes not to the child." We must deal with people as they are, not as we wish them to be. Among the characteristics of youth we select a few: — Dissatisfaction. The sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, "Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us." Elisha seems to have been very content; not so the young men. They wanted a larger place. Desire for improvement (ver. 2). This is the outcome of the other. The desire increases, and the young want to measure their strength against the world. 3. Strength. Compared with the old, the young possess a large amount of energy, so much indeed that they cannot rest. 4. Thoughtlessness. "As one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water." With the least care on his part that would never have happened. What, then, ought the young to do? Seek the help of those who are older and wiser than themselves. II. CONSIDER THE POWERS POSSESSED BY AGE. 1. They have knowledge of the world. They know its temptations, how subtle and how persistent they are. 2. They have experience of human life. They have seen lives begun in promise go out in darkness. 3. They know the power of God. They can tell which way victory lies. They have seen Jesus and learned of Him.(1) Let no one think the time wasted which is spent in cultivating the friendship and love of the young. Some shallow people would have said that the prophet was wasting his time.(2) What attention we ought to pay to ourselves. Every man is reproducing his own character in others. "No man liveth to himself."(3) To do this, we must become friends of Jesus. Elisha is a type of Christ. ( A. Jubb. ) Helping somebody Quiver. On one occasion the wife of General Sir Bartle Frere drove to a railway station to meet her husband. She told the footman to go and find his master. The servant, who had been engaged in Sir Bartle's absence, asked how he should know the General. "Oh," replied Lady Frere, "look for a tall gentleman helping somebody." The description was sufficient. The servant went, and found the General helping an old lady out of a railway carriage. How well it is for men and women themselves, as well as for the world they bless, when they are known by God to be persons who are always trying to help somebody! ( Quiver. ) Take thence every man a beam. 2 Kings 6:2 Every man a beam J. Menzies. — I. THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS PROCURED FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THEY WANTED. The college had become too small. There was not room enough for the increasing numbers who gathered to be instructed at the feet of Elisha. Now in their difficulty these young men might have reasoned something after this fashion. A college is for the good of the nation. The instruction we receive here is to be used by us hereafter in the religious service of the country. The country should, therefore, build us a larger and better house. They might have reasoned in this way and made an appeal to the religious public to help them. And so, instead of appealing to others, they resolved that as they wanted a larger building they would lay down their books, take up their axes, and go out and cut down the trees, building the place with their own hands. In this we have an illustration of an old maxim, that if you want anything done it is best to do it yourself. As regards the ordinary duties of life and the claims of business the preacher has little need to dwell upon this maxim. But we may be permitted to apply the maxim in the realm of church life and work. In every church there are men who are great talkers but little doers. They are ready enough to suggest improvements, to point out what others should do; but as to giving a helping hand themselves, nothing is further from their thoughts. Now I hold that no man has a right to suggest an improvement unless he is prepared to do his part in working it out. If every one who has a knowledge of music took an active part in the psalmody, and allowed his voice to be heard in the song of praise, how much better the worship would be. We are conscious of the need above all things of spiritual blessings, of conversions and spiritual revival in our churches. If every one so conscious would only express himself so in private and at the prayer-meeting, what hallowed prayer-meetings and what glorious revivals there would be among us! Some churches seem to live on the begging system. II. EVERY MAN WAS PREPARED TO DO HIS SHARE OF THE WORK. It was a serious matter even in these primitive times to build a house. The timber had to be felled and cut up into planks of convenient size. This called for the expenditure of strength and skill. By united effort and mutual assistance the arduous task was easily and quickly accomplished. And when there is unity among the members of a church, when every member is actuated by the same spirit of earnest desire for the prosperity of God's cause, how powerful the church becomes, how manifold the organisations that gather around it, and how efficiently conducted. In a well-ordered church there should be a task for every member. All cannot carry the same "beam." But every man should carry the load which his strength will allow, and render as much service as he is able. In ordinary churches a considerable sum of money is needed in the course of the year to carry on the ministry and maintain the schools and other societies. When every member conscientiously gives to the cause, not what others give, but what God enables him to give, there would never he crying out for lack of funds. If all who could teach would volunteer for the Sunday school, if all who could pray would show their faces at. the prayer-meeting, it would be better for them and for our churches. ( J. Menzies. ) Satisfaction of having done one's part of the work Several years ago, when the great Cathedral of Cologne was finished, there was a great stir all over Europe. Four centuries had been occupied in the erection of this wonderful building, one of the most magnificent in all the world. People flocked from all directions to take part in the grand ceremonial of rejoicing. It was a large and brilliant and fashionable crowd. But right in the midst of the grandest people stood a humble workman, with torn clothing, a dilapidated hat, and shoes all out at the toes. As he stood there, with his eyes fairly glowing as they took in all the noble proportions of the buildings, he was heard to exclaim: "Oh! yes, indeed, we have made a glorious" building of it!" "Why," said a gentleman, who overheard the remark, "what did you have to do with it?" The workman turned to answer him, with his eyes still glowing. "I mixed the mortar for a year," was the proud reply. That is it. We cannot all be builders. Sometimes we may not be able to place even one brick upon the structure. But we can each and every one help to mix the mortar for others to use, for certain it is that if the mortar be not mixed, the building itself cannot be built. Purposeful activity L. A. Banks, D. D. Everything depends on the spirit with which we work. the labour of many people amounts to nothing because it means nothing to them. There is no definite grip of purpose in what they do. I saw a little boy take up a rake in a New Hampshire hayfield in July, and he went raking about, imitating the men, except that the teeth of the rake were turned up. The raking was easier that way, but he gathered no hay. I know some preachers and Sunday school teachers and Christian workers who do all their raking that way. They rake a great deal and go through lots of motions, but they rake with the teeth up, and never gather any hay. Good results are only obtained by people who set the teeth of their purpose deep into what they are doing and rake for results; such people bring things to pass. ( L. A. Banks, D. D. ) But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water . 2 Kings 6:5-7 The axe-head F. Whitfield, M. A. 1. The first thought presented is, when Christ dwells in the hearts of His people there is a deep inward conviction of our own narrowness. The sons of the prophets dwelling with Elisha are conscious of the straitness of their dwelling, and earnestly long for enlargement. So it is with every true child of God. The soul that dwells in Christ and Christ in it is conscious of its straitness. It longs for enlargement. More room for Christ — this is its intense inward breathing. And this yearning cannot rest with inaction. Its course is always onward. "Let us go, we pray thee, to Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, "Go ye." "Let us go" — that is its motto. This is the only form in which the yearning within can find rest. It carries the soul with it into higher aims and holier aspirations. It lays hold of everything that would lift it nearer to God. 2. But observe, there can be no onward movement, no enlargement of soul, without God's presence with us. "And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go." The language of this unknown one is that of every true child of God, under all circumstances. The believer knows that God's abiding presence with him can alone assure growth in grace, or security against evil. Without the constant presence of the Lord he has nothing to keep him from lapsing into coldness or deadness, nothing to meet the powers of evil that lie so thickly in his path. The presence of the Lord is his joy, his pavilion in trial, temptation, and danger, his light in darkness, and his life in death. 3. We see these remarks confirmed by what happened in this narrative. "So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water." Here at this critical moment, the very weapon needed most of all for carrying on the work — the axe-head — suddenly and unexpectedly fell into the water. Alas, alas! how is the wood to be cut down now? How is the building to go on? What are we to do? All is over now! At one sudden stroke everything collapses, and there is a cry of despair. If Elisha had not been with them in this crisis what could they have done? They would have wrung their hands in unavailing sorrow, and the work must have ceased. And are there not such crises in the history of every believer? Has not the Church of Christ, in her passage through this world, volumes of such to record? Some great work of the Lord is prospering when, suddenly, the one who is the very centre of it, on whom it all seems to hang, is taken away by death. Happy for those who have with them the presence of the true Elisha. They "sorrow not as others who have no hope." Their hope is in God. 4. But notice another truth in the reason given for this sorrow here: "Alas, master! for it was borrowed." The axe-head was not this man's own. It belonged to another. See how this applies to the believer. Like these sons of the prophets dwelling with Elisha, he dwells with Christ. Abiding in Him, he fully realises that everything he possesses is only lent. It belongs to another, even God. It is just given him to use for his Master's glory, and nothing else. It is but the axe-head which is "borrowed." 