“Like Father Like Son”

II Kings 1:1-18

So here we are skipping another chapter because there is nothing about Elijah in Chapter 22 of I Kings.  Let me just recap that chapter for you so that we can see what the LORD has been doing.  Ahab wants to go to war, and he wants the godly king Jehoshaphat to join him.  Jehoshaphat agrees, but requests Ahab seek the counsel of a prophet.  Ahab inquires of false prophets and that doesn’t please Jehoshaphat.  So Ahab calls on Miciah, who “never prophesies anything good about” Ahab.  Ahab hates Miciah.  Miciah prophesies that Ahab will die in battle, in fact, Ahab will be the only casualty in the war.  His troops will win the battle, and take over the land, but Ahab will die.  Sure enough, Ahab takes an arrow between the creases of his armor while sitting in his chariot.  The king dies and they bury him in Samaria.  They take his chariot and wash it out in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood.

One night a couple of  Decembers ago, I was sitting in my car.  It was Christmas time and it was crisp, cool and worship was in my heart.  So I turned on the radio to listen to some Christmas music.  I found a popular radio station playing Christmas all December long.  I distinctly remember hearing my favorite Christmas carol, O Holy Night.  I enjoyed that song so much.  It was just what I was looking for.  But then the song ended, the joy of the moment suddenly collapsed.

To my horror, the radio station had a Christmas version of their regular Sunday night program, “Angels in Waiting”.  This program featured psychics and seers and clairvoyants trying to make contact with spirits, angels and departed loved ones.  People were calling in, seeking guidance in life and trying to communicate with departed family. 

One minute they were playing a song honoring Jesus Christ.  The next minute they were talking with mediums seeking to make contact with the dead.  And everybody thought it was a wonderful holiday treat.

Initially I was enraged.  I could not believe what I was hearing!  Then, my heart sank.  I said “O God, this is their form of spirituality.  This is how they are trying to fill the void in their hearts.  They have no idea what kind of dark spiritual forces could be behind it all.” 

This is the spirituality of our time.  There are horoscopes in every paper.  There are psychic programs spread across the channel of commercial television.   This is not unique to our time.  And as we enter into the time of the Elijah the prophet and the kings of the Divided Nation we see that it was present in their time as well. 

This morning as we enter into our text, we will see a form of this kind of spiritism, this interaction with the so called spirit world.  And we will see how the heart of God responds when he sees people consulting spirits.  And we will see how we need to respond when we come upon hardship.  Turn with me to II Kings 1.  We will read through this passage and we will extract the timeless truth to give us instruction in our day. 

 ¹ After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.  ² Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick;

Moab was under the rule of Israel from the time of King David.  With Ahab’s death they saw a window of opportunity to throw off the yoke of Israeli domination.  When Moab revolted, Ahaziah should have been with his army leading the charge to put down the rebellion.  Instead we find the he stayed back in the luxury of his palace.  We do not know the circumstances of this fall, but it was probably related to foolishness or drunkenness.  He was severely injured. 

Like so many, he was in need of help.  So what does he do?  Please let him call upon the name of the Lord! Maybe he will remember Jehoshaphat. 

So he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.”

So we find that while his body was in bad shape, his soul was in worse shape still.  He seeks the fortune tellers linked with the Baal of Ekron. 

If that name “Baal-zebub” does not send a chill up your spine, it should.  Baal is the word for Lord.  Zubub is the word for flies.  It means Lord of the Flies.  Apparently the Baal of Ekron was known for its control over the swarms.  There is some deeper significance.  Later it becomes pronounced Beelzebub, and is used as another name for Satan.

You will also recall an event in the life of Christ involving this name.  In Mark 3 we read that Christ healed a man.  And the Pharisees who opposed Christ stated that it was by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons that Christ performed the miracle.  Over the course of time, Baal-zebub became known as a stronghold of Satanic force.  The people figured out that there was demonic, satanic power behind the pagan idols. 

Ahaziah apparently wasn’t paying attention to his dad and how the LORD dealt with him.  Chances are, Ahaziah was controlled by Jezebel the same as his father, Ahab, was.

Ahaziah, the King of Israel, consults, Baal-Zebub.  The Lord noticed.  Ahaziah had a falling out of the window.  Now we see that he also had a falling out with God.

 ³ 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 are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? ⁴ 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.

And so we notice that God notices.  When people seek guidance from alternative sources, God sees and is grieved.  We see that Ahaziah learned nothing from all that the Lord took his father through.  And the king does not want God’s help so he won’t get it.  The Lord is probably just going to let the injury run its course.

So Elijah went.  I love those words.  God said go.  Elijah went for his final prophetic task.

 ⁵ The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?” ⁶ And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and 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 Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?  Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’” ⁷ He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?” ⁸ They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a leather belt around his waist.”  And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

The king instantly knew who this was.  The king probably even laid eyes on Elijah a time or two over the years.  And it was hard to forget the appearance of this man of renown.  It’s also hard to forget the things that he prophesied against the prophets of Baal that came to pass, and against his father, who had dogs lick up his blood, just as Elijah had said.

Here is a huge point in the life of Ahaziah.  He has been confronted with a word from the Lord.  If he was wise, he would do what his father once did and beg for mercy.  Instead, he will display the same contempt for God’s word that his mother and father did. 

