Do you remember the well-to-do woman (2 Kings 4:8-37), who built a room for Elisha, who was granted a son, and whose son died – only for him to be restored to life through Elisha?
Read 2 Kings 8:1-2
1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, ‘Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.’ 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
(Some think ‘seven years’ was simply ‘a long time’ or a ‘perfect number’, others point out that it was twice the famine in Elijah’s day.)
The lady was quick to respond to Elisha’s warning. Leaving her fields she quickly moved her whole family to the land of the Philistines.
You may question how easy it would have been to cross into an unfriendly country; but in those days with no definitive border crossings, traders could still move freely between countries. There would be places along main highways where you might be taxed, and invading soldiers would obviously be attacked, but generally there was no animosity shown to those choosing to move there.
Read 2 Kings 8:3
3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.
It would seem that an empty house and fields was fair game. Whoever was quickest (or strongest) would simply ‘adopt’ it – or maybe it was taken into the ‘Crown Estates’.
Read 2 Kings 8:4
4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, ‘Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.’
It is probable that this whole episode occurred at an earlier time, before Gehazi became leprous, and before the king had had many encounters with Elisha
Read 2 Kings 8:5-6
5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.
Gehazi said, ‘This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’ 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.
Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, ‘Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.’
Apart from the fact that she was obviously a woman of some standing, and the Lord had chosen to repeatedly bless her, why her story is included here is a mystery!
Read 2 Kings 8:7-9
7 Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, ‘The man of God has come all the way up here,’ 8 he said to Hazael, ‘Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, “Will I recover from this illness?”’
9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, ‘Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, “Will I recover from this illness?”’
Ben-Hadad was not interested in why Elisha should have decided to travel around 1,000 miles in order to visit him. But his fame as a prophet was well known, so he assumed Elisha would know if he would recover. He obviously hoped that his lavish gift would invoke a favourable response. What he didn’t know was that years before, Elijah had been given three tasks (1 Kings 19:15-16), but only the anointing of Elisha was completed. Now it was time for Elisha to step up and complete the first task – to anoint Hazael as king of Aram. (We will look at the second task, anointing Jehu as king of Israel, shortly).
Read 2 Kings 8:10-12
10 Elisha answered, ‘Go and say to him, “You will certainly recover.” Nevertheless, the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.’ 11 He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.
12 ‘Why is my lord weeping?’ asked Hazael.
‘Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,’ he answered. ‘You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.’
Elisha had been given a vision of what would happen (2 Kings 10:32, 12:17, 13:3,22) and it caused him great distress. (The dreadful details in the second part of the verse was what some soldiers did in wartime – all enemy males would be killed, even potential unborn ones.)
At this point it is probably right to ask some questions:
Why should God choose Hazael, knowing what he would do to Israel?
2 Kings 13:1-3 contains the answer – It was precisely in order to punish Israel that Hazael had been appointed.
Was it right for God to punish a nation because of the sins of its king?
Throughout history, the natural inclination of the people of Israel had been to follow other gods (Exodus 20:1-3, 32:1-4). Occasionally good kings would bring reformation and obedience, but more often than not the Kings not only allowed the people to apostatise but would encourage them.
Does god actually control whole nations in order to bring about his purposes?
(Read Jeremiah 27:1-7)
Read 2 Kings 8:13-15
13 Hazael said, ‘How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?’
‘The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram,’ answered Elisha.
14 Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, ‘What did Elisha say to you?’ Hazael replied, ‘He told me that you would certainly recover.’ 15 But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.
This seems to indicate that God can sometimes use wicked, evil people to carry out his wishes – is that right?
(God knew that Hazael's injury was not fatal – but he also knew that Hazael would die.)
Now we need to do a bit of recapping!
Down in the south as Jehoshaphat, king of Judah was nearing the end of his life, his son Jehoram began to reign as co-regent. Where his father had tried to follow the Lord, his son was positively evil. Accordingly, the writer of 2 Kings had little time for him.
Read 2 Kings 8:16-19
16 In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years. 18 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants for ever.
The writer of Chronicles however gives us more, so instead of reading the next few verses from Kings, we will
Read 2 Chronicles 21:8-15
8 In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. 9 So Jehoram went there with his officers and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night. 10 To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah.
Libnah revolted at the same time, because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord, the God of his ancestors. 11 He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.
12 Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:
‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: “You have not followed the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. 13 But you have followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your own family, men who were better than you. 14 So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15 You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.”’
(This would appear to have been one of the last acts of Elijah shortly before his death.)
