Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 2 Kings 1 and Psalm 119:129-160

After the evil king Ahab’s death in battle, Ahaziah became king of Israel (the northern kingdom). Jehoshaphat was still king of Judah (in the south) at the time. In those days, a wooden lattice was used to screen windows, balconies and the open areas on flat roofs for privacy. For some reason (perhaps peering intently at a neighbour as David had done?) Ahaziah “fell through the lattice” – implying a fall from the roof or a second storey balcony to the ground below. No wonder he was badly injured.

The injury was serious enough to inspire Ahaziah to send messengers to find out whether he would live or die. Revealing the true object of his faith and worship, Ahaziah sent them to seek out the prophetic word of Baal-Zebub rather than Yahweh. In a very dramatic twist, Elijah was led to intercept the group and give them Yahweh’s answer to the question: “This is what the Lord says:’Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’” (v.6)

On receiving such a bad, uninvited word from the LORD through Elijah, Ahaziah was enraged and sent out a party of fifty soldiers to arrest him and bring him back. There can be no doubt that his intentions were to do harm to Elijah. Why else would he use such a disproportionate show of force to intimidate him into surrender? So the LORD defended Eliljah twice in a row with fire from heaven. Rather than recognising thereby that Yahweh is God, and turning to Him in worshipful surrender, Ahaziah continued with his evil strategy and sent a 3rd captian and his fifty men to arrest Elijah. When this captain wisely humbled himself and pleaded with Elijah from a position of weakness rather than intimidation, he managed to successfully bring him to the king.

I see the main discipleship lesson of this chapter right at the end. Having already sent the same unpopular message three times from a distance, and now having been brought into the king’s chamber under armed guard, one imagines that Elijah was greatly tempted to water down God’s message to improve his odds of escaping with his life. But he didn’t. He delivered it exactly as he had done from a distance. This consistency in his communication is impressive. Today we also communicate mainly by messages without being physically present with others. This requires plenty of self-examination to discern whether we are consistent in this communication or are unduly emboldened by the physical separation. Do we “say” things for which we later have to apologise because we would never have said them (or would have said them differently) face to face? Or, are our words consistent (as Elijah’s were) regardless of physical presence or absence?

Heavenly Father, empower me to be consistently truthful and gracious in my communication, whether from a distance or face-to-face. Keep me faithful to speaking Your truth in love. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.