Expository Paper - Only One True God

Outline

Main theme: seriousness of idolatry. Reliance on other gods is destructive, needs to be dealt with immediately. Syncretism is idolatry.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Worship the Creator. Romans 1

Story - action:

Ahaziah was the eighth king in Israel, son of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He reigned for about 2 years from 853 to 852 B.C. The assessment of King Ahaziah from the first introduction in Scripture is “He did evil in the sight of the Lord...” (1 Kings 22:52). He followed the pattern of his parents and led Israel into sin. In 1 Kings 22, the Scripture also states that he followed Baal and provoked God to anger. (1 Kings 22:52-53).

Ahaziah is ill - seeks false god. Baal-zebub is a form of the god Baal, who was introduced

Elijah is called by God to intercept Ahaziah’s messengers on their way to Ekron from Samaria.

Elijah’s message to Ahaziah “is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?” Prophecy was that Ahaziah would die.

Ahaziah recognized that the words were from Elijah. He sent a captain and 50 messengers “up” to Elijah, demanding on behalf of Ahaziah that he come down. Presumably Ahaziah knew that Elijah was a man of God. He did not have his men return to Ekron, but to Elijah, as if he could manipulate the prophet, but he had called on the wrong god and had not humbled himself. Instead in arrogance he sent his men and demanded that he “come down.”

Elijah replies - “let fire come down from heaven and consume you....” In 1 Kings 18, at the Mt. Carmel showdown, fire had come down from heaven to burn Elijah’s sacrifice and not the one that the prophets of Baal tried to burn - to show that the god of Baal had no power and to authenticate Elijah’s ministry.

After those men were deposed, Ahaziah sent another captain with 50 men and they asked the same question, but with urgency “come down quickly.”

The fourth time Ahaziah’s messengers recognized God’s authority and humbly bowed down to Elijah. When the angle of the Lord told Elijah to go down with the men, he complied and gave the completed message as to why he would surely die - “because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron.”

Elijah’s message was fulfilled, “according to the word of the Lord.”

Summary: God dealt swiftly with Ahaziah’s sin of idolatry. 1 Kings

Conclusion: Failure to call upon God first, foremost and absolutely is an abomination to God. He lovingly created us, sustains us, and yet man responds arrogantly by turning from acknowledging His holiness and lovingkindness.