The Expositor's Bible Part 6

Mercenariness and falsity, displayed under the pretence of religion, were never more overwhelmingly rebuked. Yet, as the Rabbis said, it would have been better if Elisha, in repelling with the left hand, had also drawn with the right.[101]

The fine story of Elisha and Naaman, and the fall and punishment of Gehazi, is followed by one of the anecdotes of the prophet's life which appears to our unsophisticated, perhaps to our imperfectly enlightened judgment, to rise but little above the ecclesiastical portents related in mediaeval hagiologies.

At some unnamed place--perhaps Jericho--the house of the Sons of the Prophets had become too small for their numbers and requirements, and they asked Elisha's leave to go down to the Jordan and cut beams to make a new residence. Elisha gave them leave, and at their request consented to go with them. While they were hewing, the axe-head of one of them fell into the water, and he cried out, "Alas! master, it was borrowed!"

Elisha ascertained where it had fallen. He then cut down a stick,[102]

and cast it on the spot, and the iron swam and the man recovered it.

The story is perhaps an imaginative reproduction of some unwonted incident. At any rate, we have no sufficient evidence to prove that it may not be so. It is wholly unlike the economy invariably shown in the Scripture narratives which tell us of the exercise of supernatural power. All the eternal laws of nature are here superseded at a word, as though it were an every-day matter, without even any recorded invocation of Jehovah, to restore an axe-head, which could obviously have been recovered or resupplied in some much less stupendous way than by making iron swim on the surface of a swift-flowing river. It is easy to invent conventional and _a priori_ apologies to show that religion demands the unquestioning acceptance of this prodigy, and that a man must be shockingly wicked who does not feel certain that it happened exactly in the literal sense; but whether the doubt or the defence be morally worthier, is a thing which G.o.d alone can judge.[103]

FOOTNOTES:

[83] It is curiously omitted by Josephus, though he mentions him (?a???) as the slayer of Ahab (_Antt._, VIII. xv. 5). The name is an old Hebrew name (Num. xxvi. 40).

[84] The word _l'boosh_ means a gala dress. Comp. v. 5; Gen. xlv. 22.

??t??e? ?p????? (Hom., _Od._, xiv. 514). Comp. viii. 249.

[85] Elisha would not be likely to _touch_ the place.

[86] Now the _Burada_ ("cold") and the Nahr-el-Awaj.

[87] Compare the answer of Abraham to the King of Sodom (Gen. xiv. 23).

[88] The feeling which influenced Naaman is the same which led the Jews to build Nahardea in Persia of stones from Jerusalem. Altars were to be of earth (Exod. xx. 24), but no altar is mentioned in 2 Kings v.

17, and the LXX. does not even specify _earth_ (???? ?e???? ??????).

[89] This is the only place in Scripture where Rimmon is mentioned, though we have the name Tab-Rimmon ("Rimmon is good"), 1 Kings xv. 18, and Hadad-Rimmon (Zech. xii. 11). He was the G.o.d of the thunder. The word means "pomegranate," and some have fancied that this was one of his symbols. But the resemblance may be accidental, and the name was properly _Ramman_.

[90] See Deut. x.x.xii. 8, where the LXX. has ?at? ?????? ???????.

[91] The moral difficulty must have been early felt, for the Alexandrian LXX. reads ?a? p??s????s? ?a a?t? ??? ????? t? Te? ??.

But he would still be bowing in the House of Rimmon, though he might in his heart worship G.o.d. "Elisha, like Elijah" (says Dean Stanley), "made no effort to set right what had gone so wrong. Their mission was to make the best of what they found; not to bring back a rule of religion which had pa.s.sed away, but to dwell on the Moral Law which could be fulfilled everywhere, not on the Ceremonial Law which circ.u.mstances seemed to have put out of their reach: 'not sending the Shunammite to Jerusalem' (says Cardinal Newman), 'not eager for a proselyte in Naaman, yet making the heathen fear the Name of G.o.d, and proving to them that there was a prophet in Israel'" (Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 377; Newman, _Sermons_, viii. 415).

[92] Prov. iv. 14, 15.

[93] Prov. xvii. 14.

[94] On Gehazi's lips it meant no more than the incessant _Wallah_, "by G.o.d," of Mohammedans.

[95] 2 Kings v. 19. Heb., _kib'rath aretz_, "a little way"--literally, "a s.p.a.ce of country." (The Vatican LXX. follows another reading, e??

?e?a?? t?? ???; Vulg., _electo terrae tempore_[?].)

[96] LXX., ?atep?d?se?.

[97] A talent of silver was worth about 400--an enormous sum for two half-naked youths.

[98] 2 Kings v. 24. The LXX. (e?? t? s??te????) seems to have read ????? (_ophel_); "darkness," a treasury or secret place, for ??????, and so the Vulgate _jam vesperi_.

[99] 2 Kings v. 26. The verse is so interpreted by some critics, especially Ewald, followed by Stanley. Margin, R.V.: "Mine heart went not from me, when" etc.

[100] Exod. iv. 6; Num. xii. 10.

[101] The later Rabbis thought that Elisha was too severe with Gehazi, and was punished with sickness because "he repelled him with both his hands" (_Bava-Metsia_, f. 87, 1, and _Yalkut Jeremiah_).

[102] The Hebrew word for "cut off" (_qatsab_) is very rare. LXX., ?p????se ?????; Vulg., _praecidit lignum_.

[103] It must be further borne in mind that "the iron did swim" (A.V.) is less accurate than "made the iron to swim" (R.V.). The LXX. has ?pep??ase, "brought to the surface." Von Gerlach says, "He thrust the stick into the water, and raised the iron to the surface."

CHAPTER VII

_ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS_

2 KINGS vi. 1-23

"Now there was found in the city a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city."--ECCLES. ix. 15.

