Hope in the God of Grace and Judgment, 2 Kings 8:1-15

Hope in the God of Grace and Judgment

INTRODUCTION

Christmas is the season of choice. If you want to buy a food processor, Amazon offers you 2,000 types. Or how about a drill—there are more than 40,000 options. No, I'm not making those numbers up.

Choices can be glorious, and confusing, and empowering, and overwhelming, all at the same time. And in the West today, it looks as though it is the same with God. There is a huge array of deities to choose from, including the "no to all" option.

Walk through the stores, as you do your Christmas shopping and you are walking past so many different people: Some who believe in no God, plenty of people who (believe) that there are many gods, and another great multitude who believe in one God but who have very different thoughts on what that one God is like and what he (or she, or it) thinks.

For some, God is kind of a heavenly Santa Claus - a kind old deity, who just wants us to be happy. To others, God is a harsh taskmaster, counting up your good and bad actions and weighing up whether he's going to have mercy on you in the end. To others, God is an impersonal force that wound the universe up and is now off doing other stuff while we get on with it down here. To others, God IS the universe.

There are so many options to choose from—it's empowering and overwhelming at the same time. How do you know? How can you choose? And what does it matter?

Even inside the Church - there are far too many people who rightly say, “We see God in Jesus Christ. So focus on Jesus”. But if you probe and ask them to explain Jesus, you get so many weak - even discombobulated answers. Voddie Baucham:

“The modern Church is producing passionate people filled with empty heads who love the Jesus they don’t know very well”.

I want us to be a people who KNOW their God and who can give a reason for the HOPE that lies within us. So, if you’re wondering why, on this first Sunday of Advent - we are still in the OLD Testament book of 2 Kings, instead of A NT Gospel .... it’s because ALL OF SCRIPTURE REVEALS GOD TO US. And I want you to see again, that no matter which page of Scripture you open your Bible to - From Genesis 1 - Revelation 22 - God reveals himself THERE - and HE POINTS US TO CHRIST.

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1 HOPE IN THE LIFE-GIVING GOD, vv. 1-6

As our chapter begins, we meet up with an old friend. If you were with us, about a month and a half ago, you will remember the weealthy woman of Shumen. She had enough money to own a home - and not only be able to survive in it, she was also able to build an addition to the house, so that Elisha the prophet could have his own private suite, whenever he was in town.

She didn’t want help paying off the mortgage, she didn’t want any political favours - she wanted nothing except to serve. She knows he is God’s prophet and she wanted to do whatever she could to take care of him. It was an OT case of Matthew 10:41-42 “The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.””

God doesn’t ignore cups of cold water, friend. Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

Do you hear God’s promise to you in this, Christian? Whether you are building a suite onto your house for a missionary, or whether you are helping someone move or clean up after a flood, or taking food to the sick or helping someone who’s lost a job - or WHATEVER it is - when you are serving the saints with your cup of cold water .... God is watching.

And, back in chapter 4, we saw that this woman had one lack that she diddn’t even dare to dream about. She didn’t have a child. Elisha promised her a son. She said, “That’s not going to happen. My husband is too old. Don’t get my hopes up.” But just as God’s prophet promised … the woman gets pregnant and a son is born. But it’s not a happily ever after story. The young son gets sick. The son dies. And the woman finds a hurt that she had never needed to know before - you don’t miss what you’ve never had. She’s devastated. Elisha prays, he raises the cold corpse of the child back to life again. This time we can celebrate!

Well, the boy doesn’t die again - but apparently, it’s still not happily ever after in Shunem.

Verse 1 tells us that when a famine is about to hit Israel - Elisha tells this woman to take her loved one and get out of town. “Find somewhere to live where there will be food for your family to eat.”

Verse 2 tells us that she listens, packs up her family and heads down to the coastal plain on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean: Philistine country. There’s enough rainfall here to support agriculture and the woman lives out the famine, here - Seven years she’s here.

But once again, the text tells us, it’s not happily ever after … yet.

2 Kings 8:3 “And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land.”

While she’s been gone, someone has grabbed her house and land. Most likely, it was taken over by the king and held until the rightful owner came and reclaimed it. Well, it seems that her husband has died while they were away. And that creates a problem. Without a husband to prove himself the legal owner of the property, this widowed soman’s situation is a whole lot more complicated. She’s at the mercy of a political system that, just a generation ago, saw Jehoram’s dad and mom - Ahab and Jezebel, kill the rightful landowner of a vineyard he wanted .... and take it for himself. You can’t be confident in justice, when you have a king on the throne, with those genetics.

