We do not well, &c.— It is an infallible sign of great calamity to a nation, when the people have not a true delight in the public concernments; when there is not such a sympathy of affections, as that subjects rejoice at the prosperity of their princes. When the sins are national which draw down God's judgments upon us, the sadness and repentance of a few will do but little good; it must be a general sorrow and recognition which will avail. The same order must be observed in the reception of public blessings; and no blessings are more public, or of more public consequence, than good success to kings in their just undertakings, and therefore the joy and delight must be universal; and if that acknowledgement be wanting, God is defrauded of his due. He does not more love an humble and a broken heart under affliction, than he does a grateful and thankful heart upon his blessings and deliverance. Seasonable joy is as proper a sacrifice to the Almighty as tears and sighs can be; and the suppressing of the one is as bad as the not pouring out of the other. We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning-light, some mischief will come upon us; now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household, was the cheerful consultation and conclusion of these poor men, who first discover that the king and city are free from the army of the Syrians, when they might perhaps have spent their time more to their own particular advantage by a discreet reservation, and not yet communicating this argument of public joy: but they knew that they would not then have done well, and that it would have been little better than sacrilege to defraud those of the present notice to whom God bequeathed the benefit: and they who have the notice of such great deliverances, and do not enlarge their hearts with a proportionable joy and acknowledgement, defraud God of what he expects from them: he loves a cheerful as well as a broken heart.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Despair covered every face with blackness, and the king gives up all for lost; but when we are most reduced, God will make bare his holy arm.
1. Elisha foretells the suddenly approaching plenty, in consequence of the siege being raised: welcome news to famished Israelites!
2. He denounces the doom of the unbelieving lord, who refused to credit his prediction. He was a great courtier, on whose arm, for state, his master now leaned; and, because it was impossible with men, he foolishly deems it impossible with God. Note; Unbelief is among the greatest sins, and most fatal to the soul.
2nd, God will be found true, and all who distrust him be proved liars.
1. According to his word, the siege is raised, and by his own power a dreadful panic is sent among the hosts of Syria. A terrible sound of horses and chariots is heard, and, fear magnifying their danger, they conclude that the Egyptians and Hittites are hired to fall upon them, and that nothing but instant flight can secure their lives. They immediately quit the camp, and each man with the utmost precipitation runs for his life. Note; (1.) God's terrors can make the stoutest tremble. (2.) The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth.
2. The discovery of the flight is made by four lepers, who carry tidings of it into the city. Famishing in their secluded hut without the gate, neither daring to enter the city, nor hoping for any relief thence; since die they must, if they abode where they were, they resolve to go to the Syrian camp, hoping that compassion might engage them to relieve them: at the worst, they can but die. They immediately go; and how great their astonishment to find the camp deserted, and all the tents and every thing in them remaining. Hunger first called for relief; and when that was satisfied, they began to load themselves with the richest plunder, till by and by, recollecting how unkind this was to their brethren, to neglect acquainting them with the good news, and how dangerous it might be to themselves if they should be found to have concealed the glad tidings merely to enrich themselves, they haste back to the city, and acquaint the centinel with the state of the Syrian camp; and instantly the news is carried to the king. Note; (1.) Every sinner is in these lepers' case; if they continue where they are, they must perish. There is but one door of hope; the compassion of that God whom they have made their enemy; and happy is it, when self-despair drives us to him. (2.) The mercies that we ourselves have experienced, we must publish for the comfort and edification of our brethren.