2 Kings 8: ) A helpless son of Baal dies

Transcription

1 2 Kings 8:7-15 Dear children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, is being a dad is always fun? Boys and girls, have you ever wondered about that? Is being a dad always fun? Today s a good day to think about it. Being a dad is a lot of fun, but not always. When things aren t going well, when a dad loses a job, or when the children won t listen, then being a dad isn t fun. Dads can also be sad. Sometimes, boys and girls, when you misbehave, your dad actually does nothing. You know why? It could be because he knows what he has to do, and he knows you won t like it, and he doesn t want things to be bad for you, so he doesn t want to do it. Being a dad can be really tough sometimes. Being an office bearer isn t always fun either. In Hebrews 13:17 it is noted that our leaders keep watch over our souls as they will have to give an account. And then the Spirit notes: Let them do this with joy and not with groaning. There are times when an elder groans. Our Lord Jesus Christ groaned because of the Pharisees and over Jerusalem that would not repent (Matthew 23). There s lots of groaning in the letters Paul and other apostles wrote to various churches and people. There have been lots of groaning prophets too. Like in our text. Elisha has come to Damascus to do something which God had many years earlier told Elijah to do: anoint Hazael king of Syria. But Elisha breaks down. He weeps, he cries because God s people have been disobedient. They didn t listen to God. They worshiped God through golden calves. They worshiped Baal alongside God. They didn t take care of each other as they should have. Elisha knows God intends to punish Israel. The form the punishment will take, it s horrible. And the man to do it, Elisha has to anoint him. But he can t bring himself further than saying some words One could wish that being a dad is always fun. One could wish that serving as an elder or a prophet makes for joy all the time. But it isn t, it doesn t. And we d be foolish to hide our head in the sand, to pretend it s all good and fun. Don t get me wrong, there is much reason for joy among our families, in our congregation. There is love and loyalty, there is faith and the fruits of faith. But no family and no church is perfect. And as we are working our way through the Elisha accounts today confronts us with a gloomier side to the task of leadership. We listen this morning to God s Gospel with this theme: The God who sees deals thoroughly with sin. We will consider (1) A helpless son of Baal dies; (2) My saving God weeps; and (3) The seeing God reigns. 1) A helpless son of Baal dies Directly to the north of the Ten Tribes of Israel were two countries. On the coast, to the west of the Lebanon mountains, lived the Phoenicians. The main cities were Tyre and Sidon. That s where Queen Jezebel came from. To the east of the Lebanon mountains lived the Arameans, also known as the Syrians. 1 The main city of Syria was Damascus. Syria was a smallish nation, like Israel and Judah. The Syrians were sometimes in alliance with God s people. But more frequently the Syrians were the enemies, trying to take cities from Israel. At the time of our text Benhadad was the king. It would seem this Benhadad s father was also called Benhadad, which makes things a little confusing. Our Benhadad had a second name: Hadadezer. 2 Benhadad Hadadezer. Both those names have the word hadad in it. Word, I should actually say 1 In Hebrew the country is called Aram. Most Bible translations, however, translate Aram with Syria. That can be confusing, because to the north of Syria / Aram was Assyria, one of the super powers of the day. 2 Scholars are beginning to suspect that after Benhadad I, Benhadad became the title for Syrian kings. Hazael s son, for example, was also called Benhadad. This phenomenon occurs more often: the surname of Julius Caesar becomes the title for the Roman emperors.

