Banks, L. A., Thirty-One Revival Sermons (1904), 171.
Edersheim, A., The History of Israel and Judah, vi. (1885) 105.
Ewald, H., The History of Israel, iv. 81.
Farrar, F. W., The Second Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible) (1894), 40.
Krummacher, F. W., Elisha (1854), 1.
Liddon, H. P., Sermons on Old Testament Subjects (1891), 255, 270.
Macintyre, R. G., Elijah and Elisha, 75.
Maclaren, A., Expositions: 2 Samuel, etc. (1906), 345, 352, 359, 368.
Riach, W. L., Naaman the Syrian Soldier (1901).
Walton, O. F., Elisha the Man of Abel-Meholah.
Webster, F. S., Elisha the Prophet of Vision.
Whitham, A. R., Old Testament History (1912), 301.
Churchman's Pulpit: Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, xi. 383 (F. Field), 387 (L. Sterne), 389 (R. Morris), 392 (J. Kempthorne), 394 (J. R.Gillies).
Dictionary of the Bible, i. (1898) 694 (J. Strachan).
Sermons on the International Sunday-School Lessons, xxix. (1904) 295 (N. Boynton), 303 (De W. S. Clark), 310 (A. H. Currier).
The Man of Miracles
An holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.- 2Ki_4:9.
All the great things that Elisha hath done.- 2Ki_8:4.
Elisha is the subject of a number of narratives in the Second Book of Kings which not only cursorily mention him in connexion with a larger circle of events, but revolve solely round the illustration of his wonderful career. Although in the last resort derived from various sources, some older and some more recent, they constitute in every respect an unmistakable unity, and must have been recorded in a special work before they were incorporated in the Book of Kings. They all possess a certain resemblance in so far as they bring into prominence only the recollections of Elisha's miracles. The province of religion is naturally always the province of miracles also, because it is that of pure and strong faith in the presence and operation of heavenly forces in human action as well as in human experience; where, therefore, true religion makes the most powerful efforts, there will be a corresponding display of miracles which will either actually take place through the activity of the believing spirit, or will be at any rate experienced by the believing heart; while to be powerfully moved, though only from a distance, by the might of such forces is in itself a gain. Thus far the age of Elijah and Elisha, when the true religion was obliged to maintain itself with the utmost force against its internal enemies, was as rich in miracles as the days of Moses and Joshua or the conclusion of the period of the Judges had been; only these miracles do not now, as in the time of Moses and Joshua, affect the whole nation, nor, as in the era of the last Judges, are they directed against a foreign people, but they proceed from a few individual prophets who are compelled as instruments of the ancient religion to exert all the greater power, as in the nation itself the true faith threatens to disappear. No such stories can be anything more than scattered traces of the action of a spirit in itself miraculous, and of the impression immediately produced by it; but that there is some spirit of power in religion to the agency of which they all point is only the more certain.
But this very element in the contents of such narratives, especially in Elisha's case, has happily contributed to preserve other recollections which are not chiefly, still less solely, concerned with this peculiarity (cf. 2Ki_3:9). And further, it is by no means to be overlooked that such recollections of the miraculous activity of such a spirit would, from the very first, be conceived in various ways by various dispositions; and in the course of time would assume very different forms. All the evidence points to the conclusion that the collection which was incorporated in the Book of Kings was not composed in its earlier shape till about one hundred years after Elisha, when there were no longer any of his disciples alive, and the whole memory of his miraculous career threatened to disappear.
i. The Waters Healed
Two miracles, one of mercy and one of judgment, marked Elisha's establishment as Elijah's successor. The former, Elisha's first public act, seems typical of his whole ministry. All the natural charms of Jericho, one of the fairest sites in the East, were spoilt by the unsatisfactory character of the water. The water was “naught,” and the ground was barren because of it. Calling for a new cruse and a supply of salt, Elisha led the way to the spring whence the waters issued, and, casting in the salt as the symbol of purification and preservation, declared that God had “healed” the waters. A spring called “Ain es Sultan” is still pointed out as the one in question, and as it is the only spring of any importance in the neighbourhood of Jericho, the tradition may be accepted.
A bitter barren-making stream,
The tears that flowed for sin,
Till the great Prophet came, and cast
Salt from the new cruse in.
