2 Kings 1 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: 1 Kings 22:51-53 / 2 Kings 1:1-18
22:51 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. 52 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, because he followed the ways of his father and mother and of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 53 He served and worshipped Baal and aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
1:1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, ‘Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.’
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” 4 Therefore this is what the Lord says: “You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”’ So Elijah went.
5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, ‘Why have you come back?’
6 ‘A man came to meet us,’ they replied. ‘And he said to us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘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!’”’
7 The king asked them, ‘What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?’
8 They replied, ‘He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt round his waist.’
The king said, ‘That was Elijah the Tishbite.’
9 Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, ‘Man of God, the king says, “Come down!”’
10 Elijah answered the captain, ‘If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!’ Then the fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.
11 At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, ‘Man of God, this is what the king says, “Come down at once!”’
12 ‘If I am a man of God,’ Elijah replied, ‘may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!’ Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.
13 So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. ‘Man of God,’ he begged, ‘please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! 14 See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!’
15 The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.’ So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.
16 He told the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’ 17 So he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.
Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 18 As for all the other events of Ahaziah’s reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?
A. Find Out:
- List 4 things Ahaziah did as shown in the summary of v.51-53.
- What happened to Ahaziah and what did he do? v.1,2
- What message from God was sent to him? v.3-6
- What did Ahaziah try to do and what happened? v.7-14
- Why did Elijah eventually go to him? v.15
- What message did he bring and what was the outcome? v.16-18
B. Think:
- How was Ahaziah’s folly seen in these verses?
- What was the Lord’s part in all this?
- What do you think was the purpose of the fire from heaven?
C. Comment:
Ahab has died and his son becomes king. He has obviously learnt nothing from Ahab’s encounters with the Lord and is just as bad as his father. He is a foolish, superstitious idol worshipper and he thinks he can get away with it. Then he has an accident, he falls through the window lattice of an upper window and is seriously injured. It is when we have mishaps that our inner self is really revealed. Ahaziah is in fear of whether he will live and so wants reassurance. Does he turn to the Lord? No, he turns to pagan gods.
Whether the Lord provoked this accident is not clear, but He certainly uses the situation to speak to this foolish king. The word comes via an angel to Elijah and thus to messengers and thus to the king, because you have relied upon idols you will not recover. If the man had feared and sought the Lord it might have been very different. Then we see the dramatic account of the various soldiers who went out to apprehend Elijah. Now this is clearly the power of the Sovereign Lord protecting His servant but surely it is more than this.
Surely every power encounter is a warning to the king to repent. In a most amazing way this king is being given opportunity after opportunity to come to his senses. As the Lord was to say later through Ezekiel, “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone… Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:32). God is giving Ahaziah time and he squanders it!
D. Application:
- God’s judgement always gives time for repentance.
- Judgement will come, don’t squander the opportunity to repent.