2 Kings 7:9

2Ki 7:9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day [is] a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.

Ver. 9. Then they said.] At length they bethink themselves of better; yet more for fear of danger, than care of community.

This day is a day of good tidings, &c.] We are worthy to be shut out of the city gates as lepers, if the respects to the public good do not oversway us in all our desires and demeanours.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki_7:9-11

Then they said one to another, We do not well.

Public testimony: A debt to God and man

You are not surprised to find that, when those four lepers outside the gate of Samaria, had made the great discovery that the Syrian camp was deserted, they first satisfied their own hunger and thirst. End quite right too. Who would do otherwise? It is true that they were bound to go and tell other hungry ones; but they could do that with all the louder voice, and they were the more sure of the truth they had to tell, when they had first refreshed themselves. It might have been a delusion: they were prudent to test their discovery before they told it. Having refreshed and enriched themselves, they bethought them of going to tell the besieged and starving citizens. I would advise every soul that has found Christ to imitate the lepers in this matter. Make sure that you have found the Saviour. Eat and drink of him; enrich yourself with him; and then go and publish the glad tidings. Personal enjoyments of true godliness assist us in our testimony for truth and grace. But the point I desire to bring out is this: if those lepers had stopped in the camp all night, if they had remained lying on the Syrian couches, singing, Our willing souls would stay in such a place as this; and if they had never gone at all to their compatriots, shut up and starving within the city walls, their conduct would have been brutal and inhuman. I am afraid that some of my hearers have never yet confessed the work of God in their souls. It should not be a matter of one solemn occasion, but our whole life should be a witness to the power and grace which we have found in Christ.

I. To hide the discovery of Divine grace would be wrong.

1. For, their silence would have been contrary to the Divine purpose in leading them to make the discovery. Why were these four lepers led into the camp that they might ]earn that the Lord of hosts had put the enemy to the rout Why, mainly that they might go back, and tell the rest of their countrymen.

2. Thee people would not only have been false to the Divine purpose, but they would have failed to do well. They said one to another, We do not well. Did it ever strike some of you that it is a very serious charge to bring against yourselves, We de not well? To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

3. Besides this, had those lepers held their tongues, they would actually have been doing evil. Suppose that they had kept their secret for four-and-twenty hours, many hundreds might have died of starvation within the walls of Samaria: had they so perished, would not the lepers have been guilty of their blood?

4. Again, these lepers, if they had held their tongues, would have acted most unseasonably. Note how they put it themselves: they say, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. O, has Jesus washed your sins away, and are you silent about it?

5. One thing more: silence may be dangerous. What said these men? If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. That morning light is very close to some of you. If you tarry till to-morrow morning before you have spoken about Christ, some mischief may come upon you.

II. If we have made the blessed discovery of Christs gracious work in routing our enemies, and providing for our needs, and if we have tasted of the fruit of that glorious victory ourselves, we ought to make a very explicit avowal of that discovery. It ought to be confessed very solemnly, and in the way which the Lord himself has appointed.

1. This ought to be done very decidedly, because our Lord requires it.

2. Next, if you have found Christ, the man who was the means of leading you to Christ has a claim upon you that he should know of it.

3. Next I think the church of God has a claim upon all of you who have discovered the great love of Jesus. Come and tell your fellow-Christians. Tell the good news to the Kings household. The church of God is often greatly refreshed by the stories of new converts.

4. Besides that, a testimony decided for Christ is due to the world. If a man is a soldier of the cross, and does not show his colours, all his comrades are losers by his want of decision.

III. This declaration should be continually made. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Missionary sermon to young men and women

On three grounds it is imperative upon us that we should carry that secret as far as we can, and as deep as we can, to hearts of our brother men.

