And for our New Testament reading this evening, turn again to Luke’s gospel, tonight to chapter nine. And our reading will be verses 49 through 56. Luke nine. 49 through 56. Let’s give diligent attention to this because this is the very word of God. John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not follow with us. But Jesus said to him, do not stop him for the one who is not against you is for you. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? but he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.
And now for our Old Testament reading and the text of this evening’s message, turn to the book of 2 Kings. We finished 1 Kings last week. We’re not going to go all the way through 2 Kings, but we are going to do chapter one. So 2 Kings, and our text will be the first chapter.
After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and lay sick. So he sent messengers telling them, go, inquire of Baal-zebob, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.
But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to inquire of Baal-zebob, the God of Ekron? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So Elijah went. The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, why have you returned? They said to him, there came a man to meet us, and he said to us, go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, thus says the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. He said to them, what kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things? They said to him, he wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite.
Then the king sent to him a captain of 50 men with his 50. He went up to Elijah who was sitting on the top of a hill and said to him, oh man of God, the king says, come down. But Elijah answered the captain of 50, if I’m a man of God, “‘Let fire come down from heaven “‘and consume you and your 50.’ “‘Then fire came down from heaven “‘and consumed him and his 50.’ “‘Again the king sent to him another captain “‘of 50 men with his 50. “‘And he answered and said to him, “‘O man of God, this is the king’s order, “‘come down quickly.’ “‘But Elijah answered him, “‘If I’m a man of God, “‘let fire come down from heaven “‘and consume you and your 50.’ Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.
Again, the king sent the captain of a third 50 with his 50. And the third captain of 50 went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, oh man of God, please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of 50 men with their 50s, but now let my life be precious in your sight.
Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, do not be afraid of him. So he rose and went down with him to the king and said to him, thus says the Lord, Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Thus far the reading of God’s word. Please pray with me that the Lord would bless his word to us. Our Father in heaven, as we come to the preaching of the word now, our prayer is that you’d send out your light and your truth. Let them lead us. May Christ be glorified. And we ask this in his name. Amen.
So we had that reading from Luke because there is the incident of James and John when the city or the village of Samaria that Jesus had sent disciples ahead to make preparations for him in, wouldn’t receive him. Of course, they asked if Jesus wanted them to call down fire from heaven to consume the people of that village. And James and John may even have had the incident in the life of Elijah about which we just read in mind when they asked Jesus about calling down fire from heaven. I surmise that this request that they made of Jesus is the way they earned that nickname, the Boanerges, the sons of thunder.
Jesus sent out the apostles and he gave them power to heal. He gave them power to cast out demons, but he didn’t give them power to call down fire from heaven. And the text tells us that Jesus rebuked them. And it seems to me like maybe it was a loving and perhaps slightly humorous nickname that he’d given them, Sons of Thunder. Like, you guys, you’re so full of noise, but you can’t call down fire. Well.
At this point, as we come to the beginning of 2 Kings, we’re nearing the end of Elijah’s ministry. It’s in the very next chapter that he’s going to be taken up into heaven by a whirlwind, and Elisha is going to see the chariots of fire. But before being taken up, the Lord God Almighty uses Elijah one last time to exhort Israel to seek his face, to listen to his voice. He uses Elijah one last time to declare that there is indeed a God in Israel. And the theme of this passage, the theme of this chapter, the main point that we should take from it, I’m drawing right out of our shorter catechism. Shorter catechism, 48 asks for the reason for what do we learn from the first commandment?
And the answer is that God takes notice of and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God. That’s what this passage teaches us. God takes notice of and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God. Ahaziah had another God. He inquired of him and he served him. So our three points this evening are number one, the Lord takes notice of mankind’s idolatry. Number two, fallen mankind refuses to take notice of the Lord. And number three, the Lord gives grace to the humble. We’ll see that from this third captain of 50.
But first of all, the Lord takes note or he takes notice of mankind’s idolatry. Again, drawing from the Westminster Shorter Catechism on the first commandment, it says that that commandment requires of us that we know and acknowledge God to be the only true God and our God. to acknowledge that he is the true and living God and to take him as our God and to serve him and worship him and glorify him accordingly. And that first commandment also makes prohibitions and it prohibits us from worshiping and glorifying or serving, giving the worship and glory to any other that belongs to God alone.
