A Touching incident follows in the little domestic scene, of which the prophet is the chief actor. It seems to illustrate the deep interest taken by God in all that concerns His people. Nothing is too trivial if it troubles us. “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matters to us very important are as nothing with Him; while sometimes an important principle affecting His glory is involved in things which appear to us insignificant. In fact, there is nothing great or small before Him, who “knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.”
The borrowed ax must be returned to its owner, while the manner of its recovery brings before our minds the truth that Christ in His humanity has come down into our very circumstances in grace, that He might sympathize with us, and also that He might by power lift us above them.
A great difference manifests itself here between Elijah and Elisha. The former maintained at all times an almost forbidding attitude. There were none in Israel with whom he could associate. “I, even I, only am left.” The latter was ever a gracious man, though no less holy, but he was one to rally the faithful in Israel, had there been such. Grace in him was seen in its power to attract and to charm the hearts of Israel, foreshadowed perhaps early in his history by his request for a minstrel. But the nation was like a deaf adder which refused to be charmed; only a little remnant gathered around him.
An important change is now to be noticed in his ministry. Hitherto in a comparatively secluded sphere, now we see him controlling the destinies of armies in connection with Israel and Syria. “Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?” (2 Kings 6:8-12). It was of little use for the Syrians to plot and plan if the light of God was thrown upon their schemes, and their secrets became known to the enemy. God's goodness to His people Israel is thus shown in a remarkable way. Unsought, He continues to defeat the plans of the enemy without any special intervention in power.
Quite different was Jehovah's way with Judah in Jehoshaphat's reign about this time. “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in Jehovah your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto Jehovah, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise Jehovah, for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, Jehovah set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir utterly to slay and destroy them, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped” (2 Chron. 20:20-2).
The people still held to their profession, and whenever their relationship to Jehovah was pleaded God would make good all that was involved in that relationship, although even here we may notice a change in the manner of the divine interference as contrasted with the times of David or Solomon. The personal faith and piety of the king, and the institutions which God Himself had appointed were there. Here, however, there was nothing in the nation that God could own, yet His mercy still lingered over the guilty people. Although they had forfeited all claim upon God, Jehovah disappointed the plans of the enemy and delivered His people for His own name sake.
For the time Elisha was the real link between God and His people. He had the secret of Jehovah; and we see what power and peace this brings to the soul, and how it makes us superior to circumstances because it is God with whom we have to do.
The times of Elisha corresponded in a remarkable way with the present day of grace in this respect, that the nation participated in the blessings associated with grace which then flowed in a certain channel without any interference with the course of judgment, except indeed there was a respite. God would not allow the enemy to triumph over His servant. The presence of the latter saved Israel, for we cannot doubt that God wrought in a remarkable way for Elisha's safety. Men could not do as they liked with him. When Jonah ran away from God and took his passage in a ship bound for Tarshish a terrible storm was sent on purpose to wreck the ship or to compel the surrender of Jonah. And if God used such exceptional means in the case of a disobedient prophet, how much more would He take a real interest in the preservation of one not disobedient, but exposed to peculiar danger. “And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that he with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, O Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (vers. 15-17). But there was, in fact, nothing unusual in this; it was not wonderful to Elisha, though quite a revelation to his servant, affording a striking illustration of the truth that “The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear Him.”
The springs of human action are in the unseen world; whilst man is weak and shortsighted. He should, therefore, be consciously dependent. If he is not, he is nevertheless influenced by the prince of this world or restrained by divine power and made to do the will of God blindly. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him.” We greatly need to have a sense of the power of God, and that it is on our behalf; so that we may reason with the apostle, “If God be for us who can he against us?” We can see what is ordinarily around us, but the illumination of the Spirit of God is needed to give us an apprehension of things spiritual.” The apostle's prayer was that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:17-20).
The wisdom of God characterized Elisha, yet he could not impart the same to those about him, but he prayed, and God answered him as one familiar with His way and having a heart trained in subjection to His will. The promise of the Lord to every believer now was surely made good to him.
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Although we have many illustrations of prayer and its uses in the Old Testament scriptures it does not there represent the ordinary resource of the people of God. It seems rather to have been special and exceptional. In ordinary circumstances there might not appear the call for it. The power which undertook for Israel's blessing provided for every contingency sufficiently and liberally, and left nothing to chance. But for its smooth and regular working, obedience was required, and here, alas, Israel broke down. The necessity for prayer is seen when something is wrong in the relations between God and His people. It was practically so in Elijah's day. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (James 5:16-18). Nor can we have the least difficulty in perceiving the object God's servant had in view. The people were to be exercised in conscience about their recently introduced Baal worship; hence Elijah's deep disappointment with the result (see 1 Kings 19:1-4). God threw out a challenge to Israel (therefore the showers were withholden), and they could not reply, yet they continued in rebellion until Lo-Ammi and Lo-Ruhamah were written upon the nation.
God was constantly in love and faithfulness dealing with them for restoration, creating circumstances of such difficulty that in their misery they might look to Him and He would save them. Elisha lived always in the consciousness of what that power was upon which Israel might count, and of what was its general way of working. Prayer should be with us constant and systematic, for the course of this world is evil and presents constant difficulties in the way of the Christian. It is not alone our personal need that should lead us to God, but the circumstances of the testimony, the need of such as cannot pray for themselves— “Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” There is a real danger of becoming intensely selfish in prayer, from which an earnest desire for the glory of God and the blessing of souls would deliver us. If “the peace of God which passeth all understanding” were garrisoning our hearts and minds, would it not at times give us to be silent, restful, and trusting in the presence of God rather than to be ever putting God to the proof (so to speak) as to His ability and willingness to answer prayer? There is nothing that so searches the heart and judges the motives as prayer. With too many of us it presents a ready and easy way of getting relief from difficulties. We know that “all things work together for good” to us, but it is our real, spiritual good, and it might to the natural eye be anything but good. The question, “What use am I going to make of the answer?” is an important one, for we read of one (Hezekiah) who “rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him.” The king of Israel would have greatly dishonored God and seriously compromised Elisha had he been allowed. “And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them; wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel” (vers. 21-23). But God was over-ruling in this case as in many others, and proving that He was working, not by kings and their armies, but by the self-restrained, well-disciplined servant who had the mind of God.
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)