p. 2 | SECOND KINGS by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 28.

SECOND KINGS.

By F. D. Starr

BY F. D. STARR.

THREE and one-third centuries are covered by the interesting history of this book, from B.C. 896 to B.C. 562, or 334 years. We can better comprehend the length of the time by comparing it with the same period preceding our own time. If we go back three centuries it takes us to a time just preceding the translation of the Bible, by which, under King James, the Authorized Version was produced. It seems a good while to look back to the time of the landing of the Pilgrim fathers on Plymouth Rock in 1620, but the entire history of the colonies of the Revolutionary War and of the United States, with all the contemporary history of Europe and the rest of the world, lacks one-half a century of being as long as the period covered by the book of 2 Kings.

The book begins with the closing events of the life of Elijah, the prophet, and closes with the account of the captivity of the Jews.

The first chapter contains the account of the calling of fire from heaven to devour the impious men who dared to disrespectfully command

the man of God to obey the behest of the king. This incident is referred to by the disciples, as recorded in Luke 9:51–56, with the inquiry as to whether they should imitate the conduct of the prophet. Without criticizing the action of Elijah the Lord plainly instructs the disciples that it is not the deeds of retribution performed by the prophet, but deeds of mercy that we are to copy. Circumstances of which we are not competent judges, made the summary sentence of destruction by fire proper in the days of Elijah, but improper in the time of the disciples. But the awful fire that shall devour the adversaries will again be visited upon the Lord’s enemies. See 2 Thess. 1:7–10; 2:8. We may be thankful that we now have the ministration of the Spirit that gives life instead of the letter that killeth. Judgments of this kind are mostly reserved for the future. But the sentence, though long delayed, will be no less certain. Eccl. 8:11. The second chapter of 2 Kings contains the supremely interesting account of the translation to heaven of the man of like passions with ourselves. This case, like that of Enoch, has special significance for us, who are living in the time when the remnant church are preparing for a like experience. “We shall not all sleep,” says Paul. There will be scores of thousands of saints living on the earth when the Lord comes, and these will be taken to heaven without seeing death. Glorious theme! Never to taste of death!

But as it was then, so it is now: the ungodly mocked at the sublime and solemn theme. We read that more than twoscore children (boys the French Version says) scoffed at the companion of Elijah, who was left behind, saying, “Go up thou bald head,” or, as the German Version gives it, “Bald head, come up hither.” The exceeding irreverence of this conduct is seen in considering these words. The call, “Come up hither,” would of course be supposed to come from above. So it seems that these rude boys thought to amuse themselves by seeing how confused the prophet would be upon hearing a call from above for him to ascend like his famous teacher, without his being given the power to do so. It is probable that these lads got their irreverent ideas from their parents at home, at least in part, and this would indicate a sad condition in family religion.

From 2 Peter 3:3, 4 we learn that in the last days there are to be people who will scoff at these same solemn themes, and the sport that is sometimes made of those who have been looking for the Lord to come and expecting translation, shows the existence of this very class of ungodly people. But the Lord will come, and the living righteous will be taken to the celestial regions without seeing death, and that coming will not be long delayed.

One of the most lucid cases of simple childlike faith is recorded in 2 Kings 5. The little captive maid was confident that the prophet Elisha could heal Naaman of his leprosy. But how did she know that the prophet could heal this deadly disease? The reply comes that she had, no doubt, seen him heal lepers when she was in her native land, or at least that she had heard of his healing these poor unfortunate objects. But how many lepers had she known of his healing? Have we any means of knowing? We have. Our Lord tells us in Luke 4:27, “And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” So it seems that Elisha (Eliseus) never healed one case of leprosy before meeting the Syrian general. Then the little maiden had never heard of the prophet healing a case of leprosy. She simply acted by faith, and faith is based, not on what we have seen and heard simply, but on the word and power of God, and the little girl knew that God could heal the leprosy just as well as if she had seen him heal a hundred cases.

In chapter six we have the account of a son of one of the prophets losing an ax in the water, and the miracle by which it was recovered. Our version conveys the idea that the prophet threw a stick into the place where the ax fell. Another version indicates that the prophet cut a pole and thrust one end of it into the water, evidently in the act of trying to stick the pole through the eye of an ax, and thus pull the ax out of the water. The miracle is just as great in either case, but the latter would indicate that the prophet was making an effort to recover the tool when the miracle occurred. God does not despise our feeble efforts, but works with them as shown by the multiplying of the widow’s oil, and many other miracles.

The sickness and miraculous recovery of Hezekiah, as recorded in chapter twenty, are of intense interest. It would seem that the lengthening of the king’s life was not used altogether as it should have been, for his son, Manasseh, who was born three years after the recovery, became one of the most wicked kings the nation ever had. Numerous are the lessons to be learned from this inspired, historical book.