Questions for Thought
- Does God put up with our evil forever?
- Do God’s words always come true even it it seems to take a long time?
Things got really bad for Israel. As the King of Israel, Jehoram, was passing by, a woman cried out to him and told him what had happened to her. Another woman had told her to give her son to be killed and eaten and promised she would do the same on the next day. This woman who was reporting to the king had done so, but now the other woman was refusing. I cannot imagine this happening and can even less imagine the woman telling the king what she had done. The king became furious but not with the sins of Israel. He wanted Elisha brought to him so he could kill him.
Elisha was in his house with the elders when the king sent a man to get him. Before the king’s messenger got there, Elisha had told the elders what was happening. He told them the king had sent a messenger but the king would be right behind the messenger. Sure enough, the messenger appeared and the king was right behind him. Jehoram was mad and said this calamity was from the Lord. Elisha told Jehoram and the man who was with him there would be food available the next day. The man with the king did not believe it possible and Elisha told him he would see it with his own eyes but he would not get to eat it.
Sure enough, that night, four men with leprosy decided to surrender to the Syrians. They figured the worst that would happen would be they would be killed but on the other hand they might be saved. They did not know the Lord had made the Syrians hear a noise making them think they were being attacked by the Hittitites and Egyptians and had fled the city. The lepers went into the city and it was empty of people. They found food and drink and silver and gold and clothing and took what they wanted. Then they began to worry about what might happen to them if they didn’t let the king know, so they went back and told the gatekeeper of their city what they had found. The gatekeeper told the king and after checking out the report, the king’s men went into the city and there was abundant food. The man who was told by Elisha there would be food, but he would not eat of it, was in charge of the gate and the people walked all over him and he died. He saw the food but did not get to eat it.
Remember the woman who made a little room for Elisha when he was in her town? THis is the woman whose son he had restored to life. He had told her there was a famine coming and he had told her to go somewhere else until it passed. She had gone to the land of the Philistines for seven years and when she went back to her country, she went to the king to request her land be given back to her. As she was on her way to the king, Gehazi, Elisha’s servant was talking to the king and telling him the many things Elisha had done. Just as he was telling the king about the boy being restored to life, the woman and her son appeared. Gehazi told the king this is the woman and this is her son. The king asked the woman and she agreed so he restored all that was hers back to her.
Continuing in 2 Kings 8 is an account concerning King Benhadad of Syria. He was sick and when he heard Elisha was near, he sent his servant Hazael to meet Elisha and ask him if he would recover of his disease. Elisha told him to go and tell the king that he would recover but he also told Hazael the king would not recover and Hazael would do evil unto the children of Israel as he would be king over Syria. Hazael left and went back to the king and told him he should surely recover but then the next day, Hazael took a thick cloth dipped in water and smothered him. Hazael became king and as Elisha prophesied, he was a very evil king.
In Chapter 9 of 2 Kings, Elisha sent a child of one of the prophets to find Jehu and anoint him as the next king over Israel. He told the young man to flee as soon as he had anointed him. The young man told Jehu he was to smite the house of Ahab so the Lord could avenge the blood of his servants the prophets. He continued by saying the dogs would eat Jezebel, Ahab’s wife. The young man fled and the people around Jehu wanted to know the message. When they found out he was to be king, they blew the trumpets and proclaimed him king. Jehu headed out to Jezreel to kill Jezebel. On the way, he killed both King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah. When Jehu got to Jezreel, he looked up to the window where Jezebel was looking out and he called up to the men and asked who was on his side. Two or three of the men indicated they were on Jehu’s side and he told them to cast Jezebel out the window. They did and she died there. Later when Jehu told some men to go bury her, all they found were her skull, feet, and palms of her hands as the dogs had eaten her flesh. The Lord had done as He had said He would in destroying the house of Ahab, the most evil king of all.
Several other kings ruled over Israel and Judah, but all of the ones over Israel were evil and most of those over Judah were. In 2 Kings 13, we read about Elisha becoming ill. Just before he died, Joash, the king of Israel came to see him and cried over him. Elisha told him to take his bow and arrows and to open the window eastward and to shoot. He did so and Elisha called it the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria and he said Joash would smite the Syrians. Then he told him to take the arrows and smite upon the ground. Joash hit the ground three times and Elisha was angry with him. Elisha told Joash he should have hit the ground five or six times because the number of times he smote the ground with the arrows was the number of times he would smite Syria.
Elisha died and they buried him. Even after his death we have a miracle attached to him. When another man had died and was about to be buried, the men in charge of the burial became scared when they saw a band of men approaching. They let the dead body down in the same sepulcher Elijah was in, and when his body touched Elijah’s bones, he came back to life. Imagine their surprise.
The rest of 2 Kings covers the lives of the final kings of Israel and Judah. Around 722 BC Israel fell to Assyria and around 586 BC Judah was conquered by Babylonia. After Elijah and Elisha, there were several other prophets whose works have been preserved and are included in our Old Testaments. In the next few blogs, we will review some of their writings and their prophecies.
Christian Women's Responsibility in Sharing God's Word 