The record of the mercy shown to the Syrian raiders closes with the statement, " So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel." Nevertheless, the hostility of the Syrians to God's people remained. Thus we read, " It came to pass, after this, that Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria "—the very city where such signal mercy had been displayed.
The siege makes manifest the depths of evil to which the nation had sunk, and further displays the height to which the grace of God can rise through this, the last public service of Elisha.
Jehoram, the apostate king, was already beholden to Elisha for having saved his life, and rescued his army from destruction. Apparently this great mercy had affected no change either in the king or nation. Now, in the government of God the enemy is allowed to besiege Samaria, leading to " a great famine " in the city. In the fearful straits to which the inhabitants are reduced, the solemn prophecy uttered more than five hundred years before, is fulfilled. Moses had warned the people of God, that if they departed from God, the time would come when, besieged by their enemies, they would be reduced to such straits, that tender, delicate women would secretly eat their young children (Lev. 26:21-2921And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. (Leviticus 26:21‑29); Deut. 28:49-5749The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; 50A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young: 51And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. 52And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. 53And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: 54So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: 55So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. 56The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, 57And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. (Deuteronomy 28:49‑57)). This abomination had at last come to pass.
This terrible act instead of turning the king to God, becomes the occasion of revealing the enmity of his heart. Hearing of this horror the king rent his clothes in agony, disclosing that " he had sackcloth within upon his flesh." Thus, combined with his evil ways, there was a profession of religion. Alas! men in their distress may, like Jehoram, turn to some religious device, but they do not turn to God. Thus, the king, in spite of the sackcloth on his flesh, vents his rage against God upon the person of the man of God. He says, " God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day." In the presence of this fresh trouble all past mercies are forgotten, and the desperate king threatens the life of the man of God. He lays the blame on the head which alone was free from the sin. Thereupon he sends a messenger to Elisha's house, where the elders were assembled in the presence of the prophet.
Elisha, apparently forewarned by God, says, " This son of a murderer hath sent to take away my head." He tells them to shut the door upon the king's messenger, for the sound of his master's feet is behind him. Arrived at the door the king dares to say, " Behold this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?"
The awful condition of the nation and the wickedness of the king are thus thoroughly exposed. The people of Samaria are struggling to obtain an ass's -head, or a piece of dove's dung. Women are eating their children; the king is raging up and down on the wall; but Elisha is sitting quietly in his house waiting upon the Lord. Then comes the messenger followed by the king charging the Lord with all the evil. The king says as it were, " What is the good of Elisha sitting in his house doing nothing? He delivered me once before from destruction, why does he not act now? What is the good of his professing to wait upon the Lord? Nothing happens. I will give up all thought of the Lord, and I will take off the head of Elisha the prophet of the Lord."
This son of a murderer, who himself has just sworn that he will commit murder, charges the Lord with being the author of all the evil that has come upon the guilty city. Thus the guilt of the nation, in the person of their king, has risen to its height.
Does not this solemn scene foreshadow the yet greater solemnities of the Cross, where the evil of the world rose to its height in condemning the One who, alone of the whole human race, was free of all condemnation? If, however, in the siege of Samaria the sin of the nation is allowed to reveal itself in all its horror, it is that the grace of God may be displayed in all its fullness. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound, thus again foreshadowing that supreme display of grace which, rising above all man's sin at the Cross, takes occasion by that Cross, to proclaim forgiveness and blessing to all the world.
Thus it comes to pass—when the king has thoroughly exposed himself—Elisha, who hitherto had " sat in his house," keeps silence no longer. God's due time had come, for we read, " Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord." We have heard that what man says exposes the sin of his heart: we are now to hear what God says reveals the grace of His heart. So we read, " Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria."
In this message of grace there is not a word said about the abominations that had taken place in the city—not a word about the daring wickedness of the king. There is only the unconditional announcement of blessing, in pure sovereign grace, to the very city in which sin had risen to its height; for all this blessing would be seen "in the gate of Samaria."
