2 Kings 3:13-27 And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? get you to the prophets of your father… And Elisha said unto the King of Israel, What have I to do with thee?' etc. Elisha was confessedly a godly man of a high type, and these verses reveal him to us in three aspects. I. AS RISING SUPERIOR TO KINGS. When these three kings - Jehoshaphat the King of Judah, Jehoram the King of Israel, and the King of Edom - approached Elisha, was he overawed by their splendor? or was he elated by their visit? No. He was no flunkey; no true man ever is. Here are his sublimely manly words, What have I to do with thee?" 1. He rebukes Jehoram for his idolatry. "Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother." "In your prosperity you Israelite kings have been serving these false gods, and you have despised me as the servant of the true God. Why come to me now in your distress? Go and try what they can do for you." What courage in this poor lonely man, thus calmly to confront and honestly to rebuke a monarch! Ah me! where is this courage now? The loudest professors of our religion in these times will too often crouch before kings, and address them in terms of fawning flattery. 2. He yields to their urgency out of respect to the true religion. "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." Jehoshaphat was pre-eminently a godly man (2 Chronicles 17:5, 6), and that influenced the great Elisha to interpose on his behalf. "Them that honor me I will honor," saith the Lord. A godly man is the only true independent man on this earth; he can "stand before kings" and not be ashamed, and rebuke princes as well as paupers for their sins. Whither has this spirit fled? We are a nation of sycophants. Heaven send us men! II. AS PREPARING FOR INTERCESSION WITH HEAVEN. What these kings wanted was the interposition of Heaven on their behalf, and they here apply to Elisha to obtain this; and after the prophet had acceded to their request, he seeks to put himself in the right moral mood to appeal to Heaven, and what does he do. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him." Probably his mind had been somewhat ruffled by the presence of these kings, especially at the sight of Jehoram, the wicked and idolatrous king, and before venturing an appeal to Heaven he felt the need of a devout calmness. Hence he called for music, and as the devout musician sounded out sweet psalmody on his ear, he became soothed and spiritualized in soul. The power of music, especially the music which is the organ of Divine ideas, has in every age exerted a soothing and elevating influence on the human soul. By the harp David expelled the evil spirit from the heart of Saul. "Buretti declares music to have the power of so affecting the whole nervous system as to give sensible ease in a large variety of disorders, and in some cases to effect a radical cure: particularly he instances sciatica as capable of being relieved by this agency. Theophrastus is mentioned by Pliny as recommending it for the hip gout; and there are references on record by old Cato and Varro to the same effect. AEsculapius figures in Pindar as healing acute disorders with soothing songs." "Music exalts each joy, allays each grief, Expels diseases, softens every pain, Subdues the rage of poison and of plague, And hence the wise of ancient days adored One power of physic, melody, and song." Luther taught that the "spirit of darkness abhorred sweet sounds." There is a spiritual mood necessary in order to have intercourse with Heaven, and this mood it is incumbent on every man to seek and retain. III. AS BECOMING THE ORGAN OF THE SUPERNATURAL. (1) Through him God made a promise of deliverance. "For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain," etc. (vers. 17-19). (2) Through him God effected their deliverance. "And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites," etc. (vers. 24, 25). Thus the Almighty made this godly man both to foretell and fulfill his plans. We would remind those who are skeptical of this, and who perhaps ridicule the idea of man becoming the organ of Divine power: 1. That there is nothing antecedently improbable in this. God works through his creatures; since he created the universe he employs it as his agent. What wonders he works through the sun, the atmosphere, etc.! Science teaches that even through worms he prepares the soil of this earth to produce food for man and beast. But inasmuch as man is confessedly greater than the material universe - for he is the offspring of the Infinite, and participates in the Divine nature - it cannot be absurd to regard him in a preeminent sense as an organ of the supernatural. 2. Biblical history attests this. Moses, Christ, and the apostles performed deeds that seem to us to have transcended the natural. A morally great man becomes "mighty through God." God has ever worked wonders through godly men, and ever will. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, 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. |
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