5. But now observe what "a very present help" Elisha was: "And the man of God said, Where fell it?" This was all. All the responsibility now was Elisha's. So is it in the Christian's life. In all our circumstances the Lord is saying, "What is it? Tell Me." He is ever asking us to lay before Him these emergencies. He sends them for this purpose that we may "show Him the place." When this is done He will "undertake for you." You cannot bring up from the deep that that will fill your soul with joy, but He can. So it was here: "And Elisha cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim." The axe-head — that which your soul needs, that which can alone enable you to make your way, the true Elisha can bring back to your soul. It may seem to you to be hopeless, lost in the fathomless deep; and a world that can see nothing beneath the surface may pity, and write despair on your hopes. But Elisha, Jesus, is with you. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?... I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm: and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed." Oh, trust the Lord! With such assurances as these how can you doubt? He will undertake for you, and the lost hope shall "swim" again before your eyes. You shall "eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God." 6. Here is presented a picture of death and resurrection. In the axe-head down in the waters, we see man "dead in trespasses and sins," "far off" from God, a lost and ruined sinner. Who shall go down into the waters of death and bring him up? Jesus, He has done it. "All thy waves and thy billows have gone over Me," was His cry. Thus He went down to the depths, and brought up the poor lost one. In His death the sinner has died. In His resurrection the believer has "risen again from the dead." 7. "And he put out his hand, and took it." Faith is the hand. Have you indeed put it forth, and taken hold of Jesus for your soul? Is it religion with you or Jesus? Which? ( F. Whitfield, M. A. ) The lost axe-head F. S. Webster, M. A. Elisha's recovery of the lost axe-head is a sad stumbling-block to rationalists. The miracle seems to them childish. They cannot explain it away, and they do not like to accept it. The Christian, however, does not sit in judgment upon God's Word. It is unreasonable to believe in God and to object to miracles; nor are we fit judges as to what is or is not a sufficient cause for God to interfere, as we call it, with His own laws, but to learn more of God's faithfulness and thoughtful care. The prophet's college was overfull; there was no tooth for the growing number of students. This was very encouraging. There had been no such difficulty in Elijah's day; but Elisha had reaped where Elijah had sown. This blessing entailed increased responsibility. It always is so; the reward of work is more work. There can be no standing still or resting upon our oars. The Divine command is always "Spare not," "Stretch forth." We must be ever pressing forward, both in the pursuit of personal holiness and in our efforts to win lives for God. They wish to build, therefore, and they go about it wisely. But, in spite of Elisha's presence, a serious embarrassment arose. "Alas, master," he cried; "for it was borrowed." He was an honest man, you see. He might have exclaimed, "What a stupid and worthless tool — the owner deserves to lose it"; or, "That's not my fault, it was pure accident; what a good thing it isn't mine." We must not let our good be evil spoken of. Dishonour often accrues to God's cause if we are careless about what is due to others. Elisha saw it would be for God's glory that the axe-head should be restored. But what a beautiful parable the story makes. We are all workers for God. We work with borrowed power. This power may be lost, not only from indolence and neglect, but even through over-energy in God's work. God's carpenters sometimes show more strength than skill. The energy of the flesh or the wisdom of the flesh leave no room for God to work, and so the power is lost. Learn then how the lost power can be regained. 1. The man stopped working. Of course, you say; how could he cut down trees when the axe-head was gone? But Christian workers are not always so wise; they think to make up by their own energy and earnestness for the lack of Divine power. They use the haft of human wisdom or ecclesiastical status, although the cutting, driving power of God has been forfeited. 2. He told Elisha at once. That is always the first thing to do. Go and tell Jesus; confess to Him that you have lost the power. In this case the confession was made in public. Sometimes it is well for ministers and workers to acknowledge openly that they have lost the blessing they had. Generally, however, it is enough to tell Jesus. You do not need to tell others; they see it for themselves. 3. He showed Elisha the place where it fell. It is always well to be definite. Confess exactly where it was you lost touch. Perhaps you were puffed up with your success; or you began to distrust and doubt when that trouble came; or you were contaminated by that company; or you allowed that new interest, that book or game, to rob you of your secret time with God. 4. Elisha at once brought it within reach. Interpret as you like, the casting in of the wood. There is one power that always brings forfeited blessing within reach: it is the Cross of Calvary. The precious blood of Christ has brought within faith's reach every blessing that we need. Bring the Cross to bear upon your lost peace and power, and at once it is within reach. 5. The man put out his hand, and took it. There must be the personal appropriation of faith. He did this at the bidding of Elisha. Do the same at the bidding of the Lord Jesus, who still says to His disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." ( F. S. Webster, M. A. ) The borrowed axe T. Kelly. I. THAT IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF PEOPLE TO EXPECT AND RECEIVE DIVINE INTERPOSITION, WHEN OVERTAKEN BY TROUBLE OF MISFORTUNE, IN ANY LAUDABLE UNDERTAKING. The enterprise in which these young men were engaged was both laudable and praiseworthy. "Into the water!" What an unusual, perplexing occurrence. How trivial it would have been, if it had fallen on the land. Such is life. It is the unexpected that happens. It is what may be called the stupid and vexatious occurrences of life that cause much of our daily trouble and disappointments. This young man was evidently careless, or he would not have allowed the axe to come clear off. I also learn from this narrative that, if a poor man should have no axe, and not well able to buy one, that God has no objections if he should go to a neighbour and borrow one. II. THAT IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF GOD'S PEOPLE TO LOOK FOR AND RECEIVE DIVINE INTERPOSITION IN SEASONS OF LEGITIMATE ANXIETY AND WORRIMENT. Every honest man should feel worried, who has borrowed the property of another and cannot return it according to promise. Christian people, especially, should be very sensitive on this point. A religion that does not make a man honest and truthful is spurned and ridiculed by the world, and justly so, for it is worse than no religion at all. This young man had a noble sense of honour and equity about him. As I look at the Divine interposition, in behalf of this anxious, disappointed young man, I draw lessons of encouragement. 1. Let us be sure, first of all, that the business, the enterprise out of which our troubles arise, is legitimate and proper. 2. That we entered upon it in the right spirit. That, during its prosecution, we sought to go in and out under the smile of God. 3. That our troubles are not the result of our own ignorance, indolence, or sin, but from causes we did not suspect, and over which we had no control. The axe is off, and in the water. Legitimate anxiety and worriment from unusual and unsuspected quarters. The zeal and energy of this young man brought him this trouble. I suppose that some men could have used that axe all day, and it might not have slipped a quarter of an inch, But he swung it as a man who intended to make the chips fly. Therefore, I should say it came off, and all this trouble came on. So, the man who works with both hands heartily, in felling souls for the spiritual temple of the Lord, will be sure to make himself trouble. A cold, formal Church and the wicked world will unite to oppose and do him harm. Indeed, any man who has anything worthy of the name of zeal, in the cause of God, will soon find cause for legitimate anxiety about himself, his reputation, and his work. III. THAT GOD'S METHOD OF INTERPOSITION, IN BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE, IS FREQUENTLY THROUGH HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY. Elisha was the instrument God used to help this young man out of his trouble. So now, God often helps us, even answers our prayers, through persons to whom he has given the will and power to do it. There are many striking instances of God's interposition in behalf of His people, in temporal matters. IV. THAT, ALTHOUGH IN THIS CASE THE INTERPOSITION WAS MIRACULOUS, THE END WAS NOT FULLY SECURED WITHOUT HUMAN CO-OPERATION — "Take it up to thee." In the Divine economy, man must be more than a mere negation, — he must be more than a passive recipient of God's interpositions and blessings. He has raised us to the dignity of co-workers with Himself, in the great work of rescuing our sin-cursed race from the service and dominion of Satan. Just as God and man work together in nature, He always doing the supernatural, — producing the seed, and the vast possibilities of life slumbering in the face of nature, and the external influences fitted to call them forth: and man, as though everything depended upon him, clearing the ground, sowing the seed, cutting weeds and thistles, arranging his fields, gardens, and orchards, until the face of nature is a very paradise of beauty and blessing. So in the spiritual world, God's purpose is that through human and Divine co-operation. Oh for the eager promptness of this young man, in grasping our lost blessings. Reflections: — 1. Learn from this narrative that God is not displeased with His zealous, whole-hearted servant, who by his extra zeal disables himself or loses his axe; and that he would rather work a miracle, to put him in working trim, than to see him lazy and sleepy at his work. 2. That every man who has lost his axe of spiritual power must find it again, or, so far as he is concerned, the work of God is stopped. That one idle man among God's workmen counts more than one in the aggregate of his influence. His very presence will retard the workman and slacken the movements of many. 3. That in seasons of misfortune, it is well to be calm, and not by our own impulsiveness and imprudence make matters worse. Like the man I saw in a machine shop who chaffed his hand in attempting to put the belt on a machine, and became so furiously angry that he cut the belt in pieces, but had to replace it, at the cost of nearly a week's wages. 