Take your Bibles with me and turn to 2 Kings 8. We're going to look at two different stories tonight from 2 Kings chapter 8. They don't really seem like they go together.

One is a story that involves kingdoms. It involves kings. It involves international intrigue. The other is a story of a country lady being rescued by the most normal means possible.

And the overarching theme is that God overrules the affairs of men. God is in charge of what is going on here. From the great big things like who is in charge of the country and the world to the very little things like what happens to our individual families.

Just two short stories to look at tonight but there's a lot to unpack in these stories.

Story #1

Let's start by reading the first one, which is found in verses 1 to 6.

1 Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.
2 And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.
4 And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.
5 And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.
6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.
2 Kings 8:1-6 (KJV)

There's a lot going on in this story. Just a couple of verses but there's a whole lot to unpack here.

It starts by telling us that Elisha goes to the Shunammite woman. This is the woman that built a house, built an apartment for Elisha to stay at. This is the woman, if you remember, that Elisha prayed and said, "Is there anything we can do for her?" And his servant Gehazi said, "Well she doesn't have children." Elisha said, "Well let's give her a child; let's pray that God gives her a child." Elisha told her, "You're gonna have a child at this time next year." She was like, "Don't mess with me; don't get my hopes up." He said, "No you're gonna have a child." Then several years later that child had a headache or something out in the field and collapsed and died. This woman just laid her child on Elisha's bed and went immediately to go find a prophet.

And remember Elisha came back and laid on top of this dead boy and breathed on him and he came back to life. Well this woman is back in this story and in this section Elisha comes to this woman and says, "You need to get out of town. You need to leave. There's going to be a famine. It's going to last seven years. You need to get out of here."

Now, there are two really interesting things about just this first verse.

The first really interesting thing is the seven-year famine. There was going to be a seven-year famine in Israel. If you remember, from Elisha's predecessor Elijah, he saw a three and a half year famine. Here, Elisha is going to oversee a seven-year famine. God is trying to get Israel's attention, and the three and a half year famine obviously didn't work, so God is ramping up the stakes here to a seven-year famine.

Elisha prayed and asked that he would get a double portion of Elijah's spirit. We know that he did exactly twice, or at least it's recorded, exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did, but it also seems like maybe he got twice as much trouble that he had to live with too. I just want to say that usually those things go together in equal parts. If you're asking God for blessing, you're asking God to use you; God is also going to bring a corresponding amount of trouble and affliction into your life. It's like a ballast.

You all know I'm fairly obsessed with Charles Spurgeon. I've read several Charles Spurgeon biographies. God used him probably more than any person in the last five hundred years, as far as a preacher goes. Just unbelievably gifted and unbelievably blessed, and also unbelievably depressed and sick. He had health problems at home that he had to deal with and had to deal with some pretty difficult things going on nationally. When he was young he was mocked mercilessly. When he was old, the preachers of England turned against him. He had his fair share of problems.

I'm just saying that it often seems that when God gives you blessings, God also gives you problems. It's a good thing too because God wants us to grow in our spiritual life. You don't just grow by being blessed time after time after time. You need testings, you need challenges, and God will make sure that you get those.

Another interesting thing that I find in this story is how God helped this Shunammite woman through this famine. God gave a word to Elisha and Elisha told this woman, "Get out of here. Go to another place." Remember the Book of Ruth? Ruth's first husband leaves Bethlehem during a famine and goes to the land of Moab. They all die in Moab. It's very obviously a bad thing that her husband did, Elimelech did, in the Book of Ruth, but here God tells the Shunammite to do the same thing.

And there's a lesson there for us. Okay God sometimes brings deliverance using ordinary means. You know sometimes we pray and we pray for God to heal somebody and God's method of healing that person is through doctors or through medicine.

We know in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, that God used the apostle Paul mightily to heal people. In fact there was one point where people were touching his sweatbands (not even him but his sweatbands) and were being healed. Yet Paul traveled with a doctor.

Yet when Paul was talking to Timothy, he said, "Take a little wine for your stomach's sake." He didn't say, "Come over here and let me touch you buddy." He said, "Take a little wine," which they used as medicine for your stomach's sake.

God can do big miracles that are obviously miracles but often more often God works in our life through mundane things. And the mundane thing here was an instruction to this woman, a gracious instruction to get out. Bad things are going to happen. You need to get out of here.

And so the woman left. She took her family, she took all of her servants, and she went to the land of the Philistines. She stayed there for seven years. When the famine was over she comes back, she gets to come back to home. In the meantime I'm sure she knew this: in the meantime the king had taken over her land. He was like, "You're not going to live here anymore. Well we're going to use your land." She has got to go back before this king, who's not a very good king. She has to go back before him and beg for her land back.

