The episode we'll be looking at this morning is in 2 Kings
chapter 1. We'll cover the whole chapter this morning. And
in order to get through it, I want to take a different approach.
I want to walk you through the narrative of the entire
chapter. And then we'll tie it all up at the end with a look at
three important spiritual lessons we can glean from this
account.
Let me begin reading in 2 Kings 1.
"After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel." Stop
there for a moment, and I'll do my best to explain the
political, historical, and geographical context with the
simplest possible overview.
Moab was the nation on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.
If you can visualize the area, Israel and Judah occupied the
area West of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. Moab
occupied a region of similar size on the east side of the Dead
Sea. The Moabites were the descendants of Moab, who was
the son born to Lot's eldest daughter after her incestuous
relationship with her own father.
Genesis 19 describes how after the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah, Lot's daughters were living in a cave in the
wilderness. Their mother was dead (turned into a pillar of
2 Kings 1 2
salt). The city where they grew up and had all their
relationships had been reduced to a smoldering wasteland
filled with volcanic rocks. And Lot's daughters despaired of
ever getting married. So they got their own father drunk and
each had sex with him. The wicked immorality of Sodom
had so defiled them that they thought that was the best way
to carry on the family name. Both girls became pregnant, and
the elder daughter bore a son whom she named Moab. He
was the father of the Moabites. Lot's younger daughter had a
son named Ben-AmmiCand he was the father of the
Ammonites.
The Israelites considered the Moabites close relatives as
well as close neighbors. They spoke the same language. They
had common ancestors and many common traditions. But
they served different Gods. (More about that in a minute.)
So the relationship between Israel and the Moabites was
an uneasy one. Sometimes the Moabites and Israelites were
allies, and sometimes they were enemies. The most familiar
Moabite in Scripture was Ruth, grandmother of David. She
became a proselyte to the Hebrew faith, so her marriage to
Boaz was legal and legitimate. And it meant that the Davidic
line, from which Christ descended, included at least one wife
who came from the Moabite nation. It also meant that king
David himself was one-quarter Moabite.
And when David was being pursued by Saul, it was the
Moabites who helped hide and preserve him. According to 1
Fire From Heaven 3
Samuel 22:3-4, David put his parents under the protective
care of the king of Moab while David himself hid from Saul
in caves and desolate regions.
But when David ascended the throne, the relationship
changed, and the Moabites for a time became David's
enemies. Scripture doesn't describe any particular conflict or
event that led to this change. I gather the Moabites had
political reasons to be friendly to David while he was the
chief rival of Israel's sitting king, but as soon as he became
king himself, he instantly and automatically became a
political rival to the king of the Moabites, so they no longer
regarded him as a friend.
In any case, during David's reign there was a war between
Israel and Moab, and David conquered the Moabites and
completely subjugated them. For several generations the
Moabites were forced to pay tribute to the king of Israel. But
for the remainder of David's life, and increasingly during the
reign of Solomon, relations between Israel and Moab were
essentially peaceful.
I mentioned that the Moabites worshiped a deity of their
own making. Their god was an idol named Chemosh
(keMOSH). They are sometimes referred to in Scripture as
"The people of Chemosh" (Numbers 21:29; Jeremiah
48:46)Cand Chemosh himself is referred to in 1 Kings 11:7
as "Chemosh the abomination of Moab." Both the culture and
the pagan worship of the Moabites became a serious
2 Kings 1 4
stumbling-block to the Israelites during that prolonged peace
that began under David and extended into Solomon's reign.
In fact, Solomon's backsliding began with a kind of
ecumenical embrace of Moabite culture and religion.
(Solomon also absorbed corrupt spiritual values from other
neighboring nations, too, so the Moabites weren't the only
bad influence on him.)
