Okay, you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings 8. 2 Kings 8. Last week, we considered chapter 7, the siege on Samaria by the Syrians. Tonight, chapter 8 deals with a couple of different themes. I'll begin reading in verse 1.
Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can. For the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years. So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years. It came to pass at the end of seven years that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land.
Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell the servant, or tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done. Now what happened is he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing 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 a certain officer for her saying, restore all that was hers and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now. Then Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, was sick. And it was told him, saying, The man of God has come here. And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God.
And inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover from this disease? So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel loads. And he came and stood before him and said, Your son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you saying, Shall I recover from this disease? And Elisha said to him, Go say to him, You shall certainly recover.
However, the Lord has shown me that he will really die. Then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? He answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel.
Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and you will dash their children and rip open their women with child. So Hazael said, But what is your servant, the dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria. Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master who said to him, what did Elisha say to you?
And he answered, he told me you would surely recover. But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face so that he died. And Hazael reigned in his place. Now in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, having been king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign as king of Judah.
He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. 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 the sake of his servant David, as he promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.
In his days, Edom revolted against Judah's authority and made a king over themselves. So Joram went to Zair and all his chariots with him. Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots, and the troops fled to their tents. Thus, Edom has been in revolt against Judah's authority to this day, and Libna revolted at that time.
Now 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? So Joram rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Then Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. In the twelfth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.
Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Adaliah, the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Now he went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to war against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth Gilead.
And the Syrians wounded Joram. Then King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick. Amen.
Introduction
Well, in some sense, this chapter may be a little bit confusing because we're shifting now from a focus from the Northern Kingdom to the Southern Kingdom. And to make that a little bit tricky is the two kings that are indicated here in the Southern Kingdom have the same names as two kings in the Northern Kingdom, both Jehoram and Ahaziah. There was a Jehoram and an Ahaziah in the Northern Kingdom, and as we see in this reading, there is a Jehoram and an Ahaziah in the Southern Kingdom. So I might refer to them as Northern and Southern Jehoram, or Northern and Southern Ahaziah, just for hopeful clarity.
But as I said, there are several themes in this particular chapter. The first section, verses 1 to 6, is the restoration of the Shunammite woman's land. This is that woman that we met in chapter 4, specifically verses 8 to 37. We see that Elisha's kindness to her wasn't only seen in raising her son from the dead, but in securing or providing for her at a time when there was famine in the land.
And when she returns to the land, her land is restored to her, her property. So the restoration of the woman's land, verses 1 to 6. Secondly, we see the assassination of Syria's king in verses 7 to 15. And then finally, the defection of Judah's kings in verses 16 to 29.
But I think there's a larger context that we ought to consider here. Way back when, we have seen that the household of Omri was especially wicked. Omri becomes king in 1 Kings 16, verse 23. And then his son Ahab becomes king in 1 Kings 16, verse 23.
And Ahab, in many respects, sets a new bar in terms of how wicked can this nation be? Not saying that Omri wasn't, but Ahab is certainly a wretch. He marries Jezebel. He institutionalizes idolatry, not only as calf worship going on in the Northern Kingdom, Allah Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, but also because of Ahab and his union with Jezebel, there's also institutionalized Baalism in Israel as well.
And then we see back in chapter 19 of 1 Kings, in fact you can turn there, 1 Kings chapter 19, sort of the background to our section in 2 Kings. Remember Elijah is at Mount Horeb and he is upset, he is despondent, he is distressed, he's not having some existential crisis, but rather he is upset because the nation has apostatized from God. He is upset because the nation has gone a-whoring from God. They have substituted Yahweh of Israel with their idols, with the bales, with the calves, and all those particular things.
So Yahweh comforts the prophet Elijah, and then Yahweh gives him a promise concerning the future. And notice in chapter 19 at verse 15, Then the LORD said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall appoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.
Yet I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. Now, it doesn't demand that Elijah is the one who actually anoints Hazael. Rather, Elijah passes his mantle on to Elisha, and now Elisha is the one in whom this promise will be fulfilled. So we need to keep that in context, we need to keep that in our understanding, and then the end result of chapter 8 is that both Northern and Southern King are held up in the city of Jezreel.
You have both Ahaziah and Jehoram. Ahaziah the Southern King and Jehoram the Northern King end up in Jezreel. That sets the stage for the purge by Jehu, where Jehu is the one spoken of in 1 Kings 19 that would come and decimate the idolaters in Israel. There would be a new regime and he would, at least for a time, eliminate Baal worship.
So again, just putting 2 Kings 8 into its larger context.
Restoration of the Shunammite's Land
Notice in the first place, however, the restoration of the woman's land. Verses 1 to 6, we see the kindness of Elisha. In fact, what we have seen for the most part, except for the incident with the bears, is the kindness of Elisha. Now, the incident with the bears wasn't a lack of kindness, but rather it was an execution of God's justice or judgment.
But for the most part, Elisha has gone about doing good. Now Elisha is going to be the administrator of God's justice, God's judgment. But here, before we move to that aspect, we see his kindness. He tells the Shunammite woman that God indeed has imposed a famine.
He tells her essentially to get out of Dodge, to find a place where there is food, because the famine is going to be seven years. It's twice as long as what occurred under Ahab at the time of Elijah. And so she then goes to the land of the Philistines, and there she eats. Matthew Pool indicates concerning this double time to the former famine under Elijah, which is but just and reasonable, because they, Israel, were still obstinate and incorrigible under all the severe and succeeding judgments of God, and under the powerful ministry of Elisha, who confirmed his doctrine by glorious miracles.
