'So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of
every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood
before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to
thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10. And Elisha said
unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the
Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 11. And he settled his
countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.
12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I
know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their
strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay
with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women
with child. 13. And Hazael said. But what, is thy servant a dog, that
he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath
shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 14. So he departed from
Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to
thee? and he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.
15. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and
dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and
Hazael reigned in his stead.'--2 KINGS viii. 9-15.
This is a strange, wild story. That Damascene monarchy burst into
sudden power, warlike and commercial--for the two things went together
in those days. As is usually the case, Hazael the successful soldier
becomes ambitious. His sword seems to be the real sceptre, and he will
have the dominion. Many years before this Elijah had anointed him to
be king over Syria. That had wrought upon him and stirred ambition in
him. Elijah's other appointments, coeval with his own, had already
taken effect, Jehu was king of Israel, Elisha was prophet, and he only
had not attained the dignity to which he had been designated.
He comes now with his message from the king of Damascus to Elisha. No
doubt he had been often contrasting his own vigour with the decrepit,
nominal king, and many a time had thought of the anointing, and had
nursed ambitious hopes, which gradually turned to dark resolves.
He hoped, no doubt, that Ben-hadad was mortally sick, and it must have
been a cruel, crushing disappointment when he heard that there was
nothing deadly in the illness. Another hope was gone from him. The
throne seemed further off than ever. I suppose that, at that instant,
there sprang in his heart the resolve that he would kill Ben-hadad.
The recoil of disappointment spurred Hazael to the resolution which he
then and there took. It had been gathering form, no doubt, through
some years, but now it became definite and settled. While his face
glowed with the new determination, and his lips clenched themselves in
the firmness of his purpose, the even voice of the prophet went on,
'howbeit he shall certainly die,' and the eye of the man of God
searched him till he turned away ashamed because aware that his inmost
heart was read.
Then there followed the prophet's weeping, and the solemn announcement
of what Hazael would do when he had climbed to the throne. He shrank
in real horror from the thought of such enormity of sin. 'Is thy
servant a dog that he should do such a thing?' Elisha sternly answers:
'The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' The
certainty is that in his character occasion will develop evil. The
certainty is that a course begun by such crime will be of a piece, and
consistent with itself.
This conversation with Elisha seems to have accelerated Hazael's
purpose, as if the prediction were to his mind a justification of his
means of fulfilling it.
How like Macbeth he is!--the successful soldier, stirred by
supernatural monitions of a greatness which he should achieve, and at
last a murderer.
This narrative opens to us some of the solemn, dark places of human
life, of men's hearts, of God's ways. Let us look at some of the
lessons which lie here.