The story reminds of Naomi and Ruth - you have people of God, fleeing famine, losing their male supporter in a foreign land - and coming home to emptiness.

There’s only one chance to get her house and land back - that’s for the king himself to willingly return it. But how can she ever expect this king to do that?! As a woman in her society - she has no legal standing - and wheen the king is Ahab’s son - how can oyou ever expect him to give back anything of value that he’s managed to grab in his grubby hands?

Well, when you’re out of options, you make the best of the hand you’ve been dealt. The widow makes the decision: she’s going to go straight to the king and plead for her property. See her make the arduous walk to the palace, deep in thought, son at her side. She practices in her mind the words she will say when she arrives … rolling over and over in her mind - different possible approaches:

“Do I argue the points of justice? Do I throw myself at his feet and beg for his favour?”

When she reaches the gate of the nation’s seat of power, the woman’s heart-rate rises, as do her nerves … palms break into a clammy sweat. This discussion will determine the entire rest of her life - and her son’s future.

What this woman has no way of knowing, is that, at this very moment, the king has company inside the palace. For some unknown, mysterious reason, the king of Israel, just happens to have invited Elisha’s right-hand man, Gehazi over. That’s a big deal. It’s also extremely surprising - considering that just last week, in chapter 6 - this very king is so angry at Elisha - that he vows to kill him within 24 hours. His anger is unfounded - but no less passionate. Now he wants to hear about Elisha’s exploits.

“Tell me ALL the great things that Elisha has done.” In other words, ‘I’veen some of the mighty works that the man of faith has done in public, but I keep hearing stories of magnificent miracles done in private when the cameras were off. You’ve been there - in the inner circle. You’ve seen things that others haven’t. So please - tell me what really happened. Give me all the juicy details.”

“Well, have I got stories for you!”, Gehazi says. And, even though we can’t be sure of all the stories he’s recounting; we don’t know what order he’s telling them in - maybe the parting of the Jordan river with Elijah’s coat … maybe then he told the story of the widow who was about to lose it all - all she had left in her home was one jar of oil. Elisha gave her the ridiculous instructions to go through her neighbourhood and collect all the jars she could - this on the very day she was going to have to hand her two children over to the creditors to work off her debt. But when she obeyed and then started pouring the oil from her solitary source … the oil just kept pouring and pouring and filling and filling the empty jugs she and the boys had collected, until she had enough to sell and not only keep the sons from slavery but to finance the rest of their lives as well!

Whatever the stories Gehazi has been telling - he eventually gets to the unbelievably amazing story of Elisha going to the dead, cold body of the son of the Shunamite woman - stretching out over top of him - praying and raising the boy back to life. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I’m pretty sure that he saved the best for last.

And, at the VERY MOMENT he is filling in the details for the king … the woman walks in. 2 Kings 8:5 “And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.””

Suddenly, the woman who was desperate to try to somehow get an audience with the king, not sure he would even see her, let alone give her a chance to plead with him.... well , she has instantly become the guest of honour. The king turns his gaze to her, v. 6, “When the king asked the woman, she told him.”

She confirms the story Gehazi has just been telling - and there, right beside her is her son - living proof of God’s life-giving power exercised through Elisha .

The story - the evidence of God’s mighty hand at work in this family’s life … it motivates the king to give her justice. In fact, there’s more - God has more blessing to give. Verse 6, “So the king appointed an offical for her, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.” Do you see the showers of blessing here? The woman just wanted her house and land back. She was only focused on the future needs .... but once again, God has more for her than she dared to dream. Justice would be getting the porperty back … but the king goes much further than that … he assigns the woman her own personal case-worker and orders him to calculate all the back taxes, the value of all the produce for the past seven years, while she was away, then to take the money from the royal treasury and give every last cent of it BACK to her!

PERFECT TIMING!

When it comes to having needs met, timing is everything. Yet God gets criticized for bad timing as much as anything else. The moment of need draws closer and closer. “If I don’t find a job now - where will my next meal come from?” the believer cries to God. “If I don’t find an apartment soon, Lord, I’ll end up on the streets!” Or perhaps a missionary is about to go overseas and is still waiting for a visa. “Doesn’t God know how late it is getting?”

Yes, GOD ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT TIME IT IS .... God knows what time it is. He always knows. God made time in the first place, so he never runs out of it. He will rule over the moments and the days until the end of time. The biblical philosopher writes that God “has made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccl. 3:11). Thus, the believer can always count on God to provide in his own good time.

