2 Kings 7:17-20
"17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. 18 For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” 19 the captain had answered the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died."
It is almost certain that some who follow these Readings will be disturbed at the summary judgment that fell upon this sceptical noble at the gates of the city. 'Was not this an extreme punishment,' they will say, 'for what was after all only a natural expression of incredulity on his part?' But this depends from what standpoint we look at the situation, the human or the divine. The trouble is, we think like men most of the time, and make human standards the criterion by which we judge the things that happen to us. But we are wrong. We are not the centre of the world, and there are other, more important, standards which condition man's life and destiny, namely the inflexible moral laws of God. Here is a man who openly ridicules the plain declaration of God through His prophet that He will deliver His people (the noble's attitude was simply a variant of the modern gambit, 'Miracles don't happen') and contemptu- ously dismisses the very possibility. This, in face of the miracles that had already been wrought through Elisha, can only be interpreted as wilful blindness on his part, and an insult to God. Not only so, it represented a quality of unbelief that God was not prepared to allow to continue in Israel. There is a point in man's revolt against God at which God has no alternative but to give him over to a reprobate mind, and withdraw His grace from him (see Romans 1). It is possible to go too far, and in this time of destiny the nobleman did, to his cost. Nor must we murmur at this (Romans 9:20) but recognize rather that God has sole right to decide how serious the sin of unbelief is and how it is to be dealt with. Unbelief is never justifiable, for God has revealed Himself so unmistakeably to men that to continue in it is to render them without excuse.