And wouldn't you know that just at the moment she goes to beg the king for her land back, there's something interesting going on?

Remember Gehazi? Gehazi was Elisha's right-hand man. He was Elisha's servant. He was probably going to be Elisha's heir. He was the one that Elisha sent initially to lay the staff on the baby. He was very, very much an important figure for Elisha.

And Gehazi, if you remember, wanted money from Naaman when Elisha healed Naaman. He went and he lied. He took the money, he took the gifts of Naaman, and he hid them for himself. Because of that, in the end of that story, Gehazi is struck with leprosy.

Well that was back in chapter six. Here we are in chapter eight and we're reading about Gehazi and he's in the king's court. What happened to Gehazi?

We don't really know the answer. There are a couple of possible solutions:

First a lot of Bible teachers think that this story is kind of out of order and that this happened shortly after the boy is risen from the dead. This happens before the situation with Naaman, before Naaman is healed, before Gehazi gets leprosy. That may be. It may be a case.

Another possibility is that Gehazi was a leper still but he was maybe speaking to the king from a distance and telling this story from a distance. Again that might be the case.

But I think a third thing might have happened. I think that God might have granted Gehazi miraculous healing of this leprosy. Now Gehazi still had consequences. Still wasn't working for Elisha anymore, but I kind of think that Gehazi got to lose this leprosy. He also lost his place as Elisha's right-hand man, his place in the ministry, but I think maybe the leprosy was temporary.

And look at how far he's fallen. He was somebody that was right there beside Elisha when all of the amazing things happened. Now he's just an entertainer. He's just telling stories of what used to be.

Listen, I think it's a sad thing when you go from what God is doing now to just looking back at what used to be. It's a sad thing when you step out of God's now into the good old days and you live in just the good old days.

God is still alive today. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God wants to do things today just like God did in the past and I think it is a sin or a lack of faith that makes us be like Gehazi is here. Just, he's not in the fray anymore. He's just looking back on the good old days, just telling stories.

You know, Gehazi had information about the stories but he no longer had any power in the stories. He went from participant to chronicler.

Church, listen. I have lived through some amazing things and I've seen God do some amazing things. I've been in places where I knew revival was going on. I've been in the room when 50 or 60 young people just spontaneously realized that they were lost and needed to be saved. I was a part of that. I saw people getting saved week in and week out. I saw people accepting Christ as their Savior, people answering the call to go to be a missionary or to go to be a pastor, people's lives being totally turned around.

I could stand up here and tell you the stories like a haze eye but I'd rather be a participant in the stories today. I don't want to live on the fumes of what God did 20, 30, or 40 years ago.

Gehazi was just telling stories.

But you know what? Even though he's just there telling stories, God is still orchestrating this thing. God works it out. As he's telling this story, he looks up. As he's talking about the Shunammite woman and how Elisha healed the Shunammite woman's son, he looks up and oh look! There she is! That's the woman in the story! That's the one I was telling you about! That's the Shunammite woman there!

Well, what are you doing here? I came to ask for my land back. I left during the famine and I'm back and I came to ask for my land back.

And the king says, "Well everybody, make sure she gets her land back and make sure that she gets all of the produce from that land while she was gone."

Man, why was God blessing this woman? Why was God blessing this Shunammite? She had a giving heart, didn't she? She loved the man of God and she wanted to help the man of God and build a place for the man of God. God wanted to bless her. It just reminds me: you can't out-give God. You can't out-work God. God is going to bless you more than you give to Him.

And God can do that by orchestrating the circumstances. God can do that through normal means.

So this is the first story. It's just the story of the Shunammite woman. It's just the story of how God helped this woman and her family through the famine. God orchestrated this whole situation on her behalf

Let's read verses 7 through 15 and we'll read the second story, which is very different.

The first story is about one woman and her family, one little lady from the country. The second story is about kings. It's about conspiracy.

These two stories are juxtaposed next to each other and I think the lesson is that God's in control of all of it. God's in control of the little circumstances of our life, like moving around and where we are at certain places, and God's also in control of who's in control of the world. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, the scripture says.

Story #2

So let's read the second story, verses 7 through 15.

7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither.
8 And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?
9 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 Benhadad 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 8:7-15 (KJV)

This second story is very different from the first one. It starts with Elisha making a journey in Syria.

Now why would Elisha do that? Remember, it was the Syrians that sent an army to go get Elisha because he kept telling their plans to the King of Israel. Elisha and Syria have not gotten along so why is Elisha going on a journey to Syria?