4. That the sinner should not make his case any more desperate by continuing to sin against God. That it is dangerous, unmanly, add very displeasing to God for one to deliberately add to the moral turpitude of his case, thus necessitating a greater miracle of Divine mercy, in order to save him. ( T. Kelly. ) The iron axe-head that swam J. N. Norton. "Our trials are often the shadows of coming mercies. God will appear at the ebb of the tide. He will turn the year at the shortest winter's day. When He has shown us our entire dependence upon Himself, He will stretch out His glorious arm, and work deliverance." The life of the true child of God is as constantly watched over, guided, protected, and blessed, as though the bright spirits who attend about His throne came visibly to minister to the heirs of salvation. The idea that the Almighty One, who made and governs all things, could not so change the usual course of nature as to cause the iron to swim, is simply absurd. In the working of a great printing-press, if any thing goes wrong with the paper, the feeder has only to touch a lever with his foot, and, while the ordinary movements of the press are undisturbed, the impression is not made upon the sheet. The skill and genius of man have brought the laws of nature under his control so far that distant countries are reached by the steamship and the telegraph. And even so, the God of nature bends these mighty forces to suit His own good pleasure, God gave power to Elisha to befriend the disconsolate young man, when he lamented the loss of the axe-head. And in every generation since, He has enabled other faithful ones to do Elisha's work, and make the iron to swim. The trifling and licentious Charles the Second locked up John Bunyan in Bedford jail, and kept him there with his Bible for twelve long years. There the despised tinker wrote the Pilgrim's Progress , and that iron is likely to swim for many ages yet to come. The lukewarm age in which we live is satisfied with ordinary prayers, ordinary faith, ordinary works — and, hence, it has to put up with ordinary blessings. The power of God to do wonderful things is none the less than in ancient days; and His hand only seems shortened, because the faith has died out in selfish, worldly hearts, that "All things are possible to him that believeth " ( Mark 9:23 ). ( J. N. Norton. ) The restoration of the axe Outlines of Sermons. It cannot be denied that the restoration of the lost axe was miraculous, if we consider — 1. That the man who lost it appealed to the prophet, and to him alone, for help in his extremity, as the only person who could help him, because he was the only person to whom it was given to exercise supernatural power. 2. That the axe came to the surface at the very spot where it was dropped. The Jordan is a rapid river, and if the axe had floated from any natural cause, it would have risen to the surface lower down the stream. 3. The means used to raise it were in no way adapted to the end in view. The narrative suggests — I. THAT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE GREAT WORKS OF THE WORLD DEPENDS VERY MUCH UPON KEEPING LITTLE THINGS IN WORKING ORDER. A great victory may be lost by the snapping of the linch-pin of an artillery wheel. The sons of the prophet could not raise a house to the honour of God without the help of an axe. "Great weights hang on small wires." II. THAT WHAT IS SMALL AND WHAT IS GREAT DEPENDS ENTIRELY UPON ITS RELATION. To many men the loss of a five-pound note would be a mere trifle, scarcely worth the mention; to millions it would be the loss of all their ability to feed and clothe their families for many days. So there were many men in Israel to whom the loss of an axe would have been nothing, but to this member of a poor community it was a misfortune so serious that it could only be remedied by a miracle. III. THE SMALLEST TROUBLE WHICH COMES UPON A SERVANT OF GOD, OR UPON A COMMUNITY OF MEN ENGAGED IN HIS SERVICE, IS A MATTER FOR DIVINE HELP. The Lord God Almighty is indeed the "high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" ( Isaiah 57:15 ), yet He "considereth all the works of men" ( Psalm 33:15 ), "His eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men" ( Jeremiah 32:19 ), and "He dwells with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit" ( Isaiah 57:15 ). This is sufficient to account for His interposition in the matter of the lost axe. ( Outlines of Sermons. ) Miracles ethical John M'Neill. Oh, how frightened some people are of these miracles! A young fellow-student and a preacher to-day, under the influence of modern criticism, told me that he could not swallow this miracle — he is very narrow in the swallow anyway! — he could not swallow this miracle about the axe-head that swam, "because, you know," he said, "it has a suspicious look about it. I'm all right, I trust," he said, "I'm all right upon the miracles of our Lord. But between you and me, M'Neill, that miracle, you know, is not ethical." That is the great word, "ethical"; if you are not ethical, you're not in it. "It is not ethical!" I said. "Well, now, that is very funny. It is very ethical, according to me. Do you mean to say," I said, "if you borrow an axe-head from me, that it is quite ethical to come back with a bit of stick, and the head... gone! Why," I said, "the miracle is bottomed upon ethics. God was so anxious that the axe should be given back by the fellow who borrowed it, as he borrowed it, that He worked miracles on behalf of the ethics that underlie borrowing and lending." And then he said, "I have no difficulty about the miracles of our Lord, because they are ethical." "Well now," I said, "there is one of our Lord's miracles, and if you are squeamish about the axe-head that swam, then logically you ought to be squeamish about it, too, although our Lord worked it, for it is this kind of 'grotesque miracle ' — making a display of Divine power. You remember," I said, "one day when our Lord had to pay His taxes and He did not seem to have enough loose money about Him — it is a kind of pathetic touch, you know — He did not have enough loose money about Him, but He evidently considered tax-paying ethical, and He wanted to pay them, and, of course, tie might have borrowed from somebody, or He might have got it in some way or another; but in spite of these critics He went away and made a display of the miraculous, and He said, 'Go to the sea and cast in a hook, and the first fish that comes up you will find my taxes in its mouth.'" The pride of intellect. Oh, if you are troubled, and if you boggle and stumble at the miraculous, Jesus will be the biggest stumbling-block and rock of offence of all the miracle-workers in the Bible. ( John M'Neill. ) Divine concern Quiver. The French Marshal Turenne was the soldiers' hero. He shared in all their hardships, and they entirely trusted him. Once when the troops were wading through a heavy morass, some of the younger soldiers complained. But the older ones said, "Depend upon it, Turenne is more concerned than we are; at this moment he is thinking how to deliver us. He watches for us while we sleep. He is our father, and would not have us go through such fatigue unless he had some great end in view which we cannot yet make out." How much happier and stronger we should be if with this kind of simple confidence we trusted the Captain of our Salvation, Jesus Christ, who came on earth to share all our hardships! ( Quiver. ) Then the King of Syria warred against Israel. 2 Kings 6:8-23 Elisha at Dothan Monday Club Sermons. Seeing the invisible! Here is the young business man. He spends his days in a close and musty counting-room, casting up interminable figures, or behind a distasteful counter, selling goods. But he sees something more than the ledger and the counting-house and the dry goods. He sees a beautiful home, and a warm fireside, and a happy family, and an easy competence for old age. It is this glimpse of the invisible that makes him toil on, early and late, uncomplainingly and patiently. Just so is it with the inventor. There was Palissy, the potter, who laboured sixteen years to perfect his invention. But he saw something more before him than the clay and the potter's wheel. He had in his mind's eye all the time the beautiful va

