- 123-
The accession of Hazael was only part of the burden of judgment upon Israel which
had been announced to Elijah. The other part was the usurpation of the throne of
Israel by Jehu. With this twofold accession began the decay of the northern kingdom
of Israel. Presently we shall read (10:32). "In those days Jehovah began to cut Israel
short; and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel," - a smiting which included
the loss of the entire territory east of the Jordan. And we believe that it was to
declare, perhaps to warn of, this judgment upon Israel, that Elisha was sent to
Damascus, and made to have this interview with Hazael.
For Divine judgment cannot be arrested, though it may be deferred, and what Israel
had sown when on the morrow of the decisive contest on Carmel it cast out Elijah,
that would it reap, when, notwithstanding all mercies shown, the son of Ahab and
Jezebel could order, though he dared not carry out, the execution of Elisha. They
would have none of His prophets, however clearly their mission was attested of God;
nay, rather, they would have none of that God Whose prophets Elijah and Elisha had
been. And yet in faithfulness God would reveal the coming judgment to His servants,
and through them to Israel.
But quite a peculiar feeling comes over us in these far-off islands of the West, when
now, thousands of years after these events, we stand before the black obelisk on
which this part of the history of ancient Assyria is recorded,^247 and there read the
names of Ben-hadad and of Hazael of Damascus - the former in connection with
"Ahab of Jezreel," who was at one time his ally against Assyria; the latter, as humbly
offering rich tribute to the king of Assyria, as also does Jehu, who is styled "the son
of Omri" (the founder of the dynasty succeeding that of Omri). And here these
histories commingle, and the records of the one will be found to throw welcome light
upon those of the other.
(^)