10-11 Elisha answered, “Go and tell him, ‘Don’t worry; you’ll live.’ The fact is, though—God showed me—that he’s doomed to die.” Elisha then stared hard at Hazael, reading his heart. Hazael felt exposed and dropped his eyes. Then the Holy Man wept.
I liked the Message version better today. I'm finding it hard though to identify a lesson. One recurring theme is how its hard to break the pattern of sin once it begins. It flows down through generations. I think the pattern of living a life following God can also be handed down but it seems so much easier to slip into a bad pattern than it is to maintain a good one.
In this verse its interesting that Elisha does not seem concerned for his own reputation but it seems to me he can be viewed as a false prophet to anyone who does not know the full account of what he told Hazael. Which is interesting, how did we get this account into the bible? Not from Hazel surely? The author must have interviewed Elisha? I'm rambling now, if you Google Hazael there is things about him accounted for outside the bible. I also find those accounts and archaeological finds that tie back into the bible fun to investigate as well.
good day mate,
knut
I like the rambling....that's how I think too.
ReplyDeleteI know I've said this before, but these chapters seem to be SO different from where we were with David and Solomon. Those readings were so much more focused. And they were more focused on the relationship between David, Solomon, and God. These chapters seem to be more about the relationships between the broken, sinful people. Then you throw the prophets in there....and I get lost. It feels a little dirty, and wrong, and twisted......not as refreshing and clean as before.
Maybe God is telling me today, that I need to focus on my relationship with him......and not on the relationships with the people. If the first is "right," the second will automatically work. But, the opposite doesn't work at all, and you end up with this type of mess.
Now who's rambling?