Episode 149: A skeptic is trampled to death

2 Kings 7-8

7 ¹ After the famine that God sent on Samaria, Elisha said,

This is the word of God: Tomorrow at about this time, a measure of flour and two measures of barley will each cost a shekel.

² An officer of the king replied, "Even if God opened the windows of heaven, that wouldn't happen."

Elisha said, “You'll see. But you won't be around to eat any of it.”

⁶ Meanwhile, God made the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and horses from a great army.

And the Syrians said to one another,

The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.

⁷ So the entire army left everything, including their horses and donkeys, and ran away.

¹⁶ The Israelites took everything that the Syrian army left behind.

And a measure of flour and two measures of barley each sold for a shekel, just like God said it would.

¹⁷ The officer who doubted Elisha's prophecy about the price of flour and barley was trampled at the city gate, as Elisha predicted.

God's seven-year famine

8 ¹ Elisha said to the woman whose son he had raised from the dead,

Get up and go somewhere else. God is going to send a seven-year famine.

² So the woman and her family went to the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³ When the seven-year famine was over, the woman returned and asked the king to return her land.

Elisha lies

⁷ Benhadad, the king of Syria, was sick. He said to Hazael,

⁸ Take a present to Elisha and ask him to ask God if I will get better.

⁹ So Hazael went to meet Elisha with forty camel loads of gifts from Damascus. When he found him, he said to him, “Benhadad sent me to ask you if he'd recover from his disease.”

¹⁰ Elisha said, “Tell him he will certainly recover – though the Lord told me he will die.”

¹¹ Then Elisha began to cry. Hazael said, “Why are you crying?”

¹² Elisha said,

Because I know what you're going to do to the Israelites.

You'll burn their cities, kill their young men, smash their children, and rip up their pregnant women.

Hazael smothers King Benhadad

¹³ Elisha said to Hazael, “God told me that you will be king of Syria.”

¹⁴ Hazael returned to Benhadad and said to him, “Elisha said you'll recover.”

¹⁵ Then Hazael took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and smothered King Benhadad.

And Hazael became king of Syria.