2 Kings 8 starts with a wonderful account of how the Shunamite woman, who had left Israel during the time of famine, returned home after seven years. Her land had been taken by others, so she went to the king to ask for the land to be returned. As it “happened,” Gehazi, Elisha’s servant was with the king, telling him of Elisha’s miracles. He saw the woman and said that it was this woman’s son, who Elisha had raised from the dead. When the king heard what the woman wanted, he restored her land to her.
Following this account, the story turns darker. Elisha traveled to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad the Syrian king was sick. He sent Hazael to inquire of Elisha as to whether he would recover. When Hazael asked the question, Elisha stared at him for a long time and then started to weep. Hazael asked what was wrong? Elisha said he was to tell Beh-Hadad he would recover, but in fact, he would not, because Hazael would kill him, and become king of Syria. As king, he would decimate Israel.
The chapter ends with a brief record of the reigns of Kings Jehoram and Ahaziah of Judah. Both were wicked kings, who followed in the ways of the kings of Israel. Jehoram reigned for eight years, and Ahaziah for only one. During their reigns several of Judah’s vassal states rebelled and gained their freedom. The direction of both Israel and Judah was heading away from the LORD at a rapid rate.
2 Kings 9 records the bloody beginning of the reign of King Jehu of Israel. Elisha had one of his servants anoint Jehu king, and to tell him he was to carry out judgment against the house of Ahab. He not only carried out that command, but also killed King Joram his predecessor, and King Ahaziah of Judah. The chapter closes with Jehu killing Queen Jezebel. In this gruesome account after a time of drinking in celebration of his new power, Jehu tells some of his men to bury Jezebel, but when they went out to bury her, they found the dogs had eaten her flesh and only her skull and a few bones remained. This was just as Elijah had prophesied.
In 2 Kings 10, Jehu has the remaining descendants of Ahab slaughtered. He establishes himself in power, and then has all the prophets of Baal, and the Baal worshipers slaughtered. It looks as if Jehu is going to bring reform to the nation, but he does not. We’re told he continued to have the golden calves worshiped, that he followed in the sin of Jeroboam. Because of his faithfulness to destroying Ahab and the prophets of Baal, the LORD promised Jehu his descendants would rule in Israel for four generations. Jehu reigned in Israel for twenty-eight years, and when he died, his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.
As we turn to Matthew 8, Jesus demonstrates His power to heal. First, a leper comes to Him and asks for healing. Jesus reaches out and touches the man, (which as we know from our reading of the Pentateuch, made Jesus ceremonially unclean), and heals him. Next, a Roman centurion comes to Jesus and asks Him to heal his servant. Jesus agrees to go to the man’s house, but the centurion tells Jesus He doesn’t need to come. He recognizes Jesus’ authority and power to heal with just a word. Jesus is amazed, and agrees to heal the servant. He tells the crowd this man’s faith exceeds anyone in Israel. Then He reminds them, when He comes in His glory, people will come from all over the world and be included, while some who expect to be included will not.
After this experience, Jesus and the disciples enter the house of Simon Peter. Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus healed her, and she got up and served a meal to the entourage. That evening, the people of the town brought the sick and demon-possessed to Him, and Jesus healed them. The next day as they were traveling, a scribe came to Jesus and said he would follow Jesus anywhere. Jesus responded that foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. When another said He would follow Jesus, but first He wanted to go bury His father. Jesus told him to let the dead bury their own dead. The account seems harsh, but as we have read in Mark and John’s gospels, Jesus expected His followers to be willing to give up everything to follow Him. After this, Jesus and the disciples go into a boat. A storm came up, but Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat. The disciples woke Him and asked if He didn’t care that they drowned. Jesus asked them why they had such little faith, and then calmed the storm. This amazed them all.
When they came to the other side of the lake, Jesus confronted two demon-possessed men. (This is the same account we find in Mark 5, but there we’re told it was one man. For some reason, Matthew has a tendency to add a person or an animal [in the Triumphal Entry] to his accounts. This doesn’t invalidate the accounts. It shows us the disciples were human, and the point of the accounts remains the same. In this case, Jesus cast out the demons, although they numbered a couple thousand. We surmise this, because He cast them into a herd of 2,000 pigs and each one ran down the hill to a body of water and drowned themselves. The end result of the demon-possessed men’s lives is they were healed. We would expect the people of the region to be enthusiastic about this event. Instead, they asked Jesus to leave their region. The truth is sometimes hard to digest, and even when the truth is “good news,” sometimes people can’t handle it. We can’t expect people will always respond to the gospel affirmatively. God doesn’t force anyone to trust or accept Him, our task is to trust and obey Him, and when others do not, to continue to be faithful witnesses of Jesus to them.