“And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:54-56 KJV).
(I)
Prof. Herman Hanko
[Source: Covenant Reformed News, November 2013, Volume
XIV, Issue 19]
A reader has submitted the following: "In
II Kings 1, Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume two bands of fifty
men and their captains. In Luke 9:54-56, James and John were forbidden by Jesus
to do the same thing to a Samaritan village where He had not been received. The
Lord’s explanation was, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the
Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ Their desire
does seem very vindictive but surely they were of the same spirit as Elijah?"
This question is a rather interesting one and
underscores, in my judgment, a truth that is still applicable today.
Briefly, as far as the question itself is
concerned, the answer is that the two events took place under entirely
different circumstances.
The two bands of soldiers that were burned to a
crisp were sent by wicked Ahaziah, king of the Northern Kingdom. King Ahaziah
had fallen through a lattice in his upper chamber (II Kings 1:2) and had
apparently hurt himself so seriously that the possibility of death, because of
his injuries, was real. But, although he knew that Elijah was Jehovah’s prophet
who brought the Word of God to the Northern Kingdom, he did not send messengers
to Elijah to learn God’s will but sent men to Baalzebub, an idol of the Philistines.
This was an intolerable sin, a calculated insult to the Most High and a defiant
rejection of Israel’s God, Jehovah.
Ahaziah knew that Jehovah was God alone. He
knew Israel’s history. He knew Elijah, for he was the son of Ahab and knew what
had happened on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:17-46). He knew that Jehovah was a
jealous God who visited the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, as the
second commandment says. And he knew God’s judgments in all their horror, for
he had lived through the years of famine (I Kings 17:1; James 5:17). But he
rejected all this and blatantly told his people that the god of the Philistines
was wiser and more knowledgeable than the God of Israel.
But his sin was yet greater. When his plan to
inquire at Baalzebub was frustrated, he resolved to kill Elijah who was
reminding him of his calling before Israel’s God. Ahaziah sent soldiers to
capture Elijah and bring him to the palace to be slain. His sin was the measure
of the terrible apostasy in the Northern Kingdom, begun by Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, who made Israel to sin, and culminating in the captivity that destroyed
forever the Northern Kingdom.
The sin of the Samaritans in Luke 9 was quite
different. They were not Israelites. They were people from other nations who
had been put in the land of Canaan by the general of the Assyrian armies, which
had destroyed Israel. They did not know Jehovah, although they had learned
something of the religion of the Jews (II Kings 17:24-41). So Samaria was
populated with people who had never, in all their generations, been in God’s
covenant. Their sin was far less than the sin of Ahaziah (Matt. 11:20-24).
In fact, when in the new dispensation God
ordained that the gospel would now be brought to the Gentiles, Samaria was the
first country to which He would turn (Acts 1:8; 8:5-24).
God works in the salvation of His church in an
orderly way. Israel was His covenant people. They rejected Jehovah their God
and worshipped the golden calves. God’s judgment comes upon a nation that knew
Him, confessed His name and then rejected Him in their sin. God had determined
judgment on Israel. Elijah, whose name means, "My God is Jehovah,"
stood alone in the nation to proclaim by his work and name that though all
Israel might say, "Our God is Baal," he would insist, "My God is
Jehovah." If Israel rejected that, they would be destroyed.
Let us not forget that God does not return
again and again to a nation that has rejected Him. Europe and America had the
gospel, confessed it and held to it. Now they are rejecting it with monstrous
sins and with bitter hatred against God and His Christ and people. Prayers for
revival are hopeless whistling in the wind, made in ignorance of God’s organic
working. God is turning to the Orient where many doors are opening to the
preaching of the gospel. After all, not only election, but also reprobation is
in the line of continuing generations. There is a time when God puts a roof on
His temple, which is built on the foundation of the prophets, Jesus Christ
being the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20-22).
After Pentecost, the gospel went from Jerusalem
and even away from Jerusalem to return there never again. It went to Judaea,
then to Samaria and then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). In its progress,
it has moved westward. It conquered Europe and America. But now these nations
are rejecting Christ. It will soon move to the ends of the earth, and is doing
so already. But the judgment of the fury of God’s wrath that burns to a cinder
the disobedient will not come on these nations until they too have received the
gospel and then rejected it.
When Jesus and His disciples were on earth,
Samaria could not yet be destroyed, for the elect had yet to be saved. The time
would come—as it has come before our day, when Samaria would become ripe from
destruction. But also Europe and America! Do Europe and America think, in their
haughtiness, that they are better than Israel? They do! Judgment, they reckon,
will never come. But fire will pour from heaven and burn them as surely as it
did Ahaziah’s captains and their fifties.
But the elect are safe and will be delivered as
Lot was, for Jehovah God is our refuge and hiding place in Jesus Christ.
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(II)
More to Come! (DV)
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