Jehoram undertakes an expedition against King Mesha, but in doing so he
pays a tribute to the power of the king of Moab by allying with himself
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and also the king of Edom. A remarkable
character is given of Jehoram. He was not an imitator of the evil of his
father as to its precise form, but he had his own method of serving the
devil.
We should have thought that Ahab and Jezebel had exhausted all the arts
of wickedness, but it turns out that Jehoram had found a way of his own
of living an evil life.
Warned by the untimely fate of his brother, which had fallen upon him
expressly on account of his Baal worship, Jehoram began his reign by an
ostentatious abolition of the Phenician state religion, which his father
had introduced.
Jehoram went back to the olden times, and re-established the worship of
the calf, after the pattern which Jeroboam, its founder, had patronized.
His doing so, however, he found to be quite compatible with a secret
allowance that the people should practice their own form of worship.
There is room in wickedness for the exercise of genius of a certain
limited kind. The limitation is imposed by wickedness itself--for, after
all, wickedness is made up of but few elements.
Many persons suppose that if they do not sin according to the prevailing
fashion they are not sinning at all. They imagine that by varying the
form of the evil they have mitigated the evil itself.
A good deal of virtue is supposed to consist in reprobating certain forms
of vice. A man may be no drunkard, according to the usual acceptation of
the term, and yet he may be in a continual state of intoxication. It is
possible to shudder at what is usually known as persecution, and yet all
the while to be beheading enemies and burning martyrs.
Jehoram made a kind of trick of wickedness. He knew how to give a twist
to old forms, or a turn to old ways, so as to escape part of their
vulgarity and yet to retain all their iniquity.
A most alarming thought it is to the really spiritual mind that men may
become adepts in wickedness--experts in evil doing--and may be able so
to manage their corrupt designs as to deceive many observers by a mere
change of surface or appearance.
We do not amend the idolatry by altering the shape of the altar. We do
not destroy the mischievous power of unbelief by throwing our skepticism
into metaphysical phrases, and thus making verbal mysteries where we
might have spiritual illumination. We are deceived by things simply
because we ourselves live a superficial life and read only the history of
appearances.
What is the cure for all this manipulation of evil, this changing of
complexion and of form, and this consequent imagining that the age is
improving because certain phenomena which used to be so patent are no
longer discernible on the face of things?
We come back to the sublime doctrine of regeneration, as the answer to
the great inquiry: “What is the cure for this heart disease?”
“Marvel not that I said unto thee: ‘Ye must be born again.’”
We may change either the language or the manners of wickedness, or the
times and seasons for doing wicked things, and we may decorate our
wickedness with many beautiful colors, but so long as the heart itself
is unchanged decoration is useless--yea, worse than useless; for it is a
vain attempt to make that look true which is false--an endeavor even to
deceive Omniscience itself.
“And Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king
of Israel an hundred thousand lambs and an hundred thousand rams, with
the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab
rebelled against the king of Israel.”
Enduring masteries are not of a physical kind. Ahab held Mesha simply by
a strong arm, and the consequence was that, as soon as Ahab was dead,
Mesha refused to render the tribute.
This historical circumstance, limited so far as the mere letter is
concerned, is full of significance to the Christian Church and to all
Christian countries.
Let us not call ourselves masters of positions or of men, simply because
we happen to have the stronger arm. The dominion which is acquired by
mere strength and held by superior force is an illusion wherever it is
found.
The men whom we may so hold may be hypocrites enough to assume an
acquiescent attitude, or even to display a complacent demeanor; they may
even go so far as to appear to be grateful for the rule which they can
not set aside. But all such appearances are of necessity without reason,
and therefore without continuance. They are always to be suspected.
This would be so in the case of the Christian faith, had we the power of
imposing even its nominal belief upon any nation. Suppose we say that
any man not professing the Christian faith shall certainly be fined,
imprisoned or otherwise punished. It is easy to see that such a threat
might in many instances bring about an appearance of acquiescence. But it
must be, by the very necessity of the case, appearance only.
Faith is a question of the individual judgment and of the individual
heart, and can not be controlled in any degree by external authority.
Suppose we create a law making it penal to open places of business on
the Sabbath day. Looking upon all commercial houses whose business was
suspended for a particular time, we might say: “See how unanimously and
happily the Sabbath day is observed in this country!”
But such would be an altogether superficial and mistaken judgment. The
Sabbath day can not be kept by law. If the Sabbath is not kept by the
reason, and is not hailed with thankful delight by the very heart, it can
never be kept at all.
All shops may be closed, all places of amusement may suspend their
entertainments, all toys may be put away from the nursery, all out-door
enjoyments and avocations may be withdrawn for the time, but the people
who have retired in apparent acceptance of these conditions, but not in
heartfelt acquiescence with them, are breaking the Sabbath every moment
they breathe.
Here is a great law for the house, the church and the nation. The head of
the family who rules by mere dread or tyranny is not training an obedient
household, but he is preparing an outburst of sedition, which sooner or
later must transpire, and when it occurs his ruin is certain.
The same law applies in the matter of capital and labor. The man who only
works that he may receive his wages never truly serves or makes his labor
into a delight. The man who can threaten the laborer by withdrawment of
pecuniary recognition never elicits from that laborer a response to duty,
though he may insist on a formal compliance with law.
What a blessed mastery is that of Jesus Christ in this respect.
For Christ reasons with men, and addresses the very highest form and
quality of mind; He sets before men the alternative courses of life,
and beseeches them to accept the straight and narrow way leading to
repentance. Certainly he threatens, He denounces, He declares an awful
issue for the wicked man, but it is not mere threatening or mere
denunciation; it is the solemn disclosure of a sequence which even
Almighty God could not suspend and yet retain the integrity of His throne
and the security of the universe. We must never accuse Jesus Christ of
what is termed “threatening.” His denunciations are revelations, and not
the expressions of merely angry feelings.