Solomon's decline was motivated, first of all, by his desire
to please the women in his harem. First Kings 11 is a
chronicle of Solomon's spiritual collapse. First Kings 11:1-2
says, "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along
with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite,
Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which
the LORD had said to the people of Israel, 'You shall not enter
into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely
they will turn away your heart after their gods.' Solomon clung to
these in love." Verses 6-8 go on to say,
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD
and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father
had done.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the
abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of
the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made
offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
Fire From Heaven 5
9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his
heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel,
who had appeared to him twice
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he
should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what
the LORD commanded.
In other words, Solomon, living the life of a Lothario,
embraced a kind of ecumenical compromise that mirrored his
moral promiscuity. He let his passion for women degrade his
character, undermine his faith, and overrule the wisdom God
had given himCand that compromised the entire nation
under his rule. It led to a nationwide spiritual decline and
religious confusion that culminated in the divided kingdom
and opened the door to abominations like Jezebel and Ahab.
It also left the people of Israel susceptible to divine judgment
and earthly defeat. So all Israel suffered years of exile,
misery, and spiritual confusion. That all began in Solomon's
time, and the Moabite influence was one of the major factors
that sabotaged Solomon's faithfulness.
Anyway, when Solomon died, the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah split. Judah, the southern nation (consisting of just two
tribesCJudah and Benjamin) stayed true to the line of
Davidic kings. The northern kingdom, Israel, consisted of the
other ten tribes, and they were ruled by a succession of
renegade kings, none of whom had any legitimate right under
2 Kings 1 6
God to rule. All the kings of Israel were wickedCno
exceptions. And some of them were profoundly wicked.
Control over Moab seems to have passed out of
Solomon's line and was taken over by the northern kingdom,
under that long dynasty of wicked and unbelieving Israelite
kings. We draw that conclusion because when the Moabites
finally revolted against the Hebrews, it was the Kings of
Israel they waged war against.
The first Moabite revolt was in the time of Omri. Omri
was the father of Ahab. (You know Ahab from our study of
Elijah's life years ago. He was the hapless king who married
Jezebel and unleashed the rankest kind of idolatry into the
northern kingdom.) Scripture doesn't record anything about
the Moabite revolt against Omri, but a thorough record of
that whole episode was later made and inscribed in stone in
Phoenician letters by King Mesha, the Moabite king who led
the revolt mentioned here in 2 Kings 1. The stone on which
that inscription was made was discovered by a German
missionary in 1868. It's one of modern archaeology's most
intriguing finds, known as the Moabite stone.
And we don't have time to get into it this morning, but if
you want to read a good story, look up the history of the
Moabite stone on the Internet or in a Bible encyclopedia
when you get home. The French and the Germans got into a
bidding war over the stone. Each country wanted it in their
national museum. And when Ottoman government officials
Fire From Heaven 7
discovered what incredible sums of money were being
offered for this artifact, they decided to handle the bidding
themselves, so they sent word from Damascus to the
Bedouins who had possession of the stone and ordered them
to turn it over. The Bedouins decided they didn't want
anyone else getting possession of the artifact, so they built a
fire under it, and when it was fiery hot, they poured cold
water over it, shattering it into several pieces. They
distributed the smaller fragments among themselves for
good-luck charms. The larger pieces were collected and
reassembled, and you can see the Moabite Stone in the
Louvre Museum in Paris today.
Anyway, fortunately for the study of archaeology, before
the Arabs destroyed the stone, the French had made what is
known as a "squeeze." They used papier mâché to take an
impression of it. Their squeeze was partly damaged because
the paper was still too wet when it was removed from the
stone. But most of the inscription was good enough to enable
archaeologists to reassemble the fragments. And the
inscription told the history of the Moabite nation during a
period of time that coincides almost precisely with the life of
Elijah and the record of 2 Kings. Like every other
archaeological discovery so far, it confirms every detail of
the biblical account.
We learn from the Moabite stone that the Moabites
revolted during Omri's reign, but they were subdued again
2 Kings 1 8
and forced to pay tribute to Ahab. Second Kings 3:4
describes the tribute Ahab demanded: "Now Mesha king of
Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of
Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams." (The
statement uses a verb tense that suggests this tribute was paid
regularly, probably annually.)