I. On grounds of principle. We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. It is one of the obvious arguments for foreign missions that brotherhood and generosity, and the prodigality of the Great Message itself, all alike demand the widest proclamation of the Gospel. That is true, and can never be otherwise than true. There is a wealth of joy and of moral quickening in the good news of salvation, which it were an everlasting shame to limit by any miserable parochial barriers. Good news of this character is, in its very nature, expansive--universal. We do not well, which being interpreted means, we are not acting honestly; we are revelling in sudden and incredible wealth. But it does not belong to us. It belongs to all; it is meant for all. There is no monopoly in the Gospel. Judaism is the historic example of the principle of religious monopoly at work, and Judaism measured swords with Christianity only to receive its deathblow. There are diversities of gifts; there are principles of election and selection at work undoubtedly; there are varieties of opportunity; but there is no diversity, no election, no variety, in regard to the destination of the Gospel. When the crass wails of Judaism fell before the outburst of the river of life the whole world was open to the hurrying stream, and thank God could never more be severed or shut up from it again There is no hint in all the Divine programme that an Englishman should make a better Christian than a Chinaman, or that wisdom might die with Western civilisation. The broad fact which the gospel bears upon its front, the fact to which Christ witnessed in so many suggestions and assertions, is this: that He comes to seek and to save the lost of all nations, that differences of race count nothing before the boundlessness of His compassion and power, and that nobody on earth can predict--only the great day will declare it--which race or language or colour may rise to the noble pre-eminence of revealing most perfectly the bloom and the fruitage of a divine life. Indeed, we do not well in holding our peace. The spirit of our faith demands that we be not silent, and if we are, do we not repeat in a more subtle, but not less deadly, form the sin of which every worldling is guilty? But there are other grounds on which we ought to have a greater zeal for this work, and I mention secondly--

II. On grounds of policy. If we tarry till the morning light, our iniquity will find us out. Of course it will. A fine philanthropy may often be stimulated, and not unworthily, by some stirring of the instinct of self-preservation, when their craven deed of the night came to be known--and the morning would make it known inevitably--they would get but short shrift from those who at last came to their own; their wisdom lay in communicating the secret and sharing in the common lot of enrichment and of joy. And it seems to me that here there lies enshrined a warning of the gravest consequence to Christian people and Christian nations to-day. Expansion with concentration is the condition of a vigorous and worthy life. Concentration without expansion means sterility and death.

III. On grounds of personal obligation to Jesus Christ. The parallel of our text may not carry us quite so far as I would go, yet it carries us a good way. Let us go now and tell the kings household. There was clearly in the mind of the lepers some thought of loyalty to the king at this great crisis in national history, and for us Christians it is true that supreme above all other considerations, whether principle or policy, it is our personal obligation to Christ to see that His last words are obeyed to the letter. Our Kings household is a great company--a multitude that no man can number. They are waiting in every country--among the jungle villages of India, under the sultry southern skies, amid the teeming millions of China among the islands of the sea, waiting to have their heart-hunger appeased by the Word of Life; waiting for the one splendid disclosure that can make the whole world new. And you possess the secret. You do not well nor wisely to hold your peace. Run, cry about for joy in the ear of all nations, Christ is King, and His mercy endureth for ever. Now, when the time comes you will be saved from all mishaps, end from that hand which is worse than any mishap. There will be no sweeter words spoken by the lips of the Master in the great day than these: Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did unto Me. (A. Connell, M. A. , D. D.)

Christian privilege and duty

I. First, the blessedness of gospel times. It is a day of good tidings. Mark the goodness of the tidings which the Gospel brings. When these lepers drew year to the porter of the gate of Samaria, there was no doubt it was a gospel which they had to proclaim. Now, instead of famine, there should be abundance; instead of darkness, light; instead of terror, peace; instead of despair, hope. And is not this the very character of the tidings which your ministers bring to you from Sabbath to Sabbath--good tidings of great joy? If, then, Samaria was told that a mighty enemy had been affrighted, and that Samaria need no longer fear, so now I bring you the tidings that Satan, our great enemy, has had a fright. He has heard the approaching footsteps of One stronger than he, and now there is enough and to spare for all hungry and thirsty souls. Let me once more proclaim this Gospel to every one of you. I have good tidings for every soul in this assembly. Guilty spirit, listen! The Blood of Jesus Christ, Gods Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Struggling spirit, listen! If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Bewildered spirit, listen! All things work together for good to them that love God, and to them that are called according to His purpose. Tired, weary spirit, listen! I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am ye may be also. These are the tidings I bring to you. Thus much for the goodness of these tidings; a word as to their newness. Why, even at this moment They are a new tidings to a very large portion of the inhabitants of our world.

