2
ND
KINGS
Week 11, Chapter 8 continued
We continue today in 2
nd
Kings Chapter 8 and the ongoing saga of Israel’s history during an
era when Elijah and Elisha were raised up by God to bring His justice to the kingdoms of
Ephraim/Israel and Judah. Elijah operated almost exclusively in the northern kingdom; and
while the bulk of Elisha’s work was there also, we do find him dealing with the southern
kingdom to a degree. And we continue to have to be careful as we read these passages to
understand that at times the reference to Israel is only to the northern kingdom, and at other
times (although infrequent) it means “all Israel” in the sense of the northern and southern
kingdoms together.
We also need to keep in mind that there was a divine purpose for the Lord raising up these two
powerful prophets that not only brought the Lord’s prophetic oracle to the Israelites, but who
also had a hand in causing miracles to happen. Elisha’s spiritual gifts went even further than
his master Eliyahu’s so that Elisha was able to see into men’s thoughts at times, and could
discern the future. No doubt this ability was on a case by case basis and as directed by
Yehoveh.
Most typical prophets were anointed men who were set apart for service to Yehoveh and
discerned God’s Word of instruction and either brought it to a king or, as Isaiah and others,
also were used by God as an instrument of warning the people of their precarious condition
caused by their willful idolatry and apostasy, and told them what was going to happen if they
didn’t change their ways. But the Prophets Elijah and Elisha were established as divine
counterbalances against the Israelite kings who rebelled against the Lord, and these 2 men
also acted to fill the void caused by the absence of a Levitical priesthood in the northern
kingdom, and a steadily deteriorating one in the southern kingdom. In the fact the existence of
the several large prophet guilds in cities scattered about the Promised Land (but mostly in
central and northern Israel) are proof that a kind of replacement or alternative priesthood had
been created (consisting of prophets from various tribes instead of the priestly descendants of
Aaron) in order to keep the Word of God alive in a backslidden Israel. And one reason for the
Lord taking these extraordinary measures was because Queen Jezebel had brought the
worship of her god Ba’al from her homeland of Sidon and transplanted it in Israel, with the
goal of stamping out Yehoveh worship. And she had been quite successful in her efforts
because the road to achieve this goal had been paved by the wicked actions and policies of
earlier Israelite monarchs.
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Starting with the 1
st
king of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam, the Israelites of the north had
been essentially barred from access to the Temple in Jerusalem and by national policy were
discouraged from seeking the one true source of truth and light, the God of Israel. We don’t
find that the general population was necessarily harmed for their faith; however we do find that
the religious leadership of steadfast Yehoveh followers were seen as a danger to the state and
thus targeted for extermination; and that the people who clung to the Lord were considered as
non-conformists to be looked down upon and shunned.
But there was another reason for the existence of so many common prophets who lived in
communal prophet guilds: in time the Lord would move to severely oppress His chosen people
in punishment for their unabated apostasy, and He would make it clear to them (through other
prophets) that they apostatized not in ignorance, but in willful choice. They would not be able to
say that they didn’t know God’s Torah or His will because even though the official priesthood
and the kings that the Lord had ordained were failing their people and doing all in their power
to erect a wall between the people and God, there were hundreds and hundreds of prophets
who were dedicated teachers of God’s Word who kept that Word alive and well within the
Land. It’s only that the bulk of the population dutifully followed their leaders and grew to prefer
something else.
While I am no prophet like Elijah or Elisha or Isaiah, I still want to add my voice to many other
teachers of the Word who are greatly alarmed at what we see happening all around us. It is as
if we are reliving the era of Judges or of the biblical Kings all over again, and in churches and
synagogues everywhere people have become willfully ignorant of God’s Word and prefer
instead to accept the more attractive traditions of men as their path and source of truth.
Naturally this has led to societies that more and more see Christianity as an obstacle to peace
and harmony, and that those who teach of an absolute morality as defined by the Bible as
dangerous haters. Clinging to God’s Word is only for the unintelligent, unenlightened,
superstitious and backward. Many things that God says epitomize evil in His eyes are what our
political and religious leaders now call good, and are taught in our public education systems as
normal and desirable, and must be accepted by society in general. Those who oppose it are
called bigots and are said to suffer from one sort of phobia or another.
