The rebellion of Moab against Israel is the first consequence of Ahaziah’s unfaithfulness (see 1 Kings 22:52-54). It is a judgment upon the king who by his idolatry had provoked God to anger. The change of reign furnishes Moab a favorable occasion to throw off this hated yoke. Had not Moab from olden times hated and sought to curse the people of God (Num. 22)? Back in those times nations that had been reduced to servitude were accustomed to these revolts and were ever awaiting the death of their tyrants to shake off their yoke and free themselves from the heavy taxes with which he weighed them down. The history of the kings of Assyria, otherwise mightier than those of Israel, is full of similar revolts. Moab, chastised by Saul (1 Sam. 14:4747So Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines: and whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them. (1 Samuel 14:47)), then subjugated by David (2 Sam. 8:2, 122And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts. (2 Samuel 8:2)
12Of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah. (2 Samuel 8:12); 1 Chron. 18:22And he smote Moab; and the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts. (1 Chronicles 18:2)), had been subject under the glorious reign of Solomon, like all the other kingdoms which brought their tribute to the king sitting upon his throne in Jerusalem (1 Kings 4:21; 10:2521And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. (1 Kings 4:21)
25And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year. (1 Kings 10:25)). Since the division of the twelve tribes, Moab, by reason of its geographic position, had become tributary to Israel rather than to Judah (2 Kings 3:55But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. (2 Kings 3:5)). Its tribute (100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams with their wool), enormous for such a limited country, must have weighed heavily upon it, to say nothing of the humiliation impatiently suffered by this proud and haughty nation. Thus it is not surprising that Moab should seize upon the first occasion to free itself. But above the external fact which strikes man’s attention, the believer sees something invisible, the only important thing for him —the hand of God stretched forth to judge the people and their ungodly leader.
A second judgment falls upon the king himself. “Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and was sick?” But repentance was foreign to the heart of the king of Israel, and Jehovah had no place either in his thoughts or in his life. He was indifferent to the judgment of God; he saw but an ordinary accident in the blow that had struck him. “He sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this disease.” His own Baal, before whom he bowed (1 Kings 22:54), was not enough for him; he sends to the Baal of the Philistines to learn his fate. Baal-zebub, the lord of flies, was much more valuable in his eyes than Jehovah. This god was doubtless invoked by this idolatrous nation to secure themselves from this plague of the lands of the East, flies. He was a powerful god to his votaries, for bowing down before him in their blindness they were worshipping or supplicating Satan himself, the Beelzebub so often mentioned in the New Testament.
That which happened to Ahaziah still happens today to every follower of a false religion. His religion can no more satisfy his heart, calm his soul’s fears, or make known the future than the Baal of Jezebel and Ahab, who Ahaziah worshipped, could satisfy him. Therefore every new superstition is welcome, provided it gives us hope of escaping the fate by which we feel threatened.
At the command of the angel of the Lord, Elijah the Tishbite appears anew upon the scene, and we find him with all the boldness and energy of faith which he had shown from the brook Cherith to the destruction of the prophets of Baal. The juniper tree in the wilderness and the lesson at Horeb had borne their fruit for the prophet. They had formed a sort of parenthesis of experiences about himself, after which his career of faith had begun anew when he had boldly presented himself in Naboth’s vineyard before Ahab to pronounce God’s terrible judgment upon him and upon Jezebel (I Kings 21:17-26). Our chapter is but the continuation of this courageous testimony. Elijah goes up to meet these messengers of the king and says to them: “Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die.”
Had it not in effect been proven before Ahab and Jezebel that there was a God in Israel? There where the man of God was found, one found God—a very important testimony for the perilous day through which we pass. Why did one find God? Because the Word of God had been committed to Elijah and one could come to him to inquire of it.
Moreover, the prophet’s character corresponded to his mission and accredited him before the world, so that this latter could recognize in him an authority given by God. Ahaziah, against whom the Word was directed, could not mistake him. “It is Elijah the Tisbite,” he cried when his servants told him: “He was a man in a hairy garment, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.” His clothing and his girdle sufficed to make him known. His garment, like the covering of the ark, depicted the holiness that repels corruption, at the same time the simplicity that delights in that which is humble; his girdle on the one hand kept his garments from contact with defilement, but it was also the emblem of his absolute devotion to the service of the Lord, of the concentration of his thoughts upon one object alone. By these signs the wicked king was forced to recognize the man of God; he said, “It is Elijah!”
Should it not be the same for us today? The Word of God is entrusted to the believer in the midst of a Christendom that has given it up. But he can have no power to accredit the testimony of God before the world except by showing forth in his conduct true separation from the world, humility in his walk, and genuine consecration of his entire life to the Lord. Thus it is that we shall have the right to speak on God’s behalf. If this is so, the world will have to hear us, whether it wants to or not; if not, it will turn away and take occasion by our conduct to despise the Word of God.
The prophet pronounces a third judgment on Ahaziah. The first, Moab’s rebellion, had struck at the glory of his kingdom; the second, his fall, at his health, this third, at his life. “Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die.”