But 2 Kings 3:5 says when Ahab died and his son
Ahaziah took the throne, the Moabites revolted a second
time. (Here's the verse: "But when Ahab died, the king of Moab
rebelled against the king of Israel." That simply reiterates what
we already read in the opening verse of 2 Kings 1: "After the
death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel." This second
revolt was successful where the earlier revolt in Ahab's time
had failed. Both the Scriptures and the Moabite stone focus
on this second Moabite revolt.
From the biblical narrative, it appears the Moabites were
successful at least partly because of Ahaziah's failure to
respond aggressively to the revolt. He sent his armies out to
wage war, but he himself stayed home, in the safety of his
palace.
I have a suspicion about why Ahaziah may have stayed
home. In 1 Kings 21, when Elijah confronted Ahab, Elijah
prophesied that Ahab and all his offspring would be utterly
destroyed, his bloodline wiped from the face of the earth.
First Kings 21:21. Elijah confronts Ahab in the vineyard of
Naboth, and the Lord speaking prophetically through Elijah
Fire From Heaven 9
tells Ahab: "I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you
up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.
And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son
of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the
anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have
made Israel to sin." He goes on (verse 24): "Anyone belonging
to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of
his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall
eat."
(So this was a gruesome prophecy of utter destruction,
and 2 Kings 10:1 says Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria, so this
was no small family, and it was no small judgment to wipe
them all out.)
Now remember that Ahab was killed in battle, even
though he disguised himself as the king of Judah. An archer
fired off a random arrow, and it penetrated between the joints
of Ahab's armor, and he was fatally wounded. That arrow
was clearly guided by God Himself. The judgment Elijah
foretold was obviously beginning to come to pass. No
wonder Ahaziah was afraid to go into battle. He may have
figured he would be safe if he just stayed away from the
battlefield. As if he could escape the wrath of God by hiding
in the safety of his own palace! As if God's hand of judgment
couldn't reach him there!
But Ahaziah's palace turned out not to be such a safe
place, either. Second Kings 1:2: "Now Ahaziah fell through the
2 Kings 1 10
lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick"Cthat is,
he was seriously injured, bedridden with internal bleeding or
a wound of some kind that was clearly life-threatening.
A lattice is a screen or a grate made of crisscrossed
wooden strips. This could have been a vent or a kind of
skylight between the roof and a lower floor. Or more likely it
was a flimsy decorative substitute for a parapet or a
balustrade around the perimeter of the roof. Moses' law
demanded that every rooftop that was accessible to people
have a parapet. The idea clearly was to have a guard-rail so
sturdy that people couldn't accidentally fall off the roof. But
some builders obeyed only the letter of the law and ignored
its purpose. They sometimes made decorative but flimsy
parapets out of wooden lattice-work. Those may have been
the kind of parapets used on the king's palace in Israel.
So Ahaziah either carelessly backed into the lattice-work
or stupidly stepped on a flimsy vent or skylight made of
lattice-work, and the lattice gave way. He fell, obviously
some distanceCeither into the courtyard of the palace, or
through the roof into one of the rooms
Scripture doesn't describe his injuries, but they were
clearly serious. And naturally, Ahaziah wanted to know if his
injuries were going to prove fatal. See the second half of
verse 2: "he sent messengers, telling them, 'Go, inquire of
Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this
sickness.'"
Fire From Heaven 11
Now this is the first mention of Baalzebub in Scripture.
Baalzebub was a Philistine deity. His name meant, "Lord of
the flies." That was fitting, for the land of the Philistines was
thick with fliesCas that area still is to this day. And the
Philistines evidently believed the infestation of flies signified
that the Lord of the flies lived in their land, so they made this
fly-god one of their main deities. They had some famous
oracles who claimed to be able to tell the future. They
usually gave flattering prophecies with predictions so
ambiguous that they could hardly miss, but the Philistine
oracles nonetheless had gained fame throughout Israel. They
were sort of the "Psychic Friends Network" of Elijah's time.