Ahaziah, who is, since the death of Ahab, has been the king of Israel, was living in flagrant disregard of the God of Israel. He was their king, but like his father before him, he disregarded their God, the true God. We’re told at the beginning of this chapter that Moab rebelled against Israel. Moab had been subdued by King David. And ever since the days of David and throughout the reigns of all the kings that had come since him, even in the northern kingdom, after the split, they had remained subservient to Israel. They gave tribute and were in subjection to Israel. But by the time Ahaziah reigns, after the death of Ahab, they rebelled, which is just sort of an indication of the decline that Israel is experiencing. Their decline in power, their decline in influence, and their moral unraveling and decay.
And then in the midst of that, we see that it’s not unusual for God to use afflictions to try to grab sinners’ attention. And that seems to be what is going on here with Ahaziah. Ahaziah hasn’t learned any lessons from his father’s wickedness. He’s serving the Baals. He’s walking in the ways of his father Ahab, walking in the ways of his mother Jezebel, walking in all the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. And so God brings some afflictions into his life to get his attention.
Moab rebels, he’s losing control. But then he has this accident at home. He falls through a lattice. He fell from a second story window, in essence. And the text says he lay sick. When we think of being sick, we think of having a cold or the flu or something like that. tend to think of sickness and injuries in different categories. But that word in the Hebrew, the word is chalah, and it’s the same word, incidentally, and I think maybe not accidentally, that’s used in 1 Kings chapter 22 to refer to what happened to Ahab. Back in 34, verse 34 of that last chapter of 1 Kings, when that arrow And he said to his chariot driver, turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded. That’s the same word.
So Ahaziah, his son, fell through the lattice of the second story window, and he is now halah. And it’s interesting to me that both Ahab and his son die of severe wounds, severe wounds that were inflicted through God’s providential dealings with them. It’s a cautionary note to us as well. Ahab died from wounds that he received on the battlefield. Ahaziah died from a wound that he received in the comfort and the security of his own palace.
And it’s a reminder to us that God can strike his enemies no matter where they are. So Ahaziah calls for divine help. He seeks divine wisdom, but tragically, tragically yet true to form, he doesn’t seek help or wisdom from Yahweh. He seeks it from this detestable idol, the god of Ekron, known as Beelzebub.
The scriptures often refer to Baal as a deity, as the god that many of the Canaanite nations served and followed and worshipped. But the scriptures also refer, in the plural, to the Baals. And they speak of how many of the Israelite kings served the Baals. That’s what they said. That’s what the scripture said about Ahab. And it says that about Ahaziah as well.
So there are different bales. Bale is a word that just means Lord, because people would bow to these gods as their idols, as their lords, and would serve them. And many of the different wands, if they have names, if they have modifying names, they refer to cities or regions where they were believed to have sway, where they are believed to have lordship. The word or the name Beelzebub, as you may know, means Lord of the Flies. That’s where that name or that title comes from. And Beelzebub was known particularly for his supposed ability to give oracles.
He could answer requests like the one Ahaziah had. Am I going to recover from this sickness? And so he sent messengers to inquire in verse two. But the Lord takes notice of mankind’s idolatry. And Lord took notice of Ahaziah’s idolatry. And in response to it, he deployed his senior prophet. The angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, arise, go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria.
We’ve seen other prophets. Elisha is already on the scene. He’s already been anointed to be Elijah’s successor. Remember, we saw Micaiah. He’s the one who prophesied Ahab’s downfall. But Elijah is still on the scene. He’s still around. And God sends him on this mission, on this assignment.
And he’s sent to ask, is it because there’s no God in Israel that you’re going to inquire of Beelzebub with the God of Ekron? Which is as much as to say, there is a God in Israel. Why are you ignoring him? Why do you disregard him? And this underscores the tragic spiritual condition of that northern kingdom. Israel’s king refused to serve Israel’s God.