II. The evil of selfishly enjoying these gospel times. We do not well, these lepers said to one another; we do not well; this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. We do not well; we show a wart of common benevolence if we simply receive the Gospel and make no effort to diffuse it. There is a close tie between man and man. Reason and Scripture both tell us of a bond of brotherhood which unites me to every other individual of my race. I ought to abound in sympathy, to rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep. The second commandment is not repealed by the Gospel, it is sanctioned, enforced, confirmed--Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Now just suppose that these lepers had revelled down there at the bottom of the hill among the luxuries of the Syrian camp and sent no tidings into Samaria. Suppose that by some accident one of the Samaritans heard that there were these men revelling, and that there was enough and to spare, and they had sent no tidings into the city: how the selfishness of these men would be cursed! What a howl of indignation would ring through all the streets and homes of Samaria! We do not well, for there is a want of loving obedience in this. We do not well, for we rob ourselves of the highest enjoyment of the Gospel. There is nothing, that appears clearer to those of us who have got into middle age, and are getting on to the end of life, than this. I never can be happy if I simply try to make myself happy. Selfishness always defeats itself. (F. Tucker, B. A.)

The lepers of Samaria

I. The times in which we live. This day is a day of good tidings. And is it not a day of good tidings? What are the peculiarities of the day in which we are called to live? There are these four peculiarities in it; the first of which I will now mention:--that Jesus Christ has obtained a complete conquest over all our enemies. And this is the great and especial truth which is published in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Moreover, this is a day of good tidings, because Jesus Christ has procured an ample provision for all our necessities. The spoil is ours; the glory is his, The conquest was made by Himself, and through that conquest all the benefits of salvation are now amply provided and amply presented to our use. But there is another point connected with this good tidings, and that is this that Jesus Christ has led many of us who are present to participate in the provisions of his love. And this makes it a day of good tidings to us. The four leprous men exemplify our condition. Like them we were cast out of the congregation of the saints; like them we were loathsome in our own eyes: like them, we were infectious to our neighbours: like them, we were under the ban and curse of God; but, like these leprous men, He filled us with views of our own misery, made us discontented with the state in which we were, raised a spark of hope in our bosoms, that for us there might be hope, and that we might, as we could not be in a worse condition, be better, by application to His mercy and grace. But there is another point connected with the day in which we live--that Jesus Christ has opened channels for the publication of these good tidings to others. This day may be emphatically called, indeed, a day of good tidings.

I. The text reproves our indifference to the miseries of others. We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings. Certainly, then, we do not well.

1. For let it be remembered that while this disposition exists in the mind, we dishonour our character. What is our character? If we have believed in Christ, we are the sons of God; we are united to Christ, our Elder Brother, and we are under infinite obligations to his boundless love, inexpressible obligations to His gracious care and love to us. Now, all He asks us, in return for His love to us, is, to love Him in return--not to be ashamed of Him; to establish His kingdom, and to give ourselves up to His service.

2. But we not only dishonour our character, but we disobey Christs command. Our prayers have been, Lead me into Thy truth, and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? has been our cry. Now this is His instruction: Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem.

III. The text pronounces our punishment if we delay. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will befall us.

1. If we delay this work our eyes shall see the destruction of our kindred. When our beloved Lord had used all efforts to evangelise Jerusalem, by preaching, by miracles, by residing amongst them, by various conversations, and yet, after all their misery affected His heart; He could not look upon them without tears. Many times He wept in His prayers; but there are two scenes only recorded where He publicly wept; the one was at the grave of Lazarus, His dear friend; and the other was when He looked over Jerusalem, and saw the people perishing--people who had discarded the prophets that had been sent them. Now what should our grief, beloved, be, to see souls brought every hour to the brink of hell, and know that, if they die, they must fall therein, and to reflect that we have used no adequate means to succour and save their souls! There is however, another point to consider.

