Reflections on 2 Kings 8

2 Kings 08 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Elisha told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, "The LORD has warned that there will be no food here for seven years. Take your family and go live somewhere else for a while."
   
2. The woman did exactly what Elisha had said and went to live in Philistine territory. She and her family lived there seven years.
   
3. Then she returned to Israel and immediately begged the king to give back her house and property.
   
4. Meanwhile, the king was asking Gehazi the servant of Elisha about the amazing things Elisha had been doing.
   
5. While Gehazi was telling him that Elisha had brought a dead boy back to life, the woman and her son arrived. "Here's the boy, Your Majesty," Gehazi said. "And this is his mother."
   
6. The king asked the woman to tell her story, and she told him everything that had happened. He then said to one of his officials, "I want you to make sure that this woman gets back everything that belonged to her, including the money her crops have made since the day she left Israel."
   
7. Some time later Elisha went to the capital city of Damascus to visit King Benhadad of Syria, who was sick. And when Benhadad was told he was there,
   
8. he said to Hazael, "Go meet with Elisha the man of God and have him ask the LORD if I will get well. And take along a gift for him."
   
9. Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, "Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well."
   
10. "Tell him he will," Elisha said to Hazael. "But the LORD has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die."
    
11. Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.
    
12. "Sir, why are you crying?" Hazael asked. Elisha answered, "Because I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel. You will burn down their walled cities and slaughter their young men. You will even crush the heads of their babies and rip open their pregnant women."
    
13. "How could I ever do anything like that?" Hazael replied. "I'm only a servant and don't have that kind of power." "Hazael, the LORD has told me that you will be the next king of Syria."
    
14. Hazael went back to Benhadad and told him, "Elisha said that you will get well."
    
15. But the very next day, Hazael got a thick blanket; he soaked it in water and held it over Benhadad's face until he died. Hazael then became king.
    
16. Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah in Joram's fifth year as king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was still king of Judah.
    
17. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled eight years from Jerusalem.
    
18. Jehoram disobeyed the LORD by doing wrong. He married Ahab's daughter and was as sinful as Ahab's family and the kings of Israel.
    
19. But the LORD refused to destroy Judah, because he had promised his servant David that someone from his family would always rule in Judah.
    
20. While Jehoram was king, the people of Edom rebelled and chose their own king.
    
21. So Jehoram and his cavalry marched to Zair, where the Edomite army surrounded him and his commanders. During the night he attacked the Edomites, but he was defeated, and his troops escaped to their homes.
    
22. Judah was never able to regain control of Edom. Even the town of Libnah rebelled at that time.
    
23. Everything else Jehoram did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah.
    
24. Jehoram died and was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem. His son Ahaziah then became king.
    
25. Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah in the twelfth year of Joram's rule in Israel.
    
26. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he ruled from Jerusalem for only one year. His mother was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.
    
27. Since Ahaziah was related to Ahab's family, he acted just like them and disobeyed the LORD by doing wrong.
    
28. Ahaziah went with King Joram of Israel to attack King Hazael and the Syrian troops at Ramoth in Gilead. Joram was wounded in that battle,
    
29. so he went to the town of Jezreel to recover. Ahaziah went there to visit him.
    

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Four event are noted in this chapter. Except for the first one, these events note the rearranging of leadership in the nations of Judah, Israel, and Aram, also known as Syria. Ill winds were blowing in the region.

The first event notes God's care of His faithful. God had not forgotten the Shunammite woman who provided an upper room in her home for the prophet Elisha. In a nation where apostacy was the rule, she was an exception as she remained faithful to the Lord. This event does not fit chronologically in the narrative of 2 Kings for in it Elisha's servant, Gehazi, was still healthy and serving Elisha. Though the events preceeding and following this account are chronolgical, this account seems to be inserted here to note the presence of those in Israel who were still faithful to God and to whom God was faithful. Because God was about to punish Israel with a famine because of her apostacy, He sent Elisha to this woman with the message to get out of Israel and go live in another country until the famine was over. God had told Elisha that the famine would last seven years.

Following the famine, the woman returned to Israel and went to the king to request the return of her property which had been taken over by someone else in her absence. In God's providence, she arrived at the palace when Elisha's servant, Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored her dead son to life. When she came before the king Gehazi told him, "this is the woman and this is the son." The king not only returned her property to her, but he gave to her the profits that had been earned from the produce of her fields.

The second event of the chapter tells of a change in leadership in Aram. Elisha arrived in Damascus, the capitol of Aram, when the king, Benhadad, was ill. Benhadad sent his official, Hazael, to Elisha to have him inquire of the Lord whether he would recover from his illness. Elisha told Hazael that the king would surely recover. But then he added that in fact, the king would die. When he said this, he stared at Hazael until he became ashamed, for the act of killing the king was already in Hazael's heart. The king would not die from his illness, but at the hands of his official, Hazael. After Hazael reported to the king that Elisha had said he would recover, Hazael took a heavy cloth, which he dipped in water, and spread it over the king's face, suffocating him. With the king dead, Hazael was appointed as king in his place. Elisha wept when he stared at Hazael bringing him to shame, for he knew "the evil you (Hazael) will do to the people of Israel. You will set their fortresses on fire. You will kill their young men with the sword. You will dash their little ones to pieces. You will rip open their pregnant women." (8:12)

Events three and four are told in rather quick order as they relate the succession of two kings in Judah during the reign of Joram in Israel. Both of these kings took Judah increasingly downward in her turn away from God. The first of these two kings was Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. Though Jehoshaphat was a good king, his son married Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and she took him in the way of her father, turning him away from God. Jehoram reigned only eight years and was succeeded by his son, Ahaziah. With Athaliah for a mother, he was an even more evil king than his father. But through these years of apostasy in Judah, God withheld punishment "because of His servant David, since He had promised to give a lamp to David and to his sons forever." (8:19)