Elisha - GOD's elite hit-man.
1 Kings 19:17 KJV
(17) And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
It is a time when Israel is at the height of Baal worship, celebrated by the wicked King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel.
Hazael is a pagan and is appointed king of Aram Damascus (Syria).
Elisha is the one that tells him that GOD has said he (
Hazael) will be king.
Hazael was a high ranking court official of the then present king of Syria, Hadadezer.
Hadadezer is ill and sends
Hazael to
Elisha, where
Elisha tells him that his king will recover from this illness, but will die of another cause.
Hazael returns to Hadadezer and smothers him to death so he can take the throne.
He is used of GOD to punish Israel for their Baal worship.
Since
Hazael is a pagan, he could care less about their worship practice, so he just started picking away at Israel by slaughtering whole cities and taking control of them.
Now, those that
Hazael missed,
Jehu would take care of.
Jehu is also told that he will become king of Israel.
GOD instructs
Jehu to totally wipe out the family of Ahab, and his servants and priests for their Baal worship and their slaying of the servants and prophets of GOD.
Ahab had 70 sons, so this wasn't going to be an easy task.
While
Hazael was killing whole cities,
Jehu's task was concentrated more on individuals.
And he used lies and trickery to accomplish his mission.
He goes to Jezreel where both the king of Israel (Ahab's son, Joram - also called Jehoram) and the king of Judah (Ahaziah) were.
When both kings saw
Jehu and his men arriving, they were leery but still went out to greet him, not knowing that
Jehu planned to kill them both.
Jehu killed King Joram immediately with an arrow, and mortally wounded King Ahaziah who escaped but died from wounds.
Jehu then declares that the people are to support him as their king or he will kill them all!
They fear him because he has just killed two KINGS, so they give in.
Jehu tells them they must be rid of the whole family of Ahab and that they are to find his 70 sons, kill them and send their heads as proof to
Jehu.
They do it and deliver the heads in baskets to
Jehu.
Jehu, now their king, tells them that he will increase the worship of Baal (he' lying to set them up).
He invites all the worshipers, servants, and priest of Baal in Jezreel to a special mandatory party where he gives robes to them all, and instructs his guards not to give a robe to any of GOD's servants.
So there they are all, in one place, all dressed the same ------ easy targets.
And they are all killed.
But
Jehu did wuss out a bit because he did not eliminate the idol worship of golden calves.
And then we come to
Elisha ---- the one that if the other 2 (
Hazael and
Jehu) don't get 'er done,
Elisha will.
As brutal as
Hazael and
Jehu were,
Elisha didn't mess around, hesitate, or blink an eye.
If for any reason the other 2 wussed out on killing them all,
Elisha wouldn't wuss out or hesitate.
To demonstrate the actions of
Elisha when it came to matters of the LORD, lets take a look at one of the things Elisha did.
2 Kings 2:23-24 KJV
(23) And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
(24) And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
Wan't no 'time out' for those children.
Wasn't no 'let's discuss this diplomatically'.
Wasn't no warning to repent or else.
Just BOOM - death to you little brats.
Elisha didn't mess around.
I vision Elisha with a stone cold Clint Eastwood type stare ---- "
Make my day".
