Elisha and the Horror of Hazael

Second Kings chapter 8 second Kings chapter 8 as we make our way through the life of Elisha And I hope that you've gotten to know this man and understand how God has used him and worked in his life whenever you do Old Testament characters you begin to Almost as if you know these people in a very personal kind of way as you begin to study their lives and see what God Is doing you begin to see how it is God wants to work in your life but you get to know these people in a unique and special way and hopefully you've gotten to know Elisha and The time to get to know him soon is gonna be over because he's soon gonna die Like we all do but it's a great study And I hope that your hearts been blessed as we've looked at this man And tonight as we look at the narrative second Kings chapter 8 want to pick it up in verse number 7 read down to verse number 15 as you look at Elisha and the horror of Hazael all right second Kings chapter 8 verse number 7 then Elisha came to Damascus Now Ben hadad king of Aram was sick and it was told him saying the man of God has come here the King said to Hazael Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God and acquire of the Lord by him saying will I recover from?

It from this sickness So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand even every kind of good thing of Damascus 40 camels Loads and he came and stood before him and said your son Ben Hey dad king of Aram has sent me to you saying will I recover from this sickness? Then Elisha said to him go say to him you will surely recover But the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die Good news bad news verse 11. He fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed and the man of God wept Hazael said why does my Lord weep then he answered because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel They're strongholds.

You will set on fire and their young men. You will kill with the sword and the little ones You will dash in pieces and they're women with child You will rip up then Hazael said But what is your servant who is but a dog that he should do this great thing Elisha answered the Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram So he departed from Elisha and returned to his master who said to him. What did Elisha say to you? And he answered he told me that you would surely recover on the following day He took the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face So that he died and Hazael became king in his place So we have another incident in the life of Elisha and this time he's in Syria instead of the Syrians coming to him He goes to them.

He finds himself in capital city of Syria Damascus question is why did Elisha go to Damascus some say well It was during the time of the famine the famine in which he sent the widow away and she Went into the land of the Philistines as he was able to survive for those seven years and some would say well Elisha He would go to Damascus because only Elisha and the Shunanite woman knew of the coming Famine and that might be the case But there's no doubt that the Lord would lead Elisha that the Lord would direct Elisha to where he needed to go and He would find himself face to face with Hazael now, this is not the first mention of Hazael in the scripture if you are a student of the word, you know that he's been mentioned in the story of Elisha So if you got your Bible turn back to first Kings chapter 19, you have to understand what's happening with Elijah Remember when he would flee from Jezebel and he would go to the wilderness and he would find himself on Mount Horeb and God would Speak to him in a in a low whisper Asking what are you doing here?

Elisha or Elijah? She gives me Elijah and it says in verse number 15 The Lord said to him go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you have arrived you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram and Jehu the son of Nemeshi you shall anoint king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shavuot of Abel Mahala you shall anoint as Prophet in your place it shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael Jehu Shall put to death and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu Elisha shall put to death so here you have a prophecy a Prophecy where God tells Elijah.

This is what you need to do Now Elijah didn't get to anoint King the king of Aram Hazael, but it's going to happen Through the ministry of Elisha You'll note that the first thing he did was find Elisha and beckon Elisha to follow him Elijah And that's what he did.

He trained him to do to do the ministry Now Elisha is in charge. He's a prophet in Israel and Elisha now is going to pull the trigger That will set in motion the judgment on the nation of Israel Through the king of Aram Hazael as prophesied here and in first Kings 19 and Jehu as the Lord God said All the while God in his grace and God is mercy has been letting Israel continue in their sin He's allowed them to continue to sin through the ministry of Elijah through the ministry of Elisha Elijah's about to go off the scene.

He's about to die It's so judgments gonna fall on the nation Why? Because they have continued in sin. They haven't repented of their ways They're still steeped in iniquity and steeped in immorality and steeped in idolatry They they have followed the way of King Ahab and and and Ahab is still ruling in Israel and so they have yet to turn from their evil ways and God has been so graceful so merciful But as the Bible says be sure your sins will find you out and they will like the Bible says Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap The Bible is very clear Proverbs 29 verse number one he that Had having been often reproved who hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and beyond remedy it happens When God says that you will face the consequences of your sin you will you might not face him today You might not face him tomorrow You might not face them for a decade But you will face them It's inevitable And God has allowed Israel to continue in the sin Under the direction and or under the preaching of Elijah the preaching of Elisha And now the judgment is going to come down swiftly upon them so Elisha Is going to come face to face with Hosea and I did he know he was going to find him in Damascus don't know Baba didn't tell us that But we do want to see number one the mission Number two the message and then the murder Because that's the order of the text.