And I think certainly what we find in this particular section is an application of our Lord's words in Matthew chapter 10. Remember that Jesus says in Matthew 10 that whenever anyone does a good deed for one of his prophets, God will not forget that person. And this Shunammite woman had done a good deed for the prophet Elisha. She had had her husband basically redesign their house to make a room for the prophet for when he was in town.
She provided for him a bed, she provided for him a desk, she provided those basic necessities. And we see where Elisha now returns that kindness in a multitude of ways. He raises her dead son from the dead, and here he tells her to go to another land at this time of famine. The grace and the kindness of the prophet is demonstrable.
Providence in the Woman's Return
Now note the restoration of the woman's land or her property in verses 3 to 6. She returns to Israel at the end of the seven years in verse 3. And at about the same time the king is talking with Gehazi. Now the last time we left Gehazi he was leprous.
In chapter 5, in the incident with Naaman, Gehazi gets greedy, and Gehazi wants to try to capitalize upon the goodness of God demonstrated by Elisha to Naaman. And so Gehazi is struck in with leprosy, and so some wonder, how in the world could the king, Jehoram of the North, be talking here with Gehazi? Some suggest that the leprosy or the skin disease that he had wasn't such that he couldn't have sort of conversation with the king. Others suggest that this isn't chronological, that the events of chapter 8, or at least this section in verses 1 to 6, precede chapter 5.
We need to realize that the sorts of demands that we place upon historical narrative in our own generation is not the same sort of thing that the Bible sets forth. It is true. It is accurate. It is absolutely correct.
But the Bible nowhere has promised that it will always be chronological. I mean, the order of the books that we have are not chronological, the order themselves, that was a later sort of a construction or a later sort of an arrangement. But we need to realize that just because something is not chronological doesn't mean it isn't true. But either way, the king here is talking to Gazi, and he says, tell me please, verse 4, all the great things Elisha has done.
Now, he certainly would have known a few of the things that Elisha had done, but he didn't know all of the things that Elisha had done. And I think unwittingly, Jehoram here is adding to his own responsibility, his own guiltiness, and his own culpability. In other words, as he learns what Elisha has done, he is learning what God Most High has done. He is learning what God Most High has performed in the nation of Israel.
And as we go on in the particular narrative, these things don't move him. These things don't cause him to forsake his calves. These things don't cause him to bow down to Yahweh. We need to be careful of receiving the knowledge of God and not acting upon it.
We need to be careful about learning simply to know facts rather than to worship the God of heaven and earth. And this is precisely Jehoram's problem. He learns all that Elisha has got, but he doesn't worship, he doesn't bow, he doesn't go before the Lord to confess his sin of calf worship, his idolatry, his folly as a king. And I would suggest to all of us that as we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we ought to commensurately be growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The knowledge of God isn't simply designed to help us win the Bible category on Jeopardy. The knowledge of God is not given to us simply to best Arminians or to best Pelagians on a Facebook discussion. The knowledge of God ought to promote worship. it ought to promote love, it ought to promote adoration, it ought to promote zeal for the Lord. And the opposite is taking place with reference to Jehoram.
So Gehazi rehearses the great things that Elisha had done, and then notice God's glorious providence. I mean, imagine this. Gehazi is running through the list, of Elisha's accomplishments for the nation of Israel, and there's the Shunammite woman with her risen son. Imagine that Gehazi was quite surprised at that particular turn of events.
Imagine if you were saying to somebody, yeah, I saw this fish, and it was the biggest fish I ever saw, and at the time you were reporting it, it jumped into your boat. You would probably have cause for great excitement to say, there it is! That's what Gehazi does according to verse 5. And Gehazi said, My Lord, O King, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.
God's providence is absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely glorious. He's rehearsing the story, and here comes the woman that had richly benefited from God's mercy, demonstrated to her through the prophet Elisha. And then we notice that she is given back her land.
Verse 6, the king asked the woman, she told him, So the king appointed a certain officer for her saying, restore all that was hers and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now. Probably the crown confiscated the land in her absence. And now the king offers or tells rather that it is to be restored and all of the benefits that would have accrued or that had accrued to her in her absence. Now, before we leave, I just want to quote Davis with reference to that observation that Jehoram doesn't act upon the knowledge that he has.
Again, I think that we are a church where we put a lot of emphasis on teaching and preaching. In fact, I've heard people complain about that. It's cerebral. It's so heady.
Brethren, I make no apology for that because the church's job is to be the pillar and the ground of the truth. Isn't that the point? I mean, what kind of a complaint is that? All you get in that church is doctrine and teaching and preaching.
That's a complaint I'll gladly embrace, brethren, because that's what the church is supposed to be. What do they want? Bongo drums and ponies and puppets and encounter groups and existential moments? We want the preaching of God's Word.
This is Paul's last corporate command to Timothy. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.
What is so offensive to modern man in the professing church is the very foundation of the church. That's what we're supposed to be about. So all of that to say our emphasis here is on scripture. It's on preaching.
It's on teaching. But if we're not acting upon that knowledge, we're not much better than Jehoram, who hears the list of accomplishments that God does through the prophet Elisha, and then he goes and he bows to calves.
