Introduction
You might recall that all the stories in last week’s passage made clear that the Lord is in control. He is the great and mighty God who made all things and who rules over all things and nothing is too hard for him. He rules over small events, like what happens to a lost axe-head. And he rules over big events, like what happens to a whole city that is under siege. And he cares about what happens to little people like the Shunammite woman and her son. And he cares about what happens to his kings and prophets. And that why we go to him in prayer and why we pray for all kinds of things and people. We go to him in prayer because we know he loves the world; and we know that he’s in charge of what happens in the world; and that he cares about and he rules over big things and small things.
And so, the stories in last week’s passage were all about how God is in control. And they all featured Elisha the prophet. So, God worked through Elisha to make the axe-head float. God worked through Elisha to blind the Arameans who came to capture him. God spoke through Elisha to announce when the famine would end. And the king and Gehazi were talking about the great things Elisha had done whenever the Shunammite woman came in to ask for the king’s help. All of the stories last week featured Elisha. And that’s the same with the first part of today’s passage, which we’ll turn to now.
Verses 7 to 15
Our narrator tells us in verse 7 that Elisha went to Damascus, which was the capital city of Aram. And he also tells us that the king of Aram, Ben-Hadad, was unwell. Although Aram and Israel were enemies, that didn’t stop the king from seeking Elisha’s help. And so, he sent this man, Hazael, to Elisha with a gift. In fact, it was a massive gift. Just look down to verse 9 where it says Hazael brought Elisha forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. It’s sounds such an extravagant gift that some of the commentators think that the narrator is exaggerating. But whether he’s exaggerating or not, we take it that it was a massive gift. And the king sent Hazael to Elisha with this gift in order to ask Elisha to consult the Lord on his behalf to see whether he will recover or not from his illness. And it’s perhaps likely that he was also hoping that the Lord would heal him from his illness. We read something similar to this in chapter 1, but at that time Ahaziah the king of Israel sent messengers to consult Baal on his behalf. And so, in chapter 1 we had the king of Israel seeking help from a false god, whereas here we find a pagan king seeking help from the true God.
And so, Hazael went to Elisha and told him what the king wanted to know. And Elisha gave his answer in verse 10. Different versions of the Bible translate this verse in different ways, because there’s some ambiguity in what Elisha said. But the different translations amount to the same thing, which is that the king is doomed. The king is doomed. He does not have long to live. According to the NIV, Elisha said to Hazael that the king will recover from his illness. However, the Lord also revealed to Elisha that the king will still die. So, the illness will not kill him, but something else — or someone else — will kill him.
And then Elisha fixed his gaze on Hazael. Do you see that in verse 11? Elisha stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael felt ashamed. We can’t be sure what Elisha was doing, but it seems to me that he was staring at Hazael with a knowing look, because the Lord had revealed to Elisha exactly what Hazael was going to do in the future. And after staring at him for so long, the prophet broke down and wept.
‘Why are you weeping?’ Hazael wants to know. And Elisha answered that the reason he’s weeping like that is because he knows the harm which Hazael will do to the Israelites. You’ll set fire to their fortified places. You’ll kill their young men with the sword. You’ll dash their little children to the ground. You’ll rip open their pregnant women.
Now, if someone said that to you, you’d be horrified, wouldn’t you? You’d protest and say that there’s no way you would do such a thing. You wouldn’t dream of doing such a terrible thing. Destroy cities? Kill men and children and women? Never! But that’s not how Hazael reacted, is it? Yes, he calls himself a dog, which is a form of self-deprecation or modesty. In other words, he’s saying, ‘Who am I? I’m nothing. I’m as insignificant as a dog.’ But that’s not all he said. He went on to say: ‘I’m nothing. I’m only a dog. And so, how could someone like me do such a … what?’ Such a feat. How could someone like me do such a great thing? He’s not horrified by Elisha’s words. He’s excited by Elisha’s words.
