Bible Commentaries

1 Kings 22:49 :—"Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not." Jehoshaphat was right when he acted upon his instinct. By-and-by he came to act upon a basis of calculation, and then a compact was entered into. But who dare set aside the voice of instinct—the very first voice that rises in the soul to make judgment and to give direction? Jehoshaphat, on hearing the proposal of the son of Ahab, said: No; I have known thy father too well: I am too familiarly acquainted with thy family history: thou shalt not send thy servants with mine. It would be well for us if we could sometimes act more promptly upon our instincts. When we begin to reason and reckon and calculate, and especially when a little element of selfishness enters into all the consideration, we begin, though acting in the high name of reason, oftentimes to be foolish and to depart from the living and noble way. Is there not a spirit in man? Is there not a voice that instantly responds to circumstances and appeals? How is it that we cannot associate with some men? They darken the day; they make everything crooked which they touch; when they are not frivolous they are censorious; when they are not boisterous they are vulgar; they have no noble ideas, no holy passions, no sublime enthusiasms; their speech makes us little, impairs our own fortitude and whole quality. We shrink from them; we would not take a whole day's journey with them upon any consideration: they would spoil the summer: they would make noise when we wanted peace. They always take a low view of every case; they suspect every 2 Kings 1:2). All that we sometimes want of God is that he should be the great fortune-teller. If he will tell us how this transaction will turn out, how this speculation will fructify, how this illness will terminate, how this revolution will eventuate,—that is all we want with him; a question-answering God, a fortune-telling God; a God that will specially take care of us and nurse us into strength that we may spend that strength in reviling against his throne. We must cross-examine our religion. We must put the knife right into it. We must not take it on trust and say languidly that all will issue rightly, if we will but enjoy ourselves according to our capacity and opportunity. We must search our faith, and try our own prayers before sending them to heaven, that we may not affront the great God by uttering pointless words and speeches that have everything in them but heart and meaning. How true it is that Ahaziah represents us all in making his religion into a mere form of question-asking; in other words, into a form of selfishness! Nothing can be so selfish as religion. Debased and misunderstood or corrupted religion is the most inveterate and pestilent selfishness imaginable. It is almost impossible for some natures to escape the taint of this selfishness. Even their desire for heaven is a desire for self-indulgence, for languid, dreamless, continual rest or peace. The idea of service, discipline, sacrifice, self-expenditure never enters into their conception of religion: hence their religion is irreligion—a lie—a blasphemy!

The messengers have now come. They have taken their speech from their king, and they are on the road to consult Baal-zebub the god of Ekron. But who is this who meets them, and who says, "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?" The men had said nothing about their errand: who is it that reads the heart night and day, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, and from the fire of whose eye nothing is hid? How do we get the impression that when we have perfected our lie it is in some sense public property? We are sure the man we meet knows it. He looks as if he did. Who has told him? We have not mentioned a word about it, we have covered it up with all possible care, and yet the very first man we meet on the road looks at us as if he were looking through us and reading the whole lie in its black letters and in its deadly purport. Surely there is an angel of the Lord abroad in human life, reading what we are about, and so entering into other men as to make them look as if they knew our plan, and were all the while either smiling at our destined misfortune or frowning upon our palpable wickedness.

Elijah is an abrupt speaker. The "hairy man" and "girt with a girdle of leather," did not study the scanning of his sentences. He struck with a battering-ram; his interrogations were spears that quivered in the heart; his looks were judgments. What an effect he produced upon these men; why did they not go past him and say, Keep thy speeches to thyself, thou hairy 2 Kings 1:10). Look at the conflict and its parties:—on the one hand, petulance; on the other, dignity: on the one side, anger—fretful, fuming, petty anger; on the other, judgment—calm, sublime, comprehensive, final: on the one side, threats, little menaces, assurances of coming punishment; on the other, "fire." Nor is this a mere picture; it is a symbol, a type, an algebraic sign pointing to infinite circles, an index-finger showing the road that leads to death.

Look at the event from a Christian point of view. It is no longer a precedent. All this kind of action ceases in the Old Testament. The disciples were in some degree Old Testament men, and they said: Master, shall we call down fire from heaven to burn these people who have insulted and dishonoured thee? Elijah would have called down fire: may not we? Jesus answered them: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of:" you do not understand the kingdom of God; you are taking the ages backward; you are not living along the line of spiritual evolution. Elijah called down fire rightly in his day, but his day is gone. In the Christian dispensation this method is replaced by a new spirit,—the spirit of love, the spirit of truth, the teaching spirit—it is consummated in a new method. What is the attitude towards the Ahaziahs and other rebels of today? It is one of persuasion, entreaty, proclamation, preaching—preaching the old "foolish" doctrine of the cross. That is all; a fire would be a readier method. If the preacher could punctuate his appeals with lightning-bolts he might make some progress,—within the moment, but not really. This is the method of Christ—a striving, persuading, entreating, teaching method,—very feeble-looking sometimes, and altogether fruitless in many instances, but it is his method. Is fire then done away with? Is there no more fire in the hand of God and in the judgment of heaven? The answer 2 Kings 1:3).—Ekron was one of the royal cities of the Philistines. Its situation is pointed out with considerable minuteness in Scripture. It is described as lying on the northern border of Philistia ( Joshua 13:3), and of the territory allotted to Judah (xv11). It stood on the plain between Bethshemesh and Jabneel (Id.). Jerome locates it on the east of the road leading from Azotus (Ashdod) to Jamnia (Jabneel, Orornast, s.v. Accaron). From these notices we have no difficulty in identifying it with the modern village of Akȋr. Akȋr stands on the southern slope of a low bleak ridge or swell which separates the plain of Philistia from Sharon. It contains about fifty mud houses, and has not a vestige of antiquity except two large and deep wells, and some stone water-troughs. Wady Surar, which lies below it, and the great plain beyond, are rich and fertile; yet the higher ground around the village and northward has a barren aspect, and may perhaps have suggested the name Ekron, "wasteness"). The houses are built on the accumulated rubbish of past ages; and like their predecessors, if left desolate for a few years, they would crumble to dust. Ekron was within the territory of Judah; but was one of the cities allotted to Dan ( Joshua 19:43). The most interesting event in its history was the sending of the ark to Bethshemesh. A new cart was made, and two milch kine yoked to it, and then left to choose their own path; "and they took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh;" the position of which can be seen in a gorge of the distant mountains eastward ( Amos 1:8; Zephaniah 2:4). It appears, however, never to have been completely deserted. It was a large village in the days of Jerome; and also in the age of the crusades.

