2 Kings 1:10

10. Let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty This was a miracle of Divine judgment, and in perfect keeping with the spirit of the old dispensation, as many examples may be cited to show. Exodus 19:13, Exodus 1932; Exodus 10:27; Numbers 14:37; Numbers 16:21; Numbers 16:32; Numbers 16:35; Numbers 16:49; Numbers 25:4; Numbers 25:9. In this respect the new dispensation widely differs from the old. “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:51-56, where see notes. But it must not be understood that when our Lord rebuked the two disciples, and showed them the difference between the Law and the Gospel as to the spirit of each, he thereby blamed this act of Elijah. “He blamed the two disciples who dishonoured Elijah, by endeavouring to pervert his act into a precedent for a proposal which was altogether dissimilar to that act of Elijah, in all the circumstances of the case. Elijah was God’s minister for executing his Divine judgment. The two disciples were but the servants of their own anger. There was a fire in their breasts which God had never kindled; far was it from the Saviour of the world to second their earthly fire with his heavenly.” Wordsworth.