So Elijah was sent to Ahaziah’s messengers, not to Ahaziah, but to intercept his messengers as they’re on their way to inquire of Beelzebub. And Elijah gave the messengers a message. And so we come to our second point. We know that God takes note of mankind’s idolatry. We also see in this passage that fallen mankind refuses to take note of the Lord. Refuses to take notice of the Lord.
You notice in verse five, the messengers come back to the king and he knows they haven’t been gone enough, gone long enough to get to Ekron and come back. So he immediately asks why they’d returned. In other words, why they come back so quickly. And based on what they report to him, he discerns that they had had an encounter with Elijah.
I can imagine Ahaziah lying on his sickbed, afflicted, in pain, suffering. And we ask them what kind of man it was who came to meet them, and they describe him. I can envision him as he’s maybe trying to sit up. What kind of man was he? Who was this?
And when they describe him, he must have sunk down into his bed again. In despair, it’s Elijah the Tushbite. Please, not him. And despair sets in. So what does he do? He sends soldiers to apprehend Elijah. And by that, we see that he thought his quarrel was with Elijah. But it wasn’t. Ahaziah tried to flex his military muscle against Yahweh’s prophet. What he didn’t realize is that his contention was actually not with Elijah, but with the Lord of hosts. And in this, Ahaziah followed a pattern that’s very typical of fallen, sinful humankind. He was suppressing the truth. He was ignoring the real issue. Yahweh of hosts had spoken, but Ahaziah picked a fight with the messenger instead.
And that’s how the people of the world operate. People who are of the world. They hear what the Lord God says. They don’t like it. And so they turn against his people. They persecute God’s people. Why? Because they won’t bring themselves to know and acknowledge God.
It’s like one of the leading atheists, leading atheist spokesmen and authors of our day has come to realize, like many scientists have, that the long-held concept of Darwinian macroevolution really just doesn’t stand up to the science. And so they can’t resort to that for their cosmology, for their theory of origins. But when they throw that out, they’re not left with much. And so since there’s no way to look downward to figure out how we all got here and what the origin of the world is, they have to look out there. Mr. Dawkins has decided, well, it must have been aliens from outer space who came along and landed on this planet millions of years ago and somehow assisted in getting the process started to create life on Earth. See, that’s how badly people want to refuse to accept the truth of God. They won’t acknowledge God. They suppress the truth. They refused to take notice.
Of the Lord, but then finally we see in this passage that the Lord gives grace to the humble. The king sent soldiers after Elijah. A captain and 50 men. And as this first captain. Approaches Elijah, he proudly and authoritatively. Gives orders. The old man of God, the king, says, come down. And again, it’s an interesting scene to picture. Elijah was one unarmed man against a company of soldiers, perhaps with swords drawn. But he had nothing to fear because the Lord God Almighty protected him. He sent fire from heaven. And so how does Ahaziah respond to that? With grief and hatred of his sin?
No. He sends another captain in his 50. Again, the king sent to him another captain of 50 men with his 50. Now, for this captain, this might have been a Great opportunity to give that executive officer or that deputy a chance to get some leadership experience and say, hey, why don’t you take the 50 and go apprehend the prophet?
It won’t be a problem. Just one man. He’s unarmed. You take this one. I want to help develop you as a soldier, give you some leadership opportunities. Just using my imagination a little bit, but this captain, We don’t know how much he knew about what happened to the previous captain, his 50, until he arrived on the scene. But he didn’t fare any better than the first, nor did his 50.
But you see here the hardening power of sin. That’s something to beware, my brothers and sisters, that the power of sin to harden our hearts. You think of Pharaoh and how plague after plague, his country was being completely ruined. It was being devastated. Yet he didn’t have the sense to go ahead and just let the people go because his heart was so hard, so hardened by sin.
At this point now, Ahaziah is out two captains and 100 soldiers. And he’s so obstinate that he couldn’t figure out that weapons were useless in this situation. So he sends yet more troops. But in God’s providence, this third captain is different. It’s pretty heartwarming, actually, to see this man approach Elijah and to walk up that hill.
