A skeptic is trampled to death (2 Kings 7-8)

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.

A few more words about this episode

Tomorrow at about this time, a measure of flour and two measures of barley will each cost a shekel. (7:1): During the famine, a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver and a bit of dove's dung sold for five shekels. (2 Kings 6:25, Episode 148)
God made the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and horses. (7:6): In the previous episode, the Syrian army left Samaria and never returned (2 Kings 6:23). And yet now, somehow, they are back.
Elisha said to the woman whose son he had raised from the dead (8:1): See 2 Kings 4:18-37, Episode 147.
Benhadad, the king of Syria (8:7): This seems to be the same Benhadad that King Ahab let escape back in Episode 143 - which upset God so much that he said he would kill Ahab for it. (1 Kings 20: 31-42)
And Hazael became king of Syria. (8:15): In Episode 142 (1 Kings 19:15), God told Elijah to anoint Hazel as king of Syria. Elijah never did as God commanded. But now, long after Elijah has died and Elisha has replaced him a prophet, Hazael becomes king of Syria after murdering King Benhadad. It was all part of God's plan. (It was just delayed a bit.)