This Chapter opens with relating a circumstance of sin in the conduct of Ahaziah. Elijah is commissioned to send an awful message to him. The king, in consequence, commands the prophet to appear before him. His messengers are destroyed. Ahaziah dieth, and Jehoram succeeds him in the kingdom. 2 King... [ Continue Reading ]
Reader! to what a wretched state was Israel reduced, in consequence of their idolatry! It is almost incredible to conceive how the mind of any man could ever be so degenerate as to fancy a dumb idol could speak. The name of this dunghill god is remarkable. The devil himself is called Beel-zebub. And... [ Continue Reading ]
It is somewhat remarkable that the prophet Elijah, and John the Baptist, should have been as much alike in dress as they were in their commission. Our dear Lord pointed to John as the Elias of the gospel. If ye will receive it, (said Christ) this is Elias which was for to come. Matthew 11:14. Observ... [ Continue Reading ]
This is a most interesting passage. Observe the rage and folly of the king, in sending to seize upon the prophet. Did he hope to alter the sentence by destroying the prophet? Could he indeed conceive so desperate a thing, as to think that the Lord's servants would be unprotected in the Lord's cause?... [ Continue Reading ]
Had not this wretched captain with his fifty, heard what had taken place? If the king was hardened and bound with the blindness of iniquity! was it needful that he should follow him to his ruin? This man exceeded in presumption, if possible, the former. For he had not only the awful example of his r... [ Continue Reading ]
How lovely doth this third captain appear, in thus intreating for mercy! He comes to Elijah because it was the king's command! But he comes to sue for favor. Reader! when the sinner, humbled under a sense of sin, and conscious of his undeservings, comes to the Lord God of the prophet's son, Elijah's... [ Continue Reading ]
We are not told who this angel was. But may we not conjecture? When we recollect how much our Almighty Jesus, who is expressly called the angel of the covenant, delighted to manifest himself, in those early ages of his church, as if thereby, he meant to teach the faithful, that he longed for the ful... [ Continue Reading ]
Oh! how faithful is the prophet, when the Lord God of the prophets strengthens him! And, oh! how timid is the sinner, when the hand of God is upon him! Behold, Reader! the sure end of the ungodly: he shall not, be cannot stand in the judgment; nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The wa... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS BEHOLD, my soul, awfully behold, in the sad example of Ahaziah and his captains of fifty, with their fifties, how sin hardens the heart, and renders men ripe for punishment! See in them thine own picture by nature; and, but for grace, how justly the features would be marked still. To wh... [ Continue Reading ]