We're in 2 Kings chapter 1 and reading from verse 1. Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick. And he sent messengers and said unto them, Go inquire of Balzubub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. 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 unto them, Is it not because there is not a god in Israel that ye go to inquire of Balzubub, the god of Ekron? 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. And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him, and behold, he sat on the top of a hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said unto 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. Again, also he sent unto him another captain of fifty, with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down 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. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight, Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties. Therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with him, be not afraid of him. And he arose and went down with him unto the king. And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. So he died, according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. and Jehoram reigned in his stead. In the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because he had no son. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. We have been looking at the incidents in the life of Elijah and for several weeks towards the end of last year, we noted how Ahab And Jezebel, king and queen of Israel, led that nation. So remember, we've got a divided nation now. After the time of David and Solomon, there was the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. But now we have these kingdoms divided, and Ahab and Jezebel had led Israel deeper and deeper into idolatry. They had opposed the ministry of God, the prophets of God. They had opposed Elijah's ministry, and they had frequently threatened the prophet's life. Despite powerful evidence of the living God's power, Ahab persisted in worshipping the idol gods of Israel's neighbours, gods of wood and stone and metal. And we might wonder why that was. Why, when the Lord showed great power, for example, on Mount Carmel, when the prophets of Baal failed to call down fire from heaven, and Elijah called down fire from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice, and the wood, and the stone altar, and the very water that had been poured on it, which would ordinarily have inhibited the burning of that sacrifice. The whole lot was consumed by this fire that came from heaven. Why did Ahab not repent? Why did Ahab not convert and worship Elijah's God when so many powerful evidences had been granted to him? When the Lord gave Israel victory against all the odds in battles against Syria by extraordinary means, why did Ahab not trust the Lord, but instead go through his whole life opposed to God? Well, you know, the answer to that question is simply this, that man's heart, his attitude and his convictions because of sin is naturally opposed to God, is naturally anti-God and naturally anti-Christ. Until and unless God shows a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, mercy and converts them to himself, making them a new creature, that person will never turn to the Lord by themselves. They are so opposed to God by nature. Encouraged by Jezebel, Ahab spent his whole life doing what he chose to do, and that was hating God and trying to rid himself of God's prophets. When Ahab died, his son Ahaziah succeeded him, and he too worshipped Baal, the God of his mother, the God of his father. You know, children often follow the example set for them by their parents. And someday, you who are listening to me today, you may be a mother or a father, and your children will be watching and following your example. Will they see in you a man or a woman who goes their own way, like Ahab and Ahaziah, or one who follows the Lord Jesus and encourages them to do so as well. Ahaziah had an accident. We read that together in this opening chapter of 2 Kings. Ahaziah had an accident. He fell through a lattice. Now a lattice was a piece of thin framework. So maybe he rested his arm upon it, lost his balance and fell over an edge. Maybe he was on an upper story of his house and he put his foot on something that he thought would hold him up and it gave way underneath him. He fell through a lattice. and his injury did not heal. It became infected and he was forced to stay in bed. After a time, he began to wonder if he would ever recover. And despite there being a God in Israel and despite there being prophets of God in the land, Ahaziel wanted to inquire of Beelzebub. the Philistine god of Ekron. And he sent messengers to Ekron with the question whether he'd recover or not. I find that interesting. He didn't send to Beelzebub with a request that he might be healed. which one would have thought might have crossed the mind of a man who was appealing to his God, asking that he might have his God's help in healing him. That wasn't his question at all. It makes you wonder what sort of confidence he had in this Beelzebub. He believed Beelzebub could tell the future. He didn't believe that he could heal the sick. The Lord informed Elijah of this delegation that Ahaziah was sending to Ekron and he told the prophet to meet the king's servants on the road and inform them that Ahaziah would not recover but would die of his sickness without ever leaving his bed. And they were also to convey the Lord's rebuke that Ahaziah should go to inquire of Beelzebub, a lifeless, idle God, when the true God, Jehovah, was near to his people in Israel and knew what was happening in the lives of his people, as clearly this intervention by Elijah proved. It was because God knew what Ahaziah was doing and the circumstances of his life that he was able to tell Elijah to go and encounter his servants on the way to the land of the Philistines. On their return, these servants gave their message to Ahaziah. And the king asked them to describe the man who met them. They replied that he was a hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. That is about his waist. And Ahaziah knew who that was. Perhaps he had seen him at the court of his father at some time, but he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. And the king deduced from Elijah's words and the appearance that was described to him that indeed this was God's prophet. And here was a reprimand. This was a reprimand to the king. This was God, as it were, speaking to the king. And as such, it was an opportunity for Ahaziah to repent should he have desired to do so. But that was not the