And Ahaziah decided he would send messengers to the
fly-god's oracles to tell him if he could expect to live.
This occult curiosity about the future cost him his life.
God despises all forms of occult fortune-telling, and He
strictly forbade His people to engage in that sort of evil.
Listen to Deuteronomy 18:9-12:
When you come into the land that the LORD your God is
giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable
practices of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns
his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who
practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens,
or a sorcerer
2 Kings 1 12
11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who
inquires of the dead,
12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the
LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your
God is driving them out before you.
There were several similar prohibitions in the law. Through
Moses, God gave the people a zero-tolerance policy against
all the occult arts. It is absolutely clear from those
commandments that God does not regard any form of occult
fortune-telling as a matter to be trifled with. Before you read
a horoscope or consult a fortune-teller and make a
superstitious decision because of what some self-styled
prophet says, remember that this is a very serious sin. It was
an especially serious sin for a ruler on the throne of Israel.
He of all people needed to honor and obey God, not consult
these petty Philistine deities like the fly-god. It was bad
enough for the people to be tempted to be lured into occult
and pagan practices. But when the king engaged in such
behavior, it always brought certain and severe judgment.
Saul lost his kingdom because he went to a fortune-teller.
And here Ahaziah lost his life because he wanted to inquire
about his future from the fly-god.
Notice, however, that God sovereignly hindered Ahaziah
from getting any advice from Baalzebub. Verse 3:
But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite,
"Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of
Fire From Heaven 13
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?
4 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 went.
Here we see a instance of Elijah's trademark appearances.
Some of you will remember from our study of Elijah several
years ago that one of Elijah's idiosyncrasies is the way he
always appears out of nowhere, confronts his enemies, and
then disappears before they have time to react. This episode
is no exception.
And Elijah has bad news for Ahaziah: "You shall surely
die." You'll never get out of bed again. And he tells Ahaziah's
messengers to go back with that message to their king.
It will become apparent in a moment that these men had
no idea who Elijah was. Maybe they were too young to
remember the contest between Elijah and the prophets of
Baal on Mt. Carmel. They were servants in Ahaziah's court,
the next generation after Ahab, it's probably a given that tales
of Elijah's spiritual triumphs were not frequently the topic of
conversation in that household.
But it is interesting (isn't it?) that these men immediately
halted their journey, turned right around, and went straight
back to Ahaziah's bedside. They had been sent on a mission
by their king, but after this one short encounter with a
2 Kings 1 14
stranger, they abandoned their assignment and returned
home.
What was it about Elijah that made them take orders from
him rather than obeying their master's orders? Obviously, his
physical presence alone was somewhat intimidating.
Furthermore, from what we know of the character and
personality of Elijah, it is probably safe to assume that his
delivery was stern, and severe, and intense.
But it wasn't merely a matter of style that prompted these
men to obey Elijah rather than their master. When a man of
God is under the control of the Spirit of God, that man's
message is empowered by the spirit in an inscrutable way so
that the message penetrates even the hardest of hearts. Elijah
clearly knew what they were sent on their quest to learn. And
Elijah spoke with the authority and the power of God
Himself. Who can resist that?
Verse 5: "The messengers returned to the king, and he said
to them, 'Why have you returned?'" Ahaziah knew they had not
been gone long enough to get to Ekron and back. Verse 6:
And they said to him, "There came a man to meet us, and
said to us, 'Go back 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.'"
Fire From Heaven 15
7 He said to them, "What kind of man was he who came to
meet you and told you these things?"
8 They answered him, "He wore a garment of hair, with a
belt of leather about his waist." And he said, "It is Elijah
the Tishbite."
You would think Ahaziah would be terrified at this, right?
He knows from long experience that Elijah speaks for God.
Elijah had never once been wrong about anything. At his
word a three-year long drought was startedCand then finally
after three years he gave the word and it rained again. He
called down fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel. (He was about
to do a couple of repeat performances, but Ahaziah didn't
know about that yet.)
