Bible Commentaries

2 Kings 8:7-15

From this history some points of instruction may be derived.

I. You cannot predict, from a man's early natural disposition, what he will be capable of. Nothing will save a man but firm habits, steadfast principles, and the grace of God in confirmation of them.

II. Men are capable of a course at which their whole nature revolts. But it must be through a gradual reduction to a lower condition. Men in evil courses are like persons who go down winding stairs. The upper stairs hide the lower ones, so that they see only three or four steps before them. Men go down courses of pleasure, vice, and crime, seeing only one or two steps in a whole career. This is the reason and philosophy of keeping aloof from courses which lower the moral tone of the mind. It is the early steps which lead a man to wrong under such circumstances.

III. We are all of us either advancing from strength to strength to appear before God, or we are, consciously or unconsciously, drifting further and further from the early period of innocence, from the early honour, from the early faith. Let us take heed. Let us call God to our side and yield ourselves to His will. By prayer, by faith, and by reliance on the power of God, live so that, at whatever hour the Son of man may come, He shall find you ready and willing to depart and be with Christ, which is better than life.

H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 4th series, p. 413.

References: 2 Kings 8:7-15.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 287. 2 Kings 8:9.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 25. 2 Kings 8:13.—S. Greg, A Layman's Legacy, p. 142; J. Fordyce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 323. 2 Kings 8:16-29.—Parker, vol. viii., p. 196. 2 Kings 8:19.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 116. 2 Kings 8:28. 2 Kings 9:15.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 287.