Ahaziah’s Defiance

“And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him (the captain): be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.  And he (Elijah) said unto him (Ahaziah), Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of His word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.”  II Kings 1:15-16

Ahaziah, not pleased with the prophecy of Elijah that was relayed to him by his messengers, decided to not heed Elijah’s message which was a rebuke of Ahaziah’s choice to hear from the god of the Philistines instead of the God of Israel, thus, he called for Elijah’s capture.  Had the messengers returned with the same prophecy of death from the Baal prophet at Ekron, Ahaziah would likely have accepted it and put his house in order before he died.  However, because Elijah was a prophet of the God of Israel, Ahaziah would not accept his words and sought to punish him.  Remember that Ahaziah was the king of Israel, thus, his God was the God of Israel, but like so many before him, he had become idolatrous.

To capture Elijah, Ahaziah sent one of his military leaders along with a company of fifty soldiers.  That is a lot of men to take one man, but a million wouldn’t have been enough if God chose to protect Elijah, who was sitting on top of a hill.  The soldiers intended to take Elijah peacefully by calling for him to come down from the hill., but he had no intention of going with them.  He had already dealt with Jezebel’s threat to kill him, and he knew that Ahaziah was angry with his prophesy.

The captain and his fifty soldiers soon learned that the God of Elijah and of Israel was immensely more powerful that the Baal gods that they worshiped.  When the captain called Elijah “you man of God”, he likely said it sarcastically, mocking both Elijah and God.  Elijah replied to the captain that if he was indeed a “man of God”, then let fire fall from heaven and consume all of Ahaziah’s men, and guess what?  God did.  There was nothing left except a pile of ashes.

Since this first battalion didn’t return to Ahaziah, the king sent out a second group of soldiers.  We don’t know if the second captain and his fifty men knew what had happened to the first group or not, but if they did, there was likely some doubt about this mission.  Or, it could be, like many folks, they thought it would turn out differently for them.  They were like those politicians and others who think that socialism would be different than it has been in every place that it has been tried.  The second captain repeated what the first captain had said and called Elijah down from the hill and to come quickly.

Again, fire came down and destroyed all 51 men.  Since they did not return, Ahaziah sent out a third battalion, but this captain took a different approach.  He fell on his knees before Elijah and begged for mercy.  Apparently, he did know about the catastrophes that had struck the first two groups of men for he made that clear to Elijah.  He was begging for Elijah to spare their lives, to look on them as precious human beings.  We don’t know if he was sincere in his respect of Elijah and of the God of Israel or if he was only pretending in order to escape the same outcome as those two companies before him.  Since God could read his heart, I think he was likely sincere because he was extremely fearful.

This time Elijah was instructed by the LORD to meet with Ahaziah.  God told Elijah to not fear the king.  Once Elijah arrived, he met with Ahaziah and repeated what he had said to Ahaziah’s messengers.  Because the king did not seek the LORD’s help, but rather turned to a heathen god, God would not let him recover from his injuries and infection, and he would die on his bed.  Just as Elijah said, Ahaziah died, and because he had no son, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, reigned in his stead.

No one, absolutely no one, can defy the LORD God and get away with it.  There is a tremendous amount of defiance going on against the LORD in our day, and those who commit and/or promote the egregious sins against Him, unless they truly repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness, will come to a drastic end, either in this life or in eternity.  Hebrews 10:31 tells us that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”.  God is a God of love and mercy, but also a God who is just and will punish sin.  I have often wondered why God allows the wicked to keep on doing their evil, but in studying the word, I have found out that God is allowing the sins of those who do evil to add up against them as evidence on the day of judgment.  Just because an evildoer seems to be getting away with his or her sins on this earth, he or she is only making it worse on themselves.  Thank God that He provided a way to escape His wrath by way of Jesus Christ, but that is the only way whereby a person can be made right in the sight of God.  It’s God’s way or no way.