Yet staunched he not the waters so-
That they should flow no more:
He healed their springs, then bid them rur
As freely as before:
He healed their source, and well has proved
His word not given in vain,
That now they never should bring death
Nor barrenness again.1 [Note: R. C. Trench, Poems, 97.]
ii. The Judgment of Irreverence
The faith of the men of Jericho in asking for this miracle stands in contrast with the insolence and irreverence shown by a number of “young lads” (R.V. marg.) who mocked the prophet as he entered Bethel: “Go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” This incident seems at first sight an exception to Elisha's whole career, and contrary to the spirit of the Bible. But it should be remembered that Bethel was the great seat of idolatry, and this “curse” was not mere personal indignation, but a revelation of the Divine wrath against the apostasy of the place, which was no doubt the real cause of the attack on a prophet of Jehovah. It is also well to bear in mind that the narrative before us is exceedingly brief, and wanting in details which might relieve the difficulty and modify the apparent disproportion between the wrong done and the penalty inflicted. In its present form it reads like a folklore tale, of the kind familiar in all lands, intended for the admonition of rude and naughty children.
As the Church has its rites and mysteries and its true freedom, and Angels watch their observance, so Satan has his rites and his false freedom, and his evil spirits watching to entice children to them. We see their influence in sullenness, in want of courtesy, in disrespect, in irreverence, till they are destroyed, like the children of Bethel by Elisha. But as he passed from their doom to intercede for them on Carmel, so our Christ and His saints are ever interceding for us. The dews fall from Heaven upon our children, and we see their effect in bright greetings and smiles and obeisance; the graver training the more light-hearted to do reverence, as the Angels train us.2 [Note: Keble, Lyra Innocentium, 127.]
Seven years old Geneviève was, then, when on his way to England from Auxerre, St. Germain passed a night in her village of Nanterre, and among the children who brought him on his way in the morning in more kindly manner than Elisha's convoy, noticed this one-wider-eyed in reverence than the rest; drew her to him, questioned her, and was sweetly answered, that she would fain be Christ's handmaid. And he hung round her neck a small copper coin, marked with the cross. Thenceforward Geneviève held herself as “separated from the world.”1 [Note: Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens, chap. ii. § 5 (Works, xxxiii. 56).]
iii. The Army Saved
1. After this, Elisha returned to the solitude of Mount Carmel. But, before long, he was called back to public action, and was enabled to prove himself in very deed, as Elijah had been, “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof”; for God used him to save three kings and their armies from a lingering death through thirst. Jehoram of Israel, Jehoshaphat of Judah, and the king of Edom had united in a campaign against the Moabites and their king Mesha, who had thrown off their allegiance to Israel, and refused to pay the annual tribute of the wool of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams. Jehoram was the brother of the late king Ahaziah. He had abjured the Baal-worship, destroying the idol his father had made, but, like all the kings of Israel, he continued the idolatries of Jeroboam.
The allied armies found themselves in difficulties after a circuitous march of seven days: there was no water to be found in the wilderness. At Jehoshaphat's suggestion Elisha, who was with the armies, was summoned. At first he only bade Jehoram betake himself to the prophets of his father and his mother, but then, in deference to the piety of the king of Judah, he consented to seek a Divine answer. When a minstrel played before him and the hand of Jehovah was upon him, he commanded that deep trenches be dug, and prophesied that, though they should see no rain, the valley would yet be filled with water. His orders were obeyed, and next morning, owing to a plentiful fall of rain high among the mountains of Moab, the streams poured down, and all the country was filled with water.
This incident throws light both upon the general accuracy of the ancient narrative, and upon the fact that events to which a directly supernatural colouring is given are, in many instances, not so much supernatural as providential. The deliverance of Israel was due, not to a portent wrought by Elisha, but to the pure wisdom which he derived from the inspiration of God. When the counsels of princes were of none effect, and for lack of the spirit of counsel the people were perishing, his mind alone, illuminated by a wisdom from on high, saw what was the right step to take. He bade the soldiers dig trenches in the dry torrent bed-which was the very step most likely to ensure their deliverance from the torment of thirst, and which would be done under similar circumstances to this day. They saw neither wind nor rain; but there had been a storm among the farther hills (according to the tradition of Josephus, rain had fallen at three days' distance on the hills of Edom) and the swollen water-courses discharged their overflow into the trenches of the wady which were ready prepared for them, and offered the path of least resistance.1 [Note: F. W. Farrar.]