And I don’t know whether the previous captains in their 50s had weapons drawn, but I can imagine this captain saying, sheath your swords. And he went up to Elijah and fell on his knees before the prophet. And he entreated him, oh, man of God, Please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of 50 men with their 50s. But now let my life be precious in your sight. So Yahweh spares this man. He spares this captain and his 50. And he instructs Elijah to go with him.
And what this teaches us is that God is moved by humble pleas for mercy. That moves the heart of God when people humble themselves before him and cry out for mercy. God, as the scriptures say, he’s high and he’s holy. And yet he has regard for the lowly. God says, I dwell in the high and holy place, but also he who is contrite and crushed in spirit. That’s how the gospel works. God saves those who humbly call upon Christ.
And so as the story comes to a close, Elijah appears before the king. He speaks Yahweh’s message to him one more time. Thus says the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron. Is it because there’s no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you’ve gone up, but you shall surely die. Isaiah brought a similar message to another king, to King Hezekiah. put your affairs in order, set your house in order because you shall die, you shall die and not live.
At that point on his sickbed, Hezekiah prayed. He pleaded with God, he wept. And God relented, gave him several more years of life. Ahaziah here had another opportunity to repent. If God would hear the humble plea of Hezekiah. Why would he not hear the plea of Ahaziah if he were to repent then? He had the opportunity to humble himself, to make his plea before the God of Israel, but he wouldn’t do it. And verse 17 shows the result. So he died, according to the word of the Lord. It is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.
Recall that God patiently endured with Ahab. Paul in Romans 9 talks about God patiently enduring with the wicked. who are vessels of his wrath, so that he can show his power. God patiently bore with Ahab in all of his sins for 22 years. That’s how long Ahab reigned. It was a long reign. And there was no point in his reign when Ahab was a good king. serving the Baals his whole life for his whole reign. He had this wicked wife who was inciting him to do it more and more. God bore patiently with Ahab for 22 years. In Ahaziah’s case he only bore with his provocations for two years.
And that contrast reminds us that no one knows when God’s patience with them is going to run out. No one knows when God’s patience is going to come to an end. And that’s why the call to repentance is so urgent. You may not have another day. So don’t wait. Repent now.
The ministry of Elijah involved fire from heaven on more than one occasion. But here, too, there’s an instructive contrast. In today’s text, God’s fire came down and consumed men, human beings. On Mount Carmel, fire came down from heaven. But on that occasion, the sacrifice was what was consumed. The fire consumed an offering, a sacrificial offering. And that sacrifice was a picture of Jesus Christ. Scripture says that the soul that sins will die, and the wrath of God is coming against mankind’s sin. And the only way anyone can escape the wrath of God, which is justly due to them for sin, is for Christ to bear God’s wrath in that person’s place.
There was a God in Israel in the days of Ahaziah, the one true and living God. But most people in Israel didn’t know him. Most people in Israel wouldn’t acknowledge him. That same God who has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is reigning today.
And so, There is a God in America. There is a God in California. Yet people turn to other gods. They seek help in things that cannot save. All the people of this entire nation, all the people of the entire world are duty bound to serve and worship God. but untold multitudes do not. God takes notice of this, and he’s much displeased.
But there is hope. There is good news. God still gives grace to the humble. Anyone who humbles himself and turns to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith will receive remission of sins in his name. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Father, we acknowledge to one another and to you that there is a God in this world. There’s a God in this nation, in this state, in this community, in this room. It’s you, Lord, the living and true God And by faith, we acknowledge you as God and as our God. And we pray for grace to serve and worship you.
And Lord, our prayer, even as we think ahead to the summer and to these evangelistic events, the evangelistic seminar, evangelism seminar, and then West Coast Witness down at the pier, Lord, we pray that you’d bring many, many others to serve and to worship you, to acknowledge you as God and as their God. We pray that you’d bring many, even as we seek to witness to those in our landscape, we pray that you’d bring many to turn from their sins, to repent, to humble themselves and to call upon you, to plead with you that their lives might be precious in your sight. Father, we pray you’d add many, many to your church, to your kingdom of grace. Bring us and many others in and keep us in it. and hasten the coming of your kingdom of glory. We pray for the honor and the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In his name, amen.