attitude of this idolatrous man. Rather, he was jealous towards God and jealous and aggressive towards God's prophet. Ahaziah sent men to arrest Elijah. If this is Elijah the Tishbite, he said, I will have him stand before me. It wasn't a request for counsel. It wasn't an invitation to speak. It was a demand. And he ordered Elijah to be detained. Fifty soldiers and their captain pursued the prophet until they found him sitting at the top of a small hill. There the captain called out, Thou man of God, the king hath said, come down. Now calling Elijah a man of God was probably mocking him. It certainly contained no respect and here was this man with his 50 soldiers shouting to Elijah to be obedient and come down and to go with him to the king. Elijah replied, if I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. Now, the Bible tells us that Elijah was a man of like passions unto us. That might mean that Elijah was angry, but I don't know that we can entirely deduce that. This rather may well have been simply to assert the honour and glory of God. In speaking in this way to God's prophet, this man was effectively speaking to God. He was demanding of God. He was ordering God. And he was failing to acknowledge the glory of God or the honour of his prophet. All that Elijah says here in this chapter is at God's instruction. And we may well assume that, or all else that he says is at God's instruction, and we may well assume that he had been given liberty to speak and to act in this way. Certainly, the Lord fulfilled his words. And at once, we read, there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50. That may have been a bolt of lightning. It may have been a fireball of some kind. Either way, it slew the captain and his 50 men in an instant. And upon hearing that news, Ahaziah didn't consider his position, didn't repent, didn't feel ashamed in any way. He simply sent another unit of soldiers on exactly the same errand and with the same outcome. This captain indeed intensified his demand by insisting that Elijah obey quickly. But his disrespect brought on his own speedy destruction and that of his men. A third troop of 50 were dispatched. How fearful these men must have been as they made their way to the hill where Elijah sat, and how anxious their captain for the safety of himself and his men. When we know of God's anger, when we know of God's wrath against sin, ought it not to make us tremble? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And we all ought to be circumspect. We all ought to be reflective. We all ought to think seriously and carefully. If God deals like this with wicked people, should we not be careful that we make friends with God wisely? Rather than proudly demanding Elijah's obedience, this man showed the prophet respect and he pleaded for the lives of his soldiers. And I suspect that the Lord had already told Elijah to go with him to Ahaziah. And that is what Elijah did. And there Elijah repeated what the Lord had told him to say. Ahaziah didn't get any more information from Elijah than Elijah's words to the servants originally. But it had cost the lives of a hundred men and two captains. Ahaziah would not recover. That is what Elijah told him and that is in fact what happened. He died as the Lord had said and his brother Jehoram ruled in his place because Ahaziah had no son. What can we learn from this passage? What can you and I take from this passage and apply to our own lives today? Well, first of all, let us never forget that God is in control of all things in this world, and He knows all things. The Lord knew the circumstances of the life and death of Ahaziah, even though Ahaziah knew nothing about the Lord. God knew all about his fall and his foolish idol worship. He knew the plans Ahaziah made to discover what his future would hold. He knew about the servants that he sent. He knew about their purpose of going to Ekron. God also knew the day of Ahaziah's death. Don't ever imagine that you can outwit or surprise God or that God isn't watching what you're doing. Ahaziah fell through his ceiling and he died of his injuries. We might never have known of him except that the Holy Spirit caused his circumstances to be recorded here. Those who live without God will die without God. Elijah was the Lord's servant, but instead of seeking the Lord by him, Ahaziah made Elijah his enemy. May the Lord give each of us who are here listening today grace to come to him by the appointed means that he has given, through the hearing of the gospel and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. A second lesson might be this. God's not going to be mocked. These first two captains with their 50 soldiers thought that they could arrest and deliver God's servant to their king. They had the power, they had the numbers, they had the weapons. 50 men and their captain to detain one man. And yet the Lord wiped them out with fire from above. When the Lord is on our side, then no king, no armed men, no prime minister or president, no trouble can do us any harm. I'm not saying that the Lord will destroy the school bully with a fireball or a bolt of lightning, but I am saying that we can trust the Lord to deliver us from all our trouble. Our great spiritual enemy is sin and the curse of the law and judgment. And our Lord Jesus has saved all for whom he died from these powerful enemies. And what he's done spiritually, he will repeat by protecting and preserving and delivering us from our enemies in this world as well. Again, that doesn't mean there will be no trouble, but it does mean that God will save us from it and deliver us from our trouble. He is trustworthy and he is faithful. The angel of the Lord says, be not afraid of him. Be not afraid of him. There's a little watchword. Be not afraid of him. May we not see Fear, may we not have cause to fear when the Lord is with us. I think actually that the angel that spoke to Elijah was probably the Lord Jesus himself. And whatever our trouble, our saviour is bigger and stronger and ready to protect his own. He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And a final lesson, short one, is this. This third captain came as he did, asking for mercy. And that's an encouragement to us all to remember that God will hear us when we confess our sin and ask for forgiveness for the sake of Jesus Christ. We have a merciful, loving Saviour. Do you feel guilty about something that you've done or said? Do you know that you have sinned against God? You will have forgiveness if you ask for it upon the merits of Christ's shed blood. This captain found grace when he appealed for mercy, and we shall too if we come to God by Christ. May we do so. Amen.