And I must say, it is NOT the condition of the secular world (the pagan, non-God fearing world)
that concerns me. Pagans act like pagans because they’re pagans. What else would one
expect of them? As a teacher of the Word it is the world of Church and Synagogue that
concerns me; those who claim to be God’s people but behave more like their pagan
neighbors. Those who claim their salvation but go on living as though nothing of any
significance has changed in their lives. Or they don’t accept God’s commandments as truth
and light but rather as suggestions. Or they distort those bible truths to such a high degree as
to turn their plain meaning and intent upside-down.
Let us pay close attention as the Book of 2
nd
Kings moves along, because we see the pattern
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continue (as developed mainly in the Book of Judges) as to how God responds to such
apostasy, idolatry and general unfaithfulness. And because God never changes, in
contemporary times we are simply living out that same pattern again. However since modern
Christianity finds little if any relevance of the Old Testament history to our New Testament faith
in Christ, then they (we) can be oblivious to the reality that we are merely actors in a play that
has been repeated before and so the outcome is certain. And no amount of our denials or our
offense at being accused of rebellion against God will change that. Only changing our ways
and returning to the true religion of the Bible, the combined wisdom of the Old and New
Testaments, and the faith practiced by the 1
st
and 2
nd
generations of Believers will there be any
meaningful effect.
Let’s re-read part of chapter 8.
RE-READ 2
ND
KINGS CHAPTER 8:7 – end
Last week we examined verse 10 pretty closely because it seems to say that God told Elisha
that he was to tell the gravely ill King of Aram that he would survive his infirmity even though in
fact he would not. And whether one interprets the scripture passage to mean that this was the
Lord who ordered Elisha to tell this lie or it was Elisha’s own thought to do so, nonetheless it is
troubling for us, especially since neither Ben-Hadad nor Haza’el were behaving as enemies;
and in fact they were showing proper respect to Yehoveh as well as to His prophet Elisha. But
as we discovered, in reality the oldest Hebrew manuscripts we have show that the Hebrew
word lo is included in saying whether the King would recover or not, and lo means no or not.
Thus what it actually says is that Elisha told Haza’el that Ben-Hadad WOULD NOT recover
from his sickness. And then in the next phrase it seems to simply repeat that same sentiment
using the words, “even though Yehoveh has shown me you shall surely die”. So: “you will not
recover even though you’ll die”; but that is confusing. The sense this is meant, I have no
doubt, was that the King of Aram wouldn’t die of his illness, but he would nonetheless die of
something else. And that is exactly what soon transpired. There was no lying by God or Elisha
involved, not even any cunning words that distorted or hid the truth.
What happened next was truly dramatic and gut wrenching, and there is a sobering lesson
contained in it. In verse 11 we’re told that after telling this to Haza’el (Ben-Hadad’s next in
command), Elisha became so overpowered with emotional pain, that he was momentarily
speechless. Rashi says that the meaning of the sentence is that Elisha actually turned his face
away to try and hide the tears that began to flow. And between men, for one to just cloud up
and break down into tears, it actually is greatly uncomfortable to the other man who is
witnessing it. This kind of emotion is not something that males handle very well. So Haza’el
was rightly bothered and puzzled by this outburst and after a few awkward seconds of silence
that must have seemed like hours he asked the great prophet what the crying was about.
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Even though Elisha had publically upbraided a number of Israelite kings, even participating in
bringing a famine upon the land as punishment for wickedness, he loved the Hebrew people
and what he was about to speak into existence was going to cause them great harm. Because
once he delivered God’s message to Haza’el, it would set into motion great calamities upon
the Israelites, at the hand of the man who now stood directly in front of him. Even more, it
would be Elisha’s own vial of oil that he would use to personally anoint Haza’el as the new
king of Syria, in obedience to God, and would thus empower Haza’el to bring about the killing
and pillaging and oppressions that were in store for Elisha’s own countrymen.
After Elisha painted a gory picture of the atrocities that Haza’el would commit, Haza’el
became as a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. He was taken aback by
Elisha’s bold statement; but in fact it was more than that. Haza’el’s first reaction was of
course to feign innocence and shock that anyone could think of him as capable of doing such
awful things. How, he said, even if he wanted to, could he bring something of that magnitude
about? Why would Elisha predict such a revolting thing for him? But of course, it was not that
we have any mention that God directly told Elisha that this would be the result; rather it was
something that God told Elisha’s master several years ago, that he had relayed to Elisha and
Elisha had never forgotten it.
