In 2 Kings 8, we have Elisha's kindness to the Shunammite woman, his anointing Hazael, king of Syria, and the brief histories of two kings of Judah. Here now the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God, 2 Kings 8, the whole chapter starting at verse 1. Then spake Elisha unto the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou in thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn. For the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass, at the seven years end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines, and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. And the king talked with Gehazi, a servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, my Lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him, So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now. And Elisha came to Damascus and Ben-Hadad. The king of Syria was sick, and it was told him, saying, The man of God has come hither. And the king said unto Hazael, take a present in thine hand and go meet the man of God and inquire of the Lord by him saying, shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, 40 camels burden, and came and stood before him and said, "'Thy son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, "'hath sent me to thee, saying, "'Shall I recover of this disease?' "'And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, "'Thou mayest certainly recover, "'howbeit the Lord hath showed me "'that he shall surely die.' "'And he settled his countenance steadfastly, "'until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, but what? Is thy servant a dog, that I should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord has showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. So he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? And he answered, he told me that thou should surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it on his face so that he died. And Hazael reigned in his stead. And in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him always a light. and to his children. In his days, Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves. So Joram went over to Zaire and all the chariots with him. And he rose by night and smote the Edomites, which compassed him about. and the captains of the chariots, and the people fled into their tents. Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Lipna revolted at the same time. And the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his stead. And the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, did Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, begin to reign. Two and 20 years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Amri, king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. And he went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to the war against Hazael, king of Syria, in Ramoth-Gilead. And the Syrians wounded Joram. And King Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him in Ramah, when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram, the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word from the book of Second Kings, chapter eight. May the Lord bless us in the reading and hearing of it, and now in consideration of its teachings. Verses one through six, Elisha's advice and kindness to the Shunammite woman. Remember, she built him a little house, a little dwelling where he would stay. She did good to him. Here he does good in return. Verse one, then spake Elisha unto the woman whose son he had restored to life. Elisha had previously given her a son. Her husband was old. They didn't have any children. God restored her the time of life. The child died and then was raised from the dead. Elisha is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ who raises the dead, and at the last day will raise all of the dead by his voice, calling them out of their graves. Christ is the resurrection and the life. Verse one also says, for the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years. Remember in the days of Elijah, there was a famine, but only for three and a half years. Now the people of Israel, having rebelled against the Lord, will experience a double famine to what they had previously. They have not learned their lesson. They refused to repent after their former plagues. Even after God showed them mercy after mercy, they still refused to repent. They saw their adversaries defeated by God's power, and yet how do they return to God? evil for good, disobedience for mercy. And yet in the midst of the judgment on the nation, God remembers mercy to the Shunammite woman and to her whole household. Let us rejoice that though the wrath of God may be poured out upon a nation and a people, yet he works good even for his saints and people in the midst of judgments, in the midst of wrath, the prophet says, God remembers mercy. And so here to the Shunammite woman, she sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. She obeys immediately. And it is of note that the Philistines outside of God's covenant, having no promises, having no scripture, having no lawful worship of God, yet do not get judged as severely as Israel, who has prophets, who has the word of God, who has the oracles of the Old Testament. To whom much is given, of him shall much be required. If we have the knowledge of God's word, God will hold us to a higher standard. After seven years, the woman returns. She cries unto the king for her house and her land. Now, Elisha had promised and asked her, what is thou be spoken for to the king? Do you want me, Elisha, to go speak to the king for you? Now she speaks in her own person. And lo and behold, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, is there talking to the king about the miracles of Elisha while she shows up with her son. God's providence. And at that very moment, Gehazi relating the resurrection of the Shunammite son, she cries, she asks, may I have my house, my land, and the produce of the land of the last seven years. Verses seven through 15, we have the prophetic and murderous elevation of Hazael as king of Syria, which was foretold in 1 Kings 19, verse 15 by the prophet Elijah. Elisha comes to Damascus, Ben-Hadad is sick, verses 7-9, and the king sends his trusted friend perhaps, next in council, maybe part of the triumvirate of the Syrian nation, go and inquire with presence of the man of God. He says, verse 9, Thy son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? Now we noted this in chapter six, verse 21, that though kings rule over the civil realm, what are they to refer to as Elisha, the man of God? My father. Your son, he says, Ben-Hadad. The great monarch, Ben-Hadad, who rules over his kingdom and crushes his adversaries, he is thy son. Why? Because there are two kingdoms. There is the kingdom of the civil realm, and there is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. You'll recall Andrew Melville's speech to James VI of Scotland, later James I, King of England and Scotland and Ireland, where he said, there are two kingdoms in Scotland. There is King James, the head of the commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus, the king of the church, whose subject James the sixth is, and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member. So here, Ben-Hadad, the great monarch, calls him my father, and he himself thy son. Now notice, thou mayest certainly recover, verse 10. This is the word of God. Living you shall live. You shall most certainly live. Because this sickness mentioned in verse seven is not a mortal sickness. You will certainly recover of that. But notice, how be it the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die. Dying he shall die. The direct opposite. This sickness will not kill you, but you will most certainly die, he says. Now Elisha, having promised death to the king, now sets his gaze upon Hazael, till Hazael is ashamed and the prophet begins to weep. Hazael wants to know why. And Elisha prophesies of his lawless barbarity. Rip up little children. They call that health care in our day. Rip up little children. Take a woman with a child inside of her belly and tear her up as well. That's what she'll do. Now listen, Hazael said, but what? Is thy servant a dog? The Dutch annotations say that is, am I so cruel, fierce and murderous and merciless as a dog? Now in the ancient world and even in our days, there are dogs that run wild. You might think of little Fifi, you know, domesticated dogs, kind and sweet dogs. These are not the dogs he's talking about. The dogs that run wild and fierce that tear your children to bits and eat them as dog food. That's what he's talking about. Am I one of those savage beasts, Hazael says, that he should do this great thing? Now this word great means massive in extent. Am I such a barbarous animal that I would do such a thing, he asks. Matthew Henry comments, what a good opinion he had of himself. How much better than he deserved. He thought it impossible that he should do such a barbarous thing as the prophet foresaw. Note, we are apt to think ourselves sufficiently armed against those sins, which yet we are afterwards overcome by. Oh, I would never do that. I'm a good person. I'm not a dog like that. How could you say I would ever do anything like that? Watch and pray. The heart is deceitful above all things, the prophet says, and desperately wicked. And we say, no, it's not. I'm good people. I do good things. No, we are not good people. We do not do good things. We can rename our sins as virtues. That does not make them virtues. Verse 13, the prophet goes on. The Lord has showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. Now notice, I have the word of God, Hazael could say, that I will be king. God has told me that I will be king, and therefore what does he do? Await God's providence? No, he takes murderous action on his own behalf. First he lies to Ben-Hadad, his king. Verse 14, what said Elisha to thee? And he answered, he told me, what? That thou shalt surely recover. Now this is a direct quotation, you see. This is exactly what Elisha said. What else did he say, Hazael? Does he tell the king? No, that's right. He lies to the king by leaving out the part of the truth that would be unpleasant, you see. Do you think the media doesn't lie to you? They'll tell you one part of a story, but will they tell you the entirety of the story? You bet not. Why? Because they're lying to you. So here, for political ends, as a good politician, I'll tell you the part of the truth that you want to hear. You'll recover. Direct quotation. I can tell you the verse in the Bible where he said it. But he did not tell him the whole truth. First, Hazael has a high opinion of himself. What am I, a dog that I would do this? Next, he lies to promote his political career. Finally, as the quintessential politician, lying and justifying his barbaric ways by reference to his supposedly good intentions. And look, I've even got a scripture for it. The prophet said, Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4 verse 23. Don't be like Hazael, unwatchful over your own depravity and sinfulness. He that trusteth in his own heart is what? a good psychotherapy patient, to see a good psychotherapist that can tell you, you ought to believe in yourself. Here's what God says, he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. That's what Hazael was. Trusting in himself, he was a fool. Trust in the Lord, not yourself. Learn to see your heart as desperately wicked. And then walk in the ways of God who is most wise and righteous in all of his commandments. And do not justify your sweet little lies by your good intentions as Hazael did. By the presumptuous notion that you are good and you will use this power for good. Hazael. with his good intentions, his high view of himself, his political lies, is in fact a dog. That's right. What he said he was not, he was. A wicked murderer who murders his king. That adds to the aggravation of the crime. He's sick, you're his servant, you lie to him, and then you snuff out his life. You are a dog, Hazael. We have then in verses 16 through 24, Jehoram's short and wicked reign. A supplement to his co-regency, he reigned alongside his father Jehoshaphat for a time. 1 Kings 22.50 describes this. Verse 16 tells us, in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, being then king of Judah. This is approximately 850 BC by some estimates. As we read in 2 Kings 1 17, Ahab's son Joram began to reign in the second year of Jehoram. This is when they reigned together. And then finally he takes the kingdom for himself shortly before Jehoshaphat's death. Verses 17 and 18, we have Jehoram's age, the length of his kingdom, the wickedness of his life, and his wife described. Verse 19, notice, yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, For David, his servant's sake. Notice, God's grace to his anointed. That is David. Now David is a mere man, himself liable to many faults and sins, which the scripture records for us. The scripture records even his repentance as an example for our repentance when we see our own sins. And yet, for that sinful man, God will preserve a light and a lamp for his people. Then think of our Lord Jesus Christ without sin, not a mere man, but God in the flesh. Do you think God will not preserve good for his people through our Lord Jesus Christ? Much more good and eternal good than a mere temporary throne and kingdom? God in his grace and salvation shows us here. that if you are in David, you have good things. But if you are in the son of David, your goods shall never expire. You shall have everlasting life. We see then judgments against Jerome, being a loser even in his victories. We have a description of his death. and a succession by his son Ahaziah. Now it's of note, he won against the Edomites, but he lost, didn't he? He lost the kingdom, he won the battle. So even in their victory, the sons of David are being judged by God and become the losers. Notice also verse 22, Libna revolted at the same time. Libna was a city of Judah, of which we read in Joshua 15 verses 20 and 42. It was given for the sons of Levi to inhabit, Joshua 21, 13. They're not paying their taxes anymore. We're not going to subject ourselves to our monarchs any longer, both outside of the nation in Edom and inside the nation in Libna. Then we have the beginning of the history of the reign of Jehoram, his son Ahaziah. It says in the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, approximately 844 BC. It tells us in verses 26 through 29 his age, 22 when he began to reign, the length of his reign, one year, his mother Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri, the wickedness of his reign, And we see also him going to see his wounded brother King, which will pick up God willing this evening in chapter nine and thus far the exposition of second King.