2 name. For Hadad is the name of the north western Semitic storm god. Storm god Hadad is another name for Baal! Ben is the Hebrew word for son. 3 So Benhadad, boys and girls, means son of Baal. His other name is Hadadezer. 4 Ezer is the Hebrew word for help. So, boys and girls, Hadadezer would mean Baal helps. This king of Syria went by the names Son of Baal and Baal helps. But Benhadad wasn t being helped by his so-called dad Baal at all. Benhadad is sick. So sick that he figures he might die. Baal was proving useless. Maybe someone else could help. Maybe that prophet in Israel that had healed general Naaman? Would Israel s God be more powerful than Baal? It didn t look like it, as Israel was under Syria s thumb. But still, Yahweh of Israel was a different kind of god It s no surprise that, when Benhadad hears Elisha is in town, he sends for help. He does so, in true pagan style. Don t think, beloved, that Benhadad is now a believer. He s just making the most of an opportunity. You can tell, because he tries to buy Elisha s favour with 40 camel loads of gift. A camel can carry around half a tonne of good. So 40 camel loads, that could be 20 tonnes! 5 Benhadad would have known how Elisha refused gifts, it had happened to Naaman, remember. So Benhadad hasn t learned the lesson. He treats Yahweh as just one among many gods. Not as the sovereign God, the only God. A favourable message cannot be bought. Elisha is forthright. Go and say that he will most definitely not survive. The messenger is floored by this. Maybe he figured, Naaman got healed, so why not Benhadad? Maybe he thought, There s 40 camel loads of gifts at the door. C mon prophet, surely you can move that god of yours to give a positive message. The messenger is so flabbergasted he just stands there and stares at Elisha. Now note that Elisha does not say that Benhadad will die of the illness. In Bible translations the word recover is used but the Hebrew actually has the word to live. The question asked is Shall I live from this sickness? It seems to me the word survive catches the breadth and nuance better. When Elisha responds he doesn t use the word illness. He simply uses the word live, survive. Elisha keeps it short: the king will most certainly not live. And that s what happened. Benhadad dies, not because of the illness, but because he is murdered. Benhadad -- Hadadezer. Son of Baal -- Baal helps. But this son of Baal was without help. Yahweh proves sovereign. He upheld His honour also in the death of Benhadad. Benhadad would not learn the lesson, a lesson his own army officer Naaman had been willing to learn. The reign of Benhadad ends. The god of Syria proved useless. Benhadad s death is, in a sense, vindication for the Name of Yahweh, is to God s glory. However, it does not work towards the salvation of God s people. Rather, it s the opposite. Israel s sin needs a more rigorous response than Benhadad. A king even more ruthless is to reign in his stead. 2) Elisha is aware of this. It s why he s in Damascus, to anoint Hazael. But Elisha can barely do it. He breaks down into tears. We consider, in the second place, how My saving God weeps. Before we move on with the sermon we need to have a close look at the verses 10 and 11 in our text. I ll do my best not to be too technical and detailed. It is important, though, for understanding our text. There are two issues of translation here. The first one is posed by verse 10. What did Elisha say to Hazael? The ESV translates: Go, say to him, You shall certainly recover, but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die. That would suggest 3 In Aramaic, a sister language to Hebrew, the word is Bar. Syrians kings are called Barhadad in Syrian inscriptions. 4 Adadadri in Aramaic. Note that this is not the same Hadadezer as the one that King David fought. 5 Some scholars suggest that each camel would just carry one item, turning this into a huge show.

