We ended the last chapter of 1 Kings with the sermon AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS.
• God’s Word will be fulfilled. We saw that when King Ahab died in the battlefield.
• 1 Kings 22:51-53 51Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 52He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he walked in the ways of his father (Ahab) and mother (Jezebel) and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat (a reference repeated many times), who caused Israel to sin. (Back in 1 Kings 12 when Jeroboam introduced idolatry into Israel, making two golden calves and building shrines on high places) 53He [Ahaziah] served and worshiped Baal and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.
Let’s hear the words of God to Ahaziah - 2 Kings 1:1-8
Ahaziah fell from the upper floor and injured himself. It was most likely a serious injury because he was fearful he could not recover.
• He sought the god of Ekron, a city of the Philistines (SW of Samaria) for answer.
• There was a noted sanctuary of Baal at Ekron. The Baal-prefix to this god says it all – he followed the ways of his parents.
• Ahaziah believed that this god (some 70km away) has answer to his injury.
The only true God stepped in, as He did many times in his father Ahab’s life.
• Again we see the manifold grace of God. It is the same in our lives.
• God sent an angel to Elijah. God wants to intercept the messengers and deliver the truth to King Ahaziah.
• “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” (1:3)
• Is there no God in Israel that you have to search for one so far away, one that is no god at all?
• 1:4 “Therefore this is what the LORD says, “You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”
This is not a judgement. The King is already seriously injured and would naturally die in the course of time.
• The Lord stepped in to warn him. “If truth is what you are looking for, then let me tell you the truth”, the Lord says. He alone has the answer.
• God did not step in to take his life; He steps in to reveal the truth – about Himself and about his injury.
• God reminds the King that there is only one God, and He is in Israel. We see more of this self-revelation as the story progresses.
It would be wonderful for Ahaziah, knowing that he would likely not recover, to turn to God and seek for help.
• Ahaziah has already transgressed the first commandment (in the Ten Commandments), “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exo 20:3)
• He has sinned. But if he could recognise his sin, take heed of the warning, and seek God, he might just experience the healing of God, physically and spiritually.
But he did not change. The line that we read - 1 Kings 22:53 - summed it all up.
• Ahaziah served and worshipped Baal and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.
• Baal was his deity of choice. He chose to ignore the God of Israel.
The first line of the Scots Confession - a Confession of Faith written in 1560 by leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland:
• We confess and acknowledge one God alone, to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we put our trust.
• This must come first in the confession. He is the one and only, our deity of choice.
READ 2 Kings 1:9-10
Ahaziah sent a company of 50 soldiers with their captain.
• Casual reading might give us the impression that they came to extend an invitation. But apparently not.
• You don’t send a company of soldiers to do that. The King sent messengers to Ekron but company of soldiers to a lone prophet.
• Apparently it wasn’t an invitation to dinner with the King.
When Elijah responded by calling down fire from heaven, we know this wasn’t cordial.
• Elijah read it as a threat. Later on in verse 15 we read that the angel urged Elijah to come down and not be afraid. So his life was at stake.
God answered Elijah’s call, which means his call wasn’t wrong-headed or impulsive. God saw the need of the moment and sent down fire to protect His servant.
• Elijah did not send the fire; he merely called for it. God did it. God justified Elijah’s call when He responded with fire.
When was the last time Elijah called for fire and it came down from heaven?
• On Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18) during the confrontation with the Baal prophets.
• God showed Himself to be the only real God and Baal isn’t. Baal is nothing.
If Ahaziah had heard of the first fire (and most likely he did, it would have been a big news broadcasted by all the major news networks), then this fire would be a reminder.
• Israel’s God is real. He demonstrated it then, and He did it again now.
• See what happened next. What did Ahaziah do? He sent a second group!
READ 2 Kings 1:11-12
• Ahaziah wasn’t heeding the warnings. Another group of 51 men got toasted.
What was he trying to do by sending military contingents to apprehend a defenceless prophet?
• Why send fifty-man strong companies of fighting men to meet a lone prophet, not once but twice?
• Do you think he was out to seek advice? Or to get Elijah to pray for him?
The most probable scenario is this: Ahaziah had planned to silence the prophet.
• He had planned to kill him, the same way his late mother Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah (1 Kings 19) after the fire event on Mount Carmel.
• To be precise, Ahaziah wanted to silence the Word of God. He hates to hear the truth, because the Lord said, “You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”
The author repeated these words THREE times in this passage – verses 3, 6 and 16.
• This is his central concern - God has spoken but Ahaziah has chosen to ignore Him.
• Ahaziah rejected God. He would not want to believe that there is a God in Israel.
• God was non-existent, despite the evidences. He would rather believe in Baal, even though Baal is non-existent and proven ineffective (at Mount Carmel).
This is very sad but so true, not just of Ahaziah, but for many people today.
Hebrews 3:7-12 “So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'" 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”
• From the day they left Egypt, the children of Israel were never fully grateful for anything God did for them.
• They found every reason or excuse to NOT believe God. They HARDEN their hearts. They grumbled and murmured against God.
Unbelief is not the lack of faith, but having faith in the wrong things. It is not "I can't believe" but it is "I won't believe".
• Ahaziah has chosen to harden his heart and not believe the God of Israel.
Do you know what the opposite looks like? We have to read on.
• Finally, we have someone who comes with the right heart – the right posture and the right petition.
READ 2 Kings 1:13-18
The third captain came kneeing and pleading for mercy.
• He prayed not just for himself but for all his men. You can almost sense his fear.
• It is the fear of God. A respect for WHO God is and WHAT He can do.
• The fear of God kept him alive. Fear God and live!
Elijah finally got to meet the King. There was no interview. Elijah simply repeated what the King has already heard – and rejected - the truth, the words of God.
• When God speaks, He delivers. God is a God who delivers.
• It cuts both ways. He fulfils His promises and also His judgements.
• If God fulfils His promises, He will also, certainly fulfil His judgements.
• What God declares can be counted on – that’s the point.
We started this passage with an introduction saying Ahaziah reigned for two years.
• And the only thing the writer recounted for us is not how the King ruled, but how he died.
• Ahaziah died in his unbelief. He refused to acknowledge God, despite given the chance. Even a captain lives because he feared God. But not Ahaziah.
But the highlight is still not about him; it’s about God.
• God cares. He cares enough to send His prophet. He cares enough to step in, and shows Himself to be real, completely uninvited.
• He could have allowed Ahaziah to glide on into death, but God invaded his space and showed Himself.
• In His wrath and judgement, we can still see His concern and His love.
That’s what we see when we look at the cross. We see God’s wrath and yet we see His love for us. We see His love, and yet understand His wrath over sin.
• When we take the elements today, be thankful on the one hand, and remind ourselves, fear God and live well.
• God is always gracious. He litters our way with interruptions of His mercy, to draw our attention and to bring us back.
• Take heed. Wake up if we are sleeping. Open our eyes and see. God is there, watching and waiting and working to draw us close.
