2 Kings 8:11 - Forerunner Commentary

2 Kings 8:11

9 So ^aHazael went to meet him and took a present with him, of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel-loads; and he came and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’ ”

10 And Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover.’ However the Lord has shown me that ^ahe will really die.”

11 Then he¹ set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed; and the man of God ^awept.

12 And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” He answered, “Because I know ^athe evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you ^bwill dash their children, and rip open their women with child.”

13 So Hazael said, “But what ^ais your servant—a dog, that he should do this gross thing?” And Elisha answered, ^b“The Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria.”

14 Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me you would surely recover.”

15 But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place.

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for 2 Kings 8:11.

II Kings 8:11-13

Please turn back to II Kings 8. The event we will see is another example of God giving power to someone to be His instrument of punishment, knowing full-well the nature of the person involved. In this case, God's instrument was Hazael, who was about to kill the current king of Syria and take his place. You might recall that, earlier, God had told Elijah to anoint Hazael. But Elisha is God's prophet now, foretelling what will happen:

God gave Elisha insight into the evil that Hazael would do to the Israelites, and the barbarity here is not far removed from what Hamas perpetrated on October 7. Yet the key point is that God was the One who made Hazael king, knowing all of his terrible traits.

The carnal mind will ask where God was, overlooking that it was the nation that had moved away from God. It is as though all the previous and grievous sins are excused, but God hiding His face in response is the one thing that is inexcusable.

Mankind in general does not take sin as seriously as God does. Mankind also looks at judgment differently than God does, and does not understand that the sin of one person can reach out and affect others who may be completely uninvolved. As more of God's people forsake Him, the danger increases that others of His people will be affected if He hides His face and allows evil to have its day, as He did with Hazael.

Excerpted from Hamas' October 7 Attack

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