Ahaziah the son of the infamous King Ahab is now the ruler in Israel the northern kingdom. In just his second year as king he has a bad fall and he sends messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the false god of the Philistine city Ekron (v2). The Lord intervenes and sends the prophet Elijah to send a message to the king rebuking him for enquiring of this false God and to say that he will not recover (v3-8).

When Ahaziah hears the message, he sends for Elijah sending on three occasions fifty armed men to basically arrest Elijah (v9-14). On the first two occasions Elijah calls down fire from heaven which burns up the fifty soldiers. On the third occasion the captain is humble and pleads for mercy. Elijah goes to visit Ahaziah and bravely delivers the message that he will never recover from his sick bed (v15-18).

We learn two main things from this passage. The first is that we need to seek guidance from the Lord and not from elsewhere. How foolish we are to enquire here, there and everywhere before coming to God. The second thing we learn is the importance of being humble before the Lord’s prophet. Today this means having the highest regards for the word delivered through the prophets and apostles, approaching this truth with the greatest reverence.