ELISHA’S MINISTRY - BEN-HADAD, HAZAEL AND THE REPROBATE NATURE OF MAN 2 Kings 8:7-15
SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 19
This first PART of the message investigates Ben-Hadad and Hazael, and PART 2 will follow next time. It has been split because of the length.
In this third last message in the Elisha series, we will consider an event that was sad in many ways. The message revolves around the political situation in Israel, also known as Samaria.
THE FIRST PART
2Kings 8 v 7 Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and he was told, “The man of God has come here,”
We read that Elisha had gone to Damascus. This was the first time and was for a reason known to God and Elisha. Damascus was the capital of Aram, and Aram was Israel's enemy and was the location of Naaman who had been cured of his leprosy by Elisha. Verse 1 suggests some things to us. The first is that Elisha could not be incognito – people knew he was in Damascus. The second is that Elisha’s reputation was known even in Aram – would Naaman have had anything to do with that? The third thing was that Aram’s sick king had been informed and they hoped Elisha could cure him. They thought he had cured Naaman even though it was God. Elisha was what every good servant should be – a signpost.
Who was Ben-hadad, the ruler of Aram? The name means "the son of Hadad," a well-known term of an Aramean god. Ben-hahad was often at war with Ahab and Jehovah actually helped Ahab gain victory but Ahab was not obedient. Ahab and Jehoshaphat from Judah joined forces against Ben-hadad. The Syrian strife continued even after Ahab’s death but Elisha seems to have been the chief thorn in Ben-hadad’s flesh. Elisha predicted the moves of the Syrian king, producing such a frustration that he was determined to capture the Hebrew prophet (2 Kings 6 v 11-14). When Ben-hadad’s army came to take the prophet, the Lord smote the army with blindness and led them to Samaria where Elisha made them a feast and released them. His action produced a temporary release from the raids Ben-hadad was conducting against Israel (6 v 18-23). When next Ben-hadad besieged Samaria the famine was so great the women were eating their own children. In great anger Israel’s king sought to slay Elisha whom he blamed for the famine (6 v 32, 33). The Lord, however, gave Israel victory over Ben-hadad and relief from the famine. Ben-hadad then waged war with the Assyrians who inflicted a series of defeats upon him, pushing his troops into the Orontes River on the occasion of Ben-hadad’s death.
2Kings 8 v 8 and the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”
The past was left behind where Ben-hadad wanted to kill the prophet, because now he was worried about his own illness. He sent his commander to Elisha. The Syrians termed him as “the man of God” and Ben-hahad’s big concern was if he would recover from his wounds. As was the case, a gift had to be taken. You remember Naaman brought an immense treasure but Elisha refused it. Ben-hadad was a man of war but like all people, he was powerless in the face of death. It matters not if a person is rich or poor, powerful or weak, in parliament or in jail, all must die because of the sinful nature and then face the judgement. Atheists think there is no God and therefore no judgement. Religion is the opiate of the people claimed Karl Marx. The same thought is among the Democrats in the USA and the Greens in Australia.
2Kings 8 v 9 Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads, and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”
What was the first thing that came to mind for you in this verse? Well for me it was “forty camel loads”. That was some gift. Did it outdo Naaman’s gift? The passage does not indicate that Elisha accepted the gift, but you must think it was extremely unlikely, having been through this before. Well I would have liked the dates! (the ones to eat). Expressions are quaint, and when it says he took a gift in his hand, then what a hand it was, big enough to hold forty camels. As soon as he arrived, the message and question were brief. On behalf of Ben-hadad, he wanted to know if the leader would recover.
2Kings 8 v 10 Then Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall surely recover,’ but the LORD has shown me that he will certainly die,”
Did you understand that? The pronouns are interesting. “YOU shall surely recover” and “HE will certainly die”. That is, Ben-hadad is going to recover, but he is going to die. Almost contradictory. The first statement was said TO Ben-hadad and the second was said ABOUT him. Elisha was not suggesting anything to Hazael, but God had revealed to him what would happen. It was a short and precise message. One commentator says, “‘The Lord hath shown me that he shall surely die, by another means, though not by the disease’.”
2Kings 8 v 11 and he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept.