Elisha, unlike his master Elijah, was, during a great part of his long career, intimately mixed up with the political and military fortunes of his country. The king of Israel who occurs in the following narratives is left nameless--always the sign of later and more vague tradition; but he has usually been identified with Jehoram ben-Ahab, and, though not without some misgivings, we shall a.s.sume that the identification is correct. His dealings with Elisha never seem to have been very cordial, though on one occasion he calls him "my father."

The relations between them at times became strained and even stormy.

His reign was rendered miserable by the incessant infestation of Syrian marauders. In these difficulties he was greatly helped by Elisha. The prophet repeatedly frustrated the designs of the Syrian king by revealing to Jehoram the places of Benhadad's ambuscades, so that Jehoram could change the destination of his hunting parties or other movements, and escape the plots laid to seize his person. Benhadad, finding himself thus frustrated, and suspecting that it was due to treachery, called his servants together in grief and indignation, and asked who was the traitor among them. His officers a.s.sured him that they were all faithful, but that the secrets whispered in his bed-chamber were revealed to Jehoram by Elisha the prophet in Israel, whose fame had spread into Syria, perhaps because of the cure of Naaman. The king, unable to take any step while his counsels were thus published to his enemies, thought--not very consistently--that he could surprise and seize Elisha himself, and sent to find out where he was. At that time he was living in Dothan, about twelve miles north-east of Samaria,[104] and Benhadad sent a contingent with horses and chariots by night to surround the city, and prevent any escape from its gates. That he could thus besiege a town so near the capital shows the helplessness to which Israel had been now reduced.

When Elisha's servitor rose in the morning he was terrified to see the Syrians encamped round the city, and cried to Elisha, "Alas! my master, what shall we do?"

"Fear not," said the prophet: "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." He prayed G.o.d to grant the youth the same open eyes, the same spiritual vision which he himself enjoyed; and the youth saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

This incident has been full of comfort to millions, as a beautiful ill.u.s.tration of the truth that--

"The hosts of G.o.d encamp around The dwellings of the just; Deliverance He affords to all Who on His promise trust.

"Oh, make but trial of His love, Experience will decide, How blest are they, and only they, Who in His truth confide."

The youth's affectionate alarm had not been shared by his master. He knew that to every true servant of G.o.d the promise will be fulfilled, "He shall defend thee under His wings; thou shalt be safe under His feathers; His righteousness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler."[105]

Were our eyes similarly opened, we too should see the reality of the Divine protection and providence, whether under the visible form of angelic ministrants or not. Scripture in general, and the Psalms in particular, are full of the serenity inspired by this conviction. The story of Elisha is a picture-commentary on the Psalmist's words: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round them that fear Him, and delivereth them."[106] "He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."[107] "And I will encamp about Mine house because of the army, because of him that pa.s.seth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pa.s.s through them any more: for now have I seen with Mine eyes."[108] "The angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old."[109]

But what is the exact meaning of all these lovely promises? They do not mean that G.o.d's children and saints will always be shielded from anguish or defeat, from the triumph of their enemies, or even from apparently hopeless and final failure, or miserable death. The lesson is not that their persons shall be inviolable, or that the enemies who advance against them to eat up their flesh shall always stumble and fall. The experiences of tens of thousands of troubled lives and martyred ends instantly prove the futility of any such reading of these a.s.surances.

The saints of G.o.d, the prophets of G.o.d, have died in exile and in prison, have been tortured on the rack and broken on the wheel, and burnt to ashes at innumerable stakes; they have been dest.i.tute, afflicted, tormented, in their lives--stoned, beheaded, sawn asunder, in every form of hideous death; they have rotted in miry dungeons, have starved on desolate sh.o.r.es, have sighed out their souls into the agonising flame. The Cross of Christ stands as the emblem and the explanation of their lives, which fools count to be madness, and their end without honour. On earth they have, far more often than not, been crushed by the hatred and been delivered over to the will of their enemies. Where, then, have been those horses and chariots of fire?

They have been there no less than around Elisha at Dothan. The eyes spiritually opened have seen them, even when the sword flashed, or the flames wrapped them in indescribable torment. The sense of G.o.d's protection has least deserted His saints when to the world's eyes they seemed to have been most utterly abandoned. There has been a joy in prisons and at stakes, it has been said, far exceeding the joy of harvest. "Pray for me," said a poor boy of fifteen, who was being burned at Smithfield in the fierce days of Mary Tudor. "I would as soon pray for a dog as for a heretic like thee," answered one of the spectators. "Then, Son of G.o.d, shine Thou upon me!" cried the boy-martyr; and instantly, upon a dull and cloudy day, the sun shone out, and bathed his young face in glory; whereat, says the martyrologist, men greatly marvelled. But is there one death-bed of a saint on which that glory has not shone?

The presence of those horses and chariots of fire, unseen by the carnal eye--the promises which, if they be taken literally, all experience seems to frustrate--mean two things, which they who are the heirs of such promises, and who would without them be of all men most miserable, have clearly understood.

They mean, first, that as long as a child of G.o.d is on the path of duty, and until that duty has been fulfilled, he is inviolable and invulnerable. He shall tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shall he trample under his feet. He shall take up the serpent in his hands; and if he drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt him. He shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flieth by day; of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the demon that destroyeth in the noonday. A thousand shall fall at his right hand, and ten thousand beside him; but it shall not come nigh him. The histories and the legends of numberless marvellous deliverances all confirm the truth that, when a man fears the Lord, He will keep him in all his ways, and give His angels charge over him, lest at any time he dash his foot against a stone. G.o.d will not permit any mortal force, or any combination of forces, to hinder the accomplishment of the task entrusted to His servant. It is the sense of this truth which, under circ.u.mstances however menacing, should enable us to