(18) And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
Reader, do not fail to remark, (and which is, indeed, the sweetest improvement of the passage) what a close connection there is in the mind, between the guilt of sin and the afflictions of life which are the consequences of sin. You see how the death of her child revived a sense and conviction of sin in her conscience. And this is the sting of all afflictions. For only suppose the sting of sin removed, though the affliction be not removed, the burden and pressure is gone, and the mind is at ease. Hence the prophet, speaking of gospel-times, and of the blessed effects of the sting of sin taken out by the blood and righteousness of Christ, makes this sweet observation: The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity. Isaiah 33:24 Not that the prophet meant by this, to say that mankind had discovered a climate where no sickness was known; for wherever sinners, even redeemed sinners, live, there must he sickness and death, the sure consequence of sin. See Romans 5:12. But the inhabitant of the Gospel Church of Jesus shall no longer complain of sickness; because he is forgiven all his iniquities in Jesus. The burden and sorrow of sickness is gone, because the guilt of sin is taken away. Hence David, under the assurance of pardoning mercy in Christ, calls upon all that is within him to bless the Lord, who hath forgiven all his iniquities, and healed all his diseases. Psalms 103:1-19.