Fascination Without Faith
Davis says clearly Jehoram's interested in the stories and is apparently fascinated with the testimony, but remains unchanged. So we have a king who was curious, but not committed, attracted to Elisha's works, but not submissive to Elisha's Lord. It was fascination, not faith. We all need to be careful of that.
We all need to make sure that we check our hearts. Theology does matter. We need to know what Scripture says concerning our God, and we need to flesh it out in our day-to-day lives. You see, in the Christian life, it's not a matter of theology or practice.
It's not a soup or salad type of a thing at a restaurant. It must be both and. It's the theology that drives the practice. It is the doctrine that moves us to action.
And if we don't have those components, we don't have New Testament Christianity. So all of our learning and all of our understanding ought not to be poured into Facebook commenting. It ought to be poured into godliness, righteousness, thinking God's thoughts after Him, having a sound, having a biblical, having a true theology, so that it moves us to a godliness and a righteousness.
Assassination of Syria's King
Now notice in the second place the assassination of Syria's king. Verse 7, we find Elisha in Damascus. We don't know why he went there. We don't know what his purpose was other than the subsequent narrative.
He certainly goes there to have dealings with Hazael in accordance with what we saw in 1 Kings 19. But he goes to Damascus and we see that Benadad, the king of Syria, was sick. And it was told him, verse 7, the man of God has come here. Now, Elisha had notoriety in Syria.
After chapter 5, when Elisha heals Naaman of his leprosy, and Elisha makes the good confession of faith in Israel's God, certainly Elisha would have been a more common name in Syria at this particular time. And I think we have a very interesting contrast in the passage before us.
Ben-Hadad's Inquiry of the Prophet
Notice in verse 8. And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover from this disease? We have a pagan king in pagan Syria who is devoted to all sorts of other gods, asking assistance from Yahweh of Israel. Go back to chapter 1 for just a moment, where we see the northern Ahaziah.
And that northern Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured. So here we have a king in the covenant nation, the covenant people, the northern kingdom. Now note what he does when he's injured, and he wants to find out if he's going to be okay. So he sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.
So Ben-Hadad, in chapter 8, certainly shows up Ahaziah, the king of northern Israel. We see the absolute contrast and perversity in the kings of Israel, sending messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, and here this pagan sends a messenger to inquire of Yahweh of Israel. Now notice the prophet and Hazael. Verse 9, so Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him of every good thing of Damascus, 40 camel loads.
This was a lot of stuff. You know, this wasn't chump change. He wasn't, you know, handing him a couple of loonies and saying, I hope you have a nice ride home. He's really loading up the prophet in this particular instance.
And he comes, he stands before him, and he says, your son, Ben-Hadad, not physically, not literally, it's a sign of respect. Your son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you saying, shall I recover from this disease?
Elisha's Weeping and Hazael's Rise
Now note the prophet's response. He answers Hazael, and I think the way the New King James renders it is probably, at least in my mind, the most easy to understand. Elisha said to him, go say to him, you shall certainly recover. However, the Lord has shown me that he will really die.
So the answer to Hazael's question or Ben-Hadad's question is, No, the disease isn't going to kill him. The disease isn't going to terminate him. The disease isn't going to finish him. But, Elisha goes on to report to Hazael, Yahweh has shown me that he will most certainly die.
And that's the crux of the hinge for the rest of the narrative here. So he says in verse 10, however, the Lord has shown me that he will really die. So on the one hand, it's not the disease that's going to kill him, but rather it's going to be something else. And we find out in verse 15, it's Hazael basically putting a pillow over his head.
I mean, just cut through all the language there. That's essentially what he did. He took a thick cloth, probably a mosquito cloth or some such thing. He dips it in water.
He spreads it over his face so that he dies. It's, in some sense, the perfect crime. There's not a cut in his neck, there's not bullet holes, there's no forensic evidence. There's nothing to link him to the crime at this particular juncture.
So anyways, Elisha tells him, the Lord has shown me that he will really die. Now verse 11 again is a bit tricky. It says, then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed. Probably a couple of ways to read that.
He, the prophet, set his countenance in a stare until he, Hazael, was ashamed. It could all be Hazael, could be Elisha, but the bottom line is this. He set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. This probably catches Hazael off guard.
Hazael is not the king at this particular time. We don't have a title for Hazael. We don't know if he's the commander of the army. We sort of imply or infer that he's some sort of military guy.
He's probably not used to grown men weeping in his presence. Imagine that, right? You go to ask the Prophet, and the Prophet says, on the one hand, the disease isn't going to kill him, but on the other hand, the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die. The Prophet then looks at you until the point where you're actually ashamed, and you look away, and then the Prophet starts weeping.
So Hazza'il asks in verse 12, why is my Lord weeping? Why does the prophet weep? Because he knows what's going to happen when Hazael becomes king. Hazael is a brutal man.
Hazael is a wretched man. Hazael is a wicked man. And Hazael is going to be a great scourge upon the nation of Israel. Now, as I've said many times in our study in the former prophets, I don't know how anybody could ever be an Arminian after reading through the former prophets.
Remember, this is prophesied by God in 1 Kings 19. We need to understand, therefore, that God is sovereign over all of these particulars. He has raised up Hazael for the specific task of being a chastening scourge upon the nation of Israel. And yet, Hazael is responsible for his actions.
