The Anatomy of a Murderer Text: 2 Kings 8:7-15
Introduction: The Unseen Depths of the Heart
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has traded the hard granite of biblical anthropology for the soft therapeutic mush of modern psychology. We are told that people are basically good, that evil is a result of environment or trauma, and that no one is truly capable of monstrous things, given the right circumstances and a little encouragement. Our default setting is to think well of ourselves, and we project that same flimsy optimism onto others. We look at the great villains of history, the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots, and we comfort ourselves with the thought that they are a different species. We are not like them.
But the Bible will not let us off the hook so easily. The Scriptures teach that the human heart is not a shallow pond where we can see the bottom, but rather a black and unsearchable abyss. Jeremiah tells us that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). We are, each one of us, capable of anything. The seeds of every sin, every atrocity, every betrayal, lie dormant in the soil of every human heart. The only difference between a respectable churchgoer and a mass murderer is the restraining grace of God Almighty.
This passage in 2 Kings 8 is a stark and terrifying case study in this reality. We are brought into the court of a pagan king and introduced to his ambitious subordinate, Hazael. And in the space of a few verses, we watch a man come face to face with the prophecy of his own future wickedness. His reaction is telling, and it is our reaction. He is shocked. He is offended. He cannot conceive of himself doing such things. And then he goes right out and begins to do them. This story is a mirror, and if we look into it honestly, we will see a reflection of ourselves. It forces us to confront the exhaustive sovereignty of God over all events, the profound deceitfulness of our own hearts, and the terrible reality of what we are apart from the invasive, regenerating grace of Jesus Christ.
Here we see the intersection of divine prophecy and human depravity. God knows the end from the beginning. He does not guess; He declares. And what He declares is not just the movement of stars and the turning of seasons, but the murderous intent lurking in the heart of a man who does not yet know it is there himself. Let us not read this, then, as a quaint historical account of a bad man long ago. Let us read it as a warning, as a diagnosis, and ultimately, as a reason to cling to the cross.
The Text
Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and it was told to him, saying, “The man of God has come here.” And the king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, ‘Will I be restored to life from this sickness?’ ” So Hazael went to meet him and took a present in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I be restored to life from this sickness?’ ” Then Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will surely be restored to life,’ but Yahweh has shown me that he will certainly die.” And he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. Then Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” Then he said, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their fortifications you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their infants you will dash in pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip up.” Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Aram.” So he went from Elisha and came to his master. And he said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he said, “He said to me that you would surely be restored to life.” Now it happened that on the following day, he took the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face; so he died. And Hazael became king in his place.
(2 Kings 8:7-15 LSB)
A Deceptive Inquiry (vv. 7-9)
The scene opens with Elisha, the prophet of Yahweh, in Damascus, the capital of pagan Aram. This is enemy territory. The king, Ben-hadad, is sick, and like many pagans then and now, he becomes religious in a crisis.
"Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and it was told to him, saying, 'The man of God has come here.' And the king said to Hazael, 'Take a present in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, "Will I be restored to life from this sickness?"' " (2 Kings 8:7-8)
Ben-hadad is not turning to Yahweh in repentance. This is superstitious desperation. He has heard of Elisha's power, perhaps through the testimony of Naaman, and he wants to use Yahweh as a sort of divine consulting service. He sends his high-ranking official, Hazael, with an extravagant gift, forty camels' loads of goods. This is not worship; it is an attempt to bribe the prophet, to buy a favorable fortune. He wants information about the future without submitting to the Lord of the future.
Hazael comes with all the outward forms of respect. He calls Ben-hadad Elisha's "son," a term of feigned humility and honor. He presents the question, "Will I be restored to life from this sickness?" The whole setup is a masterpiece of courtly deception. A sick king, a flattering courtier, and a lavish gift, all designed to manipulate the man of God.
A Frightening Prophecy (vv. 10-12)
Elisha's response cuts right through the pretense. It is a sharp, two-edged sword of a prophecy.
"Then Elisha said to him, 'Go, say to him, "You will surely be restored to life," but Yahweh has shown me that he will certainly die.' " (2 Kings 8:10 LSB)
This is not a contradiction. It is a precise and devastating revelation of God's sovereignty working through secondary causes. Elisha is saying two things. First, regarding the sickness itself, it is not fatal. The king could recover from the illness. That is the message Hazael is to deliver. But second, Yahweh has revealed the ultimate outcome: the king will die. The sickness won't kill him, but something else will. Elisha is handing Hazael a loaded gun. He is exposing the situation in all its stark reality. The natural course of the disease is recovery. The decreed plan of God is death.
Then comes one of the most intense moments in all the prophetic books. "And he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept." Elisha stares into Hazael's soul. This is not a staring contest. The prophet, filled with the Spirit of God, sees the future. He sees the man standing before him not as a polite courtier, but as a brutal tyrant, a butcher of women and children. He sees the treachery, the ambition, and the cruelty coiled in Hazael's heart, and the sight is so overwhelming that Hazael becomes ashamed under the gaze, and Elisha, the prophet, breaks down and weeps.