When Elijah confronted Ahab in Naboth's vineyard in 1
Kings 21, the prophet knew everything about Ahab's
treachery against Naboth. He correctly predicted Ahab's
demise because of it. Now he was telling Ahaziah that he too
would die soon.
But Ahaziah's response, rather than fear and repentance, is
anger and vindictiveness against Elijah.
But Elijah was only the messenger. God was the one
Ahaziah was really opposing. It was a foolish response.
Verse 9:
Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his
fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a
2 Kings 1 16
hill, and said to him, "O man of God, the king says, 'Come
down.'"
10 But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man
of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you
and your fifty." Then fire came down from heaven and
consumed him and his fifty.
Wow. This was apparently an instantaneous thing. This fire
from heaven didn't just kill these guys and char their bodies.
It consumed them. All fifty fit neatly into an ash tray when
Elijah was done with them.
(One of the earliest viral videos on the Internet showed a
guy igniting a sack of charcoal by burning some liquid
oxygen. He poured the stuff from a container he held on a
pole from at least 10 feet away. And it flared up for a second,
and then immediately went away. And what was left was a
melted steel barbecue grill and the ashes from a sack of
Charcoal. Instantly consumed. That's something like what
happened here, only the fire fell from heaven.)
That should have waked Ahaziah up. Because somehow
word got back to him about what had happened. Evidently
there were witnesses to this instantaneous cremation, and the
witnesses reported back to the king.
Verse 11:
Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men
with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, "O man of
God, this is the king's order, 'Come down quickly!'"
Fire From Heaven 17
12 But Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire
come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty."
Then the fire of God came down from heaven and
consumed him and his fifty.
This guy doesn't learn, does he? You'd think the point would
be clear by now. ButC
Verse 13: "Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with
his fifty." You get the feeling Ahaziah would have kept
sending men until his whole army was destroyed by fire from
heaven. But this third captain was a wise man, and he
humbled himself before Elijah:
And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on
his knees before Elijah and entreated him, "O man of God,
please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of
yours, be precious in your sight.
14 Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the
two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now
let my life be precious in your sight."
15 Then 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.
That scene always makes me smile. After all that
spontaneous human compunction, Elijah just agrees to go
with these men to Ahaziah's bedside. They didn't have to
force or cajole him. He comes to Ahaziah of his own free
willCand I mean "free will" in the Calvinist sense, because
2 Kings 1 18
notice that he goes at the Lord's bidding. He arrives at the
Palace, and he is shown into the room where Ahaziah lies on
his deathbed.
Verse 16:
and [Elijah] said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Because
you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the
god of Ekron--is it because there is no God in Israel to
inquire of his word?--therefore you shall not come down
from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall
surely die.'"
17 So he died according to the word of the LORD that
Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in
the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king
of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son.
Then the biblical record of Ahaziah closes with the last
verse in this chapter (verse 18): "Now the rest of the acts of
Ahaziah that he did, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?"
So there you have the story. It's a simple one, really, but
it's filled with spiritual lessons. I want to draw out a few of
the key ones for you.
First, considerC
Fire From Heaven 19
1. HOW LOW SIN BROUGHT AHAZIAH
Ahaziah had followed in his father's wicked footsteps. He
had also followed his mother's wickednessCand to the
degree that he was really just a puppet ruler for Jezebel. She
told him what to do. She was the real power behind the
throne in Israel, just as she had been during her husband's
wicked reign. Ahaziah's short reign was so marked by
wickedness that God judgment was inevitable, sooner rather
than later. And you can see the hand of divine displeasure in
the accident Ahaziah suffered.
Ahaziah despised God. So God gave him over to his own
sin. In fact, Ahaziah's life reveals how often our sinful
rebellion carries its own consequences. Ahaziah had already
rejected the truth. Therefore he had no option but to pursue a
lie. And that is why he sought a forecast from a lying,
demonic oracle.
