Bible Commentaries

A Full House

2 Kings 10:21

Here is a record of a full house. So full it was that, in the original, it is described as a vessel filled to the brim. But what was its moral significance?

I. A Full Congregation but no True Worship.—If you read the tragical story, you will find that you do it no injustice when you say that two principal motives had filled the house that fateful day: first, the desire to curry favour with the ruling powers, and secondly, the constraint of fashion.

II. Quantity but no Noble Quality.

1. Great lack of conviction characterized this full house. They were not there (most of them at least) because of real loyalty to Baal. It is depth and splendour of conviction which gives quality to an assembly for worship.

2. Very unintelligent was this houseful. They had not thought the claims of Baal out. Their presence in the house of Baal did not represent a process of deliberation. They were the fevered devotees of a popular crusade.

3. Fickle with contemptible fickleness was this Baalite constituency. At quite an alien shrine would they bow presently, did custom or authority look that way. Mere numbers are of little worth. Two or three with Jesus in the midst transcend with incalculable transcendency a house "full from one end to another" of those whose hearts will not bear the piercing scrutiny of heaven.

III. The Popularity of Error—The house of Baal was undeniably popular in Samaria. But it was the "house of Baal," and that is sufficient condemnation of the popularity. There is a popularity which is true, and there is a false popularity.

Error is always assured of a large popularity. False doctrine often draws a crowd, though that crowd does not long cohere.

IV. A Crowd Drawn by Unworthy Means.—When a house of God is crowded by unworthy means it is a dishonour to God and to man alike.

V. A Crowd Composed of Evildoers.—Often is a crowd assembled in an evil place. And too often an evil crowd may be in a holy place.

VI. A Concourse Unconscious of Approaching Doom.—The fearful lot of the misguided worshippers who filled Baal's house is but a faint representation of that which awaits the evildoers who reject a dying Saviour's love.

VII. Truth Transcendent over Numbers.—God's truth must and will ultimately conquer. Baal may gather the crowd, but this shall not be so for ever. Numbers may seem an insuperable menace to Gospel truth; but that truth shall prevail, for the mighty Spirit of God is behind it, yea and in it.

—Dinsdale T. Young, The Travels of the Heart, p133.

References.—X:31.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No685. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. iii. p294. H. Goodwin, Parish Sermons, iii48. Reading, Sermons, ii443. Simeon, Works iii523. Wordsworth, Occasional Sermons, iv161. XI:1-16.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture —2Kings from chap. viii, etc, p13. XI:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No972. XII:4-15.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—2Kings from chap. viii. p19. XIII.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No2303. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—2Kings from chap. viii. p24.