The nation of Syria is responsible for their actions. We have God's absolute sovereignty and we have the utter responsibility of man. But notice how Elisha responds. And I've often thought, this is a good response for us with reference to the situation of abortion.
One of the things that Hazar El will do is he's going to rip open their women with child. What ought the church to be doing in light of such things? Certainly praying, certainly protesting, and certainly preaching, but we ought to be weeping. We ought to be crying aloud to God Most High over such things.
Notice in verse 12, why is my Lord weeping? He answered, because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. their strongholds you will set on fire, their young men you will kill with the sword, and you will dash their children and rip open their women with child." And you can see this specifically alluded to in 2 Kings 10, 12, 13, 15. You see it in the minor prophets, Hosea, Amos, and at least the practice in Nahum, maybe not the same Assyrians, but that whole idea of utter decimating your enemy in brutal and violent ways. Matthew Henry says, see what havoc war makes, what havoc sin makes, and how the nature of man is changed by the fall and stripped even of humanity itself.
There's no other way you can explain this kind of conduct except by the fall. You can't explain this kind of conduct based on socio-economic factors. You know, this is popular today. Somebody goes and he does a wicked thing and we want to blame his childhood.
Blame the fact that he didn't get gifts as a 12-year-old at his birthday. We want to blame everything else except the person. Brethren, I understand, as I said on Sunday, that nature does affect us. It does, you know, external things do affect and do help shape and mold us to at least some degree or other.
But the problem that you'll never hear indicated in any news report is the problem of sin. It's very easy. You know, why is the world the way it is? Yeah, social this, and economic this, you know, bad government.
It's all sin. When all is said and done, the problems of verse 12 are the problems of sin. And I think Matthew Henry is right. Stripped even of humanity itself.
Now note the incredulity of Hazael. But what is your servant? A dog? That he should do this?
And it's probably better translated, great thing. It's not a gross thing. I don't think Azael is saying that the things in verse 12 are just utterly abhorrent to me and the thought is just disgusting. No, what verse 12 indicates is typical for ancient Near Eastern kings.
What verse 12 describes is a victorious king. I don't think Azael is saying, you mean to say that I'm going to do gross things like this? No, he's saying, you mean I'm going to do great things like this? You mean I'm going to go out and engage in this kind of conquering activity?
I'm a dog. And it's interesting because records kept by Assyria made this specific recognition. Assyrian records confirm that Hazael did control Syria by 842 BC and that he is called the son of a nobody. Notice there's no lineage given, there's no son of whoever, there's no, he's the successor to Ben-Hadad, he's the son of Ben-Hadad.
There's nothing like that. Hazael was a dog, politically speaking. Hazael was a nobody. So his incredulity in verse 13 is not, how in the world could you suggest that such a great guy like me is going to do the atrocities of verse 12?
No, he's saying, What do you mean I'm going to be the king? What do you mean I'm going to be the conquering one in light of verse 12? I'm a dog and that he should do this great thing. And Elisha answers, the Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria.
Paul House says, just how or why Hazael was able to seize power is not clear, but his ability to do so continues Elijah's life work. 1 Kings 19.15, vindicated Elisha's prediction and reinforced the Lord's authority over all nations. Do you see what we have here? As Reformed or as Calvinists, we talk about God's sovereignty. We go to Psalms 115 and 135 and we say, God is in the heavens.
He does whatever he pleases. And we miss God's sovereignty in a passage like this. You have a Hebrew prophet going over to Syria and telling them how their political structure is going to be. That's amazing, okay?
That is absolutely incredible. Jeremiah the prophet says that God separated me from the womb to be a prophet to what? The nation of Israel? No, all nations.
You see that in the prophet Jeremiah. The focus is certainly on Israel, specifically the southern kingdom prior to the destruction in the sixth century B.C., but then there is that prophetic word to all the nations. Brethren, the Lord God Most High is not a ghetto deity. He's not Israel's mascot.
He is the God of heaven and earth. He is the God of comprehensive, unrivaled sovereignty. He is the one that sends Elisha into Syria to tell Syria how its political structure is going to be.
Hazael's Coup and God's Sovereignty
And then, of course, we have the actual assassination of the king in verses 14 and 15. He departs from Elisha, he comes to his master, he says to him, what did Elisha say to you? And he answered, he told me you would surely recover. But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face so that he died, and Hazael reigned in his place.
So you see, as far as Syria is concerned, Hazael is now on the throne. 1 Kings 19. As far as Israel is concerned, we've got to get Jehu on the throne. And in order to do that, we need to finish up by considering these two southern kings.
Defection of Judah's Kings
And that brings us to verses 16 to 29. First, we have the reign of Jehoram. Again, in Judah, he's the southern Jehoram. Now, the text calls Jehoram of the north, Joram here, for our benefit.
At least the New King James has it that way. Verse 16, in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, so that's the north, king of Israel. Jehoshaphat, having been king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign as king of Judah. So everybody's square.
We've got a Northern Jehoram and we've got a Southern Jehoram. Now, the Southern Kingdom has not been officially dealt with at all in 2 Kings thus far. Jehoshaphat has been referred to in chapter three. He accompanies Jehoram and a deputy from Edom when the Moabites rebel.
