Instead of repenting and aligning, Ahaziah was offended. Isn’t it true that how a person evaluates the situation will determine how we will act? Ahaziah’s assessment of the situation was that Elijah was against him. With that mindset he wouldn’t be able to rightly appraise the situation. So in 2 Kings 1:9-12, he took action to have Elijah apprehended and punished.
He
sent for the captain of his fifty and his men to arrest Elijah. In military
formation, 50 soldiers would usually form a platoon comprising of two squads or
sections. What Ahaziah did was he sent his first platoon to Elijah who was
sitting on the hill. The platoon leader told the prophet saying, “O man of
God, the king says, ‘Come down.’” Instead of coming down, Elijah’s
response to him was, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from
heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Elijah had learned his lesson.
Previously at the words of Jezebel, he ran into hiding. This time he refused to
be cowed. As soon as he had finished speaking to that platoon leader, fire
came down from heaven and consumed that platoon. Apparently, Ahaziah was slow
to learn. He sent another platoon who confronted Elijah with the order of the
king for him to “Come down quickly.” His response was still the same and
again fire came down and consumed the second platoon.
Ahaziah
and his men had shown how incongruent they were. If they truly believed that Elijah
was a man of God, they would not have ordered him around. The way they treated
him showed that they did not believe what their mouth had said. So Elijah set
out to authenticate that he indeed was a man of God and that his allegiance was
to God alone. So God affirmed his calling by sending fire to consume both the
two platoons. The lesson here is on being congruent in our profession. Our
confession and our actions in life must align. Be sure that our conviction and
our confession are in alignment. It’s useless to say one thing and do exactly
the opposite!
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