Man will never become a materialist so long as his harp and his viol are left to him. He can never deny his relation to a spiritual world while so ethereal a thing as music is here to keep him company. Music is so plainly of two worlds, a mediator between them. It touches matter; it touches spirit, and each vibrates to the contact. Note the two things and their relation here. On the one side you have the collection of sounds, the product of vibrations in the air; sounds, with their marvellous harmonic relations, their connexion with number, with mathematics, with the qualities of metals and strings; all this for the material side. But there is the other; that of the soul's response. How has this come about? How is it that you have this common language, appealing at once to the universal heart; that leaps across all the tongues, all the dialects with which the human family has confused itself, and tells its own story to every listening soul? Why is it that these vibrations, movements of the impalpable air, breaking on the tympanum, on a nerve, stir in us all that is exalted, mystical, religious? We talk to-day of ministering angels as though that were some legend of old. In music we have an angel, not shaped for us in bodily form, but something beyond ourselves, that waits on our spirit, that whispers our relationship to a harmony that is behind and beyond all ages and all worlds.2 [Note: J. Brierley, The Life of the Soul, 190.]
2. Another strange result followed: the crimson light of the dawn reflected on the new-made watercourses was mistaken by the Moabites for blood. Imagining that the allied armies had turned their swords against each other, they rushed heedlessly to their own ruin. Not only did the allies drive the Moabites before them; they deliberately destroyed the country, casting stones on all the good ground, filling up the wells, cutting down the trees and leaving only Kir-hareseth with its fortifications undestroyed. Jehoram's victory seemed complete. But there was to be no glory or triumph for Israel. The sequel to the story is not quite clear. The king of Moab, having failed in a desperate attempt to break through to Edom, took his eldest son, the heir to the throne, and offered him up as a burnt-offering to Moloch. And the last words of the inspired record are these: “And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.” Now, the Moabite Stone, while silent about previous reverses, records the great triumph of Mesha, king of Moab, in driving back the invading army. The Scripture certainly admits the explanation that, roused to fury by their king's action, the Moabites rallied to another onslaught, and drove the invaders out of their land.
In the Moabite Stone (1Ki_11:1-8) Mesha tells us that, in the reign of his father, Chemoshmelek (?) of Dibon, was angry with Moab, and Omri and his son oppressed Moab, subjected and occupied it forty years. This brings us to the point at which Kings first refers to Moab. 2Ki_1:1; 2Ki_3:4-5 states that Mesha king of Moab was rich in sheep, and paid to Israel a tribute (? annual) of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams (A.V.), or their wool (R.V.); and that when Ahab died he rebelled against the king of Israel. According to Mesha (2Ki_1:8), the revolt took place in the middle of Ahab's reign. Probably the war of Israel with Syria, which cost Ahab his life, afforded the opportunity for the revolt of Moab. It is not clear how we are to combine the inscription and 2Ki_3:1-27. We may suppose that Mesha's victories took place at the time of the revolt, before the events of 2Ki_3:1-27; or that, at first, Moab simply asserted its independence, and that Mesha's conquests were made after the retreat of Jehoram; or that the inscription is a comprehensive account of Mesha's achievements both before and after Jehoram's campaign, his reverses being ignored, just as Kings makes no mention of the loss of Israelite cities to Moab. In 2Ki_3:1-27. we read that Jehoram, at the head of a general muster of Israel, and with Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom as allies, marched round the southern end of the Dead Sea, a route which suggests that Israel was very weak on the east of the Jordan; that the Moabites fell into an ambush, and were defeated; that the allies captured and destroyed the cities and laid waste the land, and at last shut up Mesha in Kir-hareseth. After an unsuccessful sortie, Mesha “took his eldest son … and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against (R.V.) or upon (R.V.m.), Israel; and they departed from thence and returned to their own land.” Possibly the Israelite account disguises a defeat as a voluntary withdrawal; but the prophets' accounts of the superstition of their fellow-countrymen show that they may have been afraid to press the siege after what they believed to be an irresistible appeal to Chemosh. But the retreat was a disastrous blow to the prestige of Israel.1 [Note: W. H. Bennett, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, iii. 411.]