2. The evil that shall befall us shall be this--our souls shall want the joys of Gods salvation.

3. Again: our conduct shall receive the condemnation of Christ. I refer now to the last day. That is so plainly spoken of, that it needs no illustration: Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.

IV. The text would, in the last place, suggest the conduct which you ought to adopt under present circumstances. Let us go, the text says, and tell the kings household. And, brethren, let us go and carry the Gospel to our poor brethren and sisters in England that are perishing for lack of knowledge. It suggests that we should go and tell of these glad tidings, because success is certain. Success is certain, what though many of your dear missionaries, who toil night and day in the work, have not had extended encouragement of their hearts desire which you could wish--will you give up? Finally, let us furnish, this gospel to our countrymen, for our opportunities are vanishing. Time is hastening on; health is inconstant; the fashion of the world passeth away. This, this is the only time we can use our strength, and talents, and time, and money. (J. Sherman.)

The right and the prudent

I. The right. The silver and the gold which they had discovered they had hidden away; and now, perhaps, conscience told them it was not right. It is not right for us to conceal the good we have discovered, or to appropriate it entirely to our own use, let us communicate it. The distribution of good is right. Every man should be ready to communicate. The monopoly of material good is a huge wrong, and the crying sin of the age. Monopolies in trade, in land, in power, political and ecclesiastical, must be broken up, the wants of society and the claims of eternal justice demand it. What is truly glad tidings to us we should proclaim to others. The rays of joy that fall over our own lives we should not retain, but reflect.

II. The prudent. If these poor men felt it was right to communicate to others the tidings of the good they had received or not, they certainly felt it was prudent. Not to do the right thing must cause some mischief, mischief not only to the body, but to the soul as well, to the entire man. There is no true prudence apart from rectitude. What is wrong in moral principle is mischievous in conduct. He who is in the right., however outvoted by his age, is always in the majority, for he has His vote, which carries all material universes and spiritual hierarchies with it. Right is infallible utilitarianism. (Homilist.)

Religion to be made known

Burner, in his History of our own Times, quotes Lord Shaftesbury of the seventeenth century as saying: People differ in their discourses and professions about theological matters, but men of sense are really of one religion. When asked What is that religion? the Earl rejoined, That, men of sense never tell! This may be the religion of the worldling and cynic, but the religion of the regenerated man cannot but utter itself. Its light shines-it cannot be hid. Life must out. Divine life is irrepressible.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 7:9-11. They said — We do not well — Not well for our brethren, whom we should pity and help; nor well for ourselves, for we may suffer for this neglect; either from the Syrians, who may be lurking hereabouts, or from our king and people, or from God’s immediate hand. Thus their own consciences spoke to them, and they hearkened to the dictates thereof, and acquainted the sentinel with what they had discovered, who straightway carried the intelligence to the court, which was not the less acceptable for being first brought by lepers; and these poor afflicted men increased their own joy by thus communicating it. Selfish, narrow-spirited people cannot expect to be happy or prosperous: the most comfortable prosperity is that in which our brethren share with us.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2 Kings

‘IMPOSSIBLE,-ONLY I SAW IT’

SILENT CHRISTIANS

2Ki 7:9.

The city of Samaria was closely besieged, and suffering all the horrors of famine. Women were boiling and eating their children, and the most revolting garbage was worth its weight in silver. Four starving lepers, sitting by the gate, plucked up courage from the extremity of their distress, and looking in each other’s bloodshot eyes, whispered one to another, with their hoarse voices: ‘If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians; if they save us alive we shall live; and if they kill us we shall but die.’ So in the twilight they stole away. As they come near the camp there is a strange silence; no guards, no stir. They creep to the first tent and find it empty; and then another, and another, and another, till at last it admits of no doubt that certainly the enemy has gone, leaving all his baggage behind him, So for awhile they feast and plunder-small blame to them! And then conscience wakes, and the same thought occurs to each of them: ‘This is not patriotic; this is scarcely human; it is a shame for us to be sitting here gorging ourselves whilst a city is starving within a stone’s-throw.’ So they say one to another in the words of my text.

