In 2 Kgs 1:9-17; we have the interesting story of a dying king Ahaziah demanding that God’s servant Elijah come to him. It may have been Ahaziah’s last wish before he succumbed to his injuries to kill this meddling prophet, or it may have been a desperate bid to seek healing from his life-threatening injuries. King Ahaziah wouldn’t be the first person to turn to the One true God when they are lying on their death bed. Whatever the case, the first two detachments sent by the dying king to get Elijah to come soon realized at their own peril that only God can command His own prophet.
When the third detachment was sent by the dying king, the captain had obviously learnt the lesson. He begged for God’s mercy so that he, along with his fifty men, would not be consumed by the God’s anger. “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!”
Sometimes but only sometimes, I wish these sorts of things would still happen today. So many people in our society are rubbishing our God and His Beloved Son. They pay Him no respect. More than that, they ridicule Him at every opportunity. And sometimes, we his people feel the brunt of that when we are ostracized and targeted for abuse and in some extreme cases persecuted for our faith in Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t a ‘little’ bit of fire occasionally falling down from heaven turn the tide in our favour so that name of our God and Saviour would be honoured amongst us again? What a lesson it would be to those who dare to be arrogant in the face of our God or towards those who follow Him wholeheartedly!
Well, generally, God doesn’t work that way today and just as well, for who of us can stand and say we are without sin? Thankfully, the God of fire and brimstone in Elijah’s day is full of mercy and compassion, clearly seen when He did show mercy to the third detachment who begged for mercy instead of making demands. However, for King Ahaziah, his days were over for there is no record of him pleading for God’s mercy.
Now some who like to find fault and ridicule the Christian faith may say that this story is evidence of an ‘evil’ god. However, before we take that line of thinking on board, let us remember that the God who sent fire to consume the first two detachments is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ironically, when Jesus was in the same region many years later, there were some people of Samaria who dared to insult Jesus by not receiving him (Luke 9:51ff). Obviously, these people were unfamiliar with what happened to the two detachments of soldiers in Ahaziah’s day, or they simply snubbed their noses at the story.
Two of Jesus’ close followers, James and John, asked whether they should call down fire from heaven to destroy them and Jesus rebuked them, probably for their narrow thinking. Jesus at this time did not come to condemn the Samaritans or anyone else for that matter, but to go to Jerusalem and be the sacrificial Lamb and experience ‘the fire’ for the sins of His people and for all who would plead for mercy and forgiveness. “Amazing love, … what mercy this, immense and free, that You, my Lord, should die for me!” (emphasis added).
Today as true followers of Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit’s fire that doesn’t consume but refines us to be more like Jesus every day. However, there is a day coming when the consuming fire will again burn for all who remain arrogant and refuse to bow their knee before the King (Rev 20:15). Thankfully, that day is not yet here and so, as Christ’s ambassadors, we plead with people to be reconciled to the King before it is too late (2 Cor 5:20). JZ