Welcome to the club and the book of Second Kings.

Last episode in Second Kings chapter 6 through 8, Aram was at it again, and he laid siege to Samaria, creating a famine.

God was merciful and delivered the people from the

Aramians and starvation. He uses four lepers to spread the good news that the Aramians were gone.

While God was saving Israel from starvation, Elisha was saving his Shumanite friend from a famine.

Gahazi shared the good news of the shumanite son's life with the king,

but he still did not respond with faith. Okay, scene one. God can restore life and God can revoke life.

Second Kings chapter 8, continuing in verse 7, Elijah went to Damascus and Ben Haddad, king of Aram, was ill.

When the king was told the man of God has come all the way up here, he said to Hazel,

take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God, consult the Lord through him. Ask him,

will I recover from this illness? Elijah goes to Damascus, the capital of Aram. Why he would go to an enemy nation we do not know, but it seems God is always sending prophets to work in odd places. Now, the king of Aram happens to be sick and wants to know if he will recover. This is the first of the four uses of the

keyword recover. So we have another keyword going on here. Ben Haddad hears that Elijah is in town.

That's the king, Ben Haddad. He commands Hazeal to take 40 camels loaded with goodies to

Elisha to inquire if he will recover from this

illness. I am sure the 40 loads of goods were in the hopes of a good prognosis. It sounds like a

bribe to me. Continuing in verse 9, Haseel went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift 40 camel loads of all the finest wares of Damascus.

He went in and stood before him and said, your son, Ben Haddad, king of Aram, has sent me to ask,

will I recover from this illness? Elijah answered, go and say to him, you will certainly recover. Nevertheless, the Lord

has revealed to me that he will in fact die. He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazale

was embarrassed. So this sounds confusing. The king will certainly recover, but in fact, die. Yeah. This contradictory statement

is followed by a gaze so fixed, it causes Hazzal embarrassment. Now, recall that Elijah is a prophet,

so he has inside information. He knows what God is going to do, and he knows what man is going to do.

...