Now these men’s consciousness of the obligation imposed upon them by the knowledge of glad news, their self-reproach for their silence, their conviction that retribution would fall on them if it continued, and their resolve therefore to clear themselves, may all be transferred to higher regions, and may fairly illustrate Christian responsibilities and duties.

I wish to say one or two very homely, plain things about Christian men’s obligation to speech, and the sin of their silence. My remarks will have no special reference to any particular forms of Christian activity, but if I succeed in impressing on any a deeper sense of duty in reference to declaring the Gospel than they possess, then all forms of it will be prosecuted with greater vigour and consecration.

I. I wish first to dwell for a moment on that-I was going to use a plain word and say-hideous; I will substitute a milder term, and say-remarkable, fact of Christian silence.

I take this congregation as a fair average representative of the ordinary habitudes of professing Christians of this generation. How many men and women there are sitting in these pews, who, if I asked them the question, would say that they were Christians? and what proportion of these, if I asked them the further question, ‘Did you ever tell anybody anything about Jesus Christ?’ would say, ‘No, never!’ I know this, that in regard to all the recognised and associated forms of Christian work which cluster round a Christian congregation, it is the same handful of people that do them all. It is just like the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, there are not many of them though you can shake them up into a great number of patterns, but they are always the very same bits. So I could go through pew after pew, if it would not be very personal, and find men and women, one after another-rows of them -that, so far as any of the united work of a church goes, are absolutely idle. They are worthy kind of people, too, with some real religion in them; but yet, partly from shyness, partly from indolence, partly because {as they think} they have so much else to do, and for a number of other reasons that I do not need to dwell upon, they fall into the great army of idlers, and are just so much dead weight and surplusage, as far as the work of the Church is concerned.

Now I do not mean to say that, because professing Christian people do not work in any recognised forms of Christian service which are attached to a congregation, therefore they are not doing anything. God forbid! There are many of you, for instance, mothers of families, whose best service is to speak about Jesus Christ to your children, and to live according as you speak, and that is work enough for you. There are many more of us, who, for various legitimate reasons, are precluded from taking part in organised forms of Christian service. Do not so fatally misunderstand me as to suppose that I am merely beating a drum to get recruits for societies. What I want to impress upon every Christian person listening to me now is simply this, the anomaly of the fact, if it be a fact, that you are a dumb Christian. You can all speak, if you will; you all have people with whom your speech is weighty and powerful. There are doors open before each of you. Ask yourselves, have you gone in at the open doors? or is it true about you that you have never felt the obligation to make your Master known to others, or, at all events, have never felt it so strongly that it compelled you to obey? The strange fact of Christian silence is one that I emphasise to begin with.

II. Let me say a word next about the sin of this silence.

These four poor lepers had not had much kindness dealt out to them in their lives, and they might have been pardoned if in their moment of joy they had remained in the isolation to which they had been condemned by reason of their disease. But they think to themselves of the hollow eyes in Samaria there, and the hideous meals, that might stay hunger but brought no nourishment, and of the king with sackcloth beneath his royal robes, and, forgetting everything but their abundance and these people’s empty stomachs, they say, ‘Not thus must we do,’ as the Hebrew might be translated, ‘this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace; and that is a sin. And if we continue dumb, then before morning some kind of punishment will come down upon us.’

Now, let me put what I have to say on this matter into two sentences.

First of all, I say that such silence is inhuman. You would all recognise that in the case of an actual, literal, instead of a metaphorical, famine. What would you say about a man who contented himself with sitting in his own back room, where nobody could see his abundance, and feasting to the full, whilst his fellow-citizens were dying of starvation? Why! you would say he was a brute. And if Christian people believed as thoroughly that men and women without ‘the Bread of God which comes down from Heaven’ were starving and dying of hunger, as they believe that men without literal bread must die, there would not be so many dumb ones amongst them; and they would feel more distinctly than any of us feel now, the responsibility that is laid upon them, and the inhumanity of the sin.