And so we look first of all at the mission Elisha is in Damascus and as he is there He is going to come face to face with Hosea L and just goes to show you that God is directing this man's steps It's interesting to note that whenever we do what God wants us to do.

He makes our paths smooth Remember on Sunday morning. We talked about Psalm 19 verse number 8 where it says the precepts of the Lord are right Rejoicing the heart and the word right is not right versus wrong Although the Bible does do that the word right deals with the right path The precepts of the Lord puts you on the right path which caused your heart to rejoice Your heart rejoices because you're doing the will of the Lord. You're following the will of the Lord That's why the book of Proverbs says trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways Acknowledge him.

He will make your paths smooth so if you if you trust in the Lord and not on your own understanding and You ask him to lead you and direct you he's gonna make you may give you a smooth path That's what God does He wants his children to know that the path in following him is a smooth path And here's Elisha Elisha is a man of God. He follows the Word of God and God is going to orchestrate the events of his trip to Damascus Just like he'd orchestrated the the events of the Shunammite woman as we saw last time We were together God is always bringing the events together because God is Providence controls all people in all Situations and all events God never is out of control and God is going to bring everything together for Elisha So that he might fulfill the prophecy of first Kings 19 and That he might set in motion the judgment that's going to come upon Israel So Ben Hadad Finds out the king of Aram the king of Syria finds out that The man of God is in Damascus Now Ben Hadad knows about Elisha He knows about him because of the whole healing of Naaman he had sent Naaman to Israel to find this man of God and he came back healed of his leprosy and He was the the the number one in command of the Syrian army So Ben Hadad knows about Elisha.

He knows about Elisha because he's tried to kill Elisha and he failed He sent a group of our men hundreds of them to to surround him and kill him but Elisha Through the word of the Lord blinded them and then led them to be surrounded by Israel's army But yet he let him go Elisha let him go fed him gave him some of the drinks sent him back to Syria So Ben Hadad knows all about Elisha But now the man of God is in Damascus He's left Israel he's now in Damascus and so the king Wants to know Excuse me Ask Elisha Go to Elisha and ask him if I'm gonna recover From my sickness.

That's what Kings did. They would seek out medians to figure out If they were gonna live or or die if they'd be healed he sees Elisha as as a as a medium and so he sends Haziel to find out Whether or not he will recover From a sickness now the sad thing about that is you would think That after all of Ben Hadad's encounters with Elisha That he'd be a little bit more concerned about his spiritual condition than his physical condition But you know what he's just like us Think about this for a minute We really tend to focus on the physical Let's say we got together and had a prayer meeting tonight And we broke you off into groups and we said, okay now I want you to to to ask for prayer requests So you broke up in your group of 10 or 15 or 20, whatever it was and you began to ask for prayer requests 90% to 95% of those prayer requests would be for someone's physical condition Because we are consumed With the physical Just like Ben Hadad he was a pagan king, by the way But is it not true that we become so enamored with this life That we're just trying to figure out how to get to the next day We're not very concerned about The souls of people as much as we are about our physical condition.

What about people's spiritual condition? Ben Hadad needed to know the king of Israel That's what he needed to know. I'm not saying you shouldn't pay pray for people's physical conditions. I think we should do that I'm just saying that when you when you compare it with prayer requests for the souls of men and souls of women They pale in comparison to the physical requests that we have for one another But it's always been the same If you go back in the New Testament to the book of Matthew and when in Matthew chapter 4 when everyone was being healed of Every kind of disease every paralyzed person was being healed Every blind person was being healed and they were bringing people to Jesus.

He healed them all But when you come to Matthew chapter 5, he realizes that They are using him for physical healing, but he's there to heal them spiritually And so he gives that long sermon of Matthews 5 6 & 7 about about the spiritual condition of people's souls He says I'm glad that you're here to be healed physically But there's something more important than your physical health because I'm gonna heal you today, but you're gonna die tomorrow Okay, a little like Ben Hadad. Yeah, you're gonna recover from your sickness, but you're still gonna die You're gonna die So you can be healed physically from whatever ails you but and then that's the good news The bad news is you're still going to die.