But that is not all. The king prepares a fourth judgment for himself. He does not fear to send a captain of fifty with his men against the prophet. Elijah “sat on the top of the mount, “ in an inaccessible spot. The captain addresses him: “Man of God, the king says, Come down!” What temerity on part of the king! To his lack of faith in his own idols and to his gross superstition he adds the pride that rises up against God and intends to bring Him down to his own level. Like the first Adam, he regards being equal with God a thing to be grasped at!
Elijah, the man of God, is here a representative of Christ. Should he have less power, now that He is seated in the heavenlies, than when He walked upon earth, despised and hated of all? Today man’s sin has just been made all the more heinous by his hatred for Christ seated on high at God’s right hand. If the world is judged for having rejected Jesus in humiliation, what will become of it when it makes war against Him who is seated upon His throne? “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh,” it says in the second Psalm. While Elijah was yet walking in the midst of Israel, fire from heaven, the judgment of God, was at his disposal, not to destroy sinners but to consume the burnt offering. A sacrifice had then answered for the people, and God’s judgment had fallen upon the victim in order to bring about the deliverance of Israel. From now on this hour of grace was past. Elijah, seated on high, would cause fire to fall from heaven upon his enemies—upon this king who, forgetting all fear, had the audacity to give orders to God!
The difference between these two positions of Christ—upon earth in grace, or seated glorious in heaven, waiting until His foes be made the footstool of His feet—comes out in the Lord’s words to His disciples. They would have liked, like Elijah, to have brought down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans because they did not receive their Master. “Ye know not of what spirit ye are,” He told them, severely censuring them (Luke 9:51-5651And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. (Luke 9:51‑56)). In effect, at this moment He was the rejected Christ steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem to be offered up as a burnt offering. Was this the moment to judge, when in grace He was Himself to be slain and for our salvation to endure the fire of God’s judgment?
But in this passage Elijah is not only a figure of Christ; he is also a type of the faithful, suffering remnant in the end times. Elijah “must come” in the person of those witnesses in the Revelation, of whom it is said: “If any one wills to injure them, fire goes out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if any one wills to injure them, thus must he be killed” (Rev. 11:55And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. (Revelation 11:5)). They shall come in the power of Elijah and of Moses, for then God’s judgments will be doing their terrible work upon earth. Death and judgment must glorify God then when all the resources of grace have been exhausted and the apostasy is complete.
“If I be a man of God, let fire come down,” says the prophet. His whole mission to Israel is concentrated in this single expression “A man of God.” “Is it because there is not a God in Israel?” he had said to Ahaziah. God was vindicating His character in the presence of apostasy and had chosen His prophet to be the powerful witness to this.
Blinded by his anger and pride, Ahaziah renews his summons, making it worse yet: “Come down quickly!” He persists in ordering God around. Judgment falls upon the servants of this king who is going to die. Alas! what yet awaits him after death is the final judgment of the living God whom he had so offended!
The third captain (2 Kings 1:13-1413And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight. 14Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. (2 Kings 1:13‑14)) fears God and takes the attitude becoming to a sinful man before Him. He approached beseeching, on his knees, acknowledging God in Elijah in saying “Man of God” to him in an entirely different spirit from that of the first two captains. He knows that God can exercise grace: “I pray Thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty Thy servants be precious in Thy sight.” He has not yet received the assurance that what God is able to do, He is willing to do, but he is convinced that the God of judgment is able to be a God of grace to whosoever submits to him, that He does not desire the death of the sinner, and that his life may be precious to Him. These thoughts are expressed in the words of this man: “Behold, there came down fire from the heavens, and consumed the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties, but now, let my life be precious in thy sight.” Such faith is pleasing to the Lord. This third captain “believed that God is; “ as the Epistle to the Hebrews expresses it; he acknowledged His full character of majesty, holiness, righteousness, and goodness, a conviction that is necessary if one is to approach Him; but he also believed that God is a “rewarder of them who seek him out” (Heb. 11:66But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)). So he finds the reward of his faith.
“Go down with him: be not afraid of him.” Elijah can have confidence in such a man, and God counts upon him too in entrusting His servant to him, for He can always rest upon the faith which He Himself has given. The prophet had nothing to fear; for that matter, he was no more in danger at the call of the first captain than at that of the third captain; he was just as safe before the bloodthirsty king as on the mountaintop; but God takes care to reassure him, for He knows our feeble hearts. Elijah accepts this encouragement. Had he not previously, under the juniper tree, proven how much his weakness had need of it? He boldly presents himself before Ahaziah with the strength that God supplies, as so often in the past before Ahab. This boldness is one of Elijah’s outstanding qualities.
Come before the king, the prophet repeats to him, word for word, those things he had told his messengers. In the ways of God with men there is a time when fresh explanations are useless, because they have hardened their hearts. Thus it was with the apostles before the Sanhedrim (compare Acts 4:1919But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. (Acts 4:19) with Acts 5:2929Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)). Yet the prophet insists upon one thing: “Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word?” Thus men facing uneasy questions about their future ought only to have recourse to the Word of God, and despising this will bring terrible consequences upon themselves. One day this same Word will judge them. “He died according to the word of Jehovah that Elijah had spoken?’
Chapter 2 – Elijah and Elisha