And then Jehoram from the South is referred to in 2 Kings chapter one, but there's been no focus on the Southern kingdom. Now, again, I realized that these might be historical details that might wanna just run over your head at 8.30 on a Wednesday night, because it's almost time to go to home and go to bed. But you've got to see what God's doing, and that's why I started from the broader context. He's putting everything into place to bring judgment upon Israel.
It's absolutely terrifying on the one hand. absolutely terrifying, that God is in the details. You hear that a lot, the devil's in the details. Now there might be a truism to that, to some degree or other, but God is in the details. God is, as it were, moving pieces on a chessboard, and that may sound terrible, and it may sound offensive to Arminians and Pelagians and humanists and all that, maybe to some Calvinists, you can't reduce us to pieces on a chessboard.
Well, I'm just giving an analogy. God is moving the the events and the persons to bring about his will, to accomplish his purpose. At a time when I worked at Northrop Grumman where I was witnessing to a fellow and he really struggled with sovereign election and predestination. He really just couldn't get his mind wrapped around that.
He brought his Bible to work one night and the way we sat, I was probably sitting over there and he was, well, I was sitting here and he was sitting there. I said, do you have your Bible? Turn to Romans 9. And he did.
He opened Romans 9. And I've never seen this before. He got it more than some Calvinists get it. He got it more than many, most Arminians get it.
As he was reading the text, I saw him getting visibly shaken. And that indicated to me he was understanding what Paul was saying there in Romans 9. Because, you know, the carnal mind is enmity against God. He doesn't want to hear that God's in control.
Man likes to celebrate his supposed free will. Then he hits his leg on a Romans 9.16. It doesn't depend upon him who wills or upon him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. That's offensive to carnal man.
So this guy's getting upset. He's getting all flipped out. He's getting really mad at God. He's mad at me.
And he looks at me and he says, if what he's saying here is true, then it reduces us to puppets. And I said, no, not puppets, pots. That's the language Paul uses, the potter and the pots. You see that?
God indeed has absolute sovereignty over all things. And what he is doing here is he is orchestrating all events according to his prophesied word to bring to pass his will in the lives of people. So the southern kingdom has not been officially dealt with. The southern Jehoram is referred to back in 1 Kings 22.50 as the son of Jehoshaphat.
Now there might be some number disparity. The best way to explain that is probably co-regency. There was a time that Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, was a co-king with Jehoshaphat. That, I suggest, will help you with some of the numbers when they appear to be disparate or they seem to not line up.
There were instances where there would be a co-regency, where the father and the son would occupy the throne at the same time. But notice the nature of his reign. He is compared to the kings of Israel. Notice in verse 18, "...and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done.
For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord." So you see, you have a southern king, the son of Jehoshaphat, named Jehoram, and he marries Ahab's daughter, Adaliah. Her name is given to us in verse 26. She will come back in 2 Kings chapter 11, and she's a particularly nasty piece of work. which I hope you could imagine when her father's Ahab and her mother's Jezebel. Now, God is good, and he is glorious, and he can take an Ahab and a Jezebel and produce a godly human being.
But in this instance, that's not what happens. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this particular instance. But notice that Jehoram in the south walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. Now, he walks in the ways of the kings of Israel, but he does so according to Ahab.
Now, it's intriguing because Jehoram of the north was not as bad as Ahab and Jezebel. You've got to hear what I'm about to say here. The Jehoram of the north was wicked, but he wasn't as bad as Ahab and Jezebel. 2 Kings 3 tells us that. He didn't go after Baal.
He certainly worshipped the calves of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Again, I'm not saying Jehoram of the North was a great guy, but Jehoram of the South was an even worse guy. You see, Jehoram of the South, along with Ahaziah of the South, what we are seeing in the divided kingdom is that the North and the South don't look a whole lot different. The North and the South are very similar, not just in the names that they have, but in the conduct that they imbibe and the wicked ways that they walk.
So this Jehoram is compared with the kings of Israel, in particular with the house of Ahab.
The Cancer of Ahab's House in Judah
Notice his marriage to Adaliah, the daughter of Ahab. Davis comments, if you have Ahab's daughter, you begin to imbibe Ahab's mindset. You follow Ahab's ways. That is the point of verse 18.
The cancer from Israel has metastasized to Judah. It's not the case that we've got holy Judah, while northern Israel, the northern tribes are just utterly reprobate. But the amazing thing is, is in verse 19. You see, what the northern tribes never possessed, the southern tribes had as their stability.
It was the promise of the Davidic covenant. And that's what verse 19 reminds us of. 2 Samuel 7, God said that from David, out of his line, he would raise up a king that would have an eternal reign. And so the kingdom of Judah would be preserved. The kingdom of Judah would go into exile, but the kingdom of Judah would come back, and it would be from that kingdom that Shiloh would come, that Messiah would come.
And that is precisely what verse 19 says. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of his servant David, as he promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever. So you see, we are given an indicator that within the southern kingdom itself, those kings are even engaging in wickedness more than the northern kings. Yet God was not pleased to utterly destroy them.
You see, there was a promise way back in chapter 14 in 1 Kings that the northern tribes would be dissolved, that they would be like a reed in the water, that they would be ultimately vanquished, but not so with the southern tribes, and it was the 2 Samuel 7, Davidic covenant promise that secured that.
Rebukes of Providence
And then the last section here dealing with Jehoram are what Matthew Henry calls the rebukes of providence. The rebukes of Providence. How does God deal with sinning Jehoram in the southern kingdom? He rebukes him via Providence.