Benson Commentary 2 Kings 6:1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. 2 Kings 6:1-2 . The sons of the prophet said to Elisha — Probably those that were at Gilgal, for that is the place last mentioned where the prophet was, (chap. 2 Kings 4:38 ,) and was also near to Jordan. Let us go — unto Jordan — To the woods near Jordan; and take thence every man a beam — A piece of timber for the building. Hence it may be gathered, that although the sons of the prophets principally devoted themselves to religious exercises, yet they sometimes employed themselves about manual arts. 2 Kings 6:2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. 2 Kings 6:3 And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. 2 Kings 6:4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. 2 Kings 6:5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. 2 Kings 6:5 . The axe-head fell — The iron fell from the wood. Alas, master, for it was borrowed! — He was the more concerned, both because he was now compelled to be idle and useless to them in the common work, and because it was his friend’s loss, who was now likely to suffer for his kindness in lending him the axe; for though justice obliged him to restore it, his poverty rendered him unable. 2 Kings 6:6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. 2 Kings 6:6 . He cut down a stick, and cast it in thither — This was undoubtedly done with no other design than to raise the attention of the beholders, and make it more evident that the iron was made to swim by the divine power alone; for the casting in of the stick could contribute no more to it than his casting salt into the springs at Jericho to the healing of the waters, the mantle of Elijah to the division of Jordan, or the clay, put by Jesus Christ upon the eyes of the blind man, to the recovery of his sight. These inadequate means were employed on these occasions only to set forth more fully the reality and greatness of the miracles. 2 Kings 6:7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it. 2 Kings 6:8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 2 Kings 6:8 . The king of Syria warred against Israel — This probably happened many years after Naaman was cured, and when he was either dead, or had lost his place through his refusing to worship Rimmon: for it is not to be supposed that he would lead an army against the Israelites. In such and such a place — Hebrew, In the place of such a man. Shall be my camp — Or, my encamping: Houbigant, I will lie in wait. Thither I will send my forces to surprise some place; or to lie in ambush where the king or his people were to pass. 2 Kings 6:9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 2 Kings 6:10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 2 Kings 6:10 . The king of Israel sent to the place — Either spies, to know whether the information which the prophet had given him was true, or soldiers, to secure the place and passage designed. By this means he frequently saved himself or his people from falling into the hands of the Syrians, who lay in wait for them in places to which they would certainly have gone, if they had not been told of the danger. 2 Kings 6:11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? 2 Kings 6:11-12 . Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? — Betrays my counsels to him: for he could not suppose that he should meet with such constant disappointments, unless it were by treachery. One of the servants said, &c. — It is likely Naaman had spread the fame of the prophet so much in this court, that some of them made further inquiry after him, and heard more of his miraculous works; and thence concluded that he could tell the greatest secrets, as well as do such wonders as were reported of him. 2 Kings 6:12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. 2 Kings 6:13 And he said, Go and spy where he is , that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 2 Kings 6:13 . Spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him — Foolish man! Did he believe that Elisha had informed the king of Israel of his secret counsels, or not? If he did not, what quarrel had he with him? If he did, could he be so weak as to imagine that the prophet would not discover the designs laid against him? and that, having interest enough in heaven to discover them, he would not have interest enough to defeat them? Those that fight against God, his people, and prophets, know not what they do. It was told him, Behold, he is in Dothan — A city in the tribe of Manasseh, not far from Shechem and Samaria: hither therefore the king of Syria sent a great host, who were to come upon him by night, and bring him alive or dead. 2 Kings 6:14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. 2 Kings 6:15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 2 Kings 6:15 . The servant said, Alas! my master — Perhaps the Syrians had assured the inhabitants they intended no harm to them, but only came to take Elisha; which the young man hearing, was put into great fear: for, having probably not been long with the prophet, (being only taken into his service since Gehazi’s dismission,) and having not yet seen any of his wonderful works, he gave himself and his master up for lost men. How shall we do ? — It is to no purpose to think either of fighting or flying, but we must unavoidably fall into their hands. 2 Kings 6:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 2 Kings 6:16 . He answered, Fear not — He was concerned to remove the fears of his servant, and impart to him the same satisfaction and peace of mind he possessed himself in this time of extraordinary danger; for good men desire not only to be easy themselves, but to make those about them easy. And all those whose faith is strong, ought tenderly to consider and compassionate those who are weak, and of a timorous spirit, and do what they can to strengthen their hands. For they that be with us — To protect us, Are more than they that be against us — To destroy us: the angels are unspeakably more numerous, and God infinitely more powerful. 2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17 . Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes — The eyes of his body were open, and with them he saw the danger; Lord, said the prophet, open the eyes of his faith, and the eyes of his mind, that with them he may see the protection we are under, may see the invisible guard of heavenly beings which encompass and defend us. Angels, whether they be purely spiritual, or clothed with some material vehicle, it is allowed, cannot be seen by mortal eyes: and, therefore, as the prophet himself would not have seen them, unless God by a miracle had rendered them visible to his eyes, so he requests of God that, for the causes above mentioned, he would vouchsafe to his servant the same privilege. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire — Fire is both dreadful and devouring: that power, which was engaged for Elisha, could both terrify and consume the assailants. Round about Elisha — The mountains, which were full of these fiery chariots and horses, were round about the city, and therefore round about Elisha, who was within it: or he saw, as if he, Elisha, was in the midst of a glorious camp of angels, who defended him so that nothing could penetrate and break through unto him. “The opening of our eyes,” says Henry, “will be the silencing of our fears. In the dark we are most apt to be frightened. The clearer sight we have of the sovereignty and power of heaven, the less we shall fear the calamities of this earth.” 2 Kings 6:18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. 2 Kings 6:18 . And when they came down to him — Either in the city, into which they easily got admission, when they declared that the only end of their coming was to take Elisha; or rather, in the field, without the city, whither he went to meet them. Elisha prayed, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness — Not of the eyes, or, at least, not with total blindness, for in that case they could not have seen to have followed him; but rather with blindness of the mind, or imagination, which was rendered stupid and confused, or with that dimness and confusion in their sight, which prevented their distinguishing one object from another; the city of Dothan, for instance, from the city of Samaria. We have a similar case Genesis 19:11 . Thus it happens to several men in their liquor, that though their eyes are open, and they can perceive the several objects which surround them, yet they cannot discern wherein they differ. And if we may suppose that the Syrian army was under the same ??????? , as the Greeks happily term such a degree of blindness or want of distinct vision, we need no more wonder that they readily accepted a guide who offered his service, than that a drunkard, after having lost his way, and found himself bewildered, should be thankful to any hand which should undertake to conduct him safe home — Houbigant and Dodd. 2 Kings 6:19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. 2 Kings 6:19 . Elisha said, This is not the way, &c. — Elisha does not speak this in answer to an inquiry made by the Syrians respecting the way to Dothan; if he had, his words would have contained a falsehood, from which they are clear, because he does not say, This is not the way to Dothan — This is not the city of Dothan: but he uses a feint or stratagem, (which has always been allowed in war,) and that against enemies who sought his life, from whom he was delivered only by a miracle, and whom, nevertheless, he afterward treated very humanely and kindly. Indeed, his expressions are ambiguous; but in that ambiguity he intended their benefit; and the very wonderful manner in which, unknown to themselves, he brought them into Samaria, and the generosity with which he treated them there, were sufficient to have given them high ideas of the God of Israel, whose prophet he was, and thereby to have brought them to the worship of the true God, which might have proved an infinite and everlasting blessing to them. I will bring you to the man whom you seek — And so he did, though not in such a manner as they expected and desired. 2 Kings 6:20 And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men , that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 2 Kings 6:20 . The Lord opened their eyes, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria — To their great astonishment and terror, no doubt, there being a standing force there sufficient to cut them all off, or make them prisoners of war. Thus when God has opened the eyes of those whom Satan had blinded, and deluded to their ruin, they see themselves in the midst of their enemies, captives to Satan, and in danger of hell, although before they thought their condition good. And thus, when the enemies of God and his church, like this Syrian host encompassing Elijah and Dothan, fancy themselves ready to triumph, they will, to their amazement and confusion, find themselves conquered and triumphed over. 2 Kings 6:21 And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them ? shall I smite them ? 