It has been awhile since my last post. Sorry for the delay. I have been busy fillling pulpits and sending out resumes. I have been in communication with two churches in particular concerning their pastoral opening. One nearby in Oklahoma; the other far away in northwestern South Dakota. It is an exciting time as we wait on God to find the church He has for me to serve.
Picking up where we left off in the life and times of Elijah, prophet of fire, we find that there are times when God gives us what we think we want, especially when it is not His will, but only our will in defiance of Him. It is His way of disciplining us in order to get our attention and call us back to Himself.
God judges those who rebel against Him and persist in defying Him. Ahaziah (Ahab’s son) had a brief rule (1 Kings 22:51-53) and his death (2 Kings 1:17) illustrates this principle. He died as a part of the prophesied destruction and death of all of Ahab’s household (1 Kings 21:17-29).
Ahab repented (1 Kings 21:27), but it was only a partial repentance. It was only on the outside, yet God delayed His judgment, though He did not eliminate it. The message for us is that God judges all who persist in defying Him, and while partial repentance for the wrong reasons may delay God’s judgment, it does not totally vindicate God’s wrath. True repentance, on the other hand, will result in salvation.
The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). And that is exactly what happens here in 2 Kings 1:1-18. Sinners who ultimately refuse God, who refuse to trust in Jesus the Messiah, are judged by fire—ultimately the judgment of eternal hell-fire.
The Lord is in charge. When He is not allowed to rule in our lives, He overrules. The sins of idolatry, pride, and disobedience caused God to take action against the unrepentant sinners in our text. After much longsuffering, the Lord brings judgment. But God’s people, those who walk with the Lord Jesus, experience things the unrepentant sinner never knows and never sees.
First of all, God directs the paths of His people, those who love Him. Unbelievers, on the other hand, do not experience this godly guidance because they do not love God and they do not follow Him or seek His face. They do not turn to God.
Note Ahaziah's character: “He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; for he served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done.” (1 Kings 22:52-53)
He was an evil man—an evil king. Moab rebelled and Ahaziah could not care less! His attitude was to let Moab rebel. It mattered not to him! The text simply says, “Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab,” (2 Kings 1:1). It makes no mention of any reaction from the king. He concerns himself only with himself: “Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, ‘Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury’” (v. 2).
Ahaziah worshiped Baal, and that fed his bent toward all things evil. He persisted in rebelling against God. Meanwhile Moab took advantage of this week, self-centered king and broke the bonds that had chained them to Israel since David first conquered them (2 Sam. 8:2). Under Ahaziah the tribute went away.
About ten years or so before Ahaziah “fell through the lattice” (v. 2a) and injured himself, Elijah had won a great victory. He defeated Baal on Mount Carmel when he called down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18). Neither Ahab nor Jezebel were convinced or converted. So Ahaziah, in following suit, turned not to the Lord God of Israel, but to the false god Baal for guidance concerning his injury.
“Baal” means “lord” (small “l”) and “Baal-Zebul” means “Baal is prince.” But the devout remnant in Israel, who worshiped the true God, changed the name and ridiculed the false god of their neighbors. “Baal-Zebel” (one such name) means “lord of the dung,” and “Baal-Zebub” (the name used here) means “lord of the flies.” It was one of the names Jesus’ enemies used to insult Him. (Matt. 10:25).
Leave God out and He overrules in your life. Ahaziah was persistent in rebelling against the Lord by ignoring the God of Israel, so the Lord overruled in his life. He intervened by sending His servant Elijah. “But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” Now therefore, thus says the LORD: “You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.”’ So Elijah departed.” (vs. 3-4) and did as instructed.
When you ignore God and leave Him out of your life, He will overrule at some point and you may not like what happens. When you persist in rebelling against God and refusing to believe on the Lord Jesus for your salvation, eventually judgment will fall, as it did with Ahaziah. He persisted in rebelling against Christ. He refused to believe. Only judgment remained. God overruled in his life.
