The Progressive Power of Sin
W. J. Buddington, D. D. 2 Kings 8:13 And Hazael said, But what, is your servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered… Two meanings are possible to these words. They may indicate a horror of what the prophet had revealed, and a shrinking from such baseness; or, simply a feeling that such bloody deeds are possible only for a king, and that he was no king, but a dog, rather. Both interpretations have this in common, that a look into the future reveals surprising things. No man's life turns out exactly as he expects, often the reverse. The prophet's eyes were opened by God to behold the career of Hazael; he saw him murder his king, ascend the throne, and at the head of devastating armies overrun Israel, and give the land up to pillage and blood. Hazael starts back in surprise, if not in horror; he has not the power to do it, if he would; perhaps he means he would not if he could. But it all proved true, nevertheless; and Hazael's experience is, for Substance, that of men in these days. No sinner knows what he may be left to do. The characters and destinies of men are surprises even to themselves. The least sin, if unchecked by repentance and amendment, will grow into the greatest. I. SEE HOW HABITS ARE FORMED. When one act is followed by another of the same sort, it is as when foot follows foot, and a path is beaten. A single drop, distilling from the mossy hillside, does not make a stream, but let drop follow drop, and the stream will flow, and gather force and volume, till. it hollows the .valleys, chisels the rocks, and feeds the ocean. So habits, strong as life, come from little acts following one another, drop by drop, "Every one is the son of his own works," says Cervantes, and Wordsmith, more beautifully still, "The child is the father of the man." II. SEE HOW ONE SIN BEGETS ANOTHER. Just as the graces come, not alone — there were three of them, the ancients said, so one virtue leads another by the hand; and music lingers in the echo, which sometimes is softer than the parent voice. So, too, in the inverse kingdom of evil, one wrong necessitates another, to hide it, or accomplish its ends It is a small thing to lie, when one has committed a crime which will not bear the light; and a common thing to add to one crime another greater than itself. "Dead men tell no tales," and when the telling of tales cannot be prevented otherwise, the silence of the grave is invoked; and the man becomes a murderer, who before was only too cowardly to have a less sin known. Sin is like the letting out of waters, at first a trickling stream a finger might stop, at last a flying flood sweeping man and his works alike into ruin. Sin is a fire; at first a spark a drop might extinguish, at last a conflagration taking cities on its wings, and melting primeval rocks into dust. III. Consider, also, WHAT COMPLICATIONS GROW OUT OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. If nothing new happened, a man might, in some measure, control his sin; but the new and unexpected is always taking place, and therefore the sinner must do something else, something he did not expect and did not wish to do, but the doing of which is necessitated by what has occurred; anal failure in this is failure in all. Men do not leap at a bound into crime; they are pushed into it by a force from behind. They would often stop if they could — they even mean to — but they are launched into a current, which, without their aid, widens and deepens, and, peradventure, becomes a Niagara. There are two lessons to be learned: 1. Fear to sin. It is the fundamental lesson of life. "Stand in awe and sin not." Beware of doctrines, the practical effect of which is to make you think less of the evil of sin. Let Sinai and Calvary be your teachers. The laws of God in this world are terribly severe. Expect at least as much in the world to come. The love of God does not prevent an infinite amount of suffering in tiffs life; it is presumption to believe it will in the next. The love of God is no indiscriminate indulgence; it is not less love for the law than for those who fall beneath its infraction. The world of to-day proves it; the world in all ages does. 2. Another lesson. Behold your eternal future in the moving present. As the oak is in the acorn, and the river in the fountain, so the man is in the child, and so eternity is in time. So eternal destinies are ripening as fruits of time. (W. J. Buddington, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. WEB: Hazael said, "But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Elisha answered, "Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Syria."