Knowing Difficult Truths

Knowing difficult truths.  King Ben-hadad of Aram was sick and he had heard that Elisha, the man of God, was coming (2 Kings 8:7).  King Ben-hadad sent a man by the name of Hazael to greet Elisha and to take him a gift.  He was also to inquire of Elisha as to whether he would recover from this sickness (2 Kings 8:8).  Elisha tells Hazael that the king would in fact recover, but that he would die, and then Elisha wept (v.10-11).  What is interesting is that after Elisha told Hazael what would happen to King Ben-hadad, it says that he stared steadily at him until he was ashamed (v.11).  Why did all of this take place?  The answer is because God had revealed to Elisha a very difficult truth.  God had revealed to Elisha that the man standing before him, Hazael, would be the one to take the life of King Ben-hadad and make himself king of Aram.  In addition, it was also revealed to Elisha that Hazael, as King of Aram, would bring great harm to Israel (v.12).  The lesson is that there are not always counter measures or “fixes” to known truths that we see coming.  Sometimes our tendency might be to fix, or try to fix, something very difficult we see coming.  We may even ask why God would allow it to happen.  It is during these times that we must learn to trust the Lord.