2 Kings 1:1-17
God’s
Judgment on King Ahaziah
Ahaziah was the son of Ahab and Jezebel. He succeeded Ahab as
king. His character was like his parents, who forsook the LORD and drew near to
Baal. This narrative highlighted Ahaziah’s tragic end because of his rebellion
and resistance to God.
Ahaziah fell from the lattice of his upper room and injured
himself. Hence, he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal Zebub,
the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”
The messengers of the king went and sought the help of Baal,
but God sent Elijah to stop them from doing so. Elijah came to the king’s
messengers on the road. He prophesized to the messengers and charged against
Ahaziah, and said, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going
off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will
certainly die!”
The messengers then returned to the king, and the king asked
them and said, “Why have you come back?”
“A man came to meet us,” they
replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him,
“This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no
God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of
Ekron? Therefore, you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will
certainly die!”’”
The king asked them, “What kind of
man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”
They replied, “He had a garment of
hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”
The king said, “That was Elijah
the Tishbite.”
Then he sent to Elijah a captain
with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting
on the top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come
down!’”
Elijah answered the captain, “If I
am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your
fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.
God had proven the creditability of Elijah.
Then the
king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to
him, “Man of God, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’”
“If I
am a man of God,” Elijah replied, “may fire come down from heaven and consume
you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and
consumed him and his fifty men.
The king was still stubborn, and he sent a third captain with
his fifty men to Elijah.
This third captain went up and
fell on his knees before Elijah. “Man of God,” he begged, “please have respect
for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two
captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!”
The
angel of the Lord
said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.”
So,
Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.
Elijah told the king,
“This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no
God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult
Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave
the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”
So
Ahaziah died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.
God is Much More Powerful than the
Resisting Forces
The scriptures repeat the spatial terms, “Come down. Got up”.
The king fell from the lattice of his upper room. It seemed
to predict that his “kingship, power and life” had also fallen! The king was
carried by his servants and put on his sickbed, and the prophet said the king
would not be able to get down from it. The king had lost the ability of
“getting up and coming down”.
In contrast, the prophet got up actively to stop the king’s
messengers. The getting up of the prophet was a contrast to the falling of
the king. It displayed the power of God that crushed the power of the king!
The fifty men threatened the prophet to “come down”
twice, but the prophet refused to do so. Instead, he sent the fire to “come
down” and burnt them alive.
So, there is a contrast between the king’s “getting up and
coming down” and the prophet’s “getting up and not coming down”. The later
overturned the former, which showed that God’s power was far more overwhelming
than the resisting forces.
Today, God is fulfilling His will on earth and His Kingdom is
coming upon it. The devil, the king of
the world, is attacking God’s people with persecution and temptations. We ought
to stand with God firmly and to rely on Him to resist the evil forces.
Let’s be diligent in evangelism and to spread the Gospel on
earth. The word of God comes with power to transform people and environment;
that those who are under the bondages of sin shall be delivered; and those
social practices that corrupt the minds and hearts of men shall be reformed; and
those powers that persecute believers and restrain their freedom shall be
broken!
Why Forgo the Near to Embrace the Far?
The scriptures use a series of ironies to make clear that
Ahaziah was not only impotent but foolish. The spatial terms perform
as spiritual metaphors: the king resided in the land of Israel but instead of
seeking the God of Israel, he sent his messengers to Ekron in the land of the Philistines
and sought the help of the pagan god – Baal Zebub. The king was wrong to forgo what
was hear him and sought after something afar. He would not be able to receive
help!
The result was, the king did receive his prophecy, not from
Baal but from the LORD. Baal was silent but the LORD spoke out. Nevertheless,
the king paid no attention to God’s voice. He wanted to capture the prophet.
The king actually identified the man of God to be Elijah
while the soldiers were kept in the dark. Though the king recognized Elijah, he
sent someone to capture him instead. It revealed how foolish he was. By right
he should repent and seek help from Elijah!
The king fell from his window, his “throne, spirituality and
life” fell from him as well! His fault was found in his resistance to God. He
had departed from God, relied on his own strength instead of God’s, and replaced
God with evil forces.
Have you fell from certain area of your life this day? Who
are you seeking help from? Whose strength do you rely on so that you can stand?
Do not seek help from afar but nearby!
Many times, helps are just beside us and God is working in
our midst but we miss them out. For example, we neglect our own church by not
actively drawing our spiritual resources from it; we ignore the importance of
church meetings, serving, daily quiet time, and instead we spend our times in
worldly pleasures; we don’t see the good things happening in our church, but
admire what other churches are doing; we lose sight of the love and care given
by those who are near to us….some Christians seek help not from God, but from
other powerful people or idols; not through God’s way but using the worldly
ways.
Let us turn back to God. He is here waiting for us to return
to his bosom!
Humble Ourselves and Seek God’s Help
The king sent three teams of soldiers to capture the prophet.
For the first round, Elijah was sitting on the top of a hill,
and the soldiers saw him from afar and they shouted to him, “Man of God, the
king says, “Come down!” (v 9) Their attitude was as foolish and arrogant as the
king who resisted God.
The response of the prophet was refusing to listen to the
instruction of the king, and he said, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down
from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” (v 10) Then fire really came
down from heaven and consumed the soldiers. It showed a rebellious kingship
which was defeated by God.
The second time, another group of soldiers came and they were
ruder than the first group of soldiers, and they called out from afar and said,
“Man of God, this is what the king says, “Come down at once!” (v11) The
response of the prophet was more intense. It was not just fire, but fire of
God falling from heaven and consuming them (v12).
It was the second time the soldiers were burnt to death, and
it showed that the kingship of Ahaziah was completely defeated by God.
The third group of soldiers came and the captain of the fifty
was a humble man with heart of reverence. He dared not ask the prophet to come
down, but instead, he came before the prophet and knelt before him and sought
his mercy and help. They identified themselves as servants of the prophet, as
though they were on the same side of the prophet (v13-14).
The event turned around at this point of time. The soldiers
succeeded this round with their lives being kept secured, for the prophet came
down willingly by himself. His action spoke of God’s grace that came upon this
group of soldiers, which was unlike the fire of judgment that fell upon the previous
two groups.
The prophet went to see the king, and he repeated the same
prophecy he spoke before. The king was silent about this. The king was
suppressed by the word of God. At the end, the king died, and it testified that
the words of God were fulfilled ultimately, and it also highlighted the miserable
end of rebelling against God.
How shall we react when we fall and fail under certain
situations? Let us not be like Ahaziah, whose attitude was foolish and
arrogant, and who refused to seek God but relied on his own power and forces that were not of
God.
He thought he could settle his problem this way. In fact, he
was seeking help from afar rather than from the One who was near to him. He
resisted God and what he did displeased God.
All powers on earth are weak and fragile before God. We
should imitate the third captain of the fifty men, to come before God in
humility, and acknowledge our weaknesses and mistakes, and seek His mercy and
help.
The salvation of God will surely come upon us, and He shall
enable us to be strengthened and stand up again after our fall.
Let us examine our attitude: Do we hear respectfully and
maintain a humble spirit when we face reproach from the man of God, or when we
serve as a team with our church members?
The exhortation of Paul said that, “Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests
of the others.”
(Philippians 2:3-4)
When the fire of God comes down, it brings forth either revival
or judgment. It all depends on our attitude towards God and others, whether we
are humble or arrogant.
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