iv. The Widow's Oil
Many of Elisha's miracles seem to have no special purpose, either doctrinal or otherwise, but simply the relief of trivial and transient distresses. From the awful scenes of blood and carnage we pass to a humble home in Israel. The widow of one of the sons of the prophets-the name and place are wanting-was in debt, and her sons were about to be taken away by her creditor and sold as slaves. In her difficulty she appealed to Elisha as the recognized head of the prophetic guild. On Elisha's inquiry she acknowledged that she had nothing left but a small quantity of a coarse kind of oil which was used for anointing the body after a bath. That was enough in the prophet's hands to test and evidence faith. She was commanded to borrow from her neighbours all the vessels she could, to retire into the privacy of her house for an act of faith, and there pour out from the pot of oil into the borrowed vessels. As she did so the oil multiplied until she had filled every vessel she could lay hands on. Determined to do nothing without the direct command of Elisha, she came to him with the glad tidings of what had happened, and was now told to sell the oil, pay her debt, and herself and her sons to live off the balance.
The widow's necessity was, to the great Elisha, not the plea of charity, but the demand of justice. If in the circumstances the prophet had not given heed to the appeal of the widow, it would have implied either that he was not the living medium between God and His people which he professed to be, or that Jehovah was not the living and the true God in the sense in which Elisha had preached Him. With reverence be it said, the appeal to the prophet could no more have remained unanswered than a cry for help addressed to Christ in the days of His flesh.
Help, in clerical garments or in the garb of a layman, is one of those perennially blessed people whom men instinctively trust. There is a healthy sense of efficiency about them and a broad human nature. David Scott is happy in his picture of Help the Athlete. He is the natural successor to the Herakles of Euripides whom Browning transcribes so wonderfully in Balaustion's Adventure, and to Shakespeare's Henry v. on the night before Agincourt. He is the kind of man that Charles Kingsley was, whose “nearest work” is that of helping “lame dogs over stiles.” He is the type that Jerome describes for modern days in his chapter on “Evergreens” in Idle Thoughts, and Mrs. Browning in her My Kate. And indeed Help is often a woman, and among all woman's new ideals of to-day there is none that will ever fulfil her nature so perfectly as the oldest of all-the helpmeet. Help is an office which conventional piety may sometimes count secular. Yet what is called spirituality is to a certain extent a matter of temperament, and those who have a special aptitude for helping need ask for no higher office. Paul has included “helps” among the great functions of Christian ministry, and the beautiful legend of Christoferus has proclaimed the essential Christianity of such service. Ruskin has said finely: “There is no true potency, remember, but that of help, nor true ambition but the ambition to save.”1 [Note: John Kelman, The Road, i. 24.]
v. The Shunammite
1. The charmingly-told Shunem incident reveals further friendliness and homely interests. Elisha, in his journeys to and fro among the schools of the prophets, had often enjoyed the welcome hospitality eagerly pressed upon him by the lady of Shunem. Struck with his sacred character, she persuaded her husband to take a step unusual even to the boundless hospitality of the East. She begged him to do honour to this holy man of God by building for him a little chamber on the flat roof of the house, to which he might have easy and private access by the outside staircase. Her husband was willing, and so the prophet's chamber was soon ready; and it became Elisha's home whenever he passed through the town.
2. Elisha was anxious to do something for her to show his appreciation of her kindness; and, as his services in connexion with the expedition against Moab had brought him into favour at court, he offered to speak for her to the king, or the captain of the host. She replied with the greatest dignity, “I dwell among mine own people.” She had no need of earthly honours; she was enjoying to the full the purest satisfaction which comes from duty faithfully discharged and love fully requited. Gehazi, the prophet's servant, unscrupulous as he afterwards appears, but a keen observer, suggested that her only need was a child, for she had none. A son was promised her, and, like Isaac and John the Baptist, was born beyond all human probability.