Listen to this excerpt from 1
st
Kings 19:
CJB
1Kings 19:15-17

15
ADONAI said to him (Elijah), "Go back by way of the Dammesek Desert. When you get
there, anoint Haza'el to be king over Aram.
16
Also anoint Yehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Isra'el, and anoint Elisha the son
of Shafat of Avel-M'cholah to be prophet after you.
17
Yehu will kill whoever escapes the sword of Haza'el, and Elisha will kill whoever
escapes the sword of Yehu.
The killing that is being described in this last verse of 1
st
Kings 19 is the killing of Hebrew
people, Elisha’s people. And not only will Haza’el, a Syrian foreigner with a history of hostility
against Israel lead the way, but so will Yehu, an Israelite, kill many Hebrews. But even more,
the prophecy says that Elisha will somehow be involved. And now is the moment when the
fulfillment of that prophecy is being launched. Is it any wonder that Elisha is anguished beyond
words?
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You know, I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job of communicating what was befalling
Elisha at this very moment. So let me get a bit preachy and offer something of a personal
experience to you. Sometime after the midpoint of my life, as I began to take God’s Word
seriously and studied it more earnestly, I often sat perplexed as Believers all around me in
Church listened to what has become a rather common message about the return of Christ,
Armageddon, and the annihilation of tens of millions of people at Jesus’s own hand, as God’s
redemptive process enters its final moments. I was perplexed because invariably the next
sound I heard were joyous “hallelujah’s” and excited “amen’s” coming from all over the sea
of smiling faces surrounding me and I wondered if that would be those folks’ reaction if they
were present when it all begins. When Christ DID appear in the clouds as they stood
dumbfounded, and then lived through the onslaught as His re-appearance sets off a worldwide
conflagration the likes of which no horror movie could ever depict because no creative mind
could ever imagine it let alone communicate it.
I have lived through earthquakes that were so violent that in a few places the earth split apart
an inch or two on asphalt roads halting traffic; and I witnessed hot muddy water bubble up, and
small geysers spout boiling water 4 or 5 feet into the air through the rather small fissures. And I
assure you that the size of the earthquake that caused it was quite large and terrifying and
there was always substantial property damage. So what will it be like for those who are there
when a cataclysmic event causes the Mt. of Olives to split under Messiah’s feet and the entire
mountain changes form as a Grand Canyon sized valley is created in but moments, with a rush
a water flowing through it all the way from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, a nearly 4000 foot
elevation drop? Do you think that the Believers who just happen to be there will be smiling and
shouting Hallelujah and amen; glad to see it unfolding while they are in the midst of it?
You see it’s easy for us to be happily expectant for these prophesied things when we don’t
actually expect to experience them. We say and we pray and we sing, “Lord Messiah come
right now”. Really? While the beginning of the end would finally be upon us, the means to this
end is going to be horrifying, not glorious. I doubt that any Believer is going have a smile or
look of joy on his or her face. It’s all so comforting when a predicted event is abstract, future,
and will affect only “other people”. It’s so much more warm and fuzzy to think of the End
Times in spiritualized terms, with an idealized vision of grandeur. The Jews of the mid 20
th
century knew well the ancient prophecies of a return to their roots and most of them longed for
the day, as they had for so many centuries. Theodore Hertzl, the founder of modern Zionism,
had gone a long way towards finally making the biblical Promised Land (then called Palestine)
a real possibility of becoming a reborn Jewish homeland, which was a necessary ingredient for
fulfillment of the Jews’ return. But do you think he ever would have spent his adult life working
for that end if he had any idea of what would finally have to happen to his family, his people, in
WWII to make it all a reality? Do you think if you were a Jew living in Europe before Hitler
came to power that you would still be praying daily for a new glorious exodus back to your
Jewish homeland if you knew that it would begin in the Nazi death camps and that you and/or
most of your loved ones (almost 40% of the entire world’s Jewish population) would not
survive those unspeakable horrors?
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Elisha foreknew what lay ahead for him and his people. He foreknew that by his own hand, he
was God’s instrument to empower the wicked Haza’el to bring horrific judgment upon Israel.