Read 2 Chronicles 21:16-20
16 The Lord aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Cushites. 17 They attacked Judah, invaded it and carried off all the goods found in the king’s palace, together with his sons and wives. Not a son was left to him except Ahaziah, the youngest.
18 After all this, the Lord afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. 19 In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honour, as they had for his predecessors.
20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Back to 2 Kings 8:23-24
23 As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 24 Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.
Perhaps his only remaining son would turn out better
Read 2 Kings 8:25-27
25 In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.
We hoped Ahaziah might be better — actually he was worse (v27). Perhaps as a result he only reigned for one year.
But during his brief reign, the Lord would still use him for his purposes.
Note that the influence of Ahab still tainted all those still related to him – even spreading into Judah.
So who was currently king in Israel, to the north, and what was he like?
Read 2 Kings 3:1-3
1 Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned for twelve years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. 3 Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
And remember that Elijah had been sent to Ahab with a message concerning his death (repeated for us in the next chapter), but it had ended with
‘Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.’ (1 kings 21:29).
Joram, Ahab’s son, was a ticking time-bomb.
Now the Lord will bring the three kings together: Ahaziah (Judah) and Joram (Israel) join forces against Hazael who, flexing his muscles as new king of Aram, had decided to attack Ramoth Gilead.
Read 2 Kings 8:28-29
28 Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; 29 so King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram.
Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.
One more thing will now be needed: it is high time for the last of the Lord’s commands previously given to Elijah to be carried out.
Read 2 Kings 9:1-10
1 The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, ‘Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. 3 Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, “This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.” Then open the door and run; don’t delay!’
4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. 5 When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. ‘I have a message for you, commander,’ he said.
‘For which of us?’ asked Jehu.
‘For you, commander,’ he replied.
6 Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I anoint you king over the Lord’s people Israel. 7 You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. 8 The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel – slave or free. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.”’
Then he opened the door and ran.
How wise for the Lord to tell him to run – there is now going to be trouble!
2 Kings 9:11-21
11 When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, ‘Is everything all right? Why did this maniac come to you?’
‘You know the man and the sort of things he says,’ Jehu replied.
12 ‘That’s not true!’ they said. ‘Tell us.’
Jehu said, ‘Here is what he told me: “This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.”’
13 They quickly took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, ‘Jehu is king!’
14 So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram, 15 but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, ‘If you desire to make me king, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.’ 16 Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.
17 When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, he called out, ‘I see some troops coming.’
‘Get a horseman,’ Joram ordered. ‘Send him to meet them and ask, “Do you come in peace?”’
18 The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, ‘This is what the king says: “Do you come in peace?”’
‘What do you have to do with peace?’ Jehu replied. ‘Fall in behind me.’
The lookout reported, ‘The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.’
All soldiers, whether with the king in Samaria, or currently protecting Ramoth Gilead, considered Jehu as their commander-in-chief and would obey him without question.
19 So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, ‘This is what the king says: “Do you come in peace?”’
Jehu replied, ‘What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.’
20 The lookout reported, ‘He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi – he drives like a maniac.’
21 ‘Hitch up my chariot,’ Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.
It is tempting to just keep reading as the story becomes more and more exciting, but it is important to pay attention to the detail. Jehu and the two kings met at the land that had once been the site of Naboth’s vineyard. Does anyone need a reminder of Elijah’s prophecy?
(Don’t worry – a reminder follows in verse 26)
2 Kings 9:22-37
22 When Joram saw Jehu he asked, ‘Have you come in peace, Jehu?’
‘How can there be peace,’ Jehu replied, ‘as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?’
23 Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, ‘Treachery, Ahaziah!’
24 Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. 25 Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, ‘Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy against him: 26 “Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.” Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.’
27 When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him, shouting, ‘Kill him too!’ They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there. 28 His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David. 29 (In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)
30 Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. 31 As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, ‘Have you come in peace, you Zimri, you murderer of your master?
32 He looked up at the window and called out, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 33 ‘Throw her down!’ Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
34 Jehu went in and ate and drank. ‘Take care of that cursed woman,’ he said, ‘and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.’ 35 But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. 36 They went back and told Jehu, who said, ‘This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: on the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh. 37 Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, “This is Jezebel.”’
When Elijah failed to carry out the Lord’s instructions concerning Hazael and Jehu did it mean God’s plans had been thwarted? Personally I believe that the Lord does not have plans, only purposes (see two studies starting HERE). Man can upset plans, but god’s purposes will always succeed – maybe not in ways that we like, and not using people we would have chosen.
