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Ahaziah, Ahab's son, was now king
of Israel. He was a wicked man like his father. Ahaziah was
not taught to love God when he was young. His parents worshiped
idols, and taught Ahaziah to do so too. It is sad for children to
have wicked parents—fathers and mothers who do not care about God, and
who teach their children to love the world and sin. Ahaziah
did not reign many years, and the end of his life was very sad. He
fell down from a high window, and was taken up much hurt. But in his
sickness, this wicked king did not seek the Lord, the true God, who alone
could save him; but he sent to an idol god, Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron,
to ask if he should live or die. Then
an angel came to Elijah from God, and said, "Why does Ahaziah seek
Baal-zebub in his sickness, and not the true God, the God of Israel?
Go, and tell Ahaziah that he shall not recover from his illness, but shall
surely die." Elijah arose directly and went to Samaria, and
soon he met the king's messengers who were going to Ekron. Elijah
told them what God had said, and sent the messengers back to tell their
master. The king wondered to see them again so soon, and he asked,
"Why do you return?" They answered, "Because we met a
man who told us, that God has said, thou shalt not recover, but must die
very soon, because thou hast sought Baal-zebub, and not the God of
Israel." Then the king asked, "Who is the man who sends me
this message?" The servants said, "We do not know his
name; he is a hairy man, and he wears a leathern girdle." Then
Ahaziah said, "I know who he is, he is Elijah the prophet." Ahaziah
hated Elijah as much as his father Ahab had done, and he was very angry
when he heard the fearful message Elijah sent to him. So this wicked
king called one of his captains, and fifty soldiers, and commanded them to