Do we find Elisha piously looking heavenward and joyfully saying Hallelujah and amen
because God’s will is being manifest? No, even in his steadfast obedience to the Lord we find
him weeping and distraught. No doubt he was terribly conflicted, torn and full of guilt for his role
in it. His was a most appropriate response to the reality of the circumstances and one that
probably ought to be closer to where our thoughts wander when we sing songs and hear
sermons about the End of Days.
In verse 14, Haza’el returns to Aram and to his master Ben-Hadad and lies to him by telling
him that he’ll recover from his sickness. The King of Syria no doubt felt at peace and so fell
deeply asleep probably for the first time in days since he sent Haza’el off to inquire of Elisha.
Haza’el returned some hours later to the king’s bedchambers as the weakened Ben-Hadad
lay sleeping and unaware. He quietly soaked a blanket with water, placed it over the king’s
face covering his mouth and nostrils, and suffocated him. Elisha’s prophecy came true; the
king died not of disease but of murder. And Haza’el was now the new King of Aram.
Starting in verse 16 we get a series of names of Kings of Judah and of Ephraim/Israel. It can
get quite confusing and frustrating because we have a situation whereby sometimes a King of
Israel had the same name as a King of Judah. For instance, there was King Y’horam of Judah
who ruled for awhile at the same time another man named Y’horam was King of Israel. To try
and help the befuddled reader, Bible Translators long ago called King Y’horam of Judah
merely Joram, while calling the other Y’horam, Jehoram.
Thus the Y’horam of verse 16 is identified as the one who is the King of Judah who God
regarded as wicked because he ruled in the same manner as the apostate Kings of
Israel. And the reason that this King of Judah was so wicked is that he had married the King of
Israel’s daughter. The King of Israel this is referring to is Achav and his wife was Jezebel.
Their daughter was Athaliah and she became the King of Judah’s wife. What is so significant,
is that here we see that the two independent monarchies of Israel and of Judah have become
intertwined by marriage. Judah had retained the Temple and the Levitical priesthood, and so
while by no means had they remained pure, they were basically righteous except for
occasional lapses. Judah was far more fastidious in their worship of Yehoveh than their
counterparts in the north who had essentially abandoned God. But now, with intermarriage of
the royal families, the wickedness of the northern kingdom quickly began to infect the southern
kingdom to a far greater level than ever before. In fact, verse 19 tells us that even though He
was in the midst of judging Ephraim/Israel, YHWH was withholding the divine judgment that
Judah merited but only for the sake of King David. And this is because the Lord had promised
that a vestige of David’s dynasty would continue to rule indefinitely.
It helps us to understand how quickly Judah slid down the slippery slope to evil when we read
a parallel account of what happened upon Y’horam becoming the King of Judah in 2
nd
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Chronicles.
CJB
2 Chronicles 21:1

Y'hoshafat slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of
David, and Y'horam his son became king in his place.
2
He had brothers who were sons of Y'hoshafat- 'Azaryah, Yechi'el, Z'kharyahu,
'Azaryahu, Mikha'el and Sh'fatyahu; all these were sons of Y'hoshafat king of Isra'el.
3
Their father had given them lavish gifts of silver, gold and other items of value, as well
as fortified cities in Y'hudah; but he had given the kingdom to Y'horam, because he was
the firstborn.
4
But when Y'horam had taken control of his father's kingdom and consolidated his rule,
he put to the sword all his brothers and a number of the leading men in Isra'el.
5
He was thirty-two years old when he began his reign, and he ruled eight years in
Yerushalayim.
6
He lived after the example of the kings of Isra'el, as did the house of Ach'av; because
he had married Ach'av's daughter; he did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective.

So upon his assuming the throne of Judah (completely legitimately), Y’horam proved his
wickedness by immediately killing off all of his brothers for no reason other than he wanted for
himself the portion of wealth that their father had given to them. What is interesting is how in
2
nd
Kings the Lord places direct blame on Jezebel and her daughter Athaliah as the source of
the spirit of apostasy for the most recent generations of kings of both Israel and Judah. King
Y’horam of Judah had made the fatal mistake of combining Judah’s religion with pragmatic
politics (by marrying Athaliah to create an alliance with the northern kingdom), and God would
not let this stand.