Edom revolts. This is a bad sign, brethren. Edom was subdued back in 2 Samuel chapter 8 by King David. Remember that Moab rebels against the northern kingdom in 2 Kings chapter 3.
Whenever a vassal people starts to revolt against the kingdom in Israel, you've got big problems on your hands. You see, stability, no war, vassal states gladly, or perhaps not gladly, but at least paying their tribute to Israel is a good thing. But this shows us that there is mayhem and chaos in the southern kingdom. Verse 20, In his days, Edom revolted against Judah's authority and made a king over themselves. went to Zair and all his chariots with him.
Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots, and the troops fled to their tents." I take the troops fled to their tents there as Judah. They're managing to escape from Edom. And then in verse 22 we read, Edom has been in revolt against Judah's authority to this day, but that's not all their problems. Libna revolted at that time.
Libna was a significant city in the confines of Judah that was a priestly city. So not only do you have this external threat of Edom that is now revolting against the southern kingdom, but you've got a city that's a priestly city within the confines of Judah itself revolting against Jehoram. So basically what we are seeing is the dissolution of not only North, but South. And the book ends not just with the North being decimated by Assyria, but with the South going into exile in Babylon.
You see, this book sort of paves the way. This book was written at the time of the exile, so that the people in exile in Babylon could read all about the story, read all the lessons, and see what led to the ultimate decline with reference to both the North and the South. It was intended to be a means to promote within the exiles faith in God, worship of God, fidelity to God. And in order to do that, the author shows how these nations declined.
And the nations declined first and foremost by idolatry. Never miss that that is one of the chief sins in the Bible. I mean, when you look at Romans 1, for instance, there's a lot of sins there. It's what's called a vice list.
Paul talks about God having given over man to all sorts of reprobate conduct or activity. Do you know what precedes all that? Godlessness. For the wrath of God, Romans 118, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Now, some commentators say the order there isn't specific. It's not necessary to be understood as ungodliness preceding unrighteousness. I think John Murray argues cogently that that's precisely how Paul intended it, because that's how the rest of the chapter unfolds. Because although they knew God, they did not honor God as God, nor were their hearts thankful.
So it was their idolatry that comes first, and then the acts of unrighteousness. When you see a nation given over to sin, and you see all kinds of symptomatic evil behavior, what is the answer? The answer isn't necessarily, you all need to stop doing such and such. You all need to believe the gospel.
The best help for a sinner is not behavior modification. The best help for society is not behavior modification. The best help is the gospel of free and sovereign grace. With the idea being that when men do believe on the Lord Jesus, when they reject their idols and they turn to the true and living God, then they become like God.
Not divine, not in essence, but they become godly and then they begin to modify their behavior. It's always the wrong Christian response to tell somebody in sin, stop doing that sin. Again, I'm not suggesting if somebody's smoking crack, you don't tell them, can you not do that? But the answer to a sinner is not stop smoking crack.
Now everybody's going to go home and say, Butler thinks people should smoke crack. Butler doesn't think that at all. But the answer the crack smoker needs to hear is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You all follow that, right?
I feel like I'm a nut here or something. But you meet this in Christianity today. Somebody finds out their neighbor or their friend, they're unwed, a man and a woman are living together. And so we go over there with a pie and we tell them, you really shouldn't live together.
I don't think they should live together. But the main emphasis is you need to come to Jesus. You need to believe the gospel. You need to look and live.
Because when they look and live, what will they do? They'll stop living with one another. They'll go down to the courthouse and they'll get itched. They'll do what they're supposed to do.
You see, brethren, Christianity is not behavior modification. Christianity, in the language of Michael Horton, isn't good advice. It's good news. The problem with the North and the South, in this context, was a problem of idolatry.
They rejected Yahweh. They turned to Baal, and then all societal evils flowed from that. You see it in the rest of the prophets. They come, and they attack the people, they prosecute the people for forgetting Yahweh.
Based on their forgetfulness of Yahweh, they're murderers, they're adulterers, they're liars, they're cheats, they're oppressive. All those sorts of things follow. It's a faith commitment. If we bow before Baal, we're going to be godless individuals.
If we bow before Yahweh, we will hopefully be godly individuals. As G.K. Beale says, whatever you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. That's Psalm.
Psalm 115 talks about the idols. They have eyes they can't see. They have ears they can't hear. They have noses they can't smell.
They've got mouths but they can't speak. What does it say in Psalm 115? Those who worship them become like them. Do you know how many times the prophets upbraid the nation of Israel?
Because they have ears and they don't hear. They have eyes and they don't see. The Israelites took on the characteristics of their idols. This is the reality.
Beal is right. Whatever we revere, we resemble, either for ruin or restoration. You worship Baal, you will be ruined. You worship Yahweh, you'll be restored.
That is the essence of the problem in both North and South.
Ahaziah of Judah
Now notice, there's a brief summary statement. in verses 23 and 24 concerning Jehoram of the south, and then we move to his son Ahaziah, another winner. Verse 25, we see the beginning of his reign, and Matthew Henry makes this good comment. I think it at least helped me to put things into perspective. He said Ahab had two sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram, who reigned successively.
