14 Days in the Company of Elijahનમૂનો

Day 12: Elijah and Another King (1 Kings 22:51–53; 2 Kings 1:1–18; 1 Kings 18)

Ahab’s son Ahaziah follows his father onto Israel’s throne—and into all the evil patterns of his parents (1 Ki. 22:51–53). At some point during his brief two-year reign, this new king is injured in a fall. He sends messengers to the Philistine city of Ekron, to inquire of the Philistine god whether he will recover from his injury (2 Ki. 1:2). The Lord’s response is swift; he sends old Elijah to intercept the king’s messengers with the rhetorical question that will ring three times in the story: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?” (2 Ki. 1:3, 6, 16, NRSV). Because there is indeed a God in Israel and because Ahaziah has scorned and shunned him, the promised punishment on Ahab’s house will begin with him: “You will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die” (2 Ki. 1:4, 16, NLT).

Ahaziah’s reaction to the prophetic word is not repentance but rage. He wants Elijah to come and say these things to his face! He sends, in quick succession, three cohorts of fifty men, with this message to the prophet: “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down’” (2 Ki. 1:9, NRSV). We see Elijah at the end of his ministry, consistent with his having refused to budge from his position throughout, in response to a royal summons, unless the Lord himself directs him. So, the first two times, he refuses the command, even when its expression intensifies: “O man of God, this is the king’s order: Come down quickly!” (2 Ki. 1:11, NRSV). Instead, the prophet throws the king’s words back in his face with the same radical boldness he showed on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), in that prior confrontation with Baal. To the captains of the first two cohorts that come seeking him, Elijah declares: “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty” (2 Ki. 1:10, 12, NRSV). That is precisely what happens, in a resounding echo of the fiery divine response on Mount Carmel.

King Ahaziah has no compunctions about sending a third group of soldiers into the danger zone around Elijah! But the third captain, with bold wisdom, throws aside a repetition of the king’s demand to make his own plea before the prophet: “O man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight” (2 Ki. 1:13, NRSV). The Lord honors this petition and tells the prophet to go with the captain (2 Ki. 1:15). Elijah moves not on the king’s orders, but at the Lord’s direction. He pulls no punches—in Samaria, he repeats to the king’s face the same message of reprimand and judgment that was initially given to him via his messengers (2 Ki. 1:3–4, 16).

The follow-up is swift, concise, and exact: “So Ahaziah died, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah” (2 Ki. 1:17, NLT). Ahaziah dies without sons, so the dismantling of the house of Ahab has begun.