2Kings 1:1-12

         

2kings 1:1-12

1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”        

God warns through the betrayal of Moab and through the fall and injury of Ahaziah. As the name Ahaziah which means “Jehovah holds on,” he is just weak person who can not help himself but fall unless he held on by God. However, Ahaziah holds on to Baal, not God, until the end. If God lets go of the hand that holds him, he will fall along with that which he has held in place of God.

3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’” So Elijah went. 5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?” 6 “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!”’”

When Ahaziah sent a messenger to Baal to ask about his fate, God sent a messenger to Elijah. Elijah intercepted Ahaziah’s messengers heading to Baal’s temple and predicted Ahaziah’s death as the angel of the Lord had told him. What about your life? Wouldn’t the Lord also block your way and shout, “Is there no God in your life, so you are trying to rely on it?”

7 The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?” 8 They replied, “He had a garment of hair[a] and had a leather belt around his waist.” The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.” 9 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!’”

Just as Arab who thought he could control God’s will by capturing Elijah(1King17-18), Ahaziah also tried to change his own fate by capturing Elijah. But just the drought came upon Israel was not because of Elijah but because of Ahab’s idolatry, so Ahaziah’s downfall was also because of his own sins. There is noting wrong with the word of God that makes me uncomfortable. The problem is that my life has become so far away from God’s will. It is not the word that needs to be changed but me. 

10 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. 11 At this 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!’” 12 “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.

What ‘comes down’ on those who command God’s people who follow God’s will to “come down”(9,11) is  God’s fire. Ahaziah could not have been unaware of the fire of judgement that came down on Carmel in his father’s time(1Kings18:38). However, he does not stop his arrogant command. He is hastening his own  destruction by denying that God’s word is not an object of command and control but an object of obedience. In the end, Ahaziah will die on his bed without being able to control even one part of his body.