You need to understand the character of this Philistine
god Baalzebub. His very name, "Lord of the Flies," has a
filthy, foul sound to it, doesn't it? And Baalzebub was as vile
a deity as anyone ever invented. He supposedly ruled the
fliesCthose revolting insects that swarm around every kind
of decay and filth and spread disease and spawn maggots. It
was a fitting image for this kind of god. Who would ever
think of worshiping a deity whose realm was everything foul
and unclean?
2 Kings 1 20
The whole idea of a god who delighted in all that was
unclean was so revolting to the Jews that they altered the
name Baal-zebub slightly to make it Beel-zebulCwhich
meant "god of dung." But you get a sense of how utterly
abhorrent Baal-zebub was to a typical Jew.
In fact, this dung-god Beel-zebul was the consummate
example of a demonic false god. He so epitomized
everything impure and unholyCeverything that opposes the
true GodCso that by the time of Jesus, the name Beelzebul
had become a way to refer to Satan. So when you read the
name Beelzebul in the New Testament, it is a reference to the
devil. And that's a fitting, name for the evil one, isn't it? God
of dung. And Satan himself was in a true but spiritual sense
the real object of every Baal-worshiper's devotion. In 1
Corinthians 10:20, Paul writes "What pagans sacrifice they
offer to demons and not to God." There is a real demonic
energy in all false religion and occultism, and that is one of
the chief reasons the people of God are forbidden to trifle
with such things.
Now consider the irony of the fact that Ahaziah, sitting on
the throne in Israel, had so much contempt for Israel's God
that he would be willing to inquire after the lying oracles of a
loathsome being like Baal-zebub.
But Ahaziah had already rejected the truth, so God gave
him over to lies.
Fire From Heaven 21
It is inherently irrational to reject the truth, isn't it?
Suppose the oracle at Ekron had told Ahaziah what he
wanted to hearCthat he would live. That wouldn't make it
true, would it? If the morning horoscope says this is an
auspicious day to launch a new business venture, that doesn't
make it true, does it? Who knows how many people have
destroyed their lives pursuing lies because they have no
choice after they reject the truth.
Listen, we need to hold fast to the truth God has given us
and order our lives by what Scripture says. Modern society
in general has gone the opposite direction, rejecting Scripture
in favor of astrology, psychology, evolution, humanism,
secularism, and a host of other superstitious or rationalistic
lies. But if you turn away from the truth to follow fables, you
in effect give yourself over to Satan, the father of lies. That's
why it was sheer folly for Ahaziah to inquire of the Philistine
oracle in the first place.
Many wicked men sat on the throne of Israel after
Jeroboam's revolt. But this episode was something of a low
point for the whole era, that an Israelite king would inquire
of a Philistine god.
Here's a second lesson. ConsiderC
2 Kings 1 22
2. HOW FAR FAITH HAD BROUGHT ELIJAH
There's a remarkable contrast between the Elijah of this
episode and the immature prophet who ran from Jezebel all
the way to the southern end of the Sinai peninsula. Here we
see Elijah confident, bold, unmovable. First, he arrests the
messengers on the road, boldly ordering them to go back and
tell their king what he doesn't want to hear. Then notice in
verse 9 that when Ahaziah's soldiers came looking for him,
"Elijah . . . was sitting on the top of a hill." He knows Ahaziah
wants to kill him, but he doesn't run and hide. His sits in
plain view, on top of a hill, where they will be sure and find
him. And then when they threaten him, he more or less
casually calls down fire out of heaven and reduces them to
ashes. Don't you sort of wish he had shown that kind of
confidence when Jezebel threatened to kill him after the
Mount Carmel showdown?
This is the true Elijah. This is the prophet at his best, most
mature. And what is the reason for the difference? His faith.
As his faith grew strong, so did Elijah. And here he reveals
an amazing, superhuman level of faith. He stands unflinching
before an detachment of fifty armed men, Ahaziah's best
fighting men. And he displays the kind of faith spoken of in
Matthew 17:20 where Jesus says, "If you have faith like a grain
of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here
to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for
you."