3. But the gift of God was apparently to be taken from her. After some years-the narrative goes on without a break-the child going with his father into the harvest fields was attacked by sunstroke, and died on his mother's knees. With the quiet dignity of faith she rode with one servant to Elisha at Carmel, and in her great earnestness took hold of the prophet by the feet. Gehazi started to thrust her away, but Elisha saw that the woman was in great trouble, and he said to the servant, “Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.” Then the woman said, “Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?” Elisha guessed the truth, and at once sent Gehazi to hasten on and lay his staff upon the face of the child. But the broken-hearted mother refused to leave Elisha. She imagined that the servant and the staff might be severed from Elisha; but she knew that wherever the prophet was, there was power. So Elisha arose and followed her, and on the way Gehazi met them with the news that the child lay still and dead, with the fruitless staff upon his face.
The reason for this failure is not quite clear. It may have lain in the want of faith in the woman, or in the character of Gehazi, or more probably in a mistake on Elisha's part in supposing that he could communicate the power of the Spirit of God in this way.
On coming to the house, Elisha found the body of the child upon the bed. After earnest prayer he outstretched himself over the little corpse, as Elijah had done at Zarephath. Soon it began to grow warm with returning life, and Elisha, after pacing up and down the room, once more stretched himself over him. Then the child opened his eyes and sneezed seven times, and Elisha called to Gehazi to summon the mother. “Take up thy son,” he said. She prostrated herself at his feet in speechless gratitude, then took up her recovered child and went.
We see in the Shunammite a true and faithful Israelitish woman, who, in a time of general apostasy, owned Jehovah alike in her life and her home. Receiving a prophet, because of Him who had sent him, because he was a holy man of God-and with humility and entire self-forgetfulness-she received a prophet's reward in the gift most precious to a Jewish mother, which she had not dared to hope for, even when announced to her. Then, when severely tried, she still held fast to her trust in the promise-strong even when weakest-once more self-forgetful, and following deepest spiritual impulse. And, in the end, her faith appears victorious-crowned by Divine mercy, and shining out the more brightly from its contrast to the felt weakness of the prophet. As we think of this, it seems as if a fuller light were shed on the history of the trials of an Abraham, an Isaac, or a Jacob; on the inner life of those heroes of faith to whom the Epistle of the Hebrews points us for example and learning (Heb_11:1-40.), and on such Scripture sayings as these: “Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up” (1Sa_2:6); “Know that Jehovah hath set apart him that is godly for himself; Jehovah will hear when I call unto him” (Psa_4:3); or this: “All the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psa_25:10). The story speaks to us of Him through whom “death is swallowed up in victory.” As we think of Him who, as God Incarnate, and as the Sent of the Father, is to us the Representative and the Prophet of God in a unique sense, we recall that it was not, as by Elijah or Elisha, through prayer and personal contact, but by the Word of His power that He raised the dead (Mar_5:39-42; Luk_6:13-15; Joh_11:43-44). And beyond this we remember that “the hour … now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live”; and that “whosoever liveth and believeth” in Christ “shall never die” (Joh_5:25; Joh_11:26).1 [Note: A. Edersheim.]
vi. Death in the Pot
Elisha's next miracle according to the Scripture narrative does not immediately follow the preceding in order of time, but probably took place during the seven years' famine, of which we have an account in a later chapter.
The sons of the prophets were seated round him, listening to his instructions; the hour came for their simple meal, and he ordered the great pot to be put on the fire for the vegetable soup on which, with bread, they chiefly lived. One of them went out for herbs, and carelessly brought his outer garment (the abeyah) full of wild poisonous colocynths, which, by ignorance or inadvertence, were shred into the pottage. But when it was cooked and poured out they perceived the poisonous taste, and cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” “Bring meal,” answered the wonder-worker, and forthwith the dish was rendered harmless and wholesome-not because of the meal, but because of the power of Jehovah working through His servant.
There are many species of the Gourd family wild in Palestine. We found Cucumis prophetarum, the Globe Cucumber; Citrullus colocynthus, the Colocynth; and Ecbalium elaterium, the Squirting Cucumber. I conceive that, though the Squirting Cucumber will answer the requirements of the text (2Ki_4:39), yet that the Colocynth is undoubtedly the plant in question. The Squirting Cucumber is not so bitter, nor does it bear the same resemblance to the good fruit. Besides, it is common over the whole country, and ought to have been well known to the prophet's servant. Now Elisha, we read, had just come down to Gilgal, between Jericho and the Dead Sea, and doubtless the gatherer of the pottage would be his attendant who had accompanied him from the upper country. The Colocynth grows abundantly on the barren sands near Gilgal, and all round the Dead Sea on the low flats, covering much ground with its tendrils, which reach a prodigious length, and bearing great quantities of fruit. We never saw the Colocynth elsewhere. Indeed, it is exclusively a plant of the dry and barren sandy deserts; or growing on volcanic sand, as at Pantellaria. An inhabitant of the upper country could not, therefore, be expected to recognize it, but would be attracted at once by the beautiful appearance of the fruit, and gather it eagerly for the Wild Melon, or Pumpkin.1 [Note: H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible, 451.]
