2 Kings 3

God brings about strange events by the mere imaginations and conceits of men, which are contrary to common and natural observation, and the ordinary course of rational consequences. The army of the Moabites which had invaded Israel, thought the two kings of Judah and Israel had…

But we read not in any place that the Moabites were subject or tributaries to the Jews: neither is there so much as any probable conjecture of it. Whereas they allege the history of the Kings, they are mistaken: for it is there spoken to the king of Israel: Ahab and Samaria are…

What wilderness was this? It is conceived, that this was either the wilderness of Idumea, or Edom, spoken of (2 Kings 3:8), or else it was Arabia the Desert, which is by way of eminence called the wilderness. It came from the wilderness, that is, it came over that part which is…

Hope that makes not ashamed (Romans 5), as is said, dwells sweetly with the Spirit. 2. The violence of the passion of anger overclouds the soul, so that Elisha is not capable to receive prophetical influences, and to prophesie, he was so incensed against wicked Jehoram (2 Kings…

A fit of applause may by accident rub a cold heart and so heat and life may come, but it is not the proper cause of that heat. Hence God of his free grace will run his errands upon our corrupt nature by occasion; as the playing on a pipe removed anger from the prophet and made h…

If he does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor bid him God speed. John the disciple of love persuades to such strangeness in such a case: so the Prophet tells Jehoram, that were it not for Jehoshaphat, he would not look towards him, nor see him (2 Ki…

This calm and sedate frame does very much qualify and dispose us for the reception and entertainment of divine visits, and sets bounds to the mountain (Exodus 19:12) on which God is to descend, that no interruption may break in, and charges the daughters of Jerusalem, by the roe…

2. In great distempers there may be some pause. Elisha would not prophesy when he was under a passion of anger; therefore he calls for a minstrel to sing a Psalm (2 Kings 3:13-15), and as he played upon an instrument, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He was under a passion,…

It was not the sound of Davids Harpe that could have this power, either over the evill spirit, or over the sinfull passions of Saul himselfe, if the sound of the Harpe had not been quickned and enlived, as it were by a spirituall song, and by the Spirit of God breathing therein.…

For when the Psalms of David, and of other holy men of God, were commended to the Church of Israel, and by them were ordinarily sung in the Temple and elsewhere, would you say it did hinder the free passage of the breathing of the lively gifts of God's Spirit, either in the mini…

Thus it argues; If I am under reproach, God can vindicate me; if I am in want, God can relieve me. You shall not see wind, nor rain; yet the valley shall be filled with water (2 Kings 3:17). Thus holy contentment keeps the heart from fainting; in the autumn when the fruit and le…

Q. 7. What are the chief attributes of his being? A. (a) Eternity, (b) infiniteness, (c) simplicity, or purity, (d) all-sufficiency, (e) perfectness, (f) immutability, (g) life, (h) will, and (i) understanding. (a) Deuteronomy 33:37; Psalm 93:2; Isaiah 57:15; Revelation 1:11. (b…