2 Kings 6:21-22 . Shall I smite them? shall I smite them? — This repetition of the question shows his eager desire to fall upon them and kill them. Perhaps he remembered how God was displeased at his father for dismissing out of his hands those whom he had put it into his power to destroy, and he would not offend in like manner: yet such reverence has he now for the prophet, that he will not lift a hand against them without his permission. He answered, Thou shall not smite them — It is against the laws of humanity to kill captives, though thou thyself hadst taken them with thy own sword and bow, which might seem to give thee some colour to destroy them; but much more unworthy will it be in cold blood to kill these, whom not thy arms, but God’s providence hath put into thy hands. Set bread before them — Give them meat and drink, which may refresh and strengthen them for their journey. This was an action of singular piety and charity, in doing good to their enemies, which was much to the honour of the true religion, and of no less prudence; that hereby the hearts of the Syrians might be mollified toward the Israelites. Elijah had given a specimen of divine justice, when he called for flames of fire on the heads of his persecutors to consume them: but Elisha here gave a specimen of divine mercy, in heaping coals of fire on the heads of his persecutors to melt them. 2 Kings 6:22 And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them : wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 2 Kings 6:23 And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. 2 Kings 6:23 . When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away — Refreshed, but disarmed, as is most probable. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel — For some considerable time, came no more as yet, as Dr. Waterland reads it; not until the memory and influence of these examples were gone out of their minds: or they came no more upon this errand, to take Elisha: they saw it was to no purpose to attempt that; nor would any of their bands be persuaded to make an assault on so great and good a man. The most glorious victory over an enemy is to turn him into a friend. 2 Kings 6:24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 2 Kings 6:24 . And it came to pass after this, &c. — How long after we are not informed; but probably some years, when they had forgotten the kindnesses they had received in Samaria, which for a time, it appears, had quite disarmed them of their hatred against Israel, and caused them to lay aside all thoughts of war. Now, however, they alter their minds, and break out again into hostilities. Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host — He whom Ahab wickedly spared, now comes to requite his kindness, and fulfil the divine prediction contained in 1 Kings 20:42 . They will not now, as before, make incursions and inroads into the country, in small bands and companies, which, as they had experienced, might easily be entrapped; but will wage an open and solemn war, and fall upon the Israelites at once, with all their forces united. Ben-hadad was a name very frequent among the kings of Syria, if not common to them all. And went up, and besieged Samaria — Plundering and laying waste the country, no doubt, as he went; and meeting with no opposition till he came to the capital city. 2 Kings 6:25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 2 Kings 6:25 . There was a great famine in Samaria — Probably the dearth, which had of late been in the land, was the cause of their stores being so empty; or the siege was so sudden, that they had no time to lay in provisions. An ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver — Supposed to be shekels, and the common shekel being valued at fifteen pence of English money, they amount to five pounds: a vast price, especially for that which had on it so little meat, and was unwholesome, and unclean according to the law, Leviticus 11:26 . In times of famine, however, and extreme necessity, the Jews themselves were absolved from observing the law with regard to meats. There are not wanting instances, in history, where other people, upon the same occasion, have been reduced to the like distress, and been glad to purchase an ass’s head at an enormous price. See Plutarch’s Life of Artaxerxes. The fourth part of a cab — A measure which, according to the Jews, contained as much as the shells of twenty-four eggs. Of dove’s dung — Bochart has shown that there is among the Arabians a kind of vetches or pulse called by this name, which is undoubtedly here meant, for we can scarcely suppose that they used the excrements of doves for food. These vetches were a very coarse food, and yet much in use among the poorer Israelites, and therefore fit to be joined here with the ass’s heads: and a cab was the usual measure of all kinds of grain, and fruits of that sort. In confirmation of the above it may be observed, some travellers tell us, that at Grand Cairo and Damascus there are magazines where they constantly fry this kind of grain, which those who go on pilgrimage buy, and take with them, as part of the provision for their journey. The Arabs, it appears, to this day call this kind of pulse or vetches by the name of dove’s dung. — See Bochart Hieroz., p. 2, 50:1, c. 7. 2 Kings 6:26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 2 Kings 6:26-27 . The king of Israel was passing on the wall — To give necessary directions for the defence of the city against assault; to see if the several guards were watchful and diligent, and if his orders were executed, and to observe the motions of the enemy. There cried a woman unto him, Help, my lord, O king — For whither should the subject, in distress, go for help, but to the prince, who is by office the protector of right, and the avenger of wrong? He said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? — Dost thou ask of me corn or wine, which I want for myself? If God do not help thee, I cannot. Or his words may be considered as the language of passion or desperation, and rendered, The Lord will not, and I cannot help thee. 2 Kings 6:27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 2 Kings 6:28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 2 Kings 6:28-29 . The king said, What aileth thee? — Is there any thing singular in thy case? Dost thou fare worse than thy neighbours? Truly, yes: she and one of her neighbours had made a barbarous agreement, that, all provisions failing, they should boil and eat her son first, and then her neighbour’s: hers was eaten, (who can think on it without horror?) and now her neighbour hid hers. This shocking story is a terrible effect of the divine vengeance, which Moses, about six hundred years before, had warned the Israelites would fall upon them in case of their apostacy from, and rebellion against, God; as the reader may see in the passages referred to in the margin. The same dreadful calamity befell them at two other times besides this; at the siege of Jerusalem, under Nebuchadnezzar, Lamentations 2:20 ; Ezekiel 5:10 ; and that under Titus. See Joseph., Jewish War, lib. 7, c. 10. 2 Kings 6:29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. 2 Kings 6:30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 2 Kings 6:30 . When the king heard the words of the woman, he rent his clothes — Partly through grief for such a horrid fact, and partly through indignation at the prophet. And the people looked — Who were in great numbers upon the wall, chiefly for the defence of the city. And behold, he had sackcloth upon his flesh — Under his inner garments, in token of his sorrow for the miseries of his people, and lamenting that it was not in his power to help them. 2 Kings 6:31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. 2 Kings 6:31 . If the head of Elisha shall stand on him this day — If I do not this day take his head and his life. This wretched and partial prince overlooks his own great and various sins, and, among the rest, his obstinate adherence to the worship of the calves, and his conniving at the idolatries and witchcrafts of his mother Jezebel, ( 2 Kings 9:22 ,) and the wickedness of the people, which were the true and proper causes of this and all their calamities; and he lays the blame of all upon Elisha, either supposing that he who had the spirit of Elijah resting upon him had brought this famine on the land by his prayers, as Elijah had formerly done, or because he had encouraged them to withstand the Syrians by promising them help from God. 2 Kings 6:32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? 2 Kings 6:32 . Elisha sat in his house — In the house where he lodged; for it is probable he had no house of his own, having forsaken all to follow Elijah. And the elders sat with him — Either the sons of the prophets, or rather some good and godly men, such as are frequently termed elders in the prophecy of Ezekiel, who bore some office either in the court, army, or city, as seems probable from the prophet’s desiring their help and protection. For though Jehoram was a wicked man, and most of his officers, probably, as wicked as himself; yet, as Poole justly observes, we cannot doubt but there were some among them whom his holy life, powerful ministry, and glorious miracles, with the great benefits procured by him for the public, had won to God and the true religion; at least to the profession of it, among whom Jehu might be one; and these were here sitting with him, either to receive counsel and comfort from him in this distressing time, or to solicit him to use his power with God for their relief; which he accordingly did, and pronounced the joyful news which follows in the beginning of the next chapter. The king sent a man before him — One of his guard, or some other officer, to take away his head, as it follows. But ere the messenger came, he said, &c. — Being admonished by God of his danger. See how this son of a murderer — The genuine son of that wicked Ahab, the murderer of the Lord’s prophets. This expression may seem very harsh and unfit, nor is it to be drawn into imitation by others: but it must be considered that he was an extraordinary prophet, intrusted with a power in some sort superior to that of Jehoram, and had authority to control and rebuke him in the name of the King of kings. Shut the door, and hold him — That he may not break in upon me, and take away my life, before the king comes. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him? — You shall not need to hold him long, for the king is just at his heels. It is probable he was coming, either to recall his rash order, or, at least, to debate the matter with the prophet, and obtain relief. 