 ⁹ Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty.  He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’”

50 men!  This is no friendly welcoming entourage.  This is a SWAT team.  They come ready for battle.  The king will have Elijah in his court.  And with his SWAT team he will ensure that Elijah is taken.  The king will force a reversal of the message.  Or he will make sure that Elijah accompanies him to his death!  So that captain defiantly commands the man of God to come down.  And now that captain will get fired! 

 ¹⁰ But Elijah answered the captain of the fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”  Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

This is the same fire that fell from heaven upon the sacrifice of Carmel.  This is not a bolt of lightening but a pillar of fire that comes down from heaven and rests upon this battalion until they are finally consumed. 

I wonder if this is done to remind Ahaziah about that evening on Mt. Carmel.  The same fire, from the same God, for the same reason.

But Ahaziah will not be thwarted.  Hatred consumes his heart.  He despises the prophet like his mother.  And he persists. 

 ¹¹ Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty.  And he answered and said to him, “ O man of God, this is the king’s order, ‘Come down quickly!’”

The king did not learn anything, and neither did the captain.  And this captain shows even more insolence and disrespect.  Not only does he tell Elijah to get down, he says you get down now.  Right now.  On the double!

 ¹² But Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”  Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.  ¹³ Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty.

There are some people who cannot quit.  They persist and persist even when they cannot win.  The king did not wise up, he sent a third battalion.  Thankfully the third captain was wise.

And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. ¹⁴ Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight"

Notice that he does not give the kings word like the others there.  Notice there, it does not say “this is what the king says”.  He went in humility.  And God did what God always does when he saw humility.  He responded to it with favor.

 ¹⁵ Then the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.”  So he arose and went down with him to the king…

And so Elijah finds himself once again in the house that Ahab built.  This time he confronts not Ahab, but Ahab’s son.  You know Jezebel is lurking there somewhere.  She was not going to show herself to Elijah.  But her fingerprints are all over her stiff-necked son who went after the Baals and despised the word of the Lord.

 ¹⁶ …and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘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 to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.  ¹⁷ So he died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.

The word of the Lord goes forth unaltered.  It is not compromised in any way.  And it comes to pass in the life of Ahaziah for all to see.

Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. ¹⁸ 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?

And so we see a story that occurred 2,900 years ago.  But it could have been yesterday.  They same demonic forces that lurked behind the Baals of that time empower the psychics and mediums and channelers of our time.  There are three points that I’d like for us to draw from this text.  There is some timeless truth tied up in the recollection of ancient history. 

1. People are seeking spiritual guidance from dangerous sources.

Ahaziah sought Baal-zubub.  Behind that false God were dark spiritual forces.  Not many people are calling upon the name of Baal-zebub today.  They call on the psychics to bring them contact from spirits.   Likewise, though much of the time, it’s a sham, much of the time, it is dark demonic forces disguising themselves as benevolent beings.  People are seeking spiritual guidance from dangerous sources.  That includes John Edward, Sylvia Brown, James Van Praagh, and any other psycich you see on Montel or Oprah. 

Over the years I’ve been able to speak to people about experiences they’ve had.  I’ve spoken with people who have just dabbled, the next thing they are awoken in the middle of the night with their bodies paralyzed a oppressive presence filling the room. 

Some might say, “Come on Lance.  Snap out of it buddy.  That stuffs a bunch of hocus pocus.  But I tell you that it is fully compatible with a biblical world view.  In the OT, we read the story of Saul and the witch of Endor who was a medium.  In the NT, we read of the Philippian slave girl who had a spirit from which she could raise the dead. 

The reality of dark spiritual demonic forces is in the OT and the NT.  And there are warnings in the OT and the NT. 

Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

Ephesians 6:10-13

Things to avoid:  Tarot Cards, Horoscopes, Witchcraft (drugs), Spells, Spirit Guides, Mediums, Seers, Channelers, Crystal Balls, Palm Reading, Witch Doctors, Ouigi Boards, Seances.

2. People who seek guidance from ungodly sources regularly despise the Word of God.

Here we see it with Ahaziah.  God sent word to him.  He should have humbled himself.  But he literally responded with militancy.  He sent a battalion to deal with Elijah!  That is the case with so many today!

3. God’s heart is for people to seek him for guidance.

Here is the prominent point of the whole thing.  God’s heart is for people to come to Him for support, for strength, for wisdom. God wants to supply all of our needs.  And His heart is grieved when we go seek these things in other sources.  This is plainly seen in the text.

I’ve mentioned to you several times throughout this study of Elijah the importance of repetition in biblical text.  Whenever you are reading through a narrative like this, and a phrase is stated, and restated and restated again, that means, Pay Attention!  That is a device in ancient literature for emphasis.  Here we see a phrase repeated three times.

Look at verse 3, 6, & 16.  Here is what God is trying to emphasize.  Why are you going to that false God when the true God is right here?  I am your husband.  I am able to protect and preserve and guide and help you!  Why aren’t you coming to me?

With equal emphasis it must be stated that for those who turn away from God, there is a bitter judgment to come. 

God wants us to go to him for help and guidance throughout all the affairs of life.  If you get sick, go to God!  If you are confused, go to God!  He loves you.  He is concerned for you.  He wants to be your help and stronghold.  So go to God. 

Is it because there is no God in Israel that you consult a horoscope?  Is it because there is no God in Israel that you consult a psychic?  I m not going to go get my future read.  I do not know what the future holds, but I know who holds my future!

Pastor Lance Skifter

www.faithchristiansv.org