And by the way, you're gonna got you're gonna die on time Not too late Not too early And so Christ addresses the spiritual needs of the people Same thing happened in in in John John chapter 6. Remember what he when he fed the 5,000 Which is really the 25,000 The only miracle of Christ recorded in all five Gospels that he performed and he fed the 5,000 5,000 men because the only kind of the men of those days says the verse 14 of John 6 Therefore when the people saw the sign which he performed they said this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world How do they know that he was the prophet?

Because he fed us He fed so many of again what's on their mind? Food what's on their mind their physical stomachs? That's what's on their mind. This must be the prophet That's coming to the world. So it says the verse 15 So Jesus perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him King Withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone He knew they wanted to make him King They wanted to make him King based on the fact that he could handle The food issue in Israel, no problem if he's the king nobody ever goes hungry He must be the prophet.

Let's make him the king Well, he knew they tried they would try to take him by force to make him King So he withdrew and then he had a story about where he sends his men out to the boat and there's a great Wind that comes up and they're afraid of their lives and he comes walking in the water and he calms the sea and everything's hunky-dory Once again, and then you read on it says this the next day verse 22 of chapter 6 the crowd that stood on the other Side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples Into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone In other words, it's the next day.

It's next morning and they want to know where Jesus is Why? Because they were fed yesterday and now it's a new day. It's time for breakfast. Where's Jesus? There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given. Thanks So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples They themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus and when they found him on the other side of the sea They said here rabbi. When did you get here?

Where have you been? What did you get over here? Jesus says Truly truly I say to you you seek me not because You saw signs but because you ate of the loaves and We're filled You can't fool me You're here because you're hungry You're here because of your physical wants your physical needs You're not here for for spiritual input.

You're not here because you're a lost soul Weighs in a balance you're here because you're hungry. You see nothing's changed over the years. We're all the same We can only think about the here and now it consumes us and So therefore we are no better than King Ben Hey dad, who's about to die who can only think about how can I get better in this life? Instead of how can I be prepared for the next life? That's very important And unfortunately so many people miss that so what does Jesus do in John 6? He talks to them about the fact that he is the bread of life That's come down out of heaven Talks about how Israel was fed in the wilderness by the man that came down out of heaven from God He is the bread of life that's come down out of heaven from God and what happens what happens?

Many of his disciples when they heard all this Said this is a difficult statement who can listen to it Says you want to be a part of my kingdom you got to eat my flesh and drink my blood They like ooh who wants to be part of that? Sounds like cannibalism to us. We're not into that Verse 66 as a result of this many of his disciples are drew and we're not walking with him anymore. Why? because Jesus is all emphasis was on the the condition of their souls and Feeding them spiritually that he's the bread of life.

You need to feed on me every day or you're gonna die spirit They didn't care about that They didn't care about the next life They just cared about breakfast today That's how short-sighted they were How can I eat breakfast that I eat dinner yesterday with you Jesus? I want to eat breakfast with you today Multiply more fish multiply more bread because we're hungry But when he starts talking about spiritual things, you know what? That's just not my cup of tea. We're out of here. Goodbye. We're gone They don't want to follow that Because they didn't care about the spiritual condition of their lives that's sad But the majority of people In the churches across America today are the same way They just don't care about their spiritual lives the more concerned about their physical lives And what's gonna happen to me tomorrow?

And how everything can be can be taken care of for me in this life Your spiritual condition is the most essential element of your life Then he dead did not know that did not get that you'd think he would get that with Elisha You'd think he'd realize that this guy man. He's on fire for the Lord. He's called the man of God Everybody knows he's a man of God. He's the guy So if you're gonna if you're gonna talk to anybody about the next life now's the time You're sick instead of saying hey send Elisha to me.

I need to talk to the man of God Instead He sends Hazael And go ask him if I'm gonna recover from this sickness Go ask him At the same time He sends him all these gifts He sends 40 camels Loaded with all the various goods from Damascus Now that would get the people in the in the city of Damascus attention, would you not agree? 40 camels walking down the streets of Damascus that that that's quite a parade and They're filled with all kinds of goodies from from Damascus It is so neat how the Lord's gonna take care of Elisha through a pagan king Because the text doesn't tell us that Elisha turns away the gifts from the king.

Remember when Ben? Hey dad sent gifts to Elisha for the healing of Naaman He turned them down Sent them back Because he didn't want to confuse the healing of Naaman with Being paid to do something. It was all of grace But the Bible didn't tell us he turns anything down here because God's gonna take care of his servant Elisha He's going to use a pagan king to to make sure that happens And so here's Elisha and everybody knows he's a man of God This is so so amazing because he walked into the city now Listen, he's going to the city where he's already defeated and disgraced the Syrian army He's not going in to a welcoming committee in Damascus He's going to a place where everybody knows what this one man did to the Syrian army And so he goes walking in probably with a lot of confidence Knowing that God is on his side and everybody knows That's the man of God.

