2 Chronicles 16

2 Chronicles 16:1-11

Here is, 1. Afa’s foolish treaty with Benhadad, ver. 1-6. 2. The reprent which God sent him by a prophet, ver. 7-9. 3. Afa’s difficulties against the prophet, ver. 10. 4. His father and death, ver. 11-14.

1. IN

IN the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Afa, Baafha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out, or come in to Afa king of Judah. 2. Then Afa brought out silver and gold, out of the treatisers of the house of the LORD, and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damafcus, saying, 3. There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baafha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4. And Ben-hadad hearkned unto king Afa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote fion, and Dan, and Abal-maim, and all the stone-cities of Naphtali. 5. And it came to pass when Baafha heard it, that he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease. 6. Then Afa the king took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baafha was a building, and he built therewith Geba and Mirarah.

The event here recorded we had a King or. The six and thirtieth year of Afa is reckoned from the division of the kingdoms, which is no more than the sixteenth of his reign. The expedient Afa took to divert Baafha was unfulfilled and sinful: “It shewed distrust of God, led Ben-hadad into a perfidious breath of his league, and all the mischiefs which refused far at Afa’s door; whilst himself, with half the expense probably, and without rubbing God’s temple, might, in dependence on his affiliance, have much more nobly succeeded against Baafha. Note, (1.) The strongest believers are sometimes shaken. (2.) Wrong expedients may succeed to extricate us from present trouble, but we shall be made to smart for using them afterwards.

7. And at that time Hanani the seer came to Afa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the hoft of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. 8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lohims a huge hoft, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. 9. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Heron thou hast done foolishly; therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. 10. Then Afa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison-house; for he was in a rage with him, because of this thing. And Afa oppressed some of the people the same time. 11. And behold, the acts of Afa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12. And Afa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he fought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. 13. And Afa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. 14. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries are: and they made a very great burning for him.

Judah unto this day. The fame time alss did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers. 11. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.

Jehoshaphat’s death opened the succession to the unworthy Jehoram, whom, during his life-time, he had associated with him in the government, whilst he had provided for his other children by governments and rich presents, that they might appear becoming their royal birth. Note, Though the eldest son be entitled to the double portion, it is unjush, for the sake of making one great, to deprive the rest of their due proportion.

1. Jehoram’s reign opened with the most bloody and unnatural murder of his brethren, left any of them, more pious than himself, should oppose the idolatry he intended to introduce; and the princes of Israel, the great men who had settled in Judah under Jehoshaphat, were massacred, because probably they resused to comply with his abominable innovations, or remonshtered against his crimes. Note, (1.) Ambition is dest to the cries of nature or humanity. (2.) Tyrants ever rule in fear, and all their precautions shew the tormented state of their own minds. (3.) Kingdoms supported by blood-shed are in a tottering condition.

2. Those whom he feared as his opposers being removed, he throws off the mass, and establishes gross and bare-faced idolatry, like Ahab his father-in-law; not only inviting the people by his countenance, but compelling them by force to frequent his idolatrous facrisices. What a curse on a land is a wicked king!

3. God’s hand soon overtook him in judgments; his tributary Edom revolted, and his subjects in Libnah rebesled: nor, though he obtained a vistory over Edom, could he reduce them to obedience. See 2 Kings viii. 17—22.

4. For David’s sake, God would not utterly consume this wicked king and his house. His promises stood firm amidst Jehoram’s provocations.

Which most have been wrote before his death, tho’ not but all now.

2 Chronicles 16:7-14

Afa now probably pleased himself in the success of his policy; but God embittered his joys. 1. By Hanani the prophet he sends him a severe rebuke for his distrust of God, and dependance upon an arm of flesh, which was to change a rock for a reed: and the experience of his past deliverance, v. 8. was an aggravation of his sin, especially when the promises of the same providential care enjoyed him to trust upon that strong arm that would ever be stretched out for the protection of those who leaned upon it. And herein also his folly was as great as his sin: he left the glory he might have gotten by victory over the confederate fruits of Syria and Israel, and entailed upon himself the wars he was fought to avoid. Note, (1.) Distrust of God’s power and love is exceeding displacing to him. (2.) The more we have experienced his mercy in time past, the more sinful is it to distrust him in present trials. (3.) All our departures from God arise from the infidelity of our hearts. Tigh, God shall not fear, and the Lord hath Syphilis the earth, are at the bottom of every evil. (4.) The very means we use unlawfully to avert approaching danger, often serve to bring it more heavily upon

us. (5.) All the wisdom of the sinner will at last appear the most egregious folly.