So, in verse 20, we hear that the kingdom of Edom (which had been a vassal state under Israel
for one and a half centuries) rebelled, re-established their independence and declared their
own king. But starting in verse 21 the problems of dealing with the names of the kings surfaces
again; and the problem is that we have 2 kings with the same name ruling over Judah and
Israel. The CJB as do many other translations seem to have it that it was Y’horam King of
Israel who responded to the rebellion of Edom by sending an army. But Israel had no treaty
with Edom; Edom was Judah’s vassal. So this must be Judah’s King Y’horam that sent troops,
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not Israel’s. And I’m certain of this (and quite astounded that so many Bible translations have
it wrong), due to a number of reasons that make the solution quite self evident. And I’ll
address that momentarily.
The army tried to use the cover of darkness to make a surprise attack (this is something that
we have seen was a historical and traditional tactic of the Israelites), but it failed. They quickly
found themselves surrounded by Edomites, and the non-professional soldiers that made up the
bulk of Judah’s army panicked and fled back to their homes. No doubt this wasn’t the only
attempt to try and keep Edom under Judah’s control, but in the end, as verse 22 explains,
Edom broke away and remained independent from that time forward. In fact, another Edomite
city named Livnah that was located near the border of Judah finally joined in the rebellion of
their brethren once they felt confident that Edom would win.
Next we’re told that there were many other things that Y’horam King of Judah did and that
they are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. Notice that the verse is speaking of the
king who attacked Edom, and says his history is recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah.
So here is further evidence as to which King Y’horam is being referred to. But more than that,
there is the parallel account of this misadventure that is recorded in 2
nd
Chronicles 21. It’s
worth reading because not only does it make it clear that the king who attacked Edom was the
Judahite king, but it also gives us details about his not contained in 2
nd
Kings.
READ 2
ND
CHRONICLES 21: 8 – end

In the end this wicked king of Judah died a terrible and agonizing death and was replaced by
his son Achazyah. Achazyah was 22 years old when he took over Judah’s throne, but he was
at least as bad as his father and only lasted for a year. He was considered as such a bad and
evil king that even though he was buried in the City of David, he was not entombed in the
catacombs set aside of Judah’s kings. Rather he was buried in the commoners’ burial
grounds of that same city.
And as I mentioned a bit earlier, the writer of 2
nd
Kings goes out of his way to pinpoint the
source of the spirit of evil that accelerated both Israel’s and Judah’s demise as Jezebel and
her daughter Athaliah. And that is the reason for this passage referring to Achazyah’s mother
as Athaliah. Further verse 27 again makes the connection that while Achazyah was the King of
Judah, he was closely connected by blood and intermarriage to the House of Achav (meaning
the dynasty of Achav, a King of Israel that actually began with his father Omri). So the idea is
that whereas Judah and Israel were at one time of virtually opposite character (Israel was
apostate, Judah was righteous) the reason for Judah’s fall into the same kind of apostasy and
idolatry that would eventually cause God to exile the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom from the
land, was that Judah’s kings mixed their blood with the evil dynasty of Omri, rulers of Israel.
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Verse 28 shows how because the rulers of Judah and Israel were closely related, the two
kingdoms became closely aligned. And so they made another joint effort to push back the
territory of Syria that was now being ruled by Haza’el. And this effort focused on the city of
Ramoth-Gilead that had long been an Israelite city in the Trans-Jordan. But one of the
consequences of the battle was that Y’horam, King of Israel, was wounded seriously enough
that he was taken to the royal palace in Jezreel to recover.
Achazyah, King of Judah, who had fought alongside Y’horam at Ramot-Gilead went to pay a
state visit to Y’horam as he convalesced in Jezreel. We’ll end today’s lesson with this
thought: 14 years earlier, Achazyah’s grandfather Jehoshaphat had done the same WRONG
thing by uniting with the wicked King of Israel in battle against a common enemy. The result
was defeat and the King of Israel (Achav) lost his life in the process. Interestingly, that battle
was over the same city, Ramoth-Gilead, as in our 2
nd
Kings 8 story, and in chapter 9 we’ll see
that the current Kings of Israel and Judah, now both related by blood to King Achav, would
also suffer his fate.
God’s patterns are His chief governing dynamic.
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