2 Kings 8:12-19: a reflection

12Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.” 13Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he could do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Syria.” 14Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” He answered, “He told me that you would surely recover.” 15On the next day, he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it on the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place. 16In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being king of Judah then, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. 17He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house, for he married Ahab’s daughter. He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight. 19However, the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.

The prophet Elisha weeps as he looks at Hazael, for God has shown him the terrible things Hazael will one day do to Israel. When Elisha tells him, Hazael recoils in apparent horror: What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great and terrible thing? He cannot imagine himself capable of such atrocities. Yet the very next day, Hazael murders his master and seizes the throne, and in time does exactly the evils Elisha foresaw.

Notice Hazael's confident recoil, and what he became. He was horrified at the thought of the atrocities, sure he could never do such things; a dog, he called himself, incapable of it. Yet he went on to do precisely what he had recoiled from. The distance between the man horrified at the thought of evil and the man who committed it was shorter than he imagined. The human heart can descend, step by step, into what it once found unthinkable.

That is a sobering warning against confidence in our own goodness. We are prone to think, of certain sins, I could never do that, sure that we are incapable of what we find abhorrent in others. But Hazael was sure too, and he did it. The heart is capable of descending, by degrees, into what it once recoiled from; and a confident I could never can blind us to our own vulnerability. Do not trust in your own goodness with a confident certainty that you could never fall into serious sin. Watch your heart humbly, aware of what it is capable of, and depend on God's grace to keep you, rather than on your own supposed incapacity for evil. The one who thinks he stands should take heed lest he fall; hold your own heart with humble watchfulness, and rely on God to keep you from the sins you think you could never commit.

Lord, when Elisha foresaw the atrocities Hazael would do, Hazael recoiled in apparent horror, sure he could never do such things; yet he went on to do exactly what he had recoiled from. Warn me by that against confidence in my own goodness. I am prone to think, of certain sins, I could never do that, sure that I am incapable of what I find abhorrent in others. But Hazael was sure too, and he did it. The human heart can descend, step by step, into what it once found unthinkable; and a confident I could never can blind me to my own vulnerability. Keep me from trusting in my own goodness with a confident certainty that I could never fall into serious sin. Help me watch my heart humbly, aware of what it is capable of, and depend on your grace to keep me, rather than on my own supposed incapacity for evil. Let the one who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall; help me hold my heart with humble watchfulness, and rely on you to keep me from the sins I think I could never commit.