And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them. Sermons
2 Kings 13:1-13, with 2 Kings 13:22-25 Observe here - I. THE PERPETUITY OF EVIL. How sad it is to read of one king after another, "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord"! And then the statement is usually made, "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." A bad man does harm to others besides himself. "None of us liveth to himself." Not merely while we live, but after we are gone, our lives and words and deeds will influence others. We may think ourselves very obscure and insignificant, so insignificant that we may argue it does not matter to others how we live. But who can measure the circle of his influence? In ways that we know not, influence may reach other hearts and other lives. Oh! how dangerous is one evil influence in a community! It takes a long time to do away with its effects. "The evil that men do lives after them; II. THE MERCY OF GOD. God punished Jehoahaz and his people for their sins. "He delivered them into the hand of Hazael King of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their days." When suffering or troubles come, let us see whether the cause of them is not within our own hearts and lives. But he mingled mercy with judgment. God is ever on the watch for signs of the prodigal's return. His ear is ever open for the cry of penitence, for the faintest' prayer for forgiveness and help. Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the King of Syria oppressed them" (ver. 4; see also ver. 23). Come, let us to the Lord our God "His voice commands the tempest forth, III. HUMAN INGRATITUDE. Though God delivered them from their difficulty and distress, and gave them peace from their enemies, yet, when the difficulty was over, they forgot all about God's mercy. They went back to their old sins. "Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat... but walked therein" (ver. 6). How prone the human heart is to forsake God! The Books of Judges and Kings are full of illustrations of this painful fact. By forsaking God the Israelites brought themselves into misery and bondage. Time after time God raised up judges and kings and prophets to be the means of their deliverance. But when these were dead, or when the immediate danger had passed away, once again the people forsook God. It is the same in the history of the individual. How ungrateful we are for God's unceasing and unfailing goodness! How forgetful of his commandments and his promises! "The way of man is not in himself; and it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." We need all the influence of Divine grace to keep us in the way that is right. IV. A HUMBLED NATION. To what a low level sin reduces a nation! How shamefully Israel was humiliated before Syria! The King of Syria only left to Jehoahaz fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; "for the King of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing." The fate of Israel, the fate of other mighty nations of the past, are a great national lesson to be remembered so long as the world shall last. Ought we not earnestly to pray that this great British empire, which has been built up by God-fearing men, and which God has blessed and honored so highly, may not forsake God for secularism or gross corruption, and thus fall into the fate of the fallen nations of the past? Knowing how great are the forces of evil, it becomes every true Christian to be more valiant for the truth, to be more active in everything that will extend the kingdom of Christ in this and other lands. - C.H.I. People Ahaziah, Amaziah, Aram, Benhadad, Ben-hadad, Elisha, Hazael, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jehu, Jeroboam, Joash, Moabites, Nebat, SyriansPlaces Aphek, Samaria, SyriaTopics Aside, Caused, Commit, Copying, Depart, Departed, Didn't, Evil, Followed, Jeroboam, Jerobo'am, Nebat, Sight, Sin, Sins, Therefrom, Turn, WherewithOutline 1. Jehoahaz's wicked reign3. Jehoahaz, oppressed by Hazael, is relieved by prayer 8. Joash succeeds him 10. His wicked reign 12. Jeroboam succeeds him 14. Elisha dying, prophesies to Joash three victories over the Syrians 20. The Moabites invading the land, Elisha's bones raise a dead man. 22. Joash gets three victories over Ben-hadad Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Kings 13:1-2Library The Spirit of Power'And Elisha said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.'--2 KINGS xiii. 16. This is part of one of the strangest narratives in the Old Testament. Elisha is on his deathbed, 'sick of the sickness' wherewith he 'should die.' A very different scene, that close sick-chamber, from the open plain beyond Jordan from which Elijah had gone up; a very different way of passing from life by wasting sickness than by fiery … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Elijah's Translation and Elisha's Deathbed Tiglath-Pileser iii. And the Organisation of the Assyrian Empire from 745 to 722 B. C. Kings Links 2 Kings 13:2 NIV2 Kings 13:2 NLT 2 Kings 13:2 ESV 2 Kings 13:2 NASB 2 Kings 13:2 KJV 2 Kings 13:2 Bible Apps 2 Kings 13:2 Parallel 2 Kings 13:2 Biblia Paralela 2 Kings 13:2 Chinese Bible 2 Kings 13:2 French Bible 2 Kings 13:2 German Bible 2 Kings 13:2 Commentaries Bible Hub |