2 Kings 6:33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer? 2 Kings 6:33 . While he yet talked with them, the messenger came — Namely, to the door, where we are to understand he was stopped that he could not come at the prophet till the king came. And he said, Behold, this evil, &c. — Either the messenger said this in the king’s name and words, or rather the king himself, who, though not here named, may be presumed to be present, both by the prophet’s prediction of his speedy coming, and by the presence of the lord, on whose hand the king leaned, 2 Kings 7:2 . This evil — This dreadful famine, which is now so extreme, that women are forced to eat their own children; is of the Lord — He hath inflicted it, and, for aught I see, he will not remove it. All penal evil is of the Lord as the first cause and sovereign judge: and this we ought to apply to particular cases: if all evil, then this evil which we are groaning under. Whoever are the instruments, God is the principal agent. What should I wait for the Lord any longer? — Thou biddest me wait upon God for help; but I perceive I may wait long enough before deliverance comes: I am weary with waiting, I can wait no longer. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Kings 6:1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS 2 Kings 6:1-23 "Now there was found in the city a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city." - Ecclesiastes 9:15 ELISHA, unlike his master Elijah, was, during a great part of his long career, intimately mixed up with the political and military fortunes of his country. The king of Israel who occurs in the following narratives is left nameless-always the sign of later and more vague tradition; but he has usually been identified with Jehoram ben-Ahab, and, though not without some misgivings, we shall assume that the identification is correct. His dealings with Elisha never seem to have been very cordial, though on one occasion he calls him "my father." The relations between them at times became strained and even stormy. His reign was rendered miserable by the incessant infestation of Syrian marauders. In these difficulties he was greatly helped by Elisha. The prophet repeatedly frustrated the designs of the Syrian king by revealing to Jeroboam the places of Benhadad’s ambuscades, so that Jeroboam could change the destination of his hunting parties or other movements, and escape the plots laid to seize his person. Benhadad, finding himself thus frustrated, and suspecting that it was due to treachery, called his servants together in grief and indignation, and asked who was the traitor among them. His officers assured him that they were all faithful, but that the secrets whispered in his bed-chamber were revealed to Jehoram by Elisha the prophet in Israel, whose fame had spread into Syria, perhaps because of the cure of Naaman. The king, unable to take any step while his counsels were thus published to his enemies, thought-not very consistently-that he could surprise and seize Elisha himself, and sent to find out where he was. At that time he was living in Dothan, about twelve miles northeast of Samaria, and Benhadad sent a contingent with horses and chariots by night to surround the city, and prevent any escape from its gates. That he could thus besiege a town so near the capital shows the helplessness to which Israel had been now reduced. When Elisha’s servitor rose in the morning he was terrified to see the Syrians encamped round the city, and cried to Elisha, "Alas! my master, what shall we do?" "Fear not," said the prophet: "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." He prayed God to grant the youth the same open eyes, the same spiritual vision which he himself enjoyed; and the youth saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. This incident has been full of comfort to millions, as a beautiful illustration of the truth that- "The hosts of God encamp around The dwellings of the just; Deliverance He affords to all Who on His promise trust." "Oh, make but trial of His love, Experience will decide, How blest are they, and only they, Who in His truth confide." The youth’s affectionate alarm had not been shared by his master. He knew that to every true servant of God the promise will be fulfilled, "He shall defend thee under His wings; thou shalt be safe under His feathers; His righteousness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler." {Psa 91:4} Were our eyes similarly opened, we too should see the reality of the Divine protection and providence, whether under the visible form of angelic ministrants or not. Scripture in general, and the Psalms in particular, are full of the serenity inspired by this conviction. The story of Elisha is a picture-commentary on the Psalmist’s words: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round them that fear Him, and delivereth them." {Psa 34:7} "He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." {Psa 91:11} "And I will encamp about Mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with Mine eyes." {Zec 9:8} "The angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." {Isa 63:9} But what is the exact meaning of all these lovely promises? They do not mean that God’s children and saints will always be shielded from anguish or defeat, from the triumph of their enemies, or even from apparently hopeless and final failure, or miserable death. The lesson is not that their persons shall be inviolable, or that the enemies who advance against them to eat up their flesh shall always stumble and fall. The experiences of tens of thousands of troubled lives and martyred ends instantly prove the futility of any such reading of these assurances. The saints of God, the prophets of God, have died in exile and in prison, have been tortured on the rack and broken on the wheel, and burnt to ashes at innumerable stakes; they have been destitute, afflicted, tormented, in their lives-stoned, beheaded, sawn asunder, in every form of hideous death; they have rotted in miry dungeons, have starved on desolate shores, have sighed out their souls into the agonizing flame. The Cross of Christ stands as the emblem and the explanation of their lives, which fools count to be madness, and their end without honor. On earth they have, far more often than not, been crushed by the hatred and been delivered over to the will of their enemies. Where, then, have been those horses and chariots of fire? They have been there no less than around Elisha at Dothan. The eyes spiritually opened have seen them, even when the sword flashed, or the flames wrapped them in indescribable torment. The sense of God’s protection has least deserted His saints when to the world’s eyes they seemed to have been most utterly abandoned. There has been a joy in prisons and at stakes, it has been said, far exceeding the joy of harvest. "Pray for me," said a poor boy of fifteen, who was being burned at Smithfield in the fierce days of Mary Tudor. "I would as soon pray for a dog as for a heretic like thee," answered one of the spectators. "Then, Son of God, shine Thou upon me!" cried the boy-martyr; and instantly, upon a dull and cloudy day, the sun shone out, and bathed his young face in glory; whereat, says the martyrologist, men greatly marveled. But is there one deathbed of a saint on which that glory has not shone? The presence of those horses and chariots of fire, unseen by the carnal eye-the promises which, if they be taken literally, all experience seems to frustrate-mean two things, which they who are the heirs of such promises, and who would without them be of all men most miserable, have clearly understood. They mean, first, that as long as a child of God is on the path of duty, and until that duty has been fulfilled, he is inviolable and invulnerable. He shall tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shall he trample under his feet. He shall take up the serpent in his hands; and if he drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt him. He shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flieth by day; of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the demon that destroyeth in the noonday. A thousand shall fall at his right hand, and ten thousand beside him; but it shall not come nigh him. The histories and the legends of numberless marvelous deliverances all confirm the truth that, when a man fears the Lord, He will keep him in all his ways, and give His angels charge over him, lest at any time he dash his foot against a stone. God will not permit any mortal force, or any combination of forces, to hinder the accomplishment of the task entrusted to His servant. It is the sense of this truth which, under circumstances however menacing, should enable us to "bate no jot of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer uphillward." It is this conviction which has nerved men to face insuperable difficulties, and achieve impossible and unhoped-for ends. It works in the spirit of the cry, "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel be thou changed into a plain!" It inspires the faith as a grain of mustard seed which is able to say to this mountain, "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,"-and it shall obey. It stands unmoved upon the pinnacle of the Temple whereon it has been placed, while the enemy and the tempter, smitten by amazement, falls. In the hour of difficulty it can cry, - "Rescue me, O Lord, in this mine evil hour, As of old so many by Thy mighty power, Enoch and Elias from the common doom; Noe from the waters in a saving home; Abraham from the abounding guilt of heathenesse; Job from all his multiform and fell distress" "Isaac when his father’s knife was raised to slay; Lot from burning Sodom on the judgment day; Moses from the land of bondage and despair; Daniel from the hungry lions in their lair; And the children three amid the furnace flame; Chaste Susanna from the slander and the shame; David from Golia, and the wrath of Saul; And the two Apostles from their prison-thrall." The strangeness, the unexpectedness, the apparently inadequate source of the deliverance, have deepened the trust that it has not been due to accident. Once, when Felix of Nola was flying from his enemies, he took refuge in a cave, and he had scarcely entered it before a spider began to spin its web over the fissure. The pursuer, passing by, saw the spider’s web, and did not look into the cave; and the saint, as he came out into safety, remarked: " Ubi Deus est, ibi aranea taurus, ubi non est ibi taurus aranea " ("Where God is, a spider’s web is as a wall; where He is not, a wall is but as a spider’s web"). This is one lesson conveyed in the words of Christ when the Pharisees told Him that Herod desired to kill Him. He knew that Herod could not kill Him till He had