So, how could someone as insignificant as Hazael do such a thing? And Elisha answers him in verse 13 by saying that the Lord has revealed to him that Hazael will become king of Aram. So, Ben-Hadad will recover from his illness. But he will still die. And he’ll die because Hazael will kill him and take his place as king. And when Hazael becomes king of Aram, then he’ll be able to do all the things Elisha described.
Well, Hazael returned to the king. And when he got there, he told the king part of what Elisha said. He told the king that according to the Lord the king will recover from his illness. But the very next day, Hazael took a thick cloth and smothered the king so that he died. And Hazael succeeded him as king.
Explanation
You may not remember it, but you’ve heard the name Hazael before. We heard his name way back in 1 Kings 19. That was the chapter when Elijah travelled all the way from the north of Israel to Mount Horeb in the south. And he went there to meet the Lord, who told him to go back the way he had come and to do three things: anoint Jehu king over Israel, anoint Elisha prophet in your place and anoint Hazael king over Aram. Now, when we studied that passage, I said that Elijah did not actually do any of these three things. And so, it’s likely the Lord’s words were meant to indicate what was going to happen in the near future. In the near future, Jehu will become king of Israel; and Elisha will succeed Elijah as prophet; and Hazael will become king of Aram. And God was going to use Hazael and Jehu to punish his people for their sinful rebellion.
The people of Israel had forsaken the Lord and they had bowed down to Baal to worship him, instead of worshipping the Lord. And their recent kings, including Ahab, had done wicked things. Just think of now Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, had murdered Naboth in order to take over his vineyard. And Ahab’s son Ahaziah, who succeeded him, did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and he provoked the Lord.
And, of course, the Lord had been patient with them. And he had sent Elijah and Elisha to them to tell them to repent. And he had put up with their rebellion for so many years giving them time to repent and return to him. But now, because they had not repented, he was going to use Hazael king of Aram to punish his people for their wickedness in the hope that this will make them turn from their wicked ways and return to him. If they turned from their wicked ways and returned to him, then he will gladly forgive them, because the Lord is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he’s always willing to forgive those who turn from their unbelief and disobedience and who come to him for forgiveness.
Isn’t that one of the lessons we learn from the parable of the Prodigal Son? The Prodigal Son went away from the family farm and he squandered his wealth. When he came to his senses, he decided to return home to see if his father would be prepared to receive him back as a servant. And yet, when he went home, he discovered that his father was prepared to welcome him home as a son. The father was willing to forgive him all that he had done wrong. And the Lord Jesus taught us that parable to teach us that when we return to the Lord, he’s always willing to forgive us. He will not drive us away. He will not turn his back on us. When we return to him, he will forgive us. And he can forgive us, because Christ our Saviour has made peace for us with God by paying for our sins with his life. He took the blame for us and suffered the penalty we deserve, which is death. And so, because he took the blame for what we have done wrong, God is able to forgive us.
All we have to do to receive God’s forgiveness is to give up what we’ve been doing wrong and turn back to God. This message is for those who never believed and who never asked God for forgiveness. But it’s also for the believer who has drifted from the Lord. And it’s for the believer who has let some sin come between you and him. And the Lord’s been waiting for you to return to him. And he’s been coming to you Sunday by Sunday in the preaching of his word; and he’s been saying to you that you need to come back to him. And perhaps he’s had to afflict you in some way to get your attention, because you haven’t been listening to his word. But he’s saying to you: Come back to me. Come back to me and I will forgive you and treat you as if you’ve never been away from me.
And so, that’s the message from the first part of today’s passage. The Lord was going to use Hazael to punish his people in the hope that they will return to him. And God is always willing to pardon those who return to him.
In Luke 13, the Lord Jesus said about the people of Jerusalem, who had rejected him, that he longed to gather them the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. The Lord longed to gather the people to him for salvation. He wanted them to come. He longed for them to come. And whoever comes, he forgives.
