Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that he will die; but go to him and tell him that he will recover.” Then Elisha stared at him with a horrified look on his face until Hazael became ill at ease. Suddenly Elisha burst into tears. “Why are you crying, sir?” Hazael asked.
“Because I know the horrible things you will do against the people of Israel,” Elisha answered. “You will set their fortresses on fire, slaughter their finest young men, batter their children to death, and rip open their pregnant women.”
Ouch. Elijah may have gotten downwind of this as well (1 Kings 19:14). Like discernment, the vision is a gift – but you also see things that you wish you hadn’t…
“The Lord has shown me that you will be king of Syria,” Elisha replied.
Hazael went back to Benhadad, who asked him, “What did Elisha say?”
“He told me that you would certainly get well,” Hazael answered. But on the following day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and smothered the king.
And Hazael succeeded Benhadad as king of Syria.
This makes me think of a scene in the movie Matrix where the Oracle says to Neo, “Don’t worry about the vase” to which Neo turns and accidently breaks it. The Oracle then goes on to say, “Would you have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?” 😊
In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab as king of Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah at the age of thirty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. His wife was Ahab’s daughter, and like the family of Ahab he followed the evil ways of the kings of Israel.
Nothing surprising here. Jehoshaphat was very progressive for his time (1 Kings 22:2-4) but marrying his son into Ahab’s family was going too far.
During Jehoram’s reign Edom revolted against Judah and became an independent kingdom. So Jehoram set out with all his chariots to Zair, where the Edomite army surrounded them. During the night he and his chariot commanders managed to break out and escape, and his soldiers scattered to their homes.
Clever. There are times when going on the offensive is the only option (1 Samuel 26:7-25).