03.05. The Origin of the Mockery

The Origin of the Mockery

Elisha now departs from Jericho on his way to Bethel, and doubtless under Divine direction. Carnal minds enjoy following their own dictates; but it is infinitely more safe and blessed to know, that "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and that he delighteth in his way." Elisha quitted Jericho alone, but followed by the prayers and blessings of many grateful hearts. The peaceful and happy days which the sons of the prophets had enjoyed in his society, would not be forgotten by them. The whole city would bless the man of God, the instrument of their preservation; the benefits he had been the means of conferring being of more value than silver and gold. It was an honorable memorial which Elisha had established for himself in the hearts of the people, and in the surrounding country; or rather, it was a glorious memorial to the praise of Him, whose interpreter and minister he was, and who has declared, "My glory will I not give to another."

Bethel, whither he now directed his steps, was, as its name imports, a city once renowned as the house of God; but it now no longer merited that glorious distinction. The indignant prophet called it Beth-aven, that is, the house of vanity or iniquity, Hosea 10:5; because, together with Dan, it had become the seat of that idolatrous worship, which Jeroboam’s impious policy had established for the purpose of effecting an entire separation between Israel and Judah. To annihilate all desire in his subjects after the temple-worship of Jerusalem, he caused two new stations of central worship to be erected. The golden calves, one of which was set up at Bethel, and the other in Dan, were to supply, the place of the cherubim above the mercy-seat; for the king said unto the people, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." An illiterate priesthood, arbitrarily selected, without regard to lineage and Divine appointment, were to occupy the place of the house of Aaron; and instead of the beautiful and figurative worship of the temple, a variety of insignificant heathenish ceremonies were substituted, which tended, not only to banish all hopes concerning the Messiah, but likewise gradually to eradicate from the minds of the infatuated multitude, all idea of the true worship of God. How impious thus to lower the highest interests of man into subservience to mere worldly policy! and how lamentable that the case of Israel is not the only instance of so detestable a scheme! Similar attempts have frequently been made in the world, though nothing is more offensive and provoking to the Almighty. That Jeroboam succeeded in his nefarious scheme is not surprising, if the natural depravity of man be considered. Many in our own days can boast of similar achievements. To divert the people from the temple of the true church, Jeroboam did not directly deny the necessity of the temple-worship, but erected another to resemble and to rival it; and having done so, he cried, "Come up hither! This is the true church! This is Jerusalem! Here the pure light shines!" In like manner the modern corrupters of the church have also their Christianity; but it is a Christianity as essentially different from that of Christ, as was the worship of the golden calves from the religion of Abraham and of Moses. To the Christ whom they profess to honor, they have denied the crown of Deity, and the priestly garments, and have left him but a fragment of his prophetic mantle. The devotion of their worship is but a self-complacent glow of natural feeling and sentimentality; and their prayers are of the most extraordinary character, being dictated by unmeaning sensibility, and expended in ejaculations without an object. And yet our modern Beth-aven teems with worshippers; our Israel have forsaken the spiritual Jerusalem, and the true temple. Thus "evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived; but their folly shall be manifest unto all men."

Elisha could take no complacency in such a Bethel, nor could the Bethelites bestow any welcome on him. He was a messenger of Israel’s covenant God; no wonder, therefore, that he was assailed with scoffing and derision in this abode of darkness and unbelief. It is not under the Christian dispensation alone, that the children of God have had to feel the truth of the declaration, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." The saints in all ages have painfully experienced the rancor of that enmity, which, from the beginning, was suffered to arise between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. If the world’s enmity against the children of God appear a mystery, it is sufficiently explained by that declaration of our Lord: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." The world cannot tolerate our separation from themselves, or that we should rise above their standard of moral excellence. They require us courteously to follow in their track, to adopt their thoughts and sentiments, and to copy their actions, and if we only comply, we secure their favor and friendship. But the moment we show symptoms of desertion, the question of peace is at an end. The reason is obvious. Our departure from their ranks, our rejection of their maxims and customs, their vanities and enjoyments, is a more decided and emphatic condemnation of them, than can possibly be expressed in words. Every converted man is too powerful a contrast to their own character: he admonishes them, too forcibly of the necessity of a change, and of the possibility of rising into a more holy and elevated sphere of action than their own. But they love darkness, and cannot bear the light; they love vanity, and sport themselves with their own deceivings. They wish not to be disturbed in their carnal security. What wonder, then, if they have the strongest antipathy for those who cause the light to shine around them! Brethren, if we experience personally little or nothing of this enmity from the world, it is no very favorable sign for us, but should make us pause and consider, how far we are really faithful to our Lord and Master. Hath he not said, "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you?" Can his true disciples easily avoid being at one time or at another reviled, persecuted, or calumniated, for his name’s sake? The indications of our high birth must surely be too faint, and its light can shine but little before men, if the worldly can take complacency in it, and remain worldly at our side. Surely, then, we are indulging them in their self-delusion by our own conformity to the world. The courtesy we commonly receive from them may be attributed to the lifelessness of our religion; which, if it contained more of the Divine unction, of the fire from off the altar of the sanctuary, would cause the whole appearance of things to be changed. The true man of God can never expect to pass unmolested through Dan or Beth-aven; for, while he is "a savor of life" to all that believe, he is to the unbeliever "a savor of death unto death."