Prayer

Almighty God, how near thou art in thy heaven, yet how far; near unto those whose trust is in thee and whose life is hid with Christ in God, who are branches of the true vine; and far from those who do not know God nor love him nor care for his word and his law. Teach us that our life is in thy hand and not in our own, that there is an appointed time to man upon the earth, that the very hairs of our head are all numbered, that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without thee—teach us, therefore, that thou art round about us always, understanding our thoughts, looking into our motives, considering our desires, listening to our sighings and prayers. Thus may we live and move and have our being in God; may God always be the nearest to us, always at hand and not afar off. Help us to consult thee in every movement of our life, to stand still and see the salvation of God, to look up unto the hills whence cometh our help, lo take nothing into our own hands, to wait the disclosure of thy counsel and the indication of thy power, and to walk humbly but steadfastly and with persistence and loyalty in the way thou dost mark for our feet.

Thou hast led us wondrously; behold, if we look back, our yesterdays are full of the fire of heaven. Thou hast led us by a way that was right, thou hast defended us from danger, seen and unseen, thou hast opened doors for us of which we had no key, thou hast sent an angel to throw back the gate and deliver from the prison. Glory and honour and praise and power be unto thy name, thou mighty Deliverer and Saviour of our souls. Now we are in thy house, and it is the gate of heaven: quiet us, fill us with thy peace, make us calm with thy restfulness, shed upon us the Spirit that is holy and eternal, and make the fire of the Lord abound in our hearts, and the wisdom that cometh down from heaven enlighten our understanding. May we feel that thy word is light and life and peace and comfort, the very beginning of heaven, the life of God in the soul, the first throb of our immortality.

May thy word come to us today from ancient time, as new as if but just spoken. May we know that thy word abideth for ever, that its accents and purposes and commandments and injunctions are not measurable by time—that it is the ever-spoken word, the ever commanding "Be" and fiat of Jehovah, our present and almighty sovereign. And thus may we come to it as the oldest book and the newest, old as thine own eternity, new as our present need. Thus may thy word be unto us meat and drink, manna in the wilderness, and water out of the rock, a great joy, a perpetual light and satisfaction. If so be we are tempted to think we have read all thy word, show us our mistake; may the wonder of its 2 Kings 8:16-29

16. And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.

17. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

18. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

19. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light 2 Chronicles 21:1-11)] of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

24. And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David [but not in the royal tombs (comp. 2 Chronicles 22:1-6)]: and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

25. In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

26. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah [called Jehoahaz ( 2 Chronicles 21:17)] when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

27. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the tight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the 2 Kings 10:11, 2 Kings 10:13)] of the wounds 2 Chronicles 21:11-19).

This is the end! Who would choose it? Elijah in his extreme age sent a written prophecy to Jehoram. Terrible are the charges which prophets of God drive home upon the heart of wicked men! Jehovah not only smote with a great smiting the people and the sons of Jehoram, but he sent upon the king himself a most awful disease. We read that Jehoram died of sore diseases, and the "people made no burning for him," that is, the usual honours of a sovereign were withheld in this particular case. He died in contempt and neglect. He departed without being desired; in other words, he departed without regret, or died unregretted. He was indeed not refused burial in the city of David, but his body was not laid in the sepulchres of the kings. Thus, sooner or later, wickedness finds out a man, and brands him with dishonour. If under other conditions wickedness is carried to the grave amid great pomp and circumstance, it is only that the dishonour may be found in some other quarter, in the hatred of good men, and in the bitter recriminations of those who have been wronged. Set it down as a sure doctrine, that wherever a bad man is buried, dishonour attaches to his whole name, and contempt withers every flower that may be planted upon his grave. The words "but not in the sepulchres of the kings" may receive a larger interpretation than the technical one which belongs to this immediate circumstance. Men are buried in the sepulchres of the kings when their lives are full of beneficence, when their names are the symbols of noble charity, large-minded justice, heroic fortitude, tender sympathy for others; their burying-place is not a merely topographical point; their relation to the hearts that knew them, their place in the memory of those who lived with them, the tears which are shed over the recollection of their good deeds, the void which has been created by their removal, all these constitute the royalty of their interment. Let us so live that there will be no "but" in the designation of our last resting-place; be that resting-place where it may, in the sea, in the wilderness, in the choice garden, in a cemetery emulous in beauty with paradise itself, it shall indeed be the sepulchre of the kings. We need be under no concern respecting our burial: our one solicitude should relate to the method of our life. Let us follow the true worship, fear God and keep his commandments, practise the pure religion and undefiled commended by Jesus Christ; let us cling to the cross of the Saviour, and look to his omnipotent priesthood for our salvation, and leave all questions of burial, without troubling ourselves concerning them. God will know where our bodies repose, and send his angels to watch those who sleep in Jesus.