Doing What God Commands

SHEPHERDESS EDERMIRA CRUZ

STUDY #1160 CHURCH IN THE HOUSES SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

DOING WHAT GOD COMMANDS - 2 Kings 8:7-15 Elisha is to fulfill the command given to Elijah to anoint Hazael as king (1 Kings 19:15). The seat of Naaman was held by Hazael. Elisha came there to do what God commands. The sickly Ben-adad, king of Syria, heard that Elisha had come to Damascus, sent his officer Hazael with a great gift to ask if he would heal from his illness. Hazael thus took from the goods of Damascus, forty camels loaded.

I. Hazael (1 Kings 19:15), God had said to Elijah: Go, go back the same way into the desert of Damascus.

A. You will arrive and anoint Hazael as king of Syria.

1. Hazael had already been anointed as king.

2. Hazael was simply waiting for Ben-adad's death.

3. It is very difficult for the successor, whether son, or general, or anyone else, to shed

tears for the death of a king.

4. That same funeral would be the one that would give them the access to the throne that they will occupy as successors of the king who had died.

5. The king of Syria, in his illness, seeks Elisha to tell him his future.

6. He is informed that the man of God, who was called that even in Syria since he had healed Naaman, was in Damascus.

7. What a great visit for King Ben-adad!

8. Go and consult Jehovah for him.

9. When he was healthy, he worshipped gods, but now he was sick and distrustful of his idol and sent to consult the God of Israel.

10. This was the wicked king (6:14) who had commanded a great army to arrest him and now sought the answer by honoring him as a prophet.

11. Hazael, his greatest high dignitary to go to Elisha, brought him a magnificent present from among the goods of Damascus.

12. Can you imagine, to carry forty camels of gifts.

13. The king's question was: Will I heal from this disease?

14. Elisha, the prophet, was a confidant (faithful, confident, trusting, trusting secrets or intimate things) of the secrets of Heaven.

15. What happens between Elisha and Hazael.

16. Elisha tells him that he will heal, his illness was not one of death.

17. That he would die from another cause (V. 10), a violent one, Elisha knew who Hazael was.

18. Elisha's face clings to Hazael's eyes seeing in his eyes all that was in him, the prophet looking at what "God Himself revealed to him."

19. Hazael, an evil man, cannot understand God.

20. Elisha stares at his face, until he makes him turn incarnate with blush (feel ashamed,

red) and burst into tears.

21. He asks Elisha why he cries.

22. Elisha tells him that he foresaw (see in advance) the great evils that Hazael was going to do to the children of Israel.

23. He wept over the bad way he did to the children of Israel.

24. How many evils war causes and how greater evils sin causes and to what degree has degenerated (abnormal or depraved mental and moral condition, usually accompanied by peculiar physical stigmata) human nature because of the original fall, to the point of stripping itself of all humanity.

25. Sin degenerates by its original fall, but instead of overcoming the flesh at Jesus' feet it is easier to turn away and then defend oneself by soiling the prophet.

26. Hazael was greatly surprised at this prediction (announcing a future fact): What is your servant, a dog to do such great things?

27. That's the sad thing: (Vs. 4) as a thing too big for him, which is not a crowned head, but as a dog expressing humility (Vs. 8). As too barbaric a thing that can only be committed by those who have lost all sense of honor and virtue.

28. "It is possible that he who is evil," under sudden (suddenly, or warning, unexpected, sudden) conviction (assurance of what he thinks or feels) of conscience expresses great abhorrence of a sin, even if he later commits it "without any scruples." It is one that lacks a level of conscience that allows it to delimit the truth, classify its acts, its obligations and as a consequence of the above, it disregards all responsibility for "the damages caused" that in addition to its opinion neither are nor exist. It is best explained with a fable than by its meaning, scruples is one of them. Scruple: doubt or disturbing suspicion for the conscience about whether something is good or should be done from a moral point of view, whether a thing is acceptable or not, according to morality as to the good or bad (good) actions are right and which in conflict (bad). Scruple means small rock or pebble, and its fable is like that pebble we have in our shoes that every step we take becomes a torture. Once released, it releases two burns; now, to take care of the considerable damage that in its smallness it may have caused).

29. Jehovah has shown me that you will be the king of Syria.

30. Then you will have the power to do the things that Elisha had predicted to him, and also enough evil to carry them out.

31. Crime that Hazael does in the person of his lord.

32. He tells him that he will heal.

33. He barbarically (cruelly) murdered the king.