Fire From Heaven 23
Let me explain something: That kind of faith is a
supernatural faith. It's source is God. Jesus wasn't suggesting
you can summon this sort of faith from within yourself. He
wasn't teaching that if you try real hard you can believe in
yourself strongly enough to command mountains. That
wasn't His point at all. The point is that true faith is trust in a
promise God has madeCbelief in what God has said. Elijah
was a prophet. He knew through his prophetic gifts that God
intended to carry out His judgment this way. In other words,
true faith has both its source and object in God. Elijah was
not exercising some kind of superstitious self-confidence.
His trust was in God, and it was God who performed this
miracle.
In that same vein, it's important to note that Elijah didn't
call down fire from heaven against these men out of any
personal or petty vindictiveness. If that had been any part of
his motive, God would not have answered with fire.
Some people have trouble reconciling this passage with
Luke 9:55, where James and John wanted to call down fire
from heaven against some Samaritans because they refused
to allow Jesus to pass through their village on His way to
Jerusalem. And Jesus rebuked James and John. And what
about John 3:17? "For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him."
2 Kings 1 24
Just to be clear; Scripture never condemns what Elijah
did, because it wasn't even Elijah who did this; God did it.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, the New Testament
doesn't promote a pacifist agenda. What happened when
Elijah encountered these messengers was an act of God, done
for God's own glory. As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself will
one day destroy His enemies with a fiery retribution from
heaven.
But on that day in Samaria with James and John, Jesus'
mission was a mission of salvation, and James and John were
reacting because they had been personally insulted.
Therefore their desire to call down fire from heaven was
inappropriate and wicked. For all of us who don't have
Elijah's prophetic gift and specific instructions from heaven,
that's pretty much a universal rule. The desire to seek
vengeance is carnal.
But Elijah's fire from heaven was meant by God as a
public display of divine vindication, and a public judgment
against an evil regime that sat on Israel's throne, opposing
Jehovah and all He stood for. Such extreme wickedness
called for a breathtaking, awe-inspiring judgment. That's
why fire was warranted against Ahaziah's soldiers, but it was
not warranted against the Samaritans.
And that brings us to a third spiritual lesson we draw from
this account. ConsiderC
Fire From Heaven 25
3. HOW PATIENTLY GOD'S MERCY PURSUES THE WICKED
In the midst of all this judgment, there is still a constant
display of the Lord's great mercy to His foes. Ahaziah's
injuries are one clear example. He could have died
immediately from his fall. But the Lord graciously spared his
life for a time, giving him an opportunity to contemplate his
impending ruin and an opportunity for repentance. Such an
opportunity is never to be taken for granted. God owes such
mercy to no one.
In fact, contrast Ahaziah's fate with that of his soldiers,
who were destroyed on the spot with no opportunity to seek
any remedy. God is not unrighteous to judge instantly and
summarily like that. But so often He does not. I would guess
that there is not a person in this room who has not been the
beneficiary of the kind of Divine mercy that fires a warning
shot before dispensing justice. God often gives us time to
reflect and warning signs to reflect on before He makes us
taste the consequences of our sin. And those are
opportunities for repentance. I hope you never waste them or
take them for granted. Because Proverbs 29:1 says, "He who
is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken
beyond healing."
This whole episode reminds us that "It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). "our
God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). Quite literally we
2 Kings 1 26
see the fulfillment of that in what happened to the first two
captains and their fifties.
But the third group of soldiers is a reminder that "God . . .
gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). God's
mercies are never exhausted, and those who humble
themselves before Him and confess their sins can always find
mercy.
The patience of God is truly a marvel, but we are
cautioned again and again not to take God's longsuffering for
granted or presume on His grace. Scripture says, "Today, if
you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." Whether you are
a believer or not, all these truths are poignant incentives to
careful self-examination. In the words of 2 Peter 3:15, "Count
the patience of our Lord as salvation."
And meanwhile, "exhort one another every day, as long as it
is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin." Or, quoting 2 Peter 3 again, "You
therefore, beloved . . . take care that you are not carried away
with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen"