Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1238
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 6th, 1875, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, it the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof”— 2 Kings 7:2.
THE PEOPLE OF SAMARIA had cast off their allegiance to Jehovah, and worshipped other gods, and therefore, according to his solemn threatening, the Lord visited them with sore judgments. They were so blockaded by Syrian armies, that food failed them altogether, and in their hunger they devoured human flesh, and the most abominable offal. They could not open the city gates, for they knew that the adversary, if he once entered, would sack and ransack the city, and put them all to the sword, and therefore they remained cooped up within the city walls to perish. In their dire extremity the Lord had mercy upon them and remembered that they were the children of Israel, the seed of Abraham, his friend, and therefore he would not utterly destroy them, but gave them space for repentance. He turned an eye of pity upon the famished thousands and promised them relief from the sore famine which had wasted them. How rich in mercy is the Lord our God! Sin must be multiplied exceedingly ere his long suffering ceases; he is unwilling to execute the sentence of his wrath. Judgment is his strange work. He is ever ready with his mercy, he waiteth to be gracious, yea, he is always beforehand with us in his grace, but he is very slow footed in punishment; he pauses by the way and deliberates, and before he deals a blow he often expostulates with himself and cries, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?” Verily he is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
Perhaps one reason why the Lord was pleased in Samaria’s extremity to visit it so graciously was the presence of Elisha there. There was at least one man in the city who had power with God in prayer, and perhaps a band of the sons of the prophets was with him, so that there were in the apostate city some few holy men, “faithful among the faithless found,” and these acted as a handful of salt and preserved the city. Solomon tells us in the Proverbs that one wise man preserved a city, and this was a case in which one godly man did so. The Lord had respect unto his servant, and, for the sake of the man of God, Samaria was saved. Well was Elisha styled the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, for he was a better defense than ten thousand cavalry. Ye cannot measure the beneficial influence of godly men, they are universal benefactors. We hear men speak of the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and the other stars which smile from above upon this earth below, but we too much forget the influence of the stars below upon the heavens above. Power proceeds upward as well as downward, even as the angels ascended as well as descended upon the ladder which Jacob saw. A good man’s prayers move the arm which moves the world.
The Lord met the need of Samaria by a most merciful promise, all the more full of grace because it bore upon its front the assurance of speedy fulfillment. The prophet was commissioned to declare, “Tomorrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel.” They had only four-and-twenty hours to wait; yet once more must the sun go down and rise, and then there should be no more pinching hunger or cruel famine throughout Samaria. The timing of the supply was most kind, he gives twice who gives quickly, and so the speedy promise was doubly precious. The plentifulness of the promise made it the more gracious, for so cheap would the wheat and barley become that they Should be sold at a figure far less than that which had been paid for doves’ dung, whatever that may have been, and less than the price of such unwholesome meat as might be gathered from an ass’s head, which had been sold for fourscore pieces of silver.
The best food, even fine flour, was to be openly vended at a low rate at their very doors. They would not need to send to Egypt or fetch corn from afar, but it was to be brought to their gates, and sold at a price which would enable all to purchase. It was very great goodness on the Lord’s part to meet the famine-stricken multitude with such a right royal word of cheer. But observe how God’s prophet is answered—not as one would have thought, with words of thanksgiving and tears of gratitude, but with the reverse. They did not fall down and on their knees exclaim, “O God, how good thou art!” They did not lift up a single word of praise, as surely they should have done: the only response was a supercilious sneering, contemptuous, unbelieving utterance—“If the Lord should make windows in heaven might such a thing be.” O base ingratitude! Ungenerous return for such great mercy!