2 Kings 7:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A lord on whose hand the king leaned When he walked; said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven Through which he should rain down corn, as once he did manna; might this thing be? He could not conceive, considering the prodigious famine that then reigned in Samaria, and their being surrounded by a powerful army, that it was possible there should be such a change wrought by any means in a few hours, as that there should be such plenty to-morrow, where there was such want and distress to-day. He judged, as we too generally do, according to the visible appearance of natural and instrumental causes, and did not consider that with God all things are possible. Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof A just punishment for his unbelief, by which he made not only the prophet, but God himself, (in whose name Elisha had long given full proof that he spoke and acted,) a liar. Here we see, as we have often seen elsewhere, that unbelief of God's declarations and promises is a sin whereby men both greatly displease him, and deprive themselves of the favours he designed for them. The murmuring Israelites saw Canaan, but could not enter in because of unbelief. “Such,” says Bishop Patrick, “will be the portion of those who believe not the promise of eternal life; they shall see it at a distance, but never taste it.” Take care, reader, that this be not thy case! that a promise being left thee of entering into his rest, thou do not fall short of it.