Men should learn lessons from the past, but do they? Particularly where God’s dealings are involved men should profit; but the mind of man is very obtuse in all things relating to God. Belshazzar was quite aware of how Jehovah had humbled Nebuchadnezzar; he knew also how Jehovah took up the challenge when the proud king presumed to cast three of His servants into the burning fiery furnace. Yet he openly defied the God of Israel! Ahaziah knew quite well when he began his reign of the great drought which an indignant God had inflicted upon the nation because of its idolatry. He knew also of the solemn event on Mount Carmel, when Baal’s prophets were publicly confounded, and then slain; yet his short reign of two years was marked by defiance of Jehovah!
1 Kings 22:52 records that “he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother” (for Jezebel still lived, and was still influential in the land). He copied Jeroboam’s sins, and “served Baal, and worshipped him.” Various events which followed one another quickly should have spoken to his conscience: first, the tragic death of his father; second, the revolt of Moab after 150 years subjection to Israel; and third, his own accident. Wisdom would have taught him to enquire of God “is there not a cause?”
Finding himself a sick man through his fall out of a window, Ahaziah sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron whether he should recover (2 Kings 1). This was flagrant, for the recognition of Baal had been discouraged in the land, and Jehovah was (at least nominally) Israel’s God. When Ahab’s false prophets encouraged him to go to war with the Syrians, it was not Baal’s name that they used, but the name of Jehovah (1 Kings 22:6). Baal-zebub means “lord of flies.” The belief that flies carried disease led blind heathen to turn to this particular god for help; but Ahaziah should have known better. To inquire at Ekron was really to inquire of demons. Idols are nothing in themselves, but there are demons behind them, as 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us. Traffic with demons is painfully common in our day. Men call it Spiritualism; “demonism” would be a more correct name for this great sin. This is unpardonable where Bibles abound, and where the Gospel of Christ is freely proclaimed. The moral and spiritual consequences of this unholy traffic are very serious.
An angel of Jehovah bade Elijah meet the messengers of the “King of Samaria” (he disdained to call such a man “King of Israel”), and ask them whether there was no longer a God in Israel that they must needs go to Ekron. They were to go back to their master, and tell him he would not recover, but would surely die. The messengers apparently awestruck, but without knowing that it was Elijah who had spoken to them, went back to the king with the message. When Ahaziah inquired what kind of man it was who had thus intercepted them, they said it was “a man in a hairy garment, with a girdle of leather about his loins.” The King at once recognized his father’s dread monitor, he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite!”
Not ashamed of his impiety, and in no wise humbled, Ahaziah ordered the arrest of the prophet. But why send a captain with fifty men (presumably armed) against a helpless old man? Conscience told the king that there was a mysterious power connected with Elijah which must be reckoned with. But what could soldiers do against the power of God? The captain found Elijah sitting on top of a hill. He said to him: “Thou man of God, the king hath said, come down.” The prophet replied: “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty.” The terrible thing took place forthwith. Such a disaster should have warned both the king and his officers that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). But a second company was sent, as numerous as the first. The second captain was irritable. “O man of God, the king hath said, come down quickly.” Military discipline is doubtless important. Officers and men, generally speaking, must obey their superiors; but every man, in every land, whether soldier or civilian, is, first of all, a servant of God, and he should on no account surrender his conscience. It will be no answer in the day of judgment that the king or government commanded this or that. “We ought to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). The fact that both captains addressed Elijah as “man of God” proves that they had some idea that they were contending with God. It was no secret to any in Israel that at Elijah’s word rain was withheld and fire descended; in other words, this humble man wielded the judgments of God. It was one thing to reject his testimony; it was quite another to attempt to destroy the man himself. God’s name having been brought into the matter, He must needs take up the challenge. Ahaziah’s father once benefited by the folly of the Syrians in this respect. The Syrians having said that Israel’s God was God of the hills but not of the valleys, Jehovah asserted Himself, and granted Ahab a great victory, wicked man though he was (1 Kings 20:28). Thus, in the controversy between Ahaziah and Elijah, Jehovah again asserted Himself, and made the king and his people feel the might of His hand. The second captain was less excusable than the first. Knowing of the destruction of his predecessor, he impiously attempted the same thing, with the same fatal result.
What a contrast between Mount Carmel and the unnamed hill! At the one the fire of God consumed the sacrifice, but spared the people; at the other there was no sacrifice and the fire consumed the ungodly. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is a safe shelter for sinners; apart from that sacrifice, nothing but judgment is possible for any of us. Our Lord’s disciples once referred to the destruction of Ahaziah’s men. They were in the neighborhood of that disaster; and they were indignant because the Samaritan people refused a welcome to the Lord. He was on His way to Jerusalem a city of which they were jealous, “Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven; and consume them as Elias did?” (Luke 9:51-56). The Lord rebuked their mistaken zeal. God had not at that time sent Him to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). At His second coming, “He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” (Isa. 11:4).
The poor human heart is slow to understand grace. Both Peter and Paul possessed miraculous powers they could even raise the dead but never once did either call down judgment upon his persecutors. With meekness they accepted all that came upon them for Jesus’ sake, assured that in the wisdom of God everything would turn out to the furtherance of the Gospel. The cross of Jesus explains this. That blessed One could easily have smitten His foes; the fact that His captors fell to the ground at the sound of His voice was a warning to them as to this (John 18:6). When Peter became violent in the garden, He told him that a word of prayer to the Father would bring twelve legions of angels to His aid. But such a prayer He would not offer (Matt. 26:53).
The cross of Jesus was a necessity in the ways of God. Only on the ground of that great sacrifice could He give effect to His eternal counsels of grace. Righteousness having had its way, grace flows freely, yea, “the exceeding riches of His grace” (Eph. 2:7). The cross will yet be divinely avenged; but until the solemn day when God will change His attitude towards men, those who serve Him must be content to suffer. We cannot too frequently remind ourselves that we are followers of a rejected Christ. When He gets His vindication, we shall get ours also.
A third captain was sent against Elijah. He wise man fell upon his knees, and pleaded for his life and for the lives of his men. He realized that it was vain to contend with God. In David’s day three companies of men were sent by Saul to take him, and all three were equally willing for their evil work. But God had His own way of turning their efforts to folly (1 Sam. 19:21). Ahaziah’s third captain took very humble ground with the man of God. “I pray thee, let my life, and the lives of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.” (2 Kings 1:13). Submission to God, represented by Elijah, saved those fifty-one men. “Thy servants”; note the words addressed by a military officer to a humble Gileadite peasant. In like manner, no sinner need perish if he will but humble himself under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6).
The honor of the God of Israel having been fully vindicated, Elijah was told by the angel to go with the captain, fearing nothing. Behold then the prophet with his rough hairy mantle going with his considerable military escort to the royal palace! To his face he told the wicked king that there would be no recovery for him; he would surely die. “Thus saith Jehovah.” Unmolested, the prophet walked out!
Note the sequel: “So he died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken” (2 Kings 1:17). “And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). Tremendous contrast!
In the world’s last crisis, after the removal of the heavenly saints, heavy judgments will reappear at the call of the servants of God. In Revelation 11 we read of witnesses in Jerusalem who will perform the same terrible miracles as Moses and Elijah in the past. Also, the martyrs of that period will pray for judgment upon their persecutors (Rev. 6:10). But that period is not Christianity.