done His Father’s will and finished His work. "Go ye," He said "and tell this fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following." But had all this been otherwise-had Felix been seized by his pursuers and perished, as has been the common lot of God’s prophets and heroes-he would not therefore have felt himself mocked by these exceeding great and precious promises. The chariots and horses of fire are still mere ant are there to work a deliverance yet greater and more eternal. Their office is not to deliver the perishing body, but to carry into God’s glory the immortal soul. This is indicated in the death-scene of Elijah. This was the vision of the dying Stephen. This was what Christian legend meant when it embellished with beautiful incidents such scenes as the death of Polycarp. This was what led Bunyan to write, when he describes the death of Christian, that "all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side." When poor Captain Allan Gardiner lay starving to death in that Antarctic isle with his wretched companions, he yet painted on the entrance of the cave which had sheltered them, and near to which his remains were found, a hand pointing downward at the words, "Though He slay me, yet will I put my trust in Him." There was a touch of almost joyful humor in the way in which Elisha proceeded to use, in the present emergency, the power of Divine deliverance. He seems to have gone out of the town and down the hill to the Syrian captains, and prayed God to send them illusion ( ajbleya ), so that they might be misled. Then he boldly said to them, "You are being deceived: you have come the wrong way, and to the wrong city. I will take you to the man whom ye seek." The incident reminds us of the story of Athanasius, who, when he was being pursued on the Nile, took the opportunity of a bend of the river boldly to turn back his boat towards Alexandria. "Do you know where Athanasius is?" shouted the pursuers. "He is not far off!" answered the disguised Archbishop; and the emissaries of Constantius went on in the opposite direction from that in which he made his escape. Elisha led the Syrians in their delusion straight into the city of Samaria, where they suddenly found themselves at the mercy of the king and his troops. Delighted at so great a chance of vengeance, Jehoram eagerly exclaimed, "My father, shall I smite, shall I smite?" Certainly the request cannot be regarded as unnatural, when we remember that in the Book of Deuteronomy, which did not come to light till after this period, we read the rule that, when the Israelites had taken a besieged city, "thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword," {Deu 20:13} and that when Israel defeated the Midianites; {Num 31:7} they slew all the males, and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host because they had not also slain all the women. He then (as we are told) ordered them to slay all except the virgins, and also-horrible to relate-"every male among the little ones." The spirit of Elisha on this occasion was larger and more merciful. It almost rose to the spirit of Him who said, "It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies; forgive them that hate you; do good unto them that despitefully use you and persecute you." He asked Jehoram reproachfully whether he would even have smitten those whom he had taken captive with sword and bow. He not only bade the king to spare them, but to set food before them, and send them home. Jehoram did so at great expense, and the narrative ends by telling us that the example of such merciful generosity produced so favorable an impression that "the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel." It is difficult, however, to see where this statement can be chronologically fitted in. The very next chapter-so loosely is the compilation put together, so completely is the sequence of events here neglected-begins with telling us that Benhadad with all his host went up and besieged Samaria. Any peace or respite gained by Elisha’s compassionate magnanimity must, in any case, have been exceedingly short-lived. Josephus tries to get over the difficulty by drawing a sufficiently futile distinction between marauding bands and a direct invasion, and he says that King Benhadad gave up his forays through fear of Elisha. But, in the first place, the encompassing of Dothan had been carried out by "a great host with horses and chariots," which is hardly consistent with the notion of a foray, though it creates new difficulties as to the numbers whom Elisha led to Samaria; secondly, the substitution of a direct invasion for predatory incursions would have been no gain to Israel, but a more deadly peril; and, thirdly, if it was fear of Elisha which stopped the king’s raids, it is strange that it had no effect in preventing his invasions. We have, however, no data for any final solution of these problems, and it is useless to meet them with a network of idle conjectures. Such difficulties naturally occur in narratives so vague and unchronological as those presented to us in the documents from the story of Elisha which the compiler wove into his history of Israel and Judah. 2 Kings 6:24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE 2 Kings 6:24-33 ; 2 Kings 7:1-20 "‘Tis truly no flood plan when princes play The vulture among carrion; but when They play the carrion among vultures-that Is ten times worse." -LESSING, " Nathan the Wise , " Act I, Sc. 3 IF the Benhadad, King of Syria, who reduced Samaria to the horrible straits recorded in this chapter, {2Ki 6:1-33} was the same Benhadad whom Ahab had treated with such impolitic confidence, his hatred against Israel must indeed have burned hotly. Besides the affair at Dothan, he had already been twice routed with enormous slaughter, and against those disasters he could only set the death of Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead. It is obvious from the preceding narrative that he could advance at any time at his will and pleasure into the heart of his enemy’s country, and shut him up in his capital almost without resistance. The siege-trains of ancient days were very inefficient, and any strong fortress could hold out for years, if only it was well provisioned. Such was not the case with Samaria, and it was reduced to a condition of sore famine. Food so loathsome as an ass’s head, which at other times the poorest would have spurned, was now sold for eighty shekels’ weight of silver (about £8); and the fourth part of a xestes or kab - which was itself the smallest dry-measure, the sixth part of a seah - of the coarse, common pulse or roasted chick-peas, vulgarly known as "dove’s dung," fetched five shekels (about 12S. 6d.). While things were at this awful pass, "the King of Israel," as he is vaguely called throughout this story, went his rounds upon the wall to visit the sentries and encourage the soldiers in their defense. As he passed, a woman cried, "Help, my lord, O king!" In Eastern monarchies the king is a judge of the humblest; a suppliant, however mean, may cry to him. Jehoram thought that this was but one of the appeals which sprang from the clamorous mendacity of famine with which he had grown so painfully familiar. "The Lord curse you!" he exclaimed impatiently. "How can I help you? Every barn-floor is bare, every wine-press drained." And he passed on. But the woman continued her wild clamor, and turning round at her importunity, he asked, "What aileth thee?" He heard in reply a narrative as appalling as ever smote the ear of a king in a besieged city. Among the curses denounced upon apostate Israel in the Pentateuch, we read, "Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat"; {Lev 26:29} or, as it is expressed more fully in the Book of Deuteronomy, "He, shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave; so that he shall not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege. The tender and delicate woman, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her children: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and the straitness, if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of the law that thou mayest fear the glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God." {Deu 28:52-58} We find almost the same words in the prophet Jeremiah; {Jer 19:9} and in Lamentations we read: "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat: in the destruction of the daughter of My people." Isaiah asks, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion: on the son of her womb?" Alas! it has always been so in those awful scenes of famine, whether after shipwreck or in beleaguered cities, when man becomes degraded to an animal, with all an animal’s primitive instincts, and when the wild beast appears under the thin veneer of civilization. So it was at the siege of Jerusalem, and at the siege of Magdeburg, and at the wreck of the Medusa, and on many another occasion when the pangs of hunger have corroded away every vestige of the tender affections and of the moral sense. And this had occurred at Samaria: her women had become cannibals and devoured their own little ones. "This woman," screamed the suppliant, pointing her lean finger at a wretch like herself-"this woman said unto me, ‘Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will afterwards eat my son.’ I yielded to her suggestion. We killed my little son, and ate his flesh when we had sodden it. Next day I said to her, ‘Now give thy son, that we may eat him’; and she hath hid her son!" How could the king answer such a horrible appeal? Injustice had been done; but was he to order and to sanction by way of redress fresh cannibalism, and the murder by its mother of another babe? In that foul obliteration of every natural instinct, what could he do, what could any man do? Can there be equity among raging wild beasts, when they roar for their prey and are unfed? All that the miserable king could do was to rend his clothes in horror and to pass on; and as his starving subjects passed by him on the wall they saw that he wore sackcloth beneath his purple, in sign, if not of repentance, yet of anguish, if not of prayer, yet of uttermost humiliation. {Isa 20:2-3} But if indeed he had, in his misery, donned that sackcloth in order that at least the semblance of self-mortification might move Jehovah to pity, as it had done in the case of his father Ahab, the external sign of his humility had done nothing to change his heart. The gruesome appeal to which he had just been forced to listen only kindled him to a burst of fury. The man who had warned, who had prophesied, who so far during this siege had not raised his finger to help-the man who was believed to be able to wield the powers of heaven, and had wrought no deliverance for his people, but suffered them to sink unaided into these depths of abjectness - should he be permitted to live? If Jehovah would not help, of what use was Elisha? "God do so to me, and more also," exclaimed Jehoram-using his mother’s oath to Elijah ( 1 Kings 19:2 )-"if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day." Was this the king who had come to Elisha with such humble entreaty, when three armies were perishing of thirst before the eyes of Moab? Was this the king who had called Elisha "my father," when the prophet had led the deluded host of Syrians into Samaria, and bidden Jehoram to set large provision before them? It was the same king, but now transported with fury and reduced to despair. His threat against God’s prophet was in reality a defiance of God, as when our unhappy Plantagenet, Henry II, maddened by the loss of Le Mans, exclaimed that, since God had robbed him of the town he loved, he would pay God out by robbing Him of that which He most loved in him-his soul. Jehoram’s threat was meant in grim earnest, and he sent an executioner to carry it out. Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of the city, who had come to him for counsel at this hour of supreme need. He knew what was intended for him, and it had also been revealed to him that the king would follow his messenger to cancel his sanguinary threat. "See ye," he said to the elders, "how this son of a murderer" for again he indicates his contempt and indignation for the son of Ahab and Jezebel-"hath sent to behead me! When he comes, shut the door, and hold it fast against him. His master is following hard at his heels." The messenger came, and was refused admittance. The king followed him, and entering the room where the prophet and elders sat, he gave up his wicked design of slaying Elisha with the sword, but he overwhelmed him with reproaches, and in despair renounced all further trust in Jehovah. Elisha, as the king’s words imply, must have refused all permission to capitulate: he must have held out from the first a promise that God would send deliverance. But no deliverance had come. The people were starving. Women were devouring their babes. Nothing worse could happen if they flung open their gates to the Syrian host. "Behold," the king said, "this evil is Jehovah’s doing. You have deceived us. Jehovah does not intend to deliver us. Why should I wait for Him any longer?" Perhaps the king meant to imply that his mother’s Baal was better worth serving, and would never have left his votaries to sink into these straits. And now man’s extremity had come, and it was God’s opportunity. Elisha at last was permitted to announce that the worst was over, that the next day plenty should smile on the besieged city. "Thus saith the Lord," he exclaimed to the exhausted and despondent king, "Tomorrow about this time, instead of an ass’s head being sold for eighty shekels, and a thimbleful of pulse for five shekels, a peck of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." The king was leaning on the hand of his chief officer, and to this soldier the promise seemed not only incredible, but silly: for at the best he could only suppose that the Syrian host would raise the siege; and though to hope for that looked an absurdity, yet even that would not in the least fulfill the immense prediction. He answered, therefore, in utter scorn: "Yes! Jehovah is making windows in heaven! But even thus could this be?" It is much as if he should have answered some solemn pledge with a derisive proverb such as, "Yes! if the sky should fall, we should catch larks!" Such contemptuous repudiation of a Divine promise was a blasphemy; and answering scorn with scorn, and riddle with riddling, Elisha answers the mockery, "Yes! and you shall see this, but shall not enjoy it." The word of the Lord was the word of a true prophet, and the miracle was wrought. Not only was the siege raised, but the wholly unforeseen spoil of the entire Syrian camp, with all its accumulated rapine, brought about the predicted plenty. There were four lepers outside the gate of Samaria, like the leprous mendicants who gather there to this day. They were cut off from all human society, except their own. Leprosy was treated as contagious, and if "houses of the unfortunate" ( Biut-el-Masakin ) were provided for them, as seems to have been the case at Jerusalem, they were built outside the city. {Lev 13:46; Num 5:2-3} They could only live by beggary, and this was an aggravation of their miserable condition. And how could any one fling food to these beggars over the walls, when food of any kind was barely to be had within them? So taking counsel of their despair, they decided that they would desert to the Syrians: among them they would at least find food, if their lives were spared; and if not, death would be a happy release from their present misery. So in the evening twilight, when they could not be seen or shot at from the city wall as deserters, they stole down to the Syrian camp. When they reached its outermost circle, to their amazement all was silence. They crept into one of the tents in fear and astonishment. There were food and drink there, and they satisfied the cravings of their hunger. It was also stored with booty from the plundered cities and villages of Israel. To this they helped themselves, and took it away and hid it. Having spoiled this tent, they entered a second. It was likewise deserted, and they carried a fresh store of treasures to their hiding-place. And then they began to feel uneasy at not divulging to their starving fellow-citizens the strange and golden tidings of a deserted camp. The night was wearing on; day would reveal the secret. If they carried the good news, they would doubtless earn a rich guerdon . If they waited till morning, they might be put to death for their selfish reticence and theft. It was safest to return to the city, and rouse the warder, and send a message to the palace. So the lepers hurried back through the night, and shouted to the sentinel at the gate, "We went to the Syrian camp, and it was deserted! Not a man was there, not a sound was to be heard. The horses were tethered there, and the asses, and the tents were left just as they were." The sentinel called the other watchman to hear the wonderful news, and instantly ran with it to the palace. The slumbering house was roused; and though it was still night, the king himself arose. But he could not shake off his despondency, and made no reference to Elisha’s prediction. News sometimes sounds too good to be true. "It is only a decoy," he said. "They can only have left their camp to lure us into an ambuscade, that they may return, and slaughter us, and capture our city." "Send to see," answered one of his courtiers. "Send five horsemen to test the truth, and to look out. If they perish, their late is but the fate of us all." So two chariots with horses were dispatched, with instructions not only to visit the camp, but track the movements of the host. They went, and found that it was as the lepers had said. The camp was deserted, and lay there as an immense booty; and for some reason the Syrians had fled towards the Jordan to make good their escape to Damascus by the eastern bank. The whole road was strewn with the traces of their headlong flight; it was full of scattered garments and vessels. Probably, too, the messengers came across some disabled fugitive, and learnt the secret of this amazing stampede. It was the result of one of those sudden unaccountable panics to which the huge, unwieldy, heterogeneous. Eastern armies, which have no organized system of sentries, and no trained discipline, are constantly liable. We have already met with several instances in the history of Israel. Such was the panic which seized the Midianites when Gideon’s three hundred blew their trumpets; and the panic of the Syrians before Ahab’s pages of the provinces; and of the combined armies in the Valley of Salt; and of the Moabites at Wady-el-Ahsy; and afterwards of the Assyrians before the walls of Jerusalem. Fear is physically contagious, and, when once it has set in, it swells with such unaccountable violence, that the Greeks called these terrors "panic," because they believed them to be directly inspired by the god Pan. Well-disciplined as was the army of the Ten Thousand Greeks in their famous retreat, they nearly fell victims to a sudden panic, had not Clearchus, with prompt resource, published by the herald the proclamation of a reward for the arrest of the man who had let the ass loose. Such an unaccountable terror-caused by a noise as of chariots and of horses which reverberated among the hills-had seized the Syrian host. They thought that Jehoram had secretly hired an army of the princes of the Khetas and of the Egyptians to march suddenly upon them. In wild confusion, not stopping to reason or to inquire, they took to flight, increasing their panic by the noise and rush of their own precipitance. No sooner had the messengers delivered their glad tidings, than the people of Samaria began to pour tumultuously out of the gates, to fling themselves on the food and on the spoil. It was like the rush of the dirty, starving, emaciated wretches which horrified the keepers of the reserved stores at Smolensk in Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, and forced them to shut the gates, and fling food and grain to the struggling soldiers out of the windows of the granaries. To secure order and prevent disaster, the king appointed his attendant lord to keep the gate. But the torrent of people flung him down, and they trampled on his body in their eagerness for relief. He died after having seen that the promise of Elisha was fulfilled, and that the cheapness and abundance had been granted, the prophecy of which he thought only fit for his skeptical derision. "The sudden panic which delivered the city," says Dean Stanley, "is the one marked" intervention on behalf of the northern capital. No other incident could be found in the sacred annals so appropriately to express, in the Church of Gouda, the pious gratitude of the citizens of Leyden, for their deliverance from the Spanish army, as the miraculous raising of the siege of Samaria. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.