Who Ya Gonna Ask?

Be careful who you seek advice from:

Regular followers of this site might think I am getting old (I am) and forgetful, given that I just penned a piece with this title, or at least something similar. Well, the title is a bit different, but it in fact acts as a sort of Part 2 to yesterday’s piece. In that previous article I discussed what happened in the final chapter of 1 Kings (ch. 22). Here I will discuss what happens in the first chapter of 2 Kings.

Both have to do with evil Kings of Israel, the Northern Kingdom: Ahab in the first piece, and his son Ahaziah in the second. Both depended on others instead of the living God. King Ahab depended on the false prophets instead of Micaiah, the prophet of Yahweh, and ended up paying the price. See my write-up here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/04/12/who-ya-gonna-call/  

And now we have King Ahaziah consulting false, pagan gods instead of Yahweh’s prophet Elijah. He too was judged by God for this. The first four verses say this:

After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.” 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? 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.

The King of course did not like this message, so he sent to him a captain and 50 men. Elijah refused to go with him, and said if he is a man of God, fire will come down and consume all 51 of them. And so it does. So Ahaziah sends another captain and 50, and the same thing happens to them. Then Ahab does it a third time, and we read what happens (verses 13-16):

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. 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.” 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 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.’”  

A few things can be said about all this. First, there is a bit of humour here – but obviously not for the captains and their men. Ahab keeps doing dumb things, and others have to pay the price for his bad choices. One is reminded of when Moses and Aaron challenged Pharoah with the ten plagues.

Recall that Pharaoh’s magicians replicated the first two plagues (and tried but failed with the third), with disastrous results. Not a very smart move on Pharaoh’s part, given it was the Egyptians who had to suffer. And the same here with Israelites suffering because of Azariah’s dumb decisions.

Peter Leithart offers these comments on this aspect of the story:

Elijah was a man like us (Jas. 5), but through fervent righteous prayer he is capable of sending fireballs from heaven. The pun on “man” (ish) and “fire” (esh) points to Elijah himself being the “fire of God” sent from heaven to consume Israel with his burning words (Jer. 1:10). There is a comical futility in Ahaziah’s cartoonish insistence on sending troops to apprehend Elijah: “Fifty men were burned alive the first time? Let’s send fifty more and demand that Elijah come quickly. That’ll do the trick.” Idolatry, as Paul emphasizes, blinds idolaters. Not only do they seek out gods that are no gods, but they also keep going back and back and back.

But it is this insistence on turning to false gods to get any sort of help, assistance, guidance, advice or direction that is worth discussing further here. That is always a dumb move to make. And believers today are not immune from doing similar things. We easily turn to anyone or anything but the one true God, especially at crunch time. That never ends well.

Dale Ralph Davis opens his remarks about 2 Kings 1 with these words:

Second Kings begins on a positive note: Ahab is dead. You may think that is a nasty sentiment, but you must remember that Ahab was a conduit that allowed pagan sewage to engulf Israel (1 Kings 16:29–34), one who tolerated injustice (1 Kings 21), and who hated God’s word (e.g., 1 Kings 22). But the Ahabs always die—that is good news. The bad news is that Ahab, Jr., follows him. Ahaziah is a chip off the old, dead block. Welcome to Israel, 852 BC.

And he reminds us to look back to an earlier confrontation Elijah had with a pagan king – Ahaziah’s father Ahab:

