THE SIN OF UNBELIEF

“And that officer answered the man of God and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should

make windows in Heaven might such a thing be?

And he said, Behold, you shall see it with your eyes but shall not eat thereof.”

2 Kings 7:19.

ONE wise man may deliver a whole city. One good man may be the means of safety to a thousand

others. The holy ones are “the salt of the earth,” the means of the preservation of the wicked. Without

the godly as a buffer, the race would be utterly destroyed. In the city of Samaria there was one righteous

man—Elisha, the servant of the Lord. Piety was altogether extinct in the court. The king was a sinner of

the blackest dye, his iniquity was glaring and infamous. Jehoram walked in the ways of his father, Ahab,

and made unto himself false gods. The people of Samaria were fallen like their monarch—they had gone

astray from Jehovah. They had forsaken the God of Israel—they remembered not the watchword of Jacob,

“The Lord your God is one God.” And in wicked idolatry they bowed before the idols of the Heathens.

Therefore the Lord of Hosts suffered their enemies to oppress them until the curse of Ebal was

fulfilled in the streets of Samaria, for “the tender and delicate woman who would not adventure to set

the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness,” had an evil eye to her own children and devoured

her offspring by reason of fierce hunger (Deut 28:56-58). In this awful extremity the one holy man was

the medium of salvation. The one grain of salt preserved the entire city—the one warrior for God was

the means of the deliverance of the whole beleaguered multitude. For Elisha’s sake, the Lord sent the

promise that the next day food which could not be obtained at any price, should be had at the cheapest

possible rate—at the very gates of Samaria. We may picture the joy of the multitude when first the Seer

uttered this prediction. They knew him to be a prophet of the Lord. He had divine credentials. All his

past prophecies had been fulfilled. They knew that he was a man sent of God and uttering Jehovah’s

message. Surely the monarch’s eyes would glisten with delight and the emaciated multitude would leap

for joy at the prospects of so speedy a release from famine. “Tomorrow,” would they shout, “tomorrow

our hunger shall be over and we shall feast to the full.”