Dear brethren! God has made this strange brotherhood of humanity in which we live, all intertwined and intertangled together, mainly in order that there may be scope for brotherly impartation to the needy, of the gifts that each possesses. And He has given to each of us something or other which, by the very terms of the gift and the purpose of the bestowment, we are bound to impart to others. The meaning of our being born into the brotherhood of humanity is that God’s grace, in some shape or other, may fructify through us to all; and I say that the man who possesses any kind of gift, and, especially, God’s highest gifts of wisdom and of knowledge, and most of all, the highest gift of spiritual knowledge and moral and religious truth, and keeps them to himself, in his idleness is sinfully active, and in his selfishness is inhuman and cruel. The very constitution of humanity says to us that ‘we do not well,’ if in the ‘day of good tidings’ of any sort ‘we hold our peace.’ The possession of mere physical or abstract truth does not turn its possessors into its apostles, but the possession of moral and spiritual truth does. We are, every one of us, responsible for all the eyes which we could have opened and which are still dark, and for every soul that gropes in ignorance, if we possess something that would enlighten its darkness.

But then, further, let me say that this sin of silence is in sheer contradiction of every principle of Christianity. Why has God given you His grace, do you suppose? For what purpose comes it that you are Christians? Were you converted that you might go by yourselves into a solitary heaven, do you think? Are you important enough to be an ultimate end of God’s mercy? Or are you indeed an end, but only that in your turn you might be a means of transmitting? Does the electric influence terminate when it reaches you, or is it turned on to you that from you it may be passed to others? The very purpose of the existence of a Christian Church is counterworked and thwarted by dumb Christians. We Nonconformists can talk abundantly when ecclesiastical assumptions have to be fought against, about the priesthood of all believers. Very well, if that principle is a true one-and it is a true one-it has other applications than simply controversial, and is meant for other uses than simply that you should brandish it in the face of sacerdotal claims and priest-ridden churches. ‘Ye are all priests,’ that is to say, the meaning of the existence of a Christian Church is to raise up a cloud of witnesses, and make every lip vocal with the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. And you, dear brethren, you, the idlers of a church and congregation, are doing all that you can to thwart the divine purpose, and to destroy the very meaning of the existence of the church to which you belong.

And let me remind you, too, that such silence is clearly contrary to all Christian principle, inasmuch as one main purpose of the Gospel being given us is to shift our centre from ourselves, first to Christ, and then, if I may so say, to others. The very thing from which Christianity is meant to deliver us is the very thing that these idle, silent believers are indulging in, namely, the possession of God’s gifts for their own profit and enjoyment. What is the use of your saying that you are Christian people if, in your very religion, you are practising the very vice that Jesus Christ has come to destroy? Selfishness is the opposite, the formal contradiction, of Christianity, and in the measure in which your religion is self-regarding, it is no religion at all. You are doing your best to counterwork the very main purpose of the Gospel upon yourselves, when in silence you possess, or fancy that you possess, the gift of His love.

And then, still further, let me remind you that this absolutely un-Christian character of silence is manifested, if you consider that the end of the Gospel for each of us is to bring us into full and happy sympathy with Christ, and likeness to Him. And how is that purpose being effected in His professed ‘followers,’ if they know nothing of the experience of looking on the world with Christ’s eyes, or of the thrill of pity caught from Him, and have no sympathy with, in the sense of any reflected experience of, the sense of obligation to help the helpless which nailed Him to the Cross? We say that we are followers of One who ‘so loved the world’ that He died for it; we say that we long to be transformed into His likeness, and yet we put away from ourselves the spirit that regards our brethren as He regarded us all; and never dream of copying, howsoever feebly in our lives and efforts, the pattern that was set before us in His death.

O dear brethren! ‘if a man see his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion against him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?’ And if a Christian looks upon a world without Christ, and has only a tepid sympathy and a faint realisation of the misery, and never does anything to lighten it by a grain, how can he pretend that he takes Jesus Christ for his Pattern and Example? Silence is manifestly a sin by reason of its inhumanity, and its contrariety to every principle of the Gospel.