On another occasion, he wept over the city of Jerusalem. So, just as Elisha wept at the thought of how the people would suffer because of their rebellion, so the Lord Jesus wept at the thought of how the people in Jerusalem would suffer because they refused to repent. But whoever repents receives forgiveness.
Verses 16 to 24
Let’s turn now to the second part of today’s passage which is verses 16 to 24. And it’s about Jehoram, the king of Judah. Ever since chapter 2, we’re been reading about Elijah and Elisha. And so, we may have forgotten that this whole book — 2 Kings — is really about the kings of Israel and Judah. So, in case you’ve forgotten, let me remind you that the one kingdom of Israel was divided into two: there’s the northern kingdom which continued to be known as Israel; and there’s the smaller, southern kingdom of Judah. And it’s slightly confusing at the minute, because both kings in Israel and Judah have the same name. They’re both called Jehoram which can be shortened to Joram. Fortunately, the NIV refers to the king in Israel as Joram; and it refers to the king in Judah as Jehoram. And so, we read in verse 16 that in the fifth year of Joram in the north, Jehoram became king in the south.
And as the narrator tends to do, he follows a pattern for telling us about each new king. So, first of all, he gives us the basic facts: when he became king and for how long he reigned. In this case, it was for eight years. And then, the narrator gives us a summary of the king’s reign. So, Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done. Being likened to the kings of Israel — and, in particular, being likened to Ahab — is not good, because Ahab was a notoriously wicked king and most of the kings of Israel did not walk in the ways of the Lord. And so, while Jehoshaphat his father was a godly king, who walked in the ways of the Lord, Jehoram was the opposite. And the narrator explains the reason for his godlessness: he married one of Ahab’s daughters. According to 2 Chronicles 18, Jehoshaphat in the south allied himself with Ahab in the north by marriage. And this might be that marriage. It may have seemed a wise political move for the son of Jehoshaphat to marry the daughter of Ahab, because it would have brought the two kings and two kingdoms closer together. But it was not good for the spiritual health of the nation. And as a result of this marriage, Jehoram did not walk in the ways of the Lord. Instead he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; and he therefore did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
And after summarising the king’s reign, the narrator tells us briefly what happened during it. So, according to verses 20 to 22, in the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. And then, Libnah also revolted at the same time.
Edom, of course, was a foreign nation which had come under Judah’s control some time in the past. And no doubt the people of Edom would have had to pay tribute or taxes to Judah. And so, to lose Edom was to lose whatever taxes they paid. And that wasn’t good for Judah. The strange thing about Libnah was that it was not a foreign nation. It was a city within Judah. And yet the people of Libnah decided that they no longer wanted to be part of Judah. And so, that’s not good for Judah.
And so, what happened during Jehoram’s reign? Did he strengthen the nation? Did the kingdom grow during his reign and prosper? Did foreign nations send tribute to honour the king? No, nothing like that happened. Instead the opposite happened: the kingdom contracted. It got smaller. It got weaker. And although the narrator doesn’t say so, it’s possible that this is a sign of God’s displeasure. It’s possible that the Lord let these things happen because the king and the people had turned away from the Lord. He was afflicting the people in the south, just as he afflicted the people in the north, in the hope that they would turn back to him. In the time of Solomon, the Lord’s blessing was on the kingdom, so that it prospered. But in the time of Jehoram, the Lord’s curse was on the kingdom, so that it withered.
And the narrator concludes his account of Jehoram’s reign by telling us in verse 23 that the other events of his reign are written in the book of annals; and he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. The book of 2 Chronicles gives us a bit more detail about his death. It says:
And after all this the LORD struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honour, like the fires made for his fathers…. And he departed with no one’s regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Imagine that? No one regretted his death. That sums up the kind of king he was.