The way of the approach having been settled, the kings proceeded to fetch
a compass of seven days’ journey around by the south end of the Dead Sea.
They little knew the difficulty that would arise in their way. We do not
read that they made any religious inquiry at the outset of their journey,
and therefore no responsibility could be charged upon God for the
misadventure which occurred. The three kings seem to have consulted only
with themselves, and to have resolved in their own counsel and strength
upon their expedition against Mesha.
What was the misadventure which occurred? It is related: “And there was
no water for the host and for the cattle that followed them.”
Even kings are dependent upon nature. Think of three kings, who supposed
themselves at least to be very mighty, and all their people, stopped in
their career simply for want of water!
A very pitiable and yet very instructive picture is this of three kings
and their armies standing still merely for want of water. The so-called
little things of life are often turned into not only things that are
great, but into things that are vital.
Blessed indeed would be the man who sees even in natural arrangements and
daily providences a call to him to lift up his head toward the heavens
and ask great questions about being and duty and destiny.
So we have the usual religious appeal: “Is there not here a prophet of
the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?”
Elisha now assumes a new attitude, and one certainly not destitute of
spiritual grandeur. Turning to the king of Israel, he said:
“‘What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father,
and to the prophets of thy mother.’ And the king of Israel said unto him:
‘Nay; for the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver
them into the hand of Moab.’”
Observe that this address was made to the very king of Israel. It simply
means that the God of Israel had nothing to do with the king of Israel,
and yet Israel was understood to be a theocracy. The form was theocratic,
but not the power.
Think of a man bearing the name of God, and yet being godless! A temple
deserted of its deity is surely a melancholy sight, but what shall be
said of the man from whose heart the Spirit of the living God has utterly
departed?
Elisha seems to have inherited the taunting spirit of his great
predecessor: “Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets
of thy mother.”
Who can say with how bitter a taunt the word “mother” was pronounced in
this connection?
The evil that men do goes on for many a day--not only to the end of their
life-time, but it lives after them.
This is a taunt that is founded on reason. If men have been serving a god
for seven years past, surely it can not be unreasonable to refer them to
that god in the time of their extremity. What is faith if it can not be
tested? What is the value of an altar if you can not go to it and find
lying upon it direct answers to your prayer?
Is there any thing meaner in all the history of cowardice than that a man
should ignore the living God all his life, and then whiningly repent upon
his death-bed? Why does he not go to the trusts to which he has committed
himself, and say he will die in them as he has lived in them? Surely, the
cowardice of men should teach those who observe it something regarding
the nature and uses of religious faith.
The appeal of Elisha was perfectly fair.
If the gods of Jehoram were worth any thing, they could find water for
him in the time of his necessity. Let them do it. If they will do it,
then they will establish their claim to be regarded with reverence, and
indeed be honored and worshiped.
We must insist upon making the same appeal in our own day. Men must be
made to feel their irreligion.
Jehoram did feel his in this instance, for he protested against the
decision of Elisha. Throughout the course of Scripture men are referred
to their gods, and are made to test the value of their religion.
Possibly many a Jehoram may be acting under influences which he himself
can not explain--so much that he becomes a puzzle to his own mind,
wondering how it is that he takes one road when he has decided upon
another, and that he mistakes substances for shadows and shadows for
substances, so that his whole life is turned into a mocking bewilderment.
The answer is given in Scripture: “I also will choose their delusions,
and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did
answer; when I spake, they did not hear; but they did evil before Mine
eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.”
Now we come to a better phase of this history--namely, to the saving
element--which appears and reappears in the course of our changeful life.
Elisha was not to be placated by the king of Israel. In his eyes a vile
person was contemned. The king of Israel was but a poor, frail thing
in the presence of a man who lived with God and was commissioned to
denounce the judgments of Heaven against evil. But the world is not made
up of Jehorams. Blessed be God, there are men of another type, whose very
presence saves society from judicial ruin.
“And Elisha said: ‘As the Lord of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand,
surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king
of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee.’”
Now we know that the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha. We seem to hear
the very tones of the old master in the new disciple. Is it not always so
in life--that it is one man who saves many; that the ten righteous men
save the city, and that Paul saves all those who sail with him in the
midst of the tempestuous sea?
Your house is saved because of your little child. Your whole estate is
protected from ruin because your wife is a praying woman. Your life would
be cut off tomorrow in shame and disgrace were it not that you have
entered upon an inheritance of prayers laid up for you by those who went
before.
Life thus becomes very sacred and very tender, and we know not to whom we
are under the deepest obligations. Enough to know that, somewhere, there
is a presence that saves us, there is an influence that guards our life,
and that we owe absolutely nothing in the way of security or honor to bad
kings or bad men of any name.
The remainder of the chapter is occupied with a prophecy of Elisha and by
a statement of the overthrow of the king of Moab.
Nothing now could save Mesha. A strong delusion was sent upon him to
believe a lie. When water came down by way of Edom, and the whole country
was filled with it, the Moabites rose up early in the morning, and as the
Sun shone on the water the Moabites saw the water on the other side as
red as blood.
It looked so like blood that they declared it to be blood; and, believing
that the kings were slain who had come up against them, the Moabites
advanced to the spoil. Alas, they advanced to their ruin.
The king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him. In his despair
he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through
even unto the king of Edom, but through the iron wall he could not force
his way. In his madness he took his eldest son, who should have reigned
in his stead, and flung him for a burnt offering upon the wall.
But the Lord will not be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten
thousand rivers of oil, nor will He accept the first-born for a man’s
transgression or the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul.