2 Kings 4
EDT2 Kings 4:1-44
Dwell Among Your Own 2 Kings 4:13
The whole incident is full of idyllic beauty, and is also vital with modern suggestion and application. Said the woman in effect: I am quite content, I do not want the king’s notice, the captain of the host can do nothing for me; I have my husband, my house, my daily task, I am well content; if I were otherwhere I should feel as if I were a stranger: I would rather be just where I am. If this woman’s spirit should take hold of us the most precious blessings would immediately and permanently be realized by every soul. It is vanity that disturbs the world; it is illegitimate, unnatural ambition that troubles and divides and torments lives that might otherwise be placid and content. A man is not always able to pass from one environment to another, and to retain the full use of his faculties. He who is really of consequence in one place would be of no consequence in another: the same man, but not the same environment.
I. It is so socially. If you allow the man to remain upon his native heath; if you allow him to pursue his honest, quiet, healthful occupation of ploughing the land which he owns or rents; the man is quite content, he feels that he is in his right place. Disturbance of environment is loss of power and loss of peace and loss of self-respect.
II. It is so educationally. A man may be well informed and what is popularly called well read, and yet not be an educated man, and not be qualified to take any part in educated society. Much better that a man should know exactly what he is, what he can do, and what place he can adequately occupy.
III. It is so in commerce. It is an infinite mischief for a man to get it into his head that he ought to be somebody else; he loses his own power; he is not really what he might be and what God intended him to be; he is a wavering and double-minded man, and he can receive nothing of the Lord and he can receive nothing of men; for he is here and he is there, and he is nowhere.
IV. Christians must remain amongst Christians. You do not know how good the very meanest Christian is until you get into the society of men who have no God, no reverence, no religious aspiration. You need not leave Christ if you want to enjoy the most exalted and the most exalting communion. We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect. All history in its saintliest moods and influences is at our service.
Joseph Parker, * City Temple Pulpit,* vol. II. p. 78.
References. IV. 20, 21, 23. C. Leach, * Mothers of the Bible,* p. 55. IV. 23. E. Fowle, * Plain Preaching to Poor People* (3rd Series), p. 49. IV. 25-37. A. Maclaren, * Expositions of Holy Scripture* * 2 Samuel , 1 and 2 Kings,* p. 352. IV. 26. C. Bickersteth, * The Shunammite,* p. 3. Spurgeon, * Sermons,* vol. vii. No. 411. IV. 29. J. Parker, * City Temple Pulpit,* vol. v. p. 175. IV. 31. J. M. Neale, * Sermons Preached in a Religious House,* vol. i. p. 113. J. S. Maver, * Christian World Pulpit,* vol. liv. 1898, p. 111. IV. 31-34. S. Baring-Gould, * Sermon-Sketches,* p. 24. IV. 32, 35. J. M. Neale, * Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel,* vol. iii. p. 78; see also * Readings for the Aged* (4th Series), p. 233. IV. 33. W. Howell Evans, * Sermons for the Church’s Year,* p. 198. IV. 34. Spurgeon, * Sermons,* vol. xxv. No. 1461. IV. 41. J. M. Neale, * Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel,* vol. iii. p. 86. IV. 42, 43. T. Champness, * New Coins from Old Gold,* p. 21. V. C. Bickersteth, * The Shunammite,* p. 55.