That's the man of God. That's the man of God That's the man of God and begins to spread to the city of Damascus so that the king now knows the man of God Is here is it isn't so neat that he walks into the city. Everybody knows he's a man of God Let me ask you a question when you walk to work tomorrow.

What do people say about you? Do they know you're a man of God When you walk into your classroom In your high school or in your Your college classroom. What do people say about you? they say There goes the man of God Or do they say when you walk to work tomorrow, oh, that's that's lazy Larry He's lazy No, that's Debbie Downer man. She's always a downer. She's never she is such a downer Nobody wants to talk to her. She's always negative Or that's a chronic complainer they complain about everything.

Oh, there they are. Yeah When you walk into your workplace, what do people say about you? And it wasn't that Elisha wanted to be known as a man of God He didn't go with big, you know sandwich sign. I am the man of God Elisha from Israel Nothing like that. He just walked to the city. There's the man of God. Everybody was the man of God And it begs the question. What do people say about you when you walk into the room? When you walk into the room, is it a better place because you're there or is it worse because you're there?

When you walk into the room are people's spirits lifted or people's spirits Hindered because you're there When Elisha walked into the room When Elisha walked into the city Everybody knew He was the man of God That's just a powerful testimony And I wonder you got to ask yourself the question. How do people see you as a person? Are you a woman of God at? your place of influence Are you a man of God at your place of influence? How do your children perceive you when you come home? From work. Oh Dad's home.

Oh boy Here it goes There goes happiness Dad's home You know Because you're such a negative person Or you the man of God who walked into the room and lifts the spirits of everyone Because you're gonna move them on toward maturity in Christ This was Elisha And King Ben-Hadad sends him all these goodies And they come in droves 40 camels loaded with the goods of Damascus And they come traveling through the city of Damascus. So now everybody Everybody's paying attention Not always everybody know the man of God's there everybody knows the king and this was a eastern Custom where the king would go overboard in terms of asking someone to do something for his own benefit This benefits King Ben-Hadad.

See Elijah's gonna reap the benefits because he's gonna get the goods, but this is good for the king in the eyes of the people to demonstrate his generosity and so he goes overboard in terms of giving goods to the man of God Elisha So now those who did not hear the whispers of the man of God in the city Everybody sees all the camels and wonder what's up? That's because the king has sent Haziel his servant to Talk to Elisha now everybody knows No secret We all know the king is sick as well So from that From the mission we go to the message The king sends his servant on a mission You must ask Elisha if I will recover from this sickness Take these camels load them with the goods of Damascus.

This is your mission get an answer I need to know so off he goes and with that comes the question and Then the message from Elisha so Hazel went to meet him verse 9 and Took a gift in his hand even every kind of good thing of Damascus 40 camels loads and he came and stood before him and said your son Ben. Hey dad in the interesting your son Your son seriously. I mean this shows you where Ben. Hey dad is that? He's desperate He's really desperate Because he knows about the power of Elisha He knows what he's trying to do to Elisha has not succeeded and now he's addressed as your son King Ben.

Hey dad He's not the son of Elisha physically or spiritually, but that's how he wants to be seen King of Iran has sent me to you saying well, I've recovered from this sickness. That's the question Now here comes the answer Elijah said to him go Say to him you will surely recover But the Lord has shown me That he will certainly die now what kind of Prediction is that? What is he saying? He is saying this The king is going to recover From a sickness But He is going to die Not because of the sickness, but another way Good news bad news.

Yes, he will recover from a sickness bad news. He's going to die another way now Elisha knows the other way Now this becomes very important why because Elisha finds himself in a predicament If asked a question, how do you respond? When you have 40 camels filled with the goods of Damascus sending to your right Haziel comes and asks you a question Do you tell him the whole truth? Do you tell him everything or do you candy coat the message for fear that you might lose the goods on? The backside of the camels see this is a temptation for Elisha Because he doesn't want to lose What's been offered to him?

So, what does he say? Does he speak the whole truth? Does he camouflage the truth? Does he candy coat the truth? Does he only say yes, you recover of your sickness, but then not telling that he's gonna die Anyway, what does he say? He he he overcomes the temptation because he's a man of God He overcomes the temptation because he is committed to the truth of God and will speak nothing but the truth Because that is the role of the prophet So in spite of the temptation that lie before him he would be strong in the truth and so he gives the message about the sickness and Then without speaking at all Okay verse number 11 he that is Elisha fixed his gaze Steadily on him.

