Sermon Tone Analysis

Elijah and Elisha 12.

Today we continue on in the series on Elijah and Elisha – it is the stuff of Sunday-school stories: fed by ravens, the widow’s food that never ran out, the contest on mount Carmel, meeting יהוה at Horeb.

It is dramatic stuff!

Exciting stories!

Miraculous!

God at work!

We love to tell the stories of Elijah.

But there is one story of Elijah that I’ve never told at Sunday-school; I asked Rhoda, and she hasn’t either; Hannah is really getting too old for Sunday-school now, and she has never heard it.

It is the story before us today in 2 Kings chapter 1 [P].

We have moved on a book, now in the second book of Kings, and time has moved on too; there is now a new king in Israel.

Ahab died – and that is an interesting story but it doesn’t feature Elijah, so it is outside my brief – if someone ever did a series on the sovereignty of God, they might relate it.

However, now Ahaziah, Ahab’s son is on the throne.

Let’s pick it up in verse one: [P] [2 Kings 1:1–17 Now Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

[P] And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and became ill.

[P] So he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness.”

[P] (Ekron was in Philistine territory, they worshipped Baal.

He was going to another country to enquire from an idol.

Baal-zebub means “lord of the flies” the story that accompanied these pictures said this: “as you probably know, flies are attracted to dead things.

Doesn't sound like the best choice for medical-aid does it?”

[P] so off went the messengers) But the angel of יהוה said to Elijah the Tishbite, [P] (as always, Elijah is there, hearing from God. Nothing has changed.

His ministry is not over.

יהוה is still speaking to him, and he is passing on what יהוה says – that is simply what a prophet does) “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 are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’ Now therefore thus says יהוה, ‘You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’”

[P] Then Elijah departed.

When the messengers returned to him [P] (that is to king Ahaziah) he said to them, “Why have you returned?”

(there hadn’t been time to get to Ekron and back) They said to him, “A man came up to meet us and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you and say to him, thus says יהוה, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?

Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.’”’”

(they faithfully conveyed what Elijah said) He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?” [P] They answered him, “He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.”

And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

(Ahaziah knew him alright.

It was not because he did not know of the prophet that he sought guidance from Baal-zebub) [P] Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty.

(a platoon of 50 armed soldiers to arrest one aging prophet – a bit of overkill!)

[P] And he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill.

And he said to him, [P] “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’”

Elijah replied to the captain of fifty, (they called him “man of God” but did they mean it?

Was he really?

They would see if he really was or if it was a meaningless title.

We are called Christians – Christ in us!

But is it real?!

Is our life supernatural or are we just like everyone else?

Where is the proof of the pudding?) “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”

(he wasn’t making it easy for God.

It was not a likely thing to happen.

If he merited the title “man of God” then there had to be something Divine, powerful, super-natural.

He put God on the line – did He regard him as a man of God?

If we are Christians – it should be evident!

The thing is that יהוה considered him to truly be a man of God because He vindicated him!) [P] Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

(It may have been an extreme sounding thing, but God did it; why?

Because Elijah was indeed a man of God!

He would be a liar if fire didn’t come down) [P] So he (that is Ahaziah) again sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty.

[P] And he said to him, “O man of God, thus says the king, ‘Come down quickly.’”

Elijah replied to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”

(fire came down last time.

He knew that is what יהוה would do; yet, he called for fire again) [P] Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

So, he (that is Ahaziah) again sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty.

[P] (Ahaziah was, what I would call, a slow-learner) When the third captain of fifty went up, he came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah, [P] and begged him and said to him, “O man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.

Behold fire came down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of fifty with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.”

(he was not as slow a learner as the king).

The angel of יהוה said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.”

So, he arose and went down with him to the king.

[P] (as always, Elijah did what יהוה said) Then he said to him, “Thus says יהוה, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, 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 where you have gone up, but shall surely die.’”

(It is exactly the same message that he had sent before with the king’s messengers.

There was a consequence for his rejection of יהוה, his refusal to trust Him) So Ahaziah died according to the word of יהוה which Elijah had spoken.

[P] (what יהוה said, happened).]

An interesting story!

Not really the stuff of Sunday School stories; we should give it an R16 rating for graphic violence.

I want to address just two points from this story.

The first is from the king of Israel, Ahaziah.

He said to his messengers: “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness.”

Israel was deep in idolatry, right from its inception.

Jeroboam, their first king, had made golden calves as gods.

But, this wasn’t even their own idols; this was the god of Ekron, the Philistine god!

It is evident from the story that Ahaziah knew of Elijah.

He knew that there was a prophet of יהוה, that there was one who heard from יהוה.

He could have heard from יהוה if he wanted to; but he did not.

He refused יהוה’s voice.

He had messengers travel to a foreign country to a dead god, who was the god of death.

Ahaziah wanted to know what was going to happen.

He was ill, was he going to get better?

If you can know the future, then you can plan, you have an advantage.

People are eager to know the future: what the weather will be, what the markets will do, we pay people to make predictions even though their results are not that reliable – I always say that if our lab produced results as reliable as the met-service we would all get the sack.

Would he recover?

– where do we turn to when we are sick?

What do we do when it turns to custard?

Where do we turn in the time of crisis?

[P] Is our trust in יהוה?! Ahaziah went to Baalzebub!

We are Christians, we say that we believe in God.

We proclaim: [Psalm 121:2 My help comes from יהוה, Who made heaven and earth.]

But when we have back pain we go to the chiropractor, have acupuncture!

We look to homeopathy and naturopaths for health!

All these practices have links to Eastern spirituality that is not of God – it is of the occult!

I have known fine Christians who say they trust in God; but the pain has been so bad, that they have turned to alternative healers.

The pain may be bad, but it ain’t worth the price!

If you involve yourself with spirits that are not the Holy Spirit there will always be baggage, an associated cost!

Satan is not there to heal, to give life; but to steal, kill and destroy!

He always brings torment, even to his most devoted followers.

Now, my job is in the health sector and I don’t mean to denigrate those who work in it; but where is our trust based?

Some people can be super-spiritual (maybe super-stupid) and refuse to go to the doctor: “I am trusting in God to heal me.”

It all sounds very pious and spiritual; but if I could remove it from the area of health for a moment, perhaps we can see the principle more clearly.

There was a king of Judah: Amaziah (just one letter different from Ahaziah) but he was a good king.

He had an army of 300,000 – quite a large force.