If I am not mistaken, this is the only time that Elisha’s emotion is revealed in the book. The reason he fixed his gaze on Hazael was that Elisha was so stirred up with emotion because he knew what was going to happen. Hazael blushed with embarrassment. Benson says, “Elisha fixed his eyes on Hazael, and looked upon him so earnestly, so long, and with such a settled countenance, that Hazael was ashamed, as apprehending that the prophet discerned or suspected something of an evil and shameful nature in him.” Elisha then wept. He broke down at that point. What a surprise that would have been for Hazael who would have held this man in the highest esteem.
2Kings 8 v 12 Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” Then he answered, “Because I know the evil that YOU will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their little ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you will rip up.”
In answer to Hazael’s question, the reason for Elisha’s grief is given and it is very unpleasant. It is a great evil. It is a summary of what Hazael will do to the Israelites. He will do evil to Israel; he will set the strongholds or fortresses on fire (often with the people inside); he will kill the young men with the sword (they will all be killed who are found); he will smash the young children; he will rip open the wombs of pregnant women. What could be more immoral and beastly than that? It from hell itself. People are corrupt but this corruption is on another level. Such is the hate people have for one another. The “atrocities of war” is a common expression. It is not recent.
2Kings 8 v 13 Then Hazael said, “But is your servant but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” and Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram,”
Can a man be shocked? Hazael was. He could never accept that he was capable of doing such revolting things. The dog is the lowest despised animal, an unclean animal in scripture. In Hazael’s eyes, Elisha was making out he was like a dog. That was a shock for Hazael, but it happened. Man does not know his own heart or the depravity he is capable of. Look at the depravity associated with the world’s dictators over the centuries. Look what was done to Christians in the first few hundred years of Christianity, and in the Middle Ages and right through to now. One shock is followed by another shock. Elisha declared Hazael is going to be king over Aram.
2Kings 8 v 14 so he departed from Elisha and returned to his master who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” and he answered, “He told me that you would surely recover.”
No more of the conversation is recorded. He returned and reported to Ben-hahad what Elisha had said, but not all of it, just the part that Ben-hadad was hoping to hear. I suppose that gave him confidence and hope and he continued to plan his future, but it was going to be very short lived.
2Kings 8 v 15 It came about on the morrow, that he took the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face, so that he died and Hazael became king in his place.
“The cover” is a thick cloth, a quilt or coverlet. Syriac renders it as “curtain”, and Josephus says that Hazael strangled Ben-hadad with a mosquito net. Can you believe that! He murdered his king by suffocating him with a wet cover. He then became king. Today they call it a political assassination though one does not usually murder the leader in our society. Mind you in centuries gone past political assassinations were common. Probably the best known are Brutus murdering Julius Caesar and Macbeth, or at least his Jezebel-type wife, dispatching Duncan the king. Soon after taking power, Hazael fought against the combined forces of Jehoram and Ahaziah at Ramoth-gilead (8 v 28-29; 9 v 14-15). He frequently defeated Jehu in battle, devastating all his country east of the Jordan from the Arnon in the south to Bashan in the North.
Evil men are capable of any atrocity. They have no qualms about the execution of evil because they are ruled by their sinful natures. Without the new birth any man or woman is capable, given the circumstances, of committing the worst crimes. A careful reading of Romans 3 bears that out. It was all confirmed earlier by Jeremiah through whom God said, “Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? Jer 17:10 “I, the LORD, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”
People who speak about the goodness of man do so, only through comparison. What is the yardstick? It is a measure against flawed mankind. “He might be bad but the other is good.” That’s only a comparison against the bad. In any case it is God who keeps the record and every person will be accountable. Verse 10 above says that. God know all the motives and actions of every human being because He tests the hearts (“examines the kidneys” it is literally = God examines the whole being); and deeds will have consequences. For the unsaved it will not be good for their deeds condemn them.
You don’t need me to give examples of the worst men and women in history. Read of the atrocities against Christians by the Roman authorities in the early centuries of the Church, and in the Middle ages by Rome. The last century has seen Stalin, Hitler, Mao ze Dong, who among them were responsible for the deaths of around 137 million people. God is not mocked. Whatever is hidden will be revealed and what is forgotten will be declared. If the reader here has not given his or her life to Jesus Christ in repentance to ask Jesus to be your personal Saviour, sadly, you will join the lists of those to whom “God will give you according to the results of your deeds.” Become a Christian today, saved for all eternity.
Elisha is not mentioned again until there was to be a great change in Samaria/Israel, and God appointed Elisha to instigate that change. In the next PART we will read that account and discuss it. It will be a most interesting story.
END OF PART 1. PART 2 WILL BE THE NEXT MESSAGE.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
