Never Let Your Guard Down

“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 unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?  Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.  And Elijah departed.”  II Kings 1:3-4

When Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, died the leaders of the country of Moab saw an opportunity to break from under the yoke of Israel.  Apparently, they had little fear of Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, who was now Israel’s king, or else they thought that he was weak and vulnerable and could not defend Israel.  They were weary of paying tribute money, taxes paid for the benefit of another country, to Israel and also fed up with being subject to the whims of Israel’s king.

King Ahaziah was in the king’s palace in Samaria and fell through a lattice on the second floor.  This lattice likely surrounded a porch, and Ahaziah must have leaned against it causing it to give way, and he fell onto the first floor.  His injuries were severe and caused an infection which made him extremely ill.  They didn’t have the advantage of antibiotics and, many times, would succumb to their injuries.  Ahaziah wanted to know the outcome of his injuries and illness, so he sent messengers to enquire of one of the false gods, Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron in Philistia, the god worshiped by the Philistines.  This god was also known as the “lord of the fly” so named because those who worshiped this god believed that it was the producer of flies and able to control this common pest.  Recall that Jesus was accused of doing miracles by the power of Baal-zebub or Beel-zebub (Matthew 12:22-30).

The false gods that were worshiped by the Jews and by the surrounding nations did have some power given to them by Satan, but their power was limited by the LORD God.  When Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh, and Aaron cast down his rod which became a snake, Pharaoh’s magicians cast down their rods which also became snakes, but Aaron’s snake swallowed up the snakes of the magicians (Exodus 7:8-12).  The moral of this account is to never dismiss the devil’s schemes as cheap parlor tricks but know that God is all powerful and will always defeat Satan.  However, never let your guard down for it is easy to fall into Satan’s trap if you are not vigilant.

Aware of Ahaziah’s request, as God is always aware of everything that goes on or will occur, He sent one of His messenger angels to Elijah, that wise and loyal prophet of God, to intercept the messengers of Ahaziah.  The message was clear:  Elijah was to ask the messengers if they were seeking an answer to Ahaziah’s dilemma from a god that was not God rather than God Himself.  Was God not available to them in Israel?  Did they not even believe that there was a God in Israel?  Ahaziah would soon find out that trusting in a false god was a dangerous place to be, rather than trusting in the God of Israel, who had the power to heal him if he was repentant for his idolatry and humbled himself before God.  Elijah told the messengers that the LORD said that Ahaziah would not survive but die on his bed.  Elijah then departed from them.

The messengers did not go on to Ekron to consult with Baal-zebub.  At least they were wise enough to take Elijah’s message as truth and report that truth back to Ahaziah.  When they returned to him, Ahaziah asked them why they had returned so soon.  He knew that they had not had sufficient time to go to Ekron and back again to Samaria which was 35 to 40 miles from Ekron as the crow flies.  Ahaziah was eager to know what Baal-zebub had prophesied about his condition.  The messengers told him exactly what had happened on their way to Ekron:  they met a man who wanted to know why they were consulting with a false god instead of the God of Israel who had informed Elijah that Ahaziah was destined to die.

Ahaziah, not particularly accepting the message from someone whom he didn’t know, asked them the identity of this man.  They described him as a hairy man wearing a leather girdle, a belt like garment used to hold up the bottom of the tunic or robe to make movement unhindered.  [He sort of sounds like John the Baptist.  Malachi prophesied that a prophet like Elijah would come before Christ came (Malachi 4:5-6) and Luke wrote that John would go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:13-17)].  A leather girdle was what the poorer people wore, but the wealthier wore girdles of linen or silk (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).

When the messengers finished describing the man that they had met on the way to Ekron, Ahaziah knew immediately that it was none other than Elijah.  Ahaziah had likely heard about Elijah and his confrontations with Ahab, Ahaziah’s father.  This was not good news for Ahaziah.

Next time:  Ahaziah’s Reaction