The recoil of disappointment spurred Hazael to the resolution which he
then and there took. It had been gathering form, no doubt, through
some years, but now it became definite and settled. While his face
glowed with the new determination, and his lips clenched themselves in
the firmness of his purpose, the even voice of the prophet went on,
'howbeit he shall certainly die,' and the eye of the man of God
searched him till he turned away ashamed because aware that his inmost
heart was read.

Then there followed the prophet's weeping, and the solemn announcement
of what Hazael would do when he had climbed to the throne. He shrank
in real horror from the thought of such enormity of sin. 'Is thy
servant a dog that he should do such a thing?' Elisha sternly answers:
'The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.' The
certainty is that in his character occasion will develop evil. The
certainty is that a course begun by such crime will be of a piece, and
consistent with itself.

This conversation with Elisha seems to have accelerated Hazael's
purpose, as if the prediction were to his mind a justification of his
means of fulfilling it.

How like Macbeth he is!--the successful soldier, stirred by
supernatural monitions of a greatness which he should achieve, and at
last a murderer.

This narrative opens to us some of the solemn, dark places of human
life, of men's hearts, of God's ways. Let us look at some of the
lessons which lie here.