2 kINGS 8:13-29 - How could your servant accomplish sucha feat?

8:13-15

Hazael does not believe he is capable of doing such a thing, but Elisha tells him the Lord has decreed it, so it will happen. Ben-HadadHazael murdered the king, and became king. 

8:16-19

Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram became king of Judah, he reigned for eight years. However, he followed the ways of the kings of Israel, marrying the daughter of Ahab. We should be very careful whom we marry. However, the Lord remembered his promise to David, and so did not destroy Judah. Our faithfulness (or otherwise) can have long term consequences.

2 Kings 8:1-12 - The Shunammite woman again

8:1-6

The Shunammite woman now reappears. Elisha had told her to go away for a famine was coming and would last for seven years, so she went away to the land of the Philistines. After seven years she came back. \in the meantime her land had been taken and she went to the king to hopefully get it back. At the time the king was speaking to Gehazi about Elisha, Gehazi was able to tell the king who the woman was, and her connection to Elisha. There are two key lessons here. One is the faithfulness of the Lord, the other is that the exile was for a period of time only. Kings may have been written for the time that Israel was in exile in Babylon.

8:7-12

The king of Aram became ill  and sent someone to Elisha to see if he would recover. This is in contrast to Ahaziah who sent someone to inquire of Baal. So the people of God consult an idol, while the pagan king consults the Lord. see Romans 9-11.1 Elisha tells the king he will recover, but will do harm to Israel. There is a parallel with the response to the gospel. Israel should have accepted Christ, but the Gentiles were more ready to receive Him. Israel should have consulted the Lord, but the pagan nation was more ready to consult the Lord.

2 Kings 7:9-20 - Can this be true?

7:9-20

The lepers looted the camp taking silver and gold. They then decided that they should tell the palace the news. There was freedom to be had. So they told the city gatekeepers what they had discovered. The guards were very wary, fearing a trap. So they sent a small group to investigate, and of course, they found that the lepers were telling the truth. And food stuffs did sell for the low prices Elisha had foretold. The man who had doubted Elisha’s words was trampled to death.

2 Kings 7:1-8 - Why stay here until we die?

7:1,2

Elisha now prophecies that the famine will come to an end. Prophets do not just foretell bad things. But it is not just important that we believe the bad things, but also the good things. The prices foretold would imply plentiful supply, but the office did not believe it  and thought it impossible. Elish tells him that though he will see it come true, he would not enjoy any of it.

7:3-8

We now read of it coming true. There were four lepers at the city gate. They were in a desperate state. They realised that if they did nothing they would die, they had nothing to lose so decided to go to the camp of the Arameans, the worst that could happen is that they would be killed, but they were going to die anyway. So they went to the camp, but when they got there no one was around. The Lord had deceived them so that they had fled.