vii. Miraculous Feeding
Closely connected with this is the next event recorded. If the former showed how easily God could remove from the provision of His people that which was hurtful by the addition of that which in itself is nutritious and wholesome, the next event affords another instance of how readily He can send unexpected provision to supply the wants of His servants. A man of Baal-shalishah brought to Elisha, as the prophet of Jehovah, an offering of the first-fruits of his land. This is the only mention of Baal-shalishah, but it was probably near Gilgal, in “the land of Shalishah,” where Saul had searched for the lost asses. The offering consisted of twenty barley loaves, the food of the common people, and a sack or wallet full of “fresh ears of corn.” Elisha told his servant-perhaps Gehazi-to set them before the people present. “What,” he asked, “should I set this before an hundred men?” But Elisha told him in the Lord's name that it would more than suffice; and so it did.
Although this narrative is generally, and in a sense correctly, regarded as prefiguring the miraculous multiplication of the scanty provision with which our Lord fed the multitude (Mat_14:19-21; Joh_6:9-13), yet the text does not here indicate any such miraculous increase of the food. But it does most emphatically indicate that Elisha was truly the prophet and servant of Jehovah; that his trust in his God was absolute and unwavering; and that, true to His promise, the Lord will always provide for His servants who look up unto Him.1 [Note: A. Edersheim, The History of Israel and Judah, vi. 145.]
Was this not the foreshadowing of a far grander miracle, done by the power of the great Anti-type, Christ Jesus? Can we not see the five thousand men sitting in rows on the green grass? Can we not hear the voice of the Master, uttering the very same words as Elisha, “Give ye them to eat”? “And they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.” Yet how far more wonderful was the later miracle! Only one hundred men were fed by Elisha, five thousand by Christ; one loaf supplied the needs of five men at Gilgal, one loaf was sufficient for one thousand at Bethsaida. Only a little was left at Elisha's feast; twelve baskets full were collected by the apostles after the supper on the grass. Yet, still, Elisha's miracle was a shadow, a picture, nay more, a foretaste, of grand and glorious things to come.2 [Note: O. F. Walton.]
viii. Naaman
1. The best-known miracle of Elisha, the story of which has become a classic, was the healing of the leprosy of Naaman, the “captain of the host” of the king of Syria. The fame of the prophet had been brought to the Syrian court by a little Israelite maid-the servant of Naaman's wife-who had been carried captive by the Syrians in one of their marauding excursions into Israelite territory. The king despatched Naaman, who was a great favourite with him, with a present of “ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment,” to the court of Samaria, requesting that he might be cured. The king of Israel himself was neither physician nor prophet; and he saw, or chose to see, in the despatch of the Syrian monarch only one of those impossible demands with which ambitious monarchs are wont to preface a declaration of war. But Naaman's arrival and message were reported to Elisha. With the freedom and authority of his great position, he rebuked Jehoram for his unbelief and his alarm. Why could not Naaman be sent on to him that he might learn that there was a prophet in Israel? Naaman obeyed. The great Syrian left the palace of the monarch, and drew up, with his long line of horsemen and his splendid war-chariot, before the humble dwelling of Elisha. He waited, expecting that the prophet, who had invited him, would at once appear. But the servant of the King of kings was not exultantly impressed, as false prophets so often are, by earthly greatness. Elisha did not even pay him the compliment of coming out of the house to meet him. He simply sent out his servant to the Syrian commander-in-chief with the brief message, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.”