Verses 25 to 29
After his death, his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king. And we read about his reign in verses 25 to 29. The narrator again gives us the basic facts in verses 25 and 26: so when he began to reign and for how long. And it’s a very short reign: only one year. And the narrator tells us that his mother was related to Omri king of Israel. Omri was Ahab’s father and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Indeed we’re told in 1 Kings that he sinned more than all those before him. So, Ahaziah’s mother was related to this wicked king. And that might explain the summary of Ahaziah’s reign in verse 27, where it says that he walked in the ways of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
And then the narrator tells us what happened during his reign. He joined forces with the king of Israel to fight against Hazael. But it seems that Hazael’s army was victorious, because the king of Israel was wounded and had to return to Jezreel. And Jehoram joined him there. And we’ll find out what happened next in the next chapter.
Explanation
What we’ve read about Jehoram and Ahaziah suggests that the southern kingdom of Judah was becoming more and more like the northern kingdom of Israel. Instead of walking in the ways of the Lord, they walked in the ways of Ormi and Ahab and of the wicked kings of Israel in the north. And so, they did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord instead of doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Instead of setting an example to the people of godliness, they led the people astray. And there were signs that the nation was in decline because the hand of the Lord was against them.
And yet, despite the sinfulness of the kings and people, the Lord did not abandon his people. Turn with me to verse 19 for a moment. After telling us that Jehoram did evil in the eyes of the Lord, the narrator tells us that nevertheless the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. That suggests that they deserved to be destroyed. Because of the way the king and people had turned away from the Lord, they deserved to be destroyed. However, God was unwilling to destroy them. Why was he unwilling to destroy them? The narrator tells us: he was unwilling to destroy them for the sake of his servant David. And he goes on to say that God promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever. The narrator is referring to something we read back in 1 Kings 11 and 15, where the Lord promised that there would always be a lamp in Jerusalem for David. He meant that there would always be a descendant of David on the throne in Jerusalem. So, David’s royal descendants will not be snuffed out like a candle. God will not let them go out. God will ensure that David’s descendants will remain on the throne always.
And so, though Judah deserved to be destroyed, because the king and people had turned away from the Lord, nevertheless the Lord was prepared to put up with them all and to endure all of their wickedness and to put up with all their rebellion, because of his promise to David to prevent the line of his royal descendants from going out. And God wanted to prevent the line of his royal descendants from going out, because from out of that line of descendants, the Saviour-King would come.
When Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the world as one of us, he came as a descendant of David. And he came to save his people from our sin and misery in this world and to give us eternal life in the presence of God in the new heavens and earth where we will reign with him forever. And so, God was prepared to put up with the Jehorams and the Ahaziahs and with everyone like them in the land of Judah. He was prepared to put up with them all and to endure their sins and shortcomings because of his great plan to send his Saviour-King into the world.
And the Saviour-King is nothing like Jehoram and Ahaziah. He is nothing like them, because when the Saviour came, he did not walk in the ways of Omri or Ahab, but he walked in the ways of God. And instead of doing evil in the eyes of God, he did what was right in the eyes of God. He did everything right. And in obedience to God, he gave up his life on the cross to make up for all that we have done wrong. And though you may have done everything wrong, God is prepared to treat you as if you’ve done everything right so long as you’re trusting in Christ. And that’s because when we trust in Christ, not only do we receive forgiveness from God, but Christ shares with us his perfect righteousness. And that means, since he did everything right, God will treat you as if you’ve done everything right. He’ll not condemn you, but he’ll welcome you into his presence in the new heavens and earth.
And so, if Jesus Christ is your Saviour, if you’re trusting in him, then you can look forward to eternal life in God’s presence in the new and better world to come, where everything will be perfect and where everyone will be happy forever. In the new heavens and earth, we won’t suffer under wicked kings like Hazael or Jehoram or Ahaziah, but we’ll prosper and be happy under Christ’s perfect reign.
And here’s the final thing to say today: since he’s not only our Saviour, but also our King, then we’re to serve him. We’re to obey him in our daily lives and we’re to do his will here on earth. If Jesus Christ is your Saviour, if you’re trusting in him, then he’s also your king. And instead of living for yourself, you’re to live your life for him.
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