I think it actually goes back to the story of Elijah. Remember in 1 Kings 18 when Elijah ran from Jezebel and he had his kind of massive crash out and had to be taken care of by God at the Brook Cherith? Remember what God said? God said, "You need to get up. I've got a work for you to do." I want you to anoint Elisha, the Tishbite, to be your successor and I want you to go and anoint Haziel of Syria.

Well Elisha went to heaven before he could do the second job and I think Elisha is here finishing the job that Elisha started.

So the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad, is very sick and he thinks he's going to die. He has the sense to go seek Elisha, not the foreign kings like the previous story of the king of Israel. He wants to hear from the man of God. He wants to know: is he going to live? Is he going to recover from this illness?

He sends his right-hand man, the guy he leans on, his servant Haziel, to go ask Elisha this question. Says, "Bring him a gift."

He didn't just bring him a gift. He brings him 20 camel loads of treasure and says, 'Here's your gift Elisha.' It doesn't tell us that Elisha took that gift. I tend to think he didn't because he rejected Naaman the Syrian's gift but Haziel, the servant, comes to Elisha and says, 'My master wants to know: is he going to recover?'

And here's where it gets really weird and really interesting. Elisha stares at Haziel, glares at him, this steadfast face, and he starts crying. He says, "God wants me to tell you to tell him that he will recover but He's also told me that he's going to die."

Now you read that and you think: Is God lying here to Haziel? Is God lying to Ben-Hadad? Is he gonna recover or not? What's going on here?

God's not lying at all. Listen carefully to what Elisha told this man. He said, "I know he's going to recover." In other words his sickness is not going to be the thing that kills him but I also know he's going to die.

Then when Hazel asks about this, "Why are you crying?" Elisha looks at him and says, "Because I know the terrible things that you are going to do to my people. I know that you're going to come and burn down our cities. I know that you're going to kill our young men in battle. I know they're going to kill children and that you're going to tear apart pregnant women. I know what you're going to do."

And Hazel is like, "How am I going to do that? I'm just a dog!" And Elisha says, "Well God has shown me that you're going to be the next king."

And so Haziel goes back to Ben-Hadad the king, and Ben-Hadad says, "Am I going to recover?" And he says, "Yeah you're going to recover." The next day Haziel goes in there to minister to him, to wait on him, and takes a wet towel and suffocates his master with a wet towel and becomes the king in his stead.

Now what is the lesson from this story? Why was Elisha crying? What are we supposed to take from this?

Do you know I think Elisha was crying? I think Elisha was crying because he knew what God wanted him to do. He didn't want to do it. He knew it was the right thing to do and he was going to do it but he also knew it was gonna happen and he didn't want to do it.

Church, sometimes we have to do things for God that are not fun. Sometimes we have to do things for God that we don't necessarily like. They're not pleasant. We know they're going to bring about some rough days in the future but we also know they're the right thing to do.

Conclusion

So let's think about these two stories again. They don't really seem to have much in common, do they?

• One's a story about the Shunammite woman, this no one lady from the middle of nowhere, who just helped Elisha and God helped her.

• The other story is a story about this treacherous man in Syria who killed his master and became the king.
  What can we possibly see in these stories that ties these two things together?

I think there's one truth that sort of bonds these two stories together and it is that God is sovereign. God is sovereign in the affairs of man.

God works all things together for good to those that love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

And all things can be small things. They can be things like:

• a good word to get out of town before a terrible famine

• and God orchestrating that the right person telling the right story is in the right room at the right time
  Those are small things. But they show the hand of God.

But God is also working in the awful things. What Hazael would do to Israel was going to be awful. But it was God's appointed judgment and it was an act of God's love and discipline for his wayward nation, his wayward people.

Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, right? He scourgeth every son that he receives. Sometimes we need to realize that the terrible things that we have to go through are just as much the good hand of God as the little things that are a huge blessing that we can look at and say, "God was in that."

So whatever you're going through, I hope you can have the faith to say, "God is sovereign. God is in that." Whether it's some terrible thing that's happening to our country or some little thing that's happening in your family, God is in that.

God works all things according to His plan. All things can include the good word that gives you your field back and it can also include the famine that sent you scurrying in the first place. All things can include God blessing your people with health and all things can also include a treacherous man suffocating his master in a terrible conspiracy.

God is orchestrating all of it.

Finally I hope you want to be like Elisha and not like Gehazi in what God is doing. I hope you want to be involved and not a spectator. Let's live for what God is still doing, what God still has us here for today, instead of living on the fumes of the past.

Let's stand together and pray.