2. We may at once say that the conduct of Elisha was not prompted by fear of defilement by leprosy, or by a desire to mark more clearly the miracle about to be performed, least of all by spiritual pride. The spiritual pride of a Jew would have found other expression, and, in general, those who cherish spiritual pride are scarcely proof against such visits as this of Naaman. We cannot doubt that the bearing of Elisha was Divinely directed. Naaman was a proud man. He had been accustomed, at the brilliant court of Damascus, to receive a great deal of deference and consideration-more perhaps than any one, except the monarch himself. Naaman wished to be treated like a great man that happened to be a leper; Elisha treated him like a leper that happened to be a great man. Naaman's pride and confidence in his wealth and high standing must be broken. He must learn that God's true servant is not overawed by earthly greatness. He must realize that in God's sight he is only a leper not fit to be touched. And the means used for his recovery must lift his faith up to God. It had been rudely detached from the king, and was resting upon the prophet; it must be shifted from the prophet to the living God. Elisha wished to efface himself completely, and to fix the leper's thoughts on the one truth that, if healing was granted to him, it was due to the gift of God, not to the thaumaturgy or arts of man.
No doubt, as a rule, people are ready to repose wonderful faith in the doctor. It is striking to see how implicitly an invalid will accept a doctor's diagnosis of his disease, and drink the drugs, whatever they be, which he prescribes as a remedy. Sometimes, however, before sending for a doctor, an invalid has made up his mind as to what the disease is, and as to what medicines should be employed. If, when the doctor comes, he pronounces it a different disease, and prescribes a different remedy, the invalid is disappointed and displeased. In all probability he will dismiss the doctor, simply because, whether right or wrong, he has ventured to contradict his own preconceived notion. This is literally a modern repetition of the case of Naaman.1 [Note: W. L. Riach.]
3. In great indignation Naaman turned and left the city. It was well that the relation between himself and his servants was so simple and affectionate (“my father”) that they could address him in terms of respectful expostulation, and so turn him from his rash purpose. They pleaded that, as he would have been ready to do any great or difficult thing that the prophet commanded, he might at least try so simple a remedy. So it came to pass that instead of returning “in a rage” to Damascus a leper, Naaman went down to Jordan. And as “according to the saying of the man of God,” he “dipped himself seven times in Jordan,” “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
4. Then it was that, in his gratitude and his joy, Naaman paid his second visit to Elisha. He was immediately admitted to the presence of the prophet, whom he met with the confession, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.” That was the lesson which Elisha desired to teach him, and this acknowledgment of Naaman's is the prophet's best reward. Naaman was eager to make some rich return to the prophet; but here again he was astonished at the difference between Elisha and the priests or soothsayers, with whose greed for gain he was doubtless well acquainted. Elisha refused to take any reward or payment. He felt that it was a good opportunity to show to the Syrians that the God of all the earth was a God of love, and that His prophet was unselfish. He was anxious that Naaman should carry to Syria the loftiest possible conception of the God of Israel. It was of the utmost importance to show that, as the prophet of God did not work miracles in his own power, or by his own will, so he did it not for reward, and that the gift of God could not be purchased with money. It was essential that Naaman and the Syrians should not look upon him as upon some vulgar sorcerer who wrought wonders for “the rewards of divination.” Indeed, we can scarcely exaggerate the impression which the refusal of Elisha must have made both upon the followers of Naaman and generally in Israel. To put an end to all importunity, in refusing the present, he appealed to Jehovah with his usual solemn formula-“As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none.”
5. Naaman, made to feel by Elisha's self-denial that the glory was due to Elisha's God, resolved to become a worshipper of Jehovah. He asked permission to take earth from Israel, that he might erect an altar to the God of Israel, his idea being the popular one, that Jehovah was a local deity, and could be worshipped only on His own soil. Elisha did not seek to correct his mistake. He even gave the proselyte permission to continue to pay outward homage to Rimmon, the god worshipped by the king of Syria. He practically allowed Naaman to give the sign of outward compliance with idolatry, by saying to him, “Go in peace.” The position of Naaman was wholly different from that of any Israelite. He was only the convert, or the half convert, of a day, and though he acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah as alone worthy of his worship, he probably shared in the belief-common even in Israel-that there were other gods, local gods, gods of the nations, to whom Jehovah might have divided the limits of their power. To demand of one who, like Naaman, had been an idolater all his days, the sudden abandonment of every custom and tradition of his life, would have been to demand from him an unreasonable, and, in his circumstances, useless and all but impossible self-sacrifice. The best way was to let him feel and see for himself the futility of Rimmon-worship. If he were not frightened back from his sudden faith in Jehovah, the scruple of conscience which he already felt in making his request might naturally grow within him and lead him to all that was best and highest. The temporary condonation of an imperfection might be a wise step towards the ultimate realization of a truth. We cannot at all blame Elisha, if, with such knowledge as he then possessed, he took a mercifully tolerant view of the exigencies of Naaman's position. He will not quench the smoking flax. Naaman was still very ignorant. He knew very little yet of the holy God of Israel. But Elisha knew that the God who had begun a good work in him would perfect it.