2. Far from submitting with penitent shame to the just rebuke, the angry king vents his rage on the prophet, calls him into prison, or, as some think, puts him in the stocks, as if his faithfulness was criminal; and because, probably, the people espoused the prophet’s cause, and encouraged him in his sufferings, he wreaked his vengeance upon them in oppressive fines, or corporal punishments. Note, (1.) Paffion, and impatience of reproof, in a good man, are exceeding sinful, and will end in bitter gnance. (2.) They who know their own hearts, need be jealous, left their desperate wickedness break forth. (3.) Faithful reprovers must expect to meet severe rebuffs. (4.) The prison-house is often the preferment of God’s zealous ministers. (5.) We are called upon to support God’s persecuted prophets, though by so doing we may be involved in their sufferings.

3. Afa grew disheard in the last years of his life: either the gout, or some oedematous swelling, fused his feet, and he languished for a while in great misery; a just rebuke for his injury to the prophet. In his disease he placed more dependence on his physicians than on God, and was more solicitous for their affiliance, than to obtain God’s blessing upon it. So apt are we still to be looking to man more than to God for help. This also was the more criminal, if, as some have conjectured, these were heathens, a kind of conjurors, who shall in charms and amulets.

4. Medicine, without God’s blessing, is no elixir of life. Death mocked at his confidence, and brought him to the grave. In respect for the good things he had done for Israel, the people gave him a most sumptuous funeral, and the clods of the valley were made sweet unto him. The good report afterwards made of him gives us ground to believe he lamented his sin, and was forgiven. Note, Though the best of men have their blunders, their memory is deservedly had in honour. Let their infirmities sleep in their graves, and their virtues rouse us to an imitation of them.

2 Chronicles 16:15-20

14. 58a.

Elijah appears to have been transated seven years before this; but by the spirit of prophecy forseseing the abominations of Jehoram, he seems to have left this letter with Elijah, or some other, to be sent to Jehoram at this time.

1. He reproaches him with his iniquities, in imitation of Israel’s son, and his forsaking the ways of his pious forstehters, to whom he was the great stand. Tyranny, idolatry, and murder, are particularly charged upon him, and judgment pronounced for these crimes. Ruin should overtake his family and people; and, smitten of God by a disease terrible and loath-some, he should linger out the remains of his life, without rest or remedy. Note, Diseases are God’s sourages: he can soon make those who are by their crimes a burden to the earth, a burden to themssures.

2. The warning being disregarded, the accomplisement of the threatening was speedy. [1.] The Arabians, stirred up of God, made an irruption into Judah; plundered the king’s pa-lace, either that at Jerusalem, or it may be some palace in the country, where the court at that time was; shew all his sons but one, chap. xxvii. 1. and carried away his wives captives, except Aṭkalah, who escaped. [2.] A disease, painful an incurable, sound him, rendered him incapable of recovering his losses, and, robbed of every domeslic consort, without hope in God, under his curse in body and foul, he lingred two long years, and then those bowels, that yearned not over his bre-thern, fell out, and he died. Note, The sick bed of a somer is among the most mostrable seems on this side hell. The body tormented with pain, death standing with terrible alpest before him, horror of conscience increasing every pang, and a fearful looking for judgment, already waking up the gnawing worm that never dies.

3. He dest unlamented, and was buried with disgrace. Glad to be rid of such a monster, they carried him to a common grave, as unworthy a place in the sepuschre of his ancestors; and, as his memory was odious, they burnt no sever spices over him, leaving the loathsome corple, an emblem of the more loathsome foul. Note, Tyrants, when alive, though feared, will be hated; and, when dead, will be branded with infamy.