One cannot understand 2 Kings 1 unless one remembers 1 Kings 18. The latter passage relates the ‘god contest’ on Mount Carmel, Yahweh versus Baal. Fire was the burning issue of the day: the God who answered by fire would show himself to be the real God (1 Kings 18:21, 23–24, 36–39). It was a matter of proof. That is the function of the fire in 2 Kings 1 as well. Oh, it should have been unnecessary. King Ahaziah surely knew what had taken place just a few years before at Mt. Carmel. It was a public, prime-time affair covered (if one may be anachronistic) by all the major news networks. It was not done in a corner. It scared the liver out of the folks who saw it and they never stopped talking about it. Carmel Day made the point: Yahweh is the real God, Baal a sorry non-entity. But Ahaziah didn’t get the point. When he has an urgent need for health care, he appeals to Baal (v. 2)—Baal the loser (1 Kings 18). What do you do when someone is so dense, so ‘thick,’ that he doesn’t grasp what fire (1 Kings 18:38) means? You send more fire (2 Kings 1:10b, 12b)! The point is the same, i.e., Yahweh is the only God, but the fire is not only demonstrative (as at Carmel in 1 Kings 18) but destructive (102 seared remains, thanks to Ahaziah). The first commandment really matters to Yahweh, and Ahaziah just doesn’t get it.

And a larger quote from Paul House nicely offers us some contemporary significance and application of this ancient passage:

Since God is unique and since idols are condemned throughout Scripture, contemporary believers” contemporary believers need to make a fearless inventory of idols in their lives. Whatever is worshiped ahead of, instead of, or alongside God needs to be removed. Os Guinness argues:

 

“In the biblical view, anything created—anything at all that is less than God, and most especially the gifts of God—can become idolatrous if it is relied upon inordinately until it becomes a full-blown substitute for God and, thus, an idol. The first duty of believers is to say yes to God; the second is to say no to idols We are under the searching demand of the truth at the heart of the gospel: There is one God, there is no god but God, and there is no rest for any people who rely on any god but God.”

 

This last comment should impact modern hearers. Idols create weariness, stress, and insecurity. Only those who serve the Lord can truly find rest (cf. Kgs 18:21; Matt 11:28-29).

 

Because God warns in hopes of staving off judgment, true repentance becomes another way of finding rest and security. Even Ahab learned that any level of repentance is met by God’s grace and forgiveness (1 Kgs 21:27-29). In fact, Elijah’s continual confronting of Ahab proved God’s grace. Foolishly, Ahab thought Elijah and Micaiah were his enemies when, quite the contrary, they were his only links to a future worth living. Today’s readers of Scripture have the same option that was offered Ahab: they may hear and repent, or they may sulk and resent the messenger. An Ahab-like attitude eventually ruins the nation, for it sends Israel into exile.

 

God’s sovereignty and kingship call people of all times to obedience and trust. Elijah himself learns this lesson in 1 Kings 17-19. God can feed the prophet (17:1-6), feed the widows and orphans, even raise the dead (17:1-24). God can provide safety for the persecuted (18:1-15), answer prayer in a miraculous fashion (18:16-40), and, again, keep the prophet safe (19:1-9). God dictates the future (19:11-18). If such things are true, then trust and obedience are logical responses to this God. Difficulties and persecutions will never disappear (cf. I Kgs 19:1-2), but God is faithful in these times just as he is in “easier” times. Like the ancient audience, today’s audience can say “the LORD is God” (1 Kgs 18:39) with total confidence and with assurance that God cares for the faithful.

 

Finally, if God alone deserves worship, the church must take worship and evangelism seriously. Not all Israel adopted separatist Yahwism by any means. Some no doubt continued to mix various forms of Yahwistic and Baalistic rites. Still, the prophets called for reform, and theirs was the most merciful voice. Taking a stand was the kindest thing they could do. Similarly, commitment and devotion to the Lord in worship benefits the church most. Telling everyone about Christ benefits the world most. Sincere worship of other gods is still idolatry and remains a detriment to people’s souls. Believers must not be abrasive or offensive, but a multicultural society offers a great opportunity for witness, not for the church to adopt or accept new idols. Yahweh is still the only God, a truth that should lead not to pride or triumphalism but to an Elijah-like commitment to truth that heals its hearers.

While some Christians today might question the value of these Old Testament narratives, and wonder just how relevant they are to 21^st century believers, this short article hopefully demonstrates that they are extremely relevant, and they provide us with so many important spiritual lessons.

If you have not yet read through the entire Old Testament, can I encourage you to get started on it today? You will never fully and properly understand the New Testament until you do.

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