Why does he weep? Hazael asks, and Elisha answers with a horrifying vision of the future. "Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their fortifications you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their infants you will dash in pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip up." This is not hyperbole. This is a list of covenant curses. This is the brutal reality of ancient warfare, and God is showing his prophet that this man, Hazael, will be the instrument of God's chastisement upon a disobedient Israel. Elisha weeps for his people, for the terrible judgment that is coming at the hands of this man.
The Deceitfulness of a Dog (v. 13)
Hazael's response to this horrific prophecy is the centerpiece of the entire account. It is a master class in self-deception.
"Then Hazael said, 'But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?' And Elisha answered, 'Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Aram.' " (2 Kings 8:13 LSB)
Now, we must not mistake this for humility. When Hazael says, "what is your servant, who is but a dog," he is not expressing genuine lowliness. He is expressing incredulity. He is saying, "Me? I'm just a dog, a nobody. How could I possibly accomplish such a 'great thing'?" Notice the word he uses: great. Not "horrific thing," not "evil thing," but "great thing." In the ambitious calculus of his heart, the atrocities are secondary to the power required to perform them. He is not horrified by the evil; he is intrigued by the power.
He cannot see the murderer in himself. He is blind to the abyss of his own heart. He thinks of himself as a decent fellow, a loyal servant, a dog. He has no idea what he is capable of. And this is the universal blindness of the unregenerate heart. We measure ourselves by our current actions and our stated intentions, not by the sinful nature that lurks beneath. We think that because we have not yet murdered, we are not murderers. But Jesus says that if you have hated, you have murdered in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). Hazael is every man who says, "I would never do that," not realizing that the only thing holding him back is a lack of opportunity and a dose of divine restraint.
Elisha's reply provides the missing piece of the puzzle. "Yahweh has shown me that you will be king over Aram." This is the key. This is the opportunity. The prophecy of kingship is the spark that ignites the tinder of his ambition. Elisha is telling him, "You ask how a dog like you could do this? Because God is going to put you on the throne, and the throne will give you the power to unleash the wickedness that is already in your heart."
Prophecy Fulfilled (vv. 14-15)
The conclusion is swift and brutal. The seed of prophecy finds fertile ground in the soil of ambition.
"So he went from Elisha and came to his master... 'He said to me that you would surely be restored to life.' Now it happened that on the following day, he took the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face; so he died. And Hazael became king in his place." (2 Kings 8:14-15 LSB)
Hazael returns to Ben-hadad and delivers the first part of the prophecy, the lie that conceals the murderous truth in his heart. "He told me you would surely recover." He gives the sick king a false hope, lulling him into a false sense of security. And then, the very next day, the man who was shocked at the thought of his own capacity for evil takes a wet cloth and smothers his king. The prophecy of his kingship became the motive for murder. God did not command him to murder; God simply foretold what the combination of opportunity and Hazael's sinful heart would produce. God's prophecy did not force Hazael's hand; it revealed his heart.
This is the difficult truth of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God ordains all that comes to pass, including the sinful acts of men, yet He is not the author of sin, and the men who commit the sin are fully culpable for it. As the disciples prayed in Acts, Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel did to Jesus "whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28). Their actions were wicked, and they were responsible. Yet their actions were woven into the sovereign plan of God for our redemption. So it is here. God decreed that Hazael would be king. Hazael, in his wickedness, chose murder as the means to that end. And he was fully responsible.
Conclusion: The Dog in the Mirror
It is easy to read this story and condemn Hazael. It is easy to see him as a monster. It is much harder, and much more necessary, to see him as a mirror. How many of us have said, "What is your servant, who is but a dog?" How many of us are utterly blind to the depths of our own depravity?
The great Puritan John Bradford, upon seeing criminals being led to their execution, famously said, "There but for the grace of God, go I." He understood. He knew that the same sinful nature that resided in them resided in him. The only difference was grace. Unmerited, sovereign, regenerating grace.
This is why the gospel is not good advice for good people; it is good news for dead people. It is for people who have come to see that they are, in fact, capable of anything. It is for those who have looked into the abyss of their own hearts and have been rightly terrified by what they see. The law of God, like Elisha's gaze, fixes itself upon us until we are ashamed. It shows us our sin. It shows us the atrocities we are capable of. It shows us that we are Hazaels.
And then the gospel shows us Christ. It shows us the one who took all the covenant curses that we deserved upon Himself. The horrors Elisha prophesied, being ripped open and dashed to pieces, are a faint shadow of the wrath that Christ absorbed on the cross. He became a curse for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Galatians 3:13).
The story of Hazael is a warning against self-knowledge. You do not know your own heart. Stop trusting it. Stop thinking you are a "good person." Flee from your own righteousness, which is nothing but filthy rags, and run to the only one who can give you a new heart. God's prophecy for those in Christ is not a future of brutality and judgment, but a future of glory. He has not just shown us what we will be; He is actively making us into the image of His Son. He is the one who keeps us from becoming the monsters we would otherwise be.