III. Now, still further, let me point you to the retribution on silence.

These four men, no doubt, had some superstitious idea that mischief might come to them in the darkness. But they expressed a truth when they said, ‘If we be silent, some evil’-or, as the word might be translated, ‘some punishment will find us.’ I desire to lay this on your hearts, dear brethren, that like all other selfish things, the silence of the Christian does him harm instead of good.

For instance, if you want to learn anything, set yourself to teach it. In trying to spread the name of Jesus Christ by your own personal effort, you will get a firmer hold of the truths that you attempt to impress upon others. I do not know any better cure for a great deal of unwholesome and superfluous speculation than to go into the slums and see what it is that tells there. That is a test of what is central and what is surface, in Christianity. I do not know any better discipline for a man whose religion is suffering from too much leisure and curiosity than to take a course of evangelistic work. He will find out then where the power is, and a great many cobwebs will be blown away. Be sure of this, that convictions unspoken, like plants grown in a cellar, will get very white in the stems, and will bear no fruit. Be sure of this, that a religion which is dumb will very soon tend to lose its possession of the truth, and that if you carry that great gift hid away in your heart it will be like locking up some singing-bird in a box. When you come to open it, the bird will be dead. There are, I have no doubt, many whom I am now addressing whose religion has all but, if not entirely, ebbed away from them, mainly because they have all their days been dumb Christians. That is one part of the punishment.

And another part is that silence is avenged by the dying out of the sympathies which inspire speech. It is the punishment of the selfish man that he becomes more selfish. It is the punishment of the heart, which never expands in sympathy, that its walls shrivel and contract, until there is scarcely blood enough between them to be impelled through the veins. Feelings which it is joy and nobleness to possess are nurtured and strengthened by expression; and the silent Christian is punished by becoming at last utterly indifferent to the woes of the world and to the spread of the Gospel. I think I could lay my finger, if I dared, on some of my audience who have got perilously near to that point.

And then again let me remind you that there is another form of the punishment, and that is the loss of all the blessed experience of the reaper’s joy; and let me point you in a sentence to the final time of retribution. There shall stand in that last day, as Scripture teaches us, humble workers before the Throne who will say, ‘Behold! I, and the children whom Thou hast given me.’ And there will stand some before the Throne, solitary; and I wonder if they will not feel lonely when they go into heaven, and find not a soul there to look them in the eyes and say, ‘Thou didst lead me to the Christ, and I am here to welcome thee.’ ‘He that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.’ Do you not think that then there will steal a shadow of shame across the spirit of the servant who stood idle in the market-place all the day with the wretched excuse, ‘No man hath hired me,’ when the Master had hired him beforehand, and given him such wages in advance?

O dear brethren! the cure for silence is to keep near that Master, and to drink in His Spirit; and then, as I beseech you to do, think, think, think of your obligations in the light of the Cross until you can say, ‘Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given,’ not this burden imposed, ‘that I, even I, should preach’ the Name that is above every name. ‘Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, we shall be punished for our faults.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(9) Some mischief will come upon us.—Literally, guilt will find us: we shall incur blame. Vulg., “we shall be accused of wrong-doing.”

Now therefore.—And now: the inferential use of “now.” (Comp. Psa_2:10.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. We do not well] Although by the law of Moses these lepers were excluded from the city, they yet had in their degree the duties of citizens to perform, and in neglecting to give tidings of the Syrian flight, they were not acting the citizen’s part.

some mischief will come upon us] R.V. punishment will overtake us. On the margin of R.V. is ‘our iniquity will find us out’. The noun is the same which in Gen_4:13 is rendered in A.V. in the text by ‘punishment’ and on the margin by ‘iniquity’. The idea of penalty is, and ought to be, closely bound up with the thought of wrong-doing. It could hardly fail to be found out in the morning at what time the lepers had made their discovery, and when it became known they would surely be punished for not giving immediate information.