So again we are reminded of that far greater announcement of grace that sends a message of repentance and forgiveness, to be preached in the name of Christ among all nations; but that message is to begin " at Jerusalem." It is to all nations, for all are guilty, but it begins at the blackest spot in all the world. There is no word of the awful guilt of the city, no word of the daring and blasphemous enmity of the leaders, but, in sovereign unconditional grace, forgiveness is proclaimed in the Name of Jesus to the very city that nailed Him to the Cross.
" The very spear that pierced His side
Drew forth the blood to save."
Thus the ruin of the nation had been made manifest, and the grace of God announced. We are now to see how man treats God's grace. First, the nobleman, on whose arm the king leaned, treats the message with mocking unbelief, only to hear his doom. " Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof." Not many of the rich and great of this world are called.
Then there come before us, four leprous men -convicted sinners as we should say. They realize, what the nobleman did not, that it is either certain death, or the grace of God. The Syrian host is before them, and death surrounds them. They rise up and face death, to find that if their desperate need has driven them into the place of death, it has driven them into a place where the Lord has gained a mighty victory. They find the Lord had been before them; " The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host." The chariots and horses that had waited upon Elijah at his translation, that had surrounded Elisha for his preservation, are now dealing with the enemies of the Lord in righteous judgment. If grace is to be shown to guilty sinners, the enemy must first be met and vanquished in righteous judgment.
If, however, the enemy is to be vanquished, it must be the work of the Lord. No one was with the Lord when He annulled the power of the enemy. The city is in desperate need, and can do nothing. The Lord does all the work; and the city, in sovereign grace, partakes of the blessing. There was no man with the Lord of glory when He went to the Cross. Alone He anticipated the terror of Calvary; alone He met the enemy; alone He suffered on the Cross; alone He endured the forsaking; alone He bore the judgment. But guilty sinners, who believe, share in the spoils of His victory. And this we see in picture, for the lepers " did eat and drink " and find silver and gold and raiment.
Further, they spread the " good tidings." They say, " If we hold our peace... some mischief will come upon us." The selfishness of our nature would keep quiet, thus bringing mischief upon ourselves. It may be that we have so feebly tasted of the grace of God, and so little apprehended how greatly we have been enriched with silver and gold and raiment of divine providing, that we have little to say, and hence remain silent, with the result we are in danger of slipping back into the world, and some mischief coming upon us. It is well when, like the blind man of the Gospel, we confess the little we do know, so that we not only retain what we have, but increase our light and blessing.
These four men make a bold confession. They commence with the porter of the city—a very humble man. He tells the porters of the king's house, and they, in turn, tell the good news to the king's house within; and at last it reaches the king's ears. Thus the good news spread from the lowest to the highest in the land.
The king is a very different character from the lepers, and represents a different state of soul. He is not indifferent, for he arose in the night. Still less is he a rejector of the good news, like the nobleman; but he is not a simple believer like the four leprous men. He does not in bold unbelief refuse the good tidings, but he reasons about them. Faith is a matter of the conscience and the heart, not a matter of reasoning. The word runs, " If thou shalt believe in thine heart." Some like the lepers readily believe in the heart, others like the king are slow of heart to believe. Behind the slowness of heart is a reasoning mind and a lack of sense of need. The reasoning mind of the king says, " I will show you what the Syrians have done." However, as in the case of Naaman there were some wise servants who pleaded with him, so now there is a wise servant ready to meet the king's reasonings. He will put them to the test by sending out two witnesses. In result they trace the evidences of the enemy " unto Jordan." We can trace all our enemies to the Cross, there to see them no more. In the death of Christ every enemy was dealt with for the believer.
So the messengers return, and the slow-hearted king enters into the blessing as much as the wholehearted lepers, and starving people of the city. The only man who missed the blessing is the infidel scoffer—the lord on whose arm the king leaned. In the crush at the gate of the city he was trodden upon and died. It might appear as an unfortunate accident, but the government of God was behind it, and the word of the prophet was fulfilled, " Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof." Nor is it otherwise in our day for those who reject the grace of God. For such the word says, " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish."