READINGS ON 2 KINGS (3) (SUMMARY)
[p. 365] READINGS ON 2 KINGS (3) (SUMMARY)
JT In order to get the setting of this chapter we should note the closing section of the previous one (verse 25 and onwards), the great famine. Famines whether physical or moral, coming upon us, are strikingly illustrated in this episode. Then the state of murderous unbelief which exists under the guise of religion is seen in the king; the government of God working out in this way brings out murder in the leading man, yet God meets it all in grace in Elisha. The king in verse 30 rends his garments, and it says, “The people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh”. He would appear to be good and sympathetic, whereas in truth he was a murderer and the son of a murderer; it was an effective cloak that he assumed. Thus happenings in modern times are either turning people to God or to apostasy; in Revelation 9: 20, those who were not killed with the plagues “repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons” and the idols, and in chapter 16: 11, it says they “blasphemed the God of the heaven for their distresses and their sores, and did not repent of their works”. The government of God, taking form in extreme measures, either hardens the heart or turns us to Himself. If we do not repent, we get harder under discipline.
Verse 32 says Elisha sat in his house; there is some hope there. The prophet has power to speak to the king, “Hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah: Tomorrow about this time shall the measure of fine flour be at a shekel, and two measures of barley at a shekel, in the gate of Samaria”. How [p. 366] calm and measured those with God can be! Instead of saying, There will be plenty of food tomorrow, he quotes the price! Those with God are not carried off their feet by calamity; there is no inflation, things are brought down to a normal level. You get the thought of merchandise in Matthew 13. A man buys a field; it is a question of market value, and normal price, not what is gratuitous. A condition of abnormality is bad. If we are abnormal in physical things we shall be abnormal in spiritual. Compare Revelation 6: 6, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine”; there is consideration for what belonged to reality — oil and wine, for under the Lamb these things are tempered.
Jehoram has no solution for the terrible state of things. Think of the extremity reached in chapter 6: 28. How awful! Motherly instincts gone. Why not die for your son rather than sacrifice him? The fine flour would speak of quality; the barley is an early cereal; they are at a proper price, they would refer to Christ. We are living in inflationary times. We are to buy the truth and sell it not; we are not to be carried away by external conditions. The actual conditions are brought out in chapter 7, where the unbeliever is trodden down in the gate. God did make windows in heaven; He has done it before. We must be watchful not to lean on the wrong man. Heaven provides what is needed; in Malachi the windows were to be opened to pour out blessing. There was inflation at Corinth, leaven. They were puffed up, valuing each other beyond all reasonable market conditions, as we might say. Family relationships at Corinth were deranged by the incestuous conditions spoken of. The apostle would bring the saints together according to proper values as here; he speaks of “the brother for whose sake Christ died”. What God gives is within reach of all, and [p. 367] every christian has the means of acquiring it, if he has an appetite for the truth. To use our illustration, it is a marketable commodity, “Buy of me” is the word in Revelation. It is real, good, constitutional food. The great end in ministry is to make the truth available to all.
Elisha represents the year of grace. Hence “he prepared a great repast” for the Syrians, (Compare the great supper of Luke 14; it is a lavish thing). It serves to break up party spirit — the bands came no more into the land of Israel; they were bands, not an army.
Barley was the first-fruits, the wave sheaf; the fine flour would set forth the humanity of Christ. Elisha was not ministering to inflate or flatter people; those who pay the price would get the thing, “Gather unto me my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”, (Psalm 50: 5), that is the principle. One thinks of the inauguration of christianity, the state of things that Christ left here, and the superlative quality seen in those two men in Acts 3, Peter and John. They were heaven’s product, therefore Peter could say, “Look on us”. He could say to the man, “What I have, this give I to thee”, because the idea was to bring out the position of christianity. But here the thought of cost comes in. It speaks in 1 Timothy of those who have purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is a question of what we are.
Ques What about paying for printed ministry?
JT It has been made costless to certain ones, but others have to pay. An honest man says, I want to pay for what I get spiritually. Abraham paid for his sepulchre; David for the threshing-floor. “Buy the truth, and sell it not”. We do not barter the truth for earthly value. This enters into the constitution of manhood; things cost us something. You get the [p. 368] principle in Isaiah 55: buy and eat. Though it is the gospel, there is still the idea of buying; it is a principle in your soul. Christianity is not a system of parasites.
Elisha suffered so much anxiety but he is usable through it all. So Christ suffered in each miracle He wrought. Paul says to the Galatians, “My children, of whom I again travail in birth”. He had gone through it before. In this way ministers establish credit accounts! Liabilities are incurred when saints are ministered to; as I am taught I am obligated. See Paul’s remarks to Philemon. The gospel is free, but as a believer I am added to the system that gives. Then the four leprous men make a spiritual calculation. They are in a difficult situation, and calculation helps us here. It is like the clean fish in Leviticus 11, it is not carried along without fins. There is nothing in the city, these men reason, and if they abide where they are they will die. The word ‘live’ comes into their minds. Food was in the camp of the Syrians; that is a spiritual matter. They might be called last-resource christians. Calculation marks the work of God in a ‘dusky’ state of things; they have recourse to what God has given man in the way of reasoning power. In this way the food is secured.