6. A characteristic Oriental incident closes the story. Naaman having departed in peace, Elisha's servant Gehazi followed him, and by dint of lying obtained the treasure which Elisha refused. But Elisha divined his dishonesty and doomed him and his house to be afflicted with the leprosy of Naaman for ever. His punishment was severe; but his sin was great. The leprosy was a fitting punishment, both because it had been Naaman's, from which obedient reliance on God had set him free, and because of its symbolical meaning, as the type of sin.
One sin leads, as if by a fatal necessity, to another. When he started upon the sinful step, Gehazi had only one object in view, to secure by any means, fair or foul, a portion of the coveted treasure. It is probable that falsehood did not enter into his programme. But, as he proceeded, a lie became necessary. And then, at a later stage, an additional lie was required. Yes, and this warns us of the danger of beginning a sinful course, for we cannot tell what may be the result. The ancient Romans were in the way of expressing a warning in these two words, Obsta principiis, which mean, “Resist beginnings.” The wisdom of such a warning is not only seen in this, that the same sin is so apt to grow from less to more, but in this, that one sin is so likely to lead to another sin of a different description. Our duty, therefore, is to keep the heart with all diligence, since out of it are the issues of life.1 [Note: W. L. Riach.]
ix. The Lost Axe-head
The striking story of Elisha and Naaman, and of the fall and punishment of Gehazi, is followed by an anecdote of the prophet's life which appears to rise but little above the ecclesiastical portents related in mediæval hagiologies.
The sons of the prophets, who were increasing in numbers, resolved to build a larger dwelling-place by the Jordan. While they were engaged in felling trees, the head of a borrowed axe flew off and fell into the water. It would be vain to search for it in the deep and turbid river. But a cry brought the man of God to the spot. He broke off a stick and cast it into the stream, and forthwith the iron came to the surface, and was restored to its possessor.
This miracle is so contrary to our ideas, and so out of proportion to the loss incurred, that attempts have been made to find a simpler explanation of it. But it seems clear that the writer of the Book of Kings understood the incident as of a miraculous nature, otherwise it would not have had a place among the “wonders” which Elisha did.
Some of the Rabbis and certain modern interpreters have argued, either that the stick which had been cut off struck right into the hole of the axe-head and so brought it up, or else that the stick thrust under the axe had rendered it possible to drag it to land. But, to speak plainly, both these suggestions involve such manifest impossibilities as hardly to require serious discussion. It is scarcely necessary to add that every such explanation is opposed equally to the wording and to the spirit of the sacred text, which assuredly would not have recorded among the marvellous doings of the heaven-sent prophet a device, which, if it had been possible, could have been accomplished by any clever-handed person. There cannot be any doubt in the mind of every impartial man that Scripture here intends to record a notable miracle. On the other hand, there is nothing in the sacred text which obliges us to believe that the iron “did swim.” In fact, the Hebrew word is never used in that sense. The impression left on our minds is that the iron which had sunk to the bottom was set in motion, made to float, probably, by some sudden rush of water. Beyond this we cannot go in our attempts to explain the manner in which this miraculous result may have been brought about.1 [Note: A. Edersheim, The History of Israel and Judah, vi. 164.]
It is a well-known fact, that, owing to the strong specific gravity of its waters, things will float in the Dead Sea that will not float elsewhere. I do not know whether iron is one of these things; but at all events something like iron may have been seen to float in these waters that would have sunk in others. That would be at once regarded as a miracle, and would easily give rise to such a story.2 [Note: W. Sanday, Bishop Gore's Challenge to Criticism (1914), 26.]