3 Elisha, the prophet of God, is telling Hazael to lie to Benhadad. But that s a problem. Would a prophet of God tell someone to lie? Moreover, why would Hazael need to lie to Benhadad? The second problem is posed by verse 11a. The ESV here translates And he fixed his gaze and stared at him until he was embarrassed. That s a perfectly good translation. But you wonder: who was doing the staring and who was getting embarrassed? The NIV (2011) makes a choice. It translates: He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. So Elisha stared at Hazael and Hazael became embarrassed. In my opinion things are best seen as follows. First, verse 10. In Hebrew the words to him and not sound exactly the same but are spelled differently. In verse 10 the better manuscript evidence has the word not. Now there are places in the Bible where the word not actually does mean to him. But I m not convinced 2 Kings 8:10 is one of them. The right translation is the one you can also find in a footnote in the NIV: 6 Go and say, You will certainly not recover. This approach also helps us with verse 11. Imagine for a moment you are Hazael. You ve come with 40 camel loads of gifts. You ask the prophet Will my master survive? And the prophet tells you: Go and say: You will certainly not survive. How would you feel? It s not hard to imagine Hazael s mouth dropping open, and him just staring at Elisha with a Are you for real? kind of look. Like, you really want me to go and tell the king of Syria You will certainly not survive? He might kill me! It s not Elisha that s staring at Hazael in verse 11. It s Hazael that s staring at Elisha. And he stares so long and hard that things reach the point of embarrassment. That s when Elisha breaks down into tears. Why? Well, there s more that needs to happen. Years earlier God had instructed the prophet Elijah to go and anoint Hazael king of Syria (1Kings 19:15). When Elijah was told to anoint Hazael, we know he was also told to anoint Jehu. He never did that. We do know that Elisha did that: we re told this in 2 Kings 9. And given Hazael s response to Elisha, he s got no clue what s coming. So we may assume, Elijah never anointed Hazael. Elisha has to do it. But as he is about to, he breaks down. Hazael is anointed with the tears of God s prophet. Why tears? Because God had revealed to Elisha what Hazael would do. And it s not pretty. It s horrible. So horrible I don t even want to repeat it. We do know, from the Bible as well as from other sources, that Hazael did indeed do all the things Elisha said. Hazael was a ruthless king. He became to the world back then what ISIS is right now in our world. Elisha hurts for the people of God. He knows they deserve such punishment. The ministries of Elijah and Elisha had not changed them. Seven years of famine had not changed the people. God will respond to sin with an even heavier hand. He s following the program outlined through Moses, we find it in Deuteronomy 28. It s got to happen. God said it would if His people should continue in their rebellion against God. Anointing Hazael was probably the hardest things Elisha ever did. Elijah had dragged his feet on this one. Elisha is too. Hazael is anointed, with tears. Being an office bearer, being God s spokesman, isn t always fun. It s great when you can comfort and encourage someone with forgiveness, with renewal, with salvation. But it s tough when you become involved with someone hardening in sin, someone who refuses to repent and you have to sign that letter, you have to make that visit. You groan, to use the word of Hebrews 13. You weep, as Elisha did. And beloved, please don t think that God is unmoved by all of this. God Himself has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:30-32). God is a Father. And just as good fathers will discipline their children out of love, so God disciplines His people out of love (Hebrews 12:3-11). It is to correct them. It 6 It puzzles me that the ESV does not note the alternative translation.

4 is to bring them back to Himself. The weeping Elisha is but a reflection of God s weeping. My saving God weeps, weeps for there are those who refuse, yes, who refuse to be saved. They refuse to be saved from a life of selfishness and thus they become the victims of another s selfishness. 3) Another s selfishness. In our account this morning that s Hazael. We consider in the third place that the God who sees reigns. Hazael, the messenger sent by Benhadad Hadadezer. Who is he? He calls himself Your servant, a dog. In other words, Hazael considers himself a nobody. That s his name in the Annals of Assyria: Hazael the son of nobody. We also don t know his job. Was he an army officer? A butler? The king s personal attendant? One thing we do know of him is his name. Hazael. Or Chazahel, to spell it out more completely. El means God. Chazah means to see, especially in the sense of to observe and consider. So, boys and girls, Hazael means God sees. What a name for this man who is to be God s next instrument of judgment. Hazael comes to Elisha and stands there, staring at him in bewilderment. He has to say what to Benhadad? Then Elisha weeps and tells him, not only what he would do, but also how he will be able to do it. Hazael is to be the next king of Syria. Picture it: Hazael comes