That's Hazael until he was ashamed Why Because you see Elisha the man of God knew that Hazael Was already planning to murder the king and So Elisha stares him down Doesn't say a thing He says you go tell The king he will recover his sickness, but he's gonna die and they stares right at him Who's gonna blink first not Elisha Elisha wins a stare contest Because Hazael is ashamed Because he knows Elisha knows because he knows the license the man of God he knows Elisha knows what's going on in the back of his mind how he wants to be king how he wants to murder the king This doesn't know how he's going to do that yet But Elisha he knows And Elisha begins to weep Weep why because he knows About the evilness in the heart of Hazael and when he becomes king That's the trigger that sets the judgment in motion upon his people Israel he begins to weep as Christ would weep over Jerusalem In Matthew's gospel Luke's gospel.

He'd weep over the city. Why? Because he knew that they did not Accept him as their king and although they sing praises to him on that triumphal entry day He knew that they they would turn against him in just a few short days and he would be crucified But he knew about the coming judgment in 70 AD that would come upon them and plugged plundered them Jeremiah same way the weeping prophet Jeremiah 9 verse number 1 who would weep over the children of Israel Knowing that their unrepentance would only lead to their judgment Elisha knows this see He knows about the prophecy in the first Kings 19 because Elijah would have told him He knows about King Hazael Hazael.

He knows what he's going to do once Oh, well, he's not not the king yet. But when he becomes king what's gonna happen? He knows all this Now he doesn't try to deter Hazael He doesn't try to dissuade him or move him away from that. Why because he knows the prophecy of first Kings 19 He knows the plan of God that's going to affect the nation.

He knows that So he's not going to try to change the plan of God that's already in motion But he still has a sensitivity in his heart to weep Knowing the effects that will come upon his people Israel He also knows his time is short Elisha knows he's gonna die And when Elisha dies And Jehu and Hazael are kings Israel is in a heap of trouble so he weeps and So Hazael asks him he says Why does my lord weep? What what are you weeping for? Now remember he's already stared Hazael down Looked right at him looked him right in the eyes To the shame of Hazael because he knows Elisha knows he's gonna murder the king and so He asks.

Why do you weep? Because he doesn't know why he's weeping So Elisha tells him because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel He must be thinking himself. Well, how do you know that? How can I do evil to the sons of Israel? They're strongholds you'll set on fire and they're young men You'll kill with a sword and they're little ones you'll dash in pieces and they're women with children or child with child You will rip up Wow, really? I'm gonna do all that. You've got to be kidding me Then Hazael said but but what is your servant?

Who is but a dog? But but I'm such a lowly person. I'm nothing in Syria That I should do this look what he says Great thing. Why? Because for the Syrians to defeat Israel would be a great thing for the Syrians see How could this possibly happen? I'm a nobody in Syria. I'm just a servant of the king So, how can I do this to the children of Israel? And Lysa answered the Lord has shown me that you will be king Over a ram. Ah, that's how it's gonna happen See how they all didn't know he'd be next king until Elisha tells him And life is the man of God And now he knows see And so Elisha gives the message He gives the message very clearly Leaves nothing out Explains what's gonna happen to the king?

By staring down Hazael Hazael knows Elijah knows of his plot to murder the king But now he tells Hazael all that he will do as king he but he has no idea yet. He's gonna be the king until Elisha tells What's the gist of the murder? So it says in verse 14, so he departed from Elisha and returned to his master who said to him What did Elisha say to you and he answered he told me that you would surely be covered That's it Didn't tell him the other part why Because he is going to enact the other part see He tells him a half-truth Doesn't give him the whole truth It's a lot like it's a lot like preachers in America.

They give you partial truths They don't tell you everything you need to know about the gospel. They say the good things about the gospel They'll tell you about judgment and hell and wrath and all those kind of goodies that that are a part of the gospel They just tell you the good things about the grace and the mercy and the love of God And so they they're like the prophets of Jeremiah peace peace. They say when there is no peace See they lead you astray And sure enough Hazael would come back Say surely Surely you're going to recover And why would he do that well at first he has to have the king at ease He has to have the king trust him and believe in him He has to have the king in a in a good frame of reference You know if you're sick and you're about to die and you get news.

Hey, guess what good news. You're gonna live I'm feeling better already I'm feeling better already. I can just feel it now.