the king’s household] The men themselves would go no further than the gate, but the warders on the wall would carry the news, as soon as they received it, to the royal palace. The king’s distress at the sufferings of the besieged citizens would be known to every one.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then they said one to another, we do not well,.... This is not right, to take this booty to ourselves; it is not doing justice to our brethren, and it may not prove well to ourselves in the issue:

this day is a day of good tidings; to be delivered from the enemy, and have such plenty of provisions thrown into their hands; it would be joyful tidings to the inhabitants of the city, did they know it:

and we hold our peace; and do not publish this good tidings, that others may share the benefit of it:

if we tarry till the morning light; when it will in course be discovered:

some mischief will come upon us; either from the Syrians, who they might fear would return by that time, or some of them lurking about would fall upon them and destroy them; or the king of Israel, when he came to know it, would be so incensed as to inflict some punishment on them; or they might expect some evil from the immediate hand of God:

now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household; acquaint some of his servants with what had happened.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The lepers began to think that if they kept this important matter secret during the whole night for their own private advantage, when the morning came they would be found out, accused, and punished (see margin).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Crime, and punished. Hebrew, "iniquity shall find us." Citizens are bound to give notice of what may tend to the common good. (Calmet) --- Court. Not in person, but by means of others. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We do not well; not well for our brethren, whom we should pity, and help; nor well for ourselves; for we may suffer for this neglect; either from the Syrians, who may lie lurking hereabouts; or from our king and people; or from God’s immediate hand.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Then they said one to another, We do not well. It was a tardy recognition of what their duty required of them. As Grotius says, "Officium civium est ea indicate, quae ad salutem publicam pertinent." Their fellow-countrymen in the city of Samaria were perishing of hunger, mothers eating their children, and the like, while they employed hour after hour in collecting and hiding away their booty. They ought, as soon as they had satisfied their hunger, to have hurried back to the city and spread the good news. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace; i.e. we keep silence, and do not proclaim them, as we ought. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us ; rather, punishment will fall on us; we shall suffer for what we have done a very reasonable supposition. Now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king"s household. The "king"s household" means the court, the medium through which the king was ordinarily approached.

Vers. 9-11. The right and the prudent.

they said one to another, We do not well," etc. These verses record the conference which these four lepers had with one another after they had succeeded in working out their resolution to go unto the "host of the Syrians;" and in this conference we discover

I THE RIGHT. "They said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace." The silver and the gold which they had discovered they had hidden away; and now, perhaps, conscience told them it was not right. It is not right for us to conceal the good we have discovered, or to appropriate it entirely to our own use; let us communicate it. The distribution of good is right. Every man should be "ready to communicate." The monopoly of material good is a huge wrong, and the crying sin of the age. Legislation will have to deal with this social abomination sooner or later; it is crushing the millions to the dust. Monopolies must be broken up; the wants of society and the claims of eternal justice demand it. What is truly "glad tidings" to us we should proclaim to others. The rays of joy that fall over our own lives we should not retain, but reflect.

II THE PRUDENT. Whether these poor men felt it was right to communicate to others the tidings of the good they had received or not, they certainly felt it was prudent. "If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king"s household." Accordingly they acted. "So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called to the porters; and they told it to the king"s house within." Not to do the right thing must cause some "mischief mischief not only to the body, but to the soul as well, to the entire man. There is no prudence apart from rectitude. What is wrong in moral principle is mischievous in conduct. He who is in the right, however outvoted by his age, is always in the majority, for he has that vote which carries all material universes and spiritual hierarchies with it. Right is infallible utilitarianism. D.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

until daybreak

"until morning"

punishment will overtake us

Someone punishing the four men is spoken of as if punishment were a person who captures them. AT: "the people will punish us" or "someone will punish us" (See: Metaphor and Personification)

tell the king's household

Here the word "household" represents the people who live in the king's palace. AT: "tell the king and his people" (See: Metonymy)

as they were

The implicit information may be stated clearly. AT: "as they were when the soldiers were still there" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

then it was told inside the king's household

This can be stated in active form. AT: "then people told it inside the king's household" or "then people told it to the king and those in his palace" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

punish

king

household

Aram

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

We will be considered guilty. We will be held guilty by the throne.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.