Ahaziah’s encounter with Elijah is meant to remind us of the earlier showdown on Mount Carmel when Elijah called down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18). God sent this fire from heaven on Mount Carmel to show himself to be the true God in contrast with the false gods that the people were turning to. Now again we see an Israelite king, this time Ahaziah the son of Ahab, turning to idols instead of God. This grieves God not only because Ahaziah is rejecting him but because Ahaziah is throwing his life into an oppressive lie. It is interesting to note that the god Ahaziah turns to is called ‘Baal-Zebub’. This became the name by which the Jews referred to Satan, as we see in Mark 3:22. This connection helps us to polarise the issue here and see what all the fuss is about. If we are not trusting in God, we are throwing our lives out into a place where we inevitably become the victim of the forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Often, we refrain from turning to God in times of trouble because we feel that we have displeased him in some way. But the thing that grieves God the most is when we do not turn to him in times of trouble. It grieves God to see his people throw their lives to ‘the dogs’ like this. But sometimes he lets us discover the consequences of our choices so that we will learn and turn back to him.
Lift up all your concerns to God in prayer.
Read 1 Kings 22:51 – 2 Kings 1:18