It's coming over me But it didn't say we still gonna die don't get in that part Also if he can just say surely you're gonna recover And he kills the king He can discredit the prophecy of Elisha and Then Elisha the man of God is discredited So all that's played. I mean, this is a wicked man. This is not some saint that's gonna try to do something good This is a wicked evil man Who was going to come against Israel to destroy them? and so He just tells a half-truth on the following day He took the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face So he died very good way to kill someone if you don't want to leave any marks behind You wet the rag and you put it over his face and you smother him to death And what happens the king dies because of his sickness the king dies in his bed The king is old the king dies And then it says and as a Hazael became king in his place Hazael now becomes the king in Israel.

I mean in Syria to come against Israel You know Hazael evil man evil man Because he doesn't speak The truth he's deceitful and in his way or Like he does with Ben. Hey dad when he kills him by not telling him the truth There are many people many Unfortunately preachers in our country that kill the souls of people because they don't tell them the truth About the gospel and that's sad. That's that's a great burden on my heart Because people don't follow what the Word of the Lord says remember what God said to Ezekiel the prophet He said this in Ezekiel 33 verse number one The Word of the Lord came to me and saying son of man speak to the sons of your people and say to them If I bring a sword upon a land and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman And he sees a sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people Then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning and a sword comes and takes him away His blood will be on his own head in other words There is a an army coming And if the watchman is watching over the city, he blows a trumpet telling them That the sword is coming and the man does nothing and he dies.

It's his fault Because he didn't listen to the warning He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning his blood will be on himself, but had he taken warning He would have delivered his life But if the watchman sees a sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned and a sword comes and Takes a person from them. He is taken away in his iniquity But his blood I will require from the watchman's hand because he did not warn the people he sees the army coming He sees them coming to destroy the people of his city, but he doesn't warn them and they die.

It's on the watchman's Watch it's on his hand. They die verse 7 now as for you son of man, I Have appointed you a watchman Ezekiel. You're the watchman for the house of Israel So you will hear a message from my mouth and give them warning from me Ezekiel as you proclaim my word To this nation in captivity you tell them exactly what I say When I say to you when I say to the wicked Oh wicked man You will surely die and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquity But his blood I will require from your hand but if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn away from a Turture from his way and he does not turn from his way.

He will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life Ezekiel you better warn them if I tell you to warn them you better warn them Because if you don't warn them and they die You're in trouble. I'm holding you accountable but if you warn them and they die Because they don't take my word seriously You are free From what happens to them My friends let me tell you something that that's a very powerful statement Because We need to speak the truth to people when it comes to presenting the gospel Need to warn people of impending judgment Gotta warn them If you don't warn them that their souls will burn in hell for eternity If they don't repent and turn and follow Christ you have failed as a watchman.

They die in their sins Their bloods on your head Because you didn't warn them. Oh By the way Your children You warn your children Do you warn them to repent of their sins? Do you warn them the consequences of their iniquities? Do you warn them about impending judgment if they fail to follow the word of the Lord? You're like a watchman on the city gates Watching over the souls of men Souls of women making sure they understand what God has to say for them Elisha didn't back away. Elisha said he'll be cured He's gonna recover from a sickness, but he's gonna die another way His sickness is not going to kill him.

Something else is gonna kill him. Tell him that but Elisha, but but Hazael didn't tell him that Didn't tell him that because Hazael was the individual who was going to kill the king In your household in your family You have children You have grandchildren Some of you even great-grandchildren Do you warn them of impending judgment? Well, no, they're too young really Really you'd be surprised to what children understand about the gospel when you present it to them But this story tells me that we need to speak the truth No matter what We need to make sure that people understand What's gonna happen to their souls when they die?

Well, we need to stop being so concerned like Ben Hey dad about my physical well-being on earth and be more concerned about my spiritual destiny after my time on earth is over because that life is forever This one is a very small vapor It's like grass it comes and goes and all of a sudden it's over maybe you learn from the story of Elisha and Hazael to realize how it is. We tell people the truth no matter what because God Wants us to be truthful Let me pray with you father.

Thank you for tonight a chance to spend some time in your word Thank you with the life of Elisha the man of God Everybody knew he was a man of God Never had to say anything They just knew They knew because he spoke the truth They knew because he did not mince words They knew because you used him mightily May we be the kind of people who speak the truth don't mince words be used in a mighty way by our God So when we walk into the room when we walk into the city when you walk into the house, everybody knows The man of God the woman of God has arrived In Jesus name we pray.

Amen