I hardly know a passage in history, even if simply considered as an history, more strikingly interesting to the feelings than this interview, as here related between Hazael and the prophet. Figure to yourself the astonishment of the ambassador of Damascus when the man of God prophesied to him of his future greatness, and the bloody deeds of his life which would follow. Behold on the other hand the aged servant of the Lord looking so fixedly upon the countenance of Hazael, until the tears burst in a flood before him to give vent to his distress of soul. But while we meditate on the passage simply as an interesting history, let us look at it with more awakened earnestness, as a solemn record in the word of God, and then we shall discover if so be the Holy Ghost gives us a gracious apprehension of its important contents, that it opens to our view higher objects for instruction. Hazael is but the representative of human nature, universally speaking. All men like him may shudder at crimes in the cool hour of distance which in the after season of heated passion, and all things corresponding to accomplish, they may without remorse perform. Reader! do you know this? Do you believe it? Hath the Holy Ghost by his divine teachings led you on so far in the knowledge of yourself, as to be brought to this complete conviction of sin? If you are, precious to your soul will be the knowledge of, and the rejoicing in, the Lord Jesus! but if not, depend upon it you possess but at the best a poor apprehension of your own dreadfully ruined and lost state; and of the vast and infinite value of that complete deliverance from sin which is found only in the Lord Jesus. The cruelty of Hazael, seems to have commenced from the moment of this interview, as the devil entered into the heart of Judas from the time in which Jesus gave him the sop, as a token of his being the traitor. John 13:26-27. His return to his master opened with a lie. His next step was to stifle him in his bed. And his bloody deeds to Israel, as Elisha had foretold, we are informed of in the after part of his history. See 2 Kings 13:22. Reader! pause over such a character, if it be only to look up with reverence, and all the warmth of affection and thankfulness, in the contemplation of the blessed effects of distinguishing grace: Who hath made thee to differ from another? Is an enquiry which every child of God should be unceasingly putting to his own soul. 1 Corinthians 4:7.
2 Kings 8:11-15
11 And he settled his countenance stedfastly,b until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.
12 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
13 And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.
14 So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.
15 And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.