As we continue our study of the prophet Elijah, I like this story much better than yesterday's. Fire from heaven is much more in line with how we typically picture God's judgment of evil, don't you think? After all, we want to worship an all-powerful God, don't we--just as long as He doesn't use any of His lightning bolts on us personally?
Poor King Ahaziah. You can read about his appointment to be king in the last few verses of 1 Kings 22. He really had no hope to succeed, what with being the child of Ahab and Jezebel and all. With mentors like that, who needs antagonists? King Ahaziah's reign is doomed from the start, and you get the feeling he was aware of this fact. He sent messengers to inquire of a foreign god to find out whether or not he would recover from a fall through lattice. Okay, who walks on lattice and doesn't expect to fall through it?? Anyway, did you notice that Ahaziah is not asking this foreign god for healing? He is just looking for a confirmation or denial of what he already dreads will be the answer.
Did Ahaziah not realize that God would know what he was up to? Come on, Ahaziah had heard the story of Elijah. He recognized Elijah from a simple description of his wardrobe in 2 Kings 1:8. ("He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist." The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite.") If I knew my parents were defeated by the God of Elijah, I'm thinking I would figure out how to please this God and avoid His wrath. Can you tell that I don't have much patience for people who choose the wrong road in life? I just want to put a leash on them and drag them down the straight and narrow road. Okay, you're right, that doesn't really yield the results I'm looking for most of the time.
So, on with our story. After the messengers came back with confirmation from Elijah that Ahaziah would not recover, Ahaziah tried to intimidate the prophet. Should you threaten the God of the Universe with a captain and fifty men? Hmmm. Evidently not. It didn't work the first two times, but Ahaziah must have thought the third time would be the charm. "So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. 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!" (2 Kings 1:13-14) I hope the third captain got a pay raise!
So, God told Elijah to travel with captain #3 to deliver the message to Ahaziah face-to-face. "You will certainly die!" (2 Kings 1:16) "So he died. . . ." (2 Kings 1:17)
End of story.
I think you will enjoy tomorrow's story. Will you read 2 Kings 2, and we will witness the ascension of Elijah and the empowering of Elisha together!
As I read over this post, I realize that none of my posts make much sense unless you have already read the Scripture yourself. I sure hope you are reading the Bible and not just my silly comments!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wanted to comment on how Ahaziah recognized who Elijah was from a description of how he dressed. It made me wonder how people describe me. What am I known for? Our reputations precede us. Are we known as people of God?
What is a garment of hair? Do you suppose they had toupees back then? LOL Or was it a turbin? But everyone back in that day wore turbins, didn't they. How in the world did he know it was Elijah they had talked to by that brief description? Interesting!
ReplyDeleteA garment is clothing. So Elijah's suit was made out of hair. Sounds itchy to me!
ReplyDeleteI think my definition is better! Wearing hair, that just sounds wrong and yes very itchy!!
ReplyDelete