Follow God and He will direct your path. The Lord wants to direct your path much like he did Elijah’s. Look at how He directs Elijah in this passage: “the angel of the LORD said to Elijah” (v. 3a). He spoke to his heart and brought the king’s name to his mind. The Lord even laid on his heart the words to speak. Elijah followed God and He directed Elijah’s path.
When God lays someone on your heart, He likely wants you to pray for them and talk with them about Jesus. That is how God led Elijah, and He does the same with us. And what did Elijah do? “So Elijah departed” (v. 4b). He went and spoke with Ahaziah. We are quick to talk with people about all sorts of things that are dear to us, but what about Jesus? God wants us to tell others what Jesus means to us. When He leads, He will direct you and give you the words to speak.
Second, God protects His people. King Ahaziah tries to arrest Elijah and have him killed. But God protects him from such evil. Elijah gave God’s message to the king’s messengers and they relayed it to Ahaziah: “And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, ‘Why have you come back?’ So they said to him, ‘A man came up to meet us, and said to us, “Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.”’”’ Then he said to them, ‘What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?’ So they answered him, ‘A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.’ And he said, ‘It is Elijah the Tishbite.’” (vs. 5-8)
Ahaziah knew immediately it was God’s man, God’s servant Elijah. It wasn’t rocket science. Evil men, unbelievers, recognize God’s people. They see the difference God makes in our lives. When you live for Christ, it does not escape notice. People know when you have been with Jesus. Luke reported: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
Ahaziah sought to arrest and likely even kill Elijah: “Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to him; and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: ‘Man of God, the king has said, “Come down!”’ So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, ‘If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.’ And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty." (2 Kings 1:9-10).
Then the king sent a second "captain of fifty" (v. 11) with his men and the same fate awaited them (vs. 11-12). These two displays of God’s judgment by fire were dramatic messages that the people had better repent or they would all taste the judgment of God’s wrath. And notice how, even with fire from heaven crashing down on these men, the Lord protected his servant Elijah, who was standing nearby. God’s people, those who trust in Jesus, may be persecuted by ungodly men, but God fully protects His own.
Third, God saves His people. A third “captain of fifty” (v. 13) was sent by the king. However, this time things are different. This third captain proved to be both wise and humble. He showed true respect for Elijah, the “man of God.” This man submitted himself to the Lord and to His servant. He pleaded with Elijah in such a way as to endear himself to Elijah and to God as he acknowledged the full authority of God’s servant.
“The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: ‘Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight” (v. 13). He pleaded for his own life and the lives of his men. He understood both who Elijah was and who God is. He humbled himself, kneeling down before God’s man as a way of bowing before the Lord Himself.
He pleaded for mercy as he added, “Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight” (v. 14). Humbled before Elijah and God, his request was granted. His life was spared, along with the lives of his men.
It is interesting to note the Lord’s response as He again directs His servant Elijah. Verse 15 reads, “And the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, ‘Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.’ So he arose and went down with him to the king.” It was the captains who were to be feared as much as the king. It may be that they were not only instructed to arrest Elijah, but on the way to the palace, to kill him! But God said there was nothing to fear. God had his backside!
Ahaziah was anything but a godly man. He had everything to fear. While the godly knows God’s grace, the ungodly will know God’s wrath. The king was in bed when Elijah confronted him with the words, “you shall surely die” (v. 16). All hope was gone! He was on his death bed! Still, he refused to obey the Word of God.
“So Ahaziah died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. Because he had no son, Jehoram became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?” (vs. 17-18).Thus the Word of the Lord to the ungodly king was fulfilled.
An ungodly and unrepentant world awaits the fire of God’s wrath. It will come upon them suddenly “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:7-9).
God “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Those who do will know God’s grace, not his wrath. It is by faith in Jesus that the godly escape the wrath that is to come. God saves His people. The gospel is both a message to believe and a mandate to obey. Amen.
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