Jehoshaphat had a son and a grandson named Jehoram and Ahaziah, who in like manner reigned successively. Names indeed do not make nature, but it was a bad omen to Jehoshaphat's family to borrow names from Ahab's. I think he's right. It was a bad omen to borrow names from Ahab's family.
Names don't make nature, but boy, what terrible guys that you chose to name your kids after. I mean, that's just a wretched thing. I mean, take the baby name book out? That would be a better option than to say, hey, we'll go to Ahab's family and pick out, you know, two of his choice names.
Now note the nature of his reign. He is the son of Adaliah, the daughter of Ahab, and then notice his conduct. The conduct was according to Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. Matthew Henry again says, he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, that idolatrous bloody house, for his mother was Ahab's daughter, so that he sucked in wickedness with his milk.
Modern commentators don't get it that good. He sucked in wickedness with his milk. That is precisely what Ahaziah does. He is connected to Ahab's house.
He is connected to this godless family. And as a result, he is towing the line. And then note the preparation for judgment in verses 28 and 29. Just the pieces moving into place.
They'll be in Jezreel. So that when Jehu comes on the scene, he'll have someone to shoot his arrows at. I think some of us have been waiting for the Jehu narratives. Jehu is one of those larger-than-life characters.
The first and second Kings are filled with larger-than-life characters, aren't they? I mean, just from one to another. We go from Elijah to Elisha to Jehu. It's just an amazing book that does demand not only our study, but our worship as we consider the God of these men.
So essentially, he, Ahaziah of the south, went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, so that's the north, to war against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth Gilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram, or Jehoram of the north. So when it says that he, Ahaziah, went, it probably means he sent his soldiers, because in verse 29 he goes himself to see Joram. Verse 29 tells us, King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria, and Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel because he was sick. Again, those names get a little bit confusing at 10 to 9 on a Wednesday night, but it all makes sense.
You got two Jehorams, you got two Ahaziahs. You got two in the north, you got two in the south. You got two connected Ahab, two connected Jehoshaphat. Very simple.
Next Wednesday, there'll be a quiz. Everybody bring your number two pencil and do the best that you can. Just kidding. Well, in conclusion, we see in this passage or in this chapter what?
We ought to see in every chapter of Scripture what does the Bible teach us about God. In this particular section we see His absolute sovereignty, the providence of God in the life of the Shunammite woman. Remember how we saw in 2 Kings 4 especially that God is the Lord God of the nameless and the nobody. We still don't know the Shunammite woman's name.
She's shown up in two narratives. She's received a son raised from the dead. She has received safe harbor in Philistia while Israel is in famine conditions. She comes back and not only is her property returned to her, but all the money that was accrued in her absence.
God is indeed the champion of the nameless and the nobody. Certainly He is over the big political machine, He's over Hazael, He's over Ben-Hadad, He's over Naaman the commander of the Syrian army, He's over Gehazi, He's over Elisha, but He's over nameless women like the Shunammite who has this son that dies and Elisha raises him from the dead. The Lord God is sovereign in the lives of His people. Secondly, we see the providence of God in the reign of Hazael.
Some suggest that Elisha's words caused Hazael to hatch this plot to go and to kill Ben-Hadad. I don't believe that for a moment. Hazael was a wretch. The rest or subsequent narrative will demonstrate that.
Verse 12, telling us what he will do, demonstrates or indicates that. Elisha is simply there to tell them what's going to happen in their kingdom. We see the providence of God in the revolt of Edom and Libna. Again, it's a negative providence, it's a rebuke by providence, but it's God's providence nonetheless.
If Jehoram of the South is going to act worse than Jehoram of the North, then the Edomites are going to rebel, and Libna is going to rebel, and Jehoram is not going to enjoy the kinds of conditions that prevailed under King David and Solomon. That's another thing that you ought to remember. Everything subsequent to 1 Kings 11, every negative report is designed to tell us that what we had in the reign of Solomon and David is gone. The golden era, the golden days are gone, and what we have is a bunch of apostasy and idolatry.
And then the fulfillment of the Word of God, which again demonstrates the sovereignty of God. Specifically, that fulfillment of 1 Kings 19, verses 15 to 17. And then a second observation is the problem of one big evil family. That's Davis's title, One Big Evil Family, for his treatment of verses 16 to 29.
But just look at the problems that come from this one big evil family, or lessons. There is a lesson here for all of us to marry well. Isn't there? See, that's not just a New Testament concept, 1 Corinthians 7.
She's free to remarry only in the Lord. We're 2 Corinthians where we're told to be equally yoked or prohibited to be unequally yoked. Doesn't this text tell us that you ought never to marry a son or a daughter of Ahab? That's just not good practice.
That doesn't end well. The text is conspicuous. Again, it's not moralism, but we ought to appreciate the moral lesson here. Don't marry Ahab's daughter.
Matthew Henry says, those that are ill-matched are already half ruined. I think he's absolutely right. You know the one thing worse than being married? is being married to a wretch. There's a few young people in here, I don't want to pick on you, but boy, you really need to be patient, you need to be prayerful, and you need to make sure that you are operating from the place of theology.
You see why theology matters? But my heart and my warmth and my feelings. Well then go marry Ahab's daughter and see what that brings you. You need to think God's thoughts after him and marry the proper person.
Because if you marry Adeliah, your life is going to be miserable. Sorry, that's just the way it's going to be. Matthew Henry also makes this observation because, notice, Jehoram is the father of Ahaziah. Who's Ahaziah's mommy?
