Bible Commentaries

SUPPLY PROPORTIONED TO FAITH

‘And the oil stayed.’

2 Kings 4:6

What a sorrowful confession! There was no reason why it should stay. There was as much oil as ever, and the power which had made so much could have gone on without limit or exhaustion. The only reason for the ceasing of the oil was in the failure of the vessels. The widow and her sons had secured only a limited number of vessels, and therefore there was only a scanty supply of the precious oil.

I. This is why so many of God’s promises are unfulfilled in your experience.—In former days you kept claiming their fulfilment; frequently you brought God’s promises to Him and said, ‘Do as Thou hast said.’ Vessel after vessel of need was brought empty and taken away full. But of late years you have refrained, you have rested on your oars, you have ceased to bring your need. Hence the dwindling supply.

II. This is why your life is not so productive of blessing as it might be.—You do not bring vessels enough. You think that God has wrought as much through you as He can or will. You do not expect Him to fill the latter years of your life as He did the former.

III. This is why the blessing of a Mission stays in its course.—As long as the Missioner remains with us we can look for the continuance of blessing. But after a while we say ‘Let the services stop, they have run their course and fulfilled their end.’ And forthwith the blessing stops in mid-flow. Let us bring the empty vessels of our poor effort for God to fill them up to the full measure of their capacity.

Illustration

‘It is the lesson of this story—a homely and familiar lesson, but one which is for ever true and blessed—that the Lord will provide. The firm conviction that He will keep His word, and will take care that His labourers have whatever is essential to their maintenance and to the fulfilment of their righteous obligations: is it not much to be desired? I require the easy mind, the calm tranquillity, the restful and victorious spirit, if His tasks are to be well done and His battles well fought. He who wars for the Heavenly King must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, and must not hamper his movements by forebodings and misgivings and doubts. He must walk at liberty. He must rejoice always. He must believe and be sure that he “repairs to a full fountain,” and that his glorious Lord will supply all his need. “If you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven,” writes Matthew Henry, “you shall have food and raiment by way of overplus, as he that buys goods hath paper and packthread given him over and above into the bargain.”’

THE HEALTH OF THE SOUL

‘Is it well with thee?’

2 Kings 4:26

This is a common inquiry concerning the body. To ask about the health is the first question usually when friends meet: and truly of all God’s outward and providential mercies none is greater and more to be desired than health. For without it what avails the possession of other gifts or blessings?

I. As with the body, so with the soul.—The first inquiry and chief concern should be as to its health and well-being. From a Christian friend or a parish priest especially, as a spiritual physician, what greeting is more appropriate than this: ‘Is it well with thee?’

II. Outward appearances may be deceptive as to the state of the soul.—A certain man went up to the Temple to pray. Is it well with him? He went down to his house unjustified, his prayer unheard, and his person unaccepted! And that poor publican, the very picture of misery, standing afar off, smiting on his breast, with downcast eye and dispirited countenance? Is it well with him? Oh, yes! Angels in heaven are rejoicing over him, and the great God Who filleth heaven and earth with His infinite majesty is looking with favour and a blessing to that poor man of humble and contrite spirit.

Then, also, how little the outward appearance indicates spiritual health even in the same individual. King Manasseh reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem in prosperity and in forgetfulness of God, causing Judah and Jerusalem to err and do worse than the heathen; but when the King of Assyria took him and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon—‘when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him; and He was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.’ It was ‘well with him’ in his Babylonian dungeon, but not on the throne and in the Temple of Jerusalem.

A more striking example still: the dying thief on the cross. In the agony of a painful and shameful death, justly due on account of crime, and soon to pass from the sentence of earthly tribunal to the presence of the just and holy God. Of all men, is it well with him? Oh, yes! His soul is rejoicing in God his King and Saviour, Who has said, ‘This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.’

How little can one tell the state of the soul from external conditions! Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart. God has given us His Word in order that we may look therein as in a glass, showing the heart—the ailments and diseases of which are there faithfully reflected and seen.

III. Is it well with thee?—The question is one too wide in its bearings and too varied in its application to admit of pointing out more than a few of the lines of self-examination starting from it.

(a) Is it well with thee? This may be said to one whose soul is unregenerate, unconverted, in the same state in which it was born, with natural and intellectual life, but so far as spiritual things are concerned, ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’

(b) Or the question may be put to one wishing really to know, ‘What must I do to be saved?’

(c) Again, the question, ‘Is it well with thee?’ may be put to one who scarce knows whether the soul is dead or alive; a frequent and very miserable case.

The more of these things—the more sense of sin, the more faith in Christ, the more desire of holiness, the more delight in the Word and ordinances and people of God, the more activity and patience and heartiness in the service of Christ, so much the more is there evidence, not of spiritual life only, but of healthiness of soul.