on behalf of Benhadad with 40 camel loads of gifts to ask about the wellbeing of his master the king, and he leaves with the information from Yahweh God that Benhadad will die and he will be the next king of Syria. He returns to Benhadad but does not tell him what Elisha said. He assures the king that all is well, that he will recover. No doubt a way for Hazael to make sure that Benhadad would not make any arrangements for his succession, the way kings would do if they felt death was imminent. Hazael is plotting his next move. Hazael then acts quickly. The next day already Hazael takes a cloth, 7 makes it soaking wet and places it on Benhadad s head. It would have seemed he was cooling a forehead for a fever. But Hazael s intentions are sinister. He uses the cloth to suffocate Benhadad. And somehow the details are not told us Hazael becomes the next king of Syria. He would rule Syria for about 40 years and would be one of Israel s most bitter enemies. God s plan moves on. We wonder, God, is this the way to treat your people? We re inclined to weep with Elisha. Maybe we re inclined to do what we can to delay the punishment. Just as fathers will do, when their children turn to a wrong path. Just as elders will do, when faced with someone hardening in sin. Hazael: God, how can you do this to Israel? God can do it because God sees. Hazael s very name will be a reminder, a reminder to Elisha, to Hazael himself, and also to Israel. God sees. God sees it all. The wickedness of Israel. The wickedness of Hazael. Please take a Bible and turn with me to Amos chapter 1. Amos was a Judean prophet in northern Israel right after Hazael died and his son Benhadad had become king. So Amos prophesied right after 40 years of the horrible things that Hazael did to Israel. Hear what God says by way of Amos. Amos 1:3-5 God uses Hazael to punish Israel but God also punishes Hazael and Syria for their unjust ways. Thus God reveals to us how, in the human sphere, there is but the circle of selfish violence. It s a vicious circle that Scripture describes to us more frequently. Especially the prophecy of Habakkuk comes to mind. Habakkuk complains about the injustice happening in Judah and asks God to do something about it. And God says He is, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians are coming. And Habakkuk is floored: the Chaldeans are the worst people he could imagine. Then Habakkuk is taught: the righteous shall live by faith, but the 7 The word suggests something that is thick and woven.

5 judgment of God does come, God follows through. God sees, God sees it all. The iniquity of His people. The wickedness of the godless. In the end, this vicious circle of violence is only broken when the Christ of God bears the burden of God s anger against sin. What Hazael was going to do was horrible. But beloved, what was done to the Christ, the Christ of God, the Son of God, that was even worse. That too happened according to God s foreknowledge and plan. Indeed, Christ Himself groaned during the Thursday evening but did send Judas Iscariot on his way to do the deed (John 13:21, 27). On behalf of God Elisha commissioned Hazael to punish Israel. On behalf of God Jesus Christ commissioned Judas Iscariot to punish Jesus Christ. The God who sees deals thoroughly with sin. Hazael became an instrument in God s hand to turn the people back to Him. Did it work? No, following the reign of Hazael Amos paints a bleak picture of Israel. Do we not see the same sort of thing in our world today? At a personal level. Fathers raising children and having to take measures that hurt, but are motivated by love and are intended for good. At the church level. Office bearers visiting with ward members who harden themselves in sin, these elders then have to say: you cannot count on God s forgiveness and have placed yourself outside God s Kingdom. At the level of our society. As society becomes more tolerant and more permissive, our natural selfishness will inflict us with wounds. And at the level of the world stage. If Hazael and the Babylonians were instruments in God s hand, could not the same be said of the powers that terrorize our world today? But do all those disciplined repent? Not always. Still, beloved, do not lose heart because of this reality. For between Benhadad and Hazael we had Elisha: My God Saves. There is the truth of which Habakkuk sings: even though the fig tree does not blossom I will take heart and rejoice. In Christ God has proven victorious over the meanest enemy of them all, the devil. In Christ God has dealt with our sin, once and for all. Cling to God. Serve Him. Trust Him. Weep because of the judgments that come over people. Elisha wept over Israel and Christ wept over Jerusalem. But at the same time, soldier on for the Kingdom of God. In view of today and this morning I say it especially to the fathers and the office bearers among us. Do not shirk your duty. Do what needs doing. For it is God whom you serve, first and foremost. God knows what needs doing. And beloved, to the children among us and to us all as members of this church I say: don t make life hard for your dads and for your elders. Let them do their work not with groaning but with joy. Accept their discipline, and respond with repentance. God sees, and My God Saves. Amen.