Homilist 2 Kings 19:35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out… I. THE EVENTS OF THIS NIGHT DEVELOP THE FORCE OF WICKEDNESS. How rampant was wickedness this night. Wickedness has ever had great power in this world. Wealth, dominion, and numbers, have ever been at its command. Ever since the Fall, it has been, and still is, the power whose reign is the most extensive. Like the Assyrian hosts, it invades the most sacred scenes, and carries alarm into the most sainted spirits. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth shows: 1. The regard which God has for the free agency of the human mind. At first He was pleased to endow man with a power of free action and the attributes of responsibility, and although he has sinned and abused this power, the Almighty does not check its operations. He sets before man the good and the evil, and leaves him to make his choice. If he chooses the evil, and is determined to give himself up to it, He allows him often. times to run such lengths, that he becomes a Pharaoh, a Sennacherib, a Nebuchadnezzar, a Herod, or a Napoleon. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth shows: 2. The wonderful forbearance of God. How wonderful it is that He, who could with a word annihilate every rebel in His universe, should allow His intelligent creatures to live in hostility to Him and His universe. How great His forbearance! How great His forbearance with the Pharaohs who continued to oppress His chosen people for so many generations; with the antediluvian world; with the Jewish nation, etc., etc. Why does He not crush the sinner at once with the first sin? Why does He allow him to go on for years transgressing His laws? The answer is, "He waiteth to be gracious." "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count," etc. The fact that wickedness is allowed such power on this earth, shows: 3. The certainty of a future retribution — It will not always be thus. II. THE EVENTS OF THIS NIGHT DEVELOP THE FORCE OF JUSTICE. "The angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians." 1. Justice will not always sleep. Indeed, it never sleeps; it only seems to. 2. Justice, when roused, does its work with ease. One angel or agent now destroyed these one hundred and eighty-five thousand armed men. 3. The work of justice involves ruin to the wicked, but salvation to the good. The waters that destroyed the old world bore in safety in its bosom righteous Noah and his family. The sea that engulfed Pharaoh and his host made a highway for the ransomed to pass through; and now the blow that crushed one hundred and eighty-five thousand men, delivered Jerusalem from destruction. III. THE EVENTS OF THIS NIGHT DEVELOP THE FORCE OF PRAYER. We learn from the preceding verses of this chapter, that when pious Hezekiah the king received haughty and blasphemous threats of his country's destruction from Rabshakeh, the minister of Sennacherib, that he took the letter which contained it, read it, and went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before God (ver. 14.) 1. Observe Hezekiah's prayer (vers. 15-19). 2. Observe the answer (vers. 32-34). "Therefore, thus saith the Lord, concerning the King of Asyna," etc.From this subject we learn two things: 1. That wickedness, however triumphant, must end in ruin. 2. That goodness, however threatened, shall end in a glorious deliverance. "What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. |
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