Leslie M. John
GOD'S ANGER OVER HIS CHILDREN WORSHIPPING IDOLS
This devotional is from II Kings Chapter 1
Ahaziah was son of Ahab. “Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in
Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years
over Israel”. (1 Kings 22:51)
This is about the king Ahaziah, who fell down from his upper chamber through the
lattice and became sick. The king sent his messengers to Baalzebub, the god of
Ekron to know if he would have recovery from the disease. (Baalzebub was
believed to be a god of Philistines. He was believed to have given out oracles
and protected them from flies, and therefore, he was also known as “the Lord of
flies” [Ref. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and Geneva Bible
footnotes]). Ekron was one of the cities in the northern part of Israel. (Ref:
Joshua 15:11; 1Samuel 5:10; 6:16-17).
Ahaziah hoped in a god made in the form of idol by man. He purposed to know if
he would have recovery from the injuries and the disease that he suffered after
his fall through the lattice from his upper chamber. As if the God of Israel,
who redeemed them from the bondage of slavery under Pharaoh was not strong
enough, Ahaziah depended on some material that appeared like god.
God was very angry over Ahaziah’s reliance on Baalzebub, an idol god at Ekron.
The Angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, to ask Ahaziah if his
dependency on idol was because he thought there was no living God in Israel.
Elijah met the messengers from Ahaziah on their way to Ekron, and said the words
that the Angel of the Lord had put in his mouth.
“Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on
which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed” (2 Kings 1:4)
The messengers returned to Ahaziah and Ahaziah asked them how the man who spoke
those words looked like. The messengers described him as a man in a hairy
garment, and girt with a girdle of leather. Ahaziah recognized that he was
Elijah the Tishbite, who spoke those words and he sent to him a captain of fifty
with his fifty. The captain of fifty with his fifty said to Elijah the Tishbite
to go with them to the king.
“And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God,
then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there
came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty”. (2 Kings 1:10)
Ahaziah sent another captain of fifty with his fifty. The captain said to Elijah
to go to the king quickly.
“And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come
down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down
from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty” (2 Kings 1:12)
Then, Ahaziah’s third captain of fifty went to Elijah and fell on his knees
before him and begged him to spare his life and the lives of his fifty men. Fire
came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains and their fifty men
each, but this time, the Angel of the Lord said to Elijah not to be afraid but
go with him. Elijah obeyed the word from the Angel of the Lord and stood before
the king and asked him if it was because he thought that there was no living God
in Israel that he sent his messengers to Baalzebub, the god of Ekron. Elijah
said to Ahaziah that because he believed and relied on the god made by man for
his healing, instead of depending on the living God, he would not rise from his
bed but die. According to the word of Jehovah that Elijah spoke to Ahaziah, the
king Ahaziah died and his place was taken by Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat,
king of Judah. (Ahaziah had no son).
Let us hope in the Living God, for all our needs, may they be sickness or any
other need.
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man
seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we
with patience wait for it”. (Romans 8:24-25)