More Events in the Life of Elisha

Click here to read II Kings 8.

Chapter 8 brings the Shunamite woman back in the story. In Chapter 4 we read where it was at the home of this lady that Elisha stayed when he was in Shunam. She owned a large estate but had no sons and her husband was old. Elisha promised her a son and by the grace of God, the following year she had one. Later, the boy died and Elisha brought him back to life.

Because of the sins of the people of Israel, God brought a famine upon the land. Elisha warns the Shunamite woman of the coming of the famine and tells her to leave Israel and go to Philistia, where she stayed and was cared for, for 7 years. When she returned her land had been confiscated. We are not told how this happened, but it could have happened any number of ways. The government could have taken it over for failure to pay taxes or neighbors or relatives could have done likewise because it was abandoned. At least, she knows where to go to get help.

We see two things here for which we can commend King Jehu:

1. It was commendable that he should be interested in the miracles of Elisha. Notice he inquires about these miracles from Elisha's servant Gehizi, who is now a leper because he tried to con money out of Naaman and Elisha put Naaman's leprosy upon him. So the king is talking to Gehizi about the miracles of Elisha when he learns of Elisha bringing the Shunamites woman's son back to life. As the two were speaking, the woman comes for an audience before the King.
2. It was commendable that the King was accessible to the partitions of the people. When the King is told by Gehizi that this was the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life, he grants her partition and orders that her land be returned to her and that she be compensated for the harvest for the last 7 years.

Then Chapter 8 becomes a bit confusing. We go back in time to when Benhadad was King of Syria. He had become ill and he sent his Army Commander, Hazael, to find Elisha and inquire if he would recover from his illness or if he would die. Elisha told Hazael that the King would recover but that he would later die at the hands of Hazael. Elisha also prophesied that Hazael would become King of Syria and that he would become like a plague to Israel. He would set fire to their cities, slay their young men, dash to pieces their young children, rip open the wombs of women with child. All of this later came true and all of this Elisha prophesied while he was in Damascus the chief city of Syria.

Why was Elisha in Damascus, a Syrian city? Tradition says that he was there to inquire about Naaman. Naaman had become a Jewish convert as the result of his healing and when he returned home, he became a persecuted man. We see in this story that he had lost his job to Hazael and to confuse matters more, we know that Elisha was there to anoint Hazael as King of Syria (1st. kings 19:15). The reason for this we will see in the next chapter.

Chapter 8 ends with an account of the short and wicked reign of Jehoram, the 5th. King of Judah, and records the beginning of the reign of Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, the 6th. King of Judah.

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