2 KINGS 8 (JOTTINGS OF A READING)
2 KINGS 8 (JOTTINGS OF A READING)
CAC God uses world-powers to chastise His people — Hazael was anointed by God for it. He may suspend things for a number of years; so that God’s ways in the Old Testament are very instructive: He said of Moab, “Moab is my wash-pot” (Psalm 108: 9), to be used for the purification of His people.
Rem “For behold, I command, and I will shake the house of Israel to and fro among all the nations, like as one shaketh corn in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos [p. 240] 9: 9).
CAC That is very beautiful, God never loses a grain. We are all sifted. It is part of His ways to allow His people to be sifted. God has His purifying and cleansing work to do in His people. Personally I find it best to be kept under exercise; it is profitable and all helps to promote the heavenly; that at least is the divine intent. We should always be ready to weep if God’s people are suffering, and still recognise God’s hand in it. They are masters of the situation.
There is a moral reason for persecution. In the church in Ephesus it was departure from first love, and Smyrna is persecuted. The moral reason for it on the Continent is departure and worldliness on the part of God’s people. It checks the movements of evil and exercises us. What a purifying effect it would have if we expected any day to be carried off to prison or martyrdom. All events are known to God beforehand, and yet he often does not prevent them. Hazael’s death was perfectly known to Him, and the manner of it.
We should read the prophetic ministry with the historical books. The prophets give the moral state of the people; so today the prophetic ministry shows what God is at, how He is moving in things.
The woman here accepts the situation, compare Revelation 12. It is an epoch in our lives when we accept the wilderness position. The Man-child has gone up and the church has gone up too-in Him.