A remarkable story of the timeliness of God’s providence comes from the early years of Dallas Theological Seminary:

Shortly after the seminary was founded in 1924, it almost folded. It came to the point of bankruptcy. All the creditors were ready to foreclose at twelve noon on a particular day. That morning, the founders of the school met in the president’s office to pray that God would provide. In that prayer meeting was Harry Ironside. When it was his turn to pray, he said in his refreshingly candid way, “Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are Thine. Please sell some of them and send us the money.”

Just about that time, a tall Texan in boots and an open-collar shirt strolled into the business office. “Howdy!” he said to the secretary. “I just sold two carloads of cattle over in Fort Worth. I’ve been trying to make a business deal go through, but it just won’t work. I feel God wants me to give this money to the seminary. I don’t know if you need it or not, but here’s the check,” and he handed it over.

The secretary took the check and, knowing something of the critical nature of the hour, went to the door of the prayer meeting and timidly tapped. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder and president of the school, answered the door and took the check from her hand. When he looked at the amount, it was for the exact sum of the debt. Then he recognized the name on the check as that of the cattleman. Turning to Dr. Ironside, he said, “Harry, God sold the cattle.”

Although some stories are more dramatic than others, every Christian can testify to the timeliness of providence. A narrow escape. A significant conversation. A meal or a home provided seemingly just in time. One door closed so that the next door could open. In retrospect, every provision is a reminder that the times are in God’s hands. In the words of the old Sunday school song, “Just the time I need him, he’s always there.”

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2 HOPE IN THE DEATH-DEALING JUDGE, vv. 7-15

In verse 7, Elisha steps back onto the stage. But he’s not in the palace with the king. He’s not in Israel at all. he’s across the northern border, in Damascus, the capital city of Israel’s enemy Syria. The text doesn’t tell us what he’s doing there. But it does tell us that Syria’s king is happy to hear that he’s in the neighbourhood. King Ben-Hadad of Syria is sick … gravely ill. When he hears that Elisha, ‘The man of God’ is around - he calls Hazael, his servant and trusted lieutenant, to ask Elisha about his prospects for the future. Ben Hadad is an old man, by now - he’s ruled Syria for 40 years - but he still wants to know: “Will I recover from this?”

Isn’t it interesting that when this king, who has opposed God at every turn, when he is lying on his deathbed and needs to know the future - he gives up fighting God, bypasses his own prophets and religious professionals … and sends his servant to get the answers from the God of Israel, through his prophet. It’s also more than a little ironic, if you remember back to Ahaziah, the big brother of Jehoram in Israel, chapter 1 of 2 Kings. Ahaziah fell out the window of his palace and was lying on HIS death bed. He wanted to know what HIS future was going to be - and whether he was going to recover from his fall. He told HIS servant to go and inquire of Baal-Zebub, who was the god of Ekron. This foreigner was behaving with more wisdom than the king of God’s people had.

When you are wanting news from a man of God, in the Ancient Near East, you don’t go empty handed - especially when you are hoping for good news. Verse 8, the king says, “Take a present with you and go meet the man of God ...”. Verse 9 tells us that Hazael does just that. And what a present he takes: ‘all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel’s loads’. Now 40 camels can carry a lot of stuff. See Elisha, minding his own business, when the camelcade of treasures comes into view and parades right up to the place where he sits.

Hazael announces himself with the utmost of deference. Look at v. 9, “Your SON Ben-Hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’” The king is referring to himself as Elisha’s SON!

READ vv. 10-12

What do you do with this answer? Elisha tells Hazael to go back to the king and tell him that he’s going to be fine. “You shall certainly recover” … but REALLY the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die?! Why, isn’t that a lie? And in the 10 commandments, doesn’t ‘bearing false witness’ rank as #9? How can a man of God, speaking for God, tell someone else to lie?!

Well, before you get all uptight and start making plans to ‘Cancel’ Elisha - in this present social climate of ours .... let me encourage you to slow down, take a deep breath - and think about what Elisha is doing here. He’s a prophet and he is BEING a prophet right now. “You shall certainly recover” - that is, when it comes to Ben-Hadad’s illness - it’s not fatal. The king would certainly recover from THAT .... IF Hazael could keep his hands off of him and leave him alone.

“BUT”, Elisha says, “The LORD has shown me that he’s going to die … Because there is more than a sickness at work here.”

And then Elisha sends his gaze, like a laser, directly into Hazael’s eyes. He stares … and he stares … and Hazael stands stunned and uncomfortable. Verse 11, “And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed … and then he wept.”

Now, I know we are ‘enlightened products of the 21st century now - and we recognize that real men can cray - there’s no shame in that. But still, when a man is talkign to you and breaks down into tears - you know how it can get a little bit awkward sometimes. Well,, military men, like Hazael are definitely NOT used to crying prophets. So, when Elisha goes from penetrating gaze to teared up and sobbing .... Hazael gets very uncomfortable. More than that - I think he realizes that he’s been found out.

Verse 12, “Why does my lord weep?”

“Because I know what’s coming!”, is Elisha’s answer. 2 Kings 8:12 “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.”” He’s recounting the usual atrocities of war. “You are going to do all of this to my people … to the LORD’s people. God himself has shown me.”

Hazael plays ignorant. Verse 13, “What is your servant? I am but a dog!” “How could I get away with something like that?!”

Verse 13, “Because the LORD has shown me that you are going to be king over Syria.” READ vv. 13-15

In fact, I don’t know whether the name Hazael sounds familiar to you - but if you were with us through 1 Kings - it should be. When Elijah ran for his life to Mount Horeb, down in the Sinai peninsula - when he was complaining to God that Israel had fully broken its covenant relationship with God and I’m the ONLY one still faithful to you. God says, “well, you’re wrong about being the only one. I have reserved 7 thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. But you’re right about the rebellion of the majority of the nation and its leadership. So here’s what I’m going to do - 1 Kings 19:15 and following, “I want you to go back and anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu … to be king over Israel and Elisha … to be prophet in your place.” These 3 men will be instruments of judgment on my people because they love Baal - they love false gods rather than the TRUE GOD Who alone can save them. So I’m going to bring discipline and judge evil.”

Sure enough, Hazael goes home, gives the report to Ben-Hadad, exactly as it was told to him. “You will certainly recover”

And the next day, while the king is sleeping in his convalescent bed, Hazael watches for a moment when all of the doctors and nurses and attendants are out of the king’s room .... then he slips in with a facecloth, dipped in water - spreads it over the face of the unsuspecting Ben-Hadad - and holds it over his nose and mouth until he suffocates.

Hazael takes the throne. And the suffering for Israel just took another giant step closer.

So, how in the world are we supposed to get the hope of Jesus Christ from THIS story? In fact - it’s precisely stories of suffering like this - from the Bible - and in the world we see around us that gives so many people their reason for REJECTING GOD and REFUSING HOPE. If God is All-Powerful and Loving - He would stop human suffering. But there is suffering on every side - from floods to child trafficking to greedy exploitation … So, either God must LACK THE POWER TO STOP it … OR … He LACKS THE LOVE TO CARE. Either way: I reject him.

Oh, but don’t allow the pain of the present to crowd out the ROCK SOLID FOUNDATION FOR HOPE here.

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First of all - God makes it very clear, just WHO is in charge. In 1 Kings 19 - the God of Israel is the one who determines who the next king of Syria will be - a nation that doesn’t even worship Him. And here in our passage - It is God who declares that now is the time that Hazael will take Syria’s throne - as the agent of discipline on a wayward people. The very fact that King Ben-Hadad, sick in bed - desperate for truth - goes looking for the prophet of the God of Israel - the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - do you see how it shows God lifting up and tearing down thrones and kingdoms at will?

Second ground of hope in our text: Elisha isn’t the last man of God to cry over his people. Fast forward 800 years to the first century. Let’s go to the little town of Bethany and a grieving family. Sisters Mary and Martha have lost their brother. Lazarus has been dead for 4 days, when Jesus shows up. The story is recorded for us in John 11. There we see the heart of Jesus on display - The one whose coming we are celebrating, is confronted by the tragedy of death and the heartbreak of the grieving and what’s his response? John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”

Are you dealing with loss and grief - pain that you think you cannot bear: Here’s what Jesus thinks of your pain - He cares enough to weep. But more than that. It makes him angry. In v. 31, Jesus sees his beloved friend Mary weeping, and John tells us, ‘he was deeply moved in his spirit ...”. Again in verse 38, John tells us that when Jesus arrived at the outside of the tomb, where his friend Lazarus was wrapped and dead, ‘Jesus was ‘deeply moved’ again.’ The Greek word for being ‘moved in spirit’ is a term for the strongest righteous indignation. Jesus literally groaned with fury.

This is not sentimental sadness … this is holy outrage. Jesus, who is about to raise Lazarus from the dead - is furious at the sin stain on this creation of his that brought death. He made the world without evil. It has defaced His good creation … and the Sovereign God of the universe did not content himself to wring His hands in heaven, saddened by the suffering that sin has caused - the pain of His heartsick people … God is not a politician who stands in front of cameras in