Illustration

‘Elisha had a gentle heart. When he saw the woman coming he knew something was wrong. He did not wait until she came to him and had told him her trouble, but he sent his servant to meet her on the way. We should train ourselves to sympathise with others who are in trouble. We should cultivate thoughtfulness. Whenever we see any one in sorrow or trial, we should show our sympathy in some way. Some people seem never to think of the trouble others have, and thus they miss countless opportunities of doing good. The true heart, however, instinctively recognises pain, grief, or heart-hunger in others, and at once shows affection and kindness.’

THE POISONED POTTAGE

‘O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.’

2 Kings 4:40

The use of a miracle, like that of an eclipse, is twofold. It may be studied as a special phenomenon in itself; or it may be regarded as specially serving to illustrate the general mechanism of the heavens. There is a certain one-eyed way of thinking which regards a miracle as only a wonder. There is another way, just as one-eyed, which regards it as only a revelation. The true way, the ‘binocular view,’ includes both.

I. The miracle in itself.—It was remarkably well-timed. If ever ‘the times were out of joint,’ it was at that season in Israel. All the wealth and influence of the court had long been against the true faith, and in favour of ungodliness and superstition. Many prophets, in consequence, had been slain; and it seemed at one time to the most eminent of them all, that he was the only God-fearing man left in the land. ‘Where is the Lord God of Elijah?’ The fitting answer came in miracles such as this. Such is the economy of the miracles of Scripture; they come exactly at the time, of the character, and in the proportion required. Indeed, the old heathen dramatic rule, that a god should not be introduced unless at a crisis befitting his interposition, might have been taken from this practical rule of God’s Word.

But this miraculous illumination is not all. This miracle was not only a public benefit and encouragement to all true Israelites at that time, but it was also a private providential deliverance to one important company among them. It was not a mere display, therefore, of God’s power. On the contrary, it established faith by its manner of preserving life; and in seeking, as it did, to confirm grace, it employed the hand of Providence for that end. Further, this miracle was of a singularly discriminating description. It gave assistance to God’s special servants the Prophets: to God’s prophets, when the severe pressure of their daily necessities must have been a great temptation to them to give their sole and undivided attention to merely temporal matters. How peculiarly calculated, therefore, was this assistance to benefit all believing tremblers in Israel at that time! What is good for the minister is good for his flock; what encourages him in his work encourages multitudes beside him.

Lastly, it gave all this encouragement and comfort because it was a real miracle, a true sign. No ordinary man could have cured the poisoned pottage by a handful of mere meal. ‘The treasure’ was ‘in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of men.’

II. Let us regard the miracle—

As illustrative of God’s ways, whether in Providence or in grace.—(a) As by the handful of meal in this history, so by the ‘foolishness of preaching,’ by the doctrine of the cross, by ‘babes and sucklings,’ by the carnally weak and ignoble, by earthen vessels of various descriptions, God is pleased to work, as a rule. It is one of His most distinguishing prerogatives to effect great results by small means. Never let the humble believer despond, therefore, because of the apparent inadequacy of the means. It is a principle with God that His ‘strength should be made perfect in weakness.’ (b) The history also serves to illustrate the admirable timeliness of God’s help; and that not alone with regard to the general character of the times. It was not when the gourd was gathered, not when it was shred into the vessel, not till it was on the very point of being partaken of, that God interfered. The sense of peace, the apprehension of important truth, the greatly-needed temporal mercy, the much desired spiritual deliverance, often arrive when the very next step would be into absolute ruin or death. Exactly ‘sufficient for the day’ is both its evil and its good. (c) We also see, in a very remarkable manner, the completeness of God’s care. We see that He not only provides for our necessities; He corrects our mistakes. Even the poisoned gourd is made by Him to minister to man’s life. Even the follies, the mistakes, the wanderings, and, in a certain sense, the very falls of those who truly believe in His Son and love Him, are made to help them on their way. ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’ Not that this, however, applies altogether to the man who knowingly selects poison as his food. (d) Once more, we see illustrated here the great reflex benefits of the Gospel. Elisha came as a guest. He became the true host. They gave him their best, full of death. He gave them life in return. Nor does the principle fail of any one who really receives Christ in his heart. ‘I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me.’

—Rev. W. S. Lewis.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Death in the pot! It is often with spiritual food as it is with bodily food; it looks as if it were healthful and nourishing, i.e. the words are beautiful and attractive, and yet there is soul-poison in it, which is destructive, if we are not on our guard against receiving it.’

(2) ‘“They did eat, and left thereof.” That always is the rule where God provides.

To this hour He is the same profuse, richly generous Lord Whom Elisha knew. When all His people have had their portion of His mercy, when they have received from Him the bread of life which perishes not in the using, when they have been satisfied with the goodness of His house, there remains much left over. Faber is right: in Him and in His Christ there is “grace enough for thousands of new worlds as great as this.”

In another way there is an overflowing fulness of love in Him. His patience with me is “ever faithful, ever sure.” His kindness towards me does not grow weaker, though my follies and frailties become more apparent to Him. I cannot escape from His compassion. It besets me behind and before. In my gloom it leads me back to the light. In my disobedience it wins me again to loyalty. Always, when I fear that I have exhausted His supply, I discover afresh that I “eat and leave thereof.”’