Adaliah. Matthew Henry says, when men choose wives for themselves, they must remember they are choosing mothers for their children. We don't think that way either, do we? Oh, she's gorgeous.
He's hot. Is he going to be a good father to your children? Is he going to bring them to every service that the church has? Is he going to catechize them?
Is he going to instruct them? Is he going to pray for them? Is he going to weep for them? I don't care how hot he is, if he is not going to father those children, don't marry him.
Oh no, it's all about feelings. You see, that's why we emphasize Scripture. The idea being is that doctrine ought to so affect you that you don't let your feelings govern you. Because that's the problem with the church and that's the problem with society.
It's feelings. It's all feelings. Feelings are wretched. I like what Martin Luther said, Or Edward Mote, we love to sing, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust, what? The sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. You see, that's us. My frame is sweet today, so I think I'm a Christian.
I had good devotions. I prayed for 20 minutes, therefore I'm a Christian. That's walking by sight, isn't it? I'm almost of the mind that it's good not to have religious feelings at times, because that's a genuine walking by faith.
And when you go into your secret place, your father who sees in secret, notice that that's just a not if you feel like he's seeing you, if you feel his presence, if you have an existential... Your father sees you in secret. We base way too much on experience, way too much on feelings, and I submit that that is walking by sight and not by faith. You may disagree with that.
I'm sorry, but that's what Paul says. Notice as well, He says, or we see the need to remember that grace is not passed on genetically. Godly Jehoshaphat produces ungodly Jehorah. I've seen this in the Christian church.
A child gets to 17 or 18, he goes out, he engages in wickedness and whether outspokenly or inwardly, we blame the parents, don't we? They failed. They should have spanked him more. I knew it when he was five.
He didn't get his mouth washed out with soap like he should have. He didn't get belted like he deserved. We blame the parents, don't we? Now Jehoshaphat was a godly man.
He didn't have a lot of common sense, unfortunately. He didn't have a lot of good horse sense, so there's probably a degree of blame when he makes alliances with Ahab, specifically with Jehoram and Adaliah. But brethren, God is sovereign. Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.
You know, when a brother or sister has a wayward child, sympathize with them and weep with them instead of heaping blame up on them. It's all your fault that he's out smoking crack. And by the way, I think, you know, smoking crack is as bad as self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is wicked too. this parading oneself as a model citizen or as a bulwark of morality.
In fact, I'd rather have the crackhead than that person, at least to some degree, because at least that person sees their need more often than not. As John Gershner said, it's not so much your sin that God has a problem with, it's your wretched good works. See, Christ came to save us from our sin. Sin is the issue that Christ comes to champion for us.
It's that wretched good works that keeps us from God. Now, again, I've just used that illustration tonight. I don't have some secret desire to smoke crack or anything like that. I can assure you.
It's just the thing that has readily suggested itself to me tonight. But godly Jehoshaphat has ungodly Jehoram. Again, Matthew Henry. I think Matthew Henry's treatment on this chapter is excellent.
It's gold. I highly recommend it. He says, parents cannot give grace to their children. Many that have themselves been godly have had the grief and shame of seeing those that came forth out of their bowels wicked and vile.
We see the need to remember that ungodly alliances affect nations. And that is where Jehoshaphat did err. He wanted to join hands with Ahab. He makes an alliance in 1 Kings 22.
He makes this alliance with his son and with Ahab's daughter. That's not good, brethren. We need to guard against such alliances. We need to guard against such things.
Now, he may have had noble intentions. Jehoshaphat may have thought, well, if I'm arm-in-arm with Ahab, we're unified with the north, this gets rid of the civil war that we're undergoing, and we can fight the encroaching threat of Assyria. But as Davis says, what we find is that it was a spiritual, moral, national disaster. Jehoshaphat seemed to be long on piety and short on sense.
And then finally, the need to see God's righteous judgment in such circumstances. In other words, this is what Israel deserved. She had gone a-whoring from God, she had engaged in idolatry, God's judgment and justice upon her is sure. Again, Matthew Henry, a nation is sometimes justly punished with the miseries of a bad reign for not improving the blessing and advantages of a good one.
They had Jehoshaphat. They didn't turn back from their sin. Therefore, they'll reap the judgment of an ungodly Jehoram and an Ahaziah.
Application
Well, brethren, those are some lessons I think the text affords us. We ought to be reminded of that verse 19 reality. the stability of the Davidic covenant, the promise of the Davidic son, all of these kings in Judah were typical of the one king that was to come, even the Messiah, even the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Samuel 7, he's the terminus, he is the point, he is the one. that is the Son of God, that is the kingdom builder, that is the house builder. In fact, the very language of 2 Samuel 7 is picked up by our Lord in Matthew 16.
There in 2 Samuel 7, a Son of God, a Son of David, will build a house for God. In Matthew 16, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Son of the living God. And then Jesus says, I will build my church on this rock. So we have a son of God building a house for God in accordance with that 2 Samuel 7 promise.
That's why the Lord preserves even Judah in spite of their wickedness. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for what it instructs us concerning theology proper, who our God is, and what it instructs us concerning our own hearts, our own wretchedness and waywardness. May you cause us to look to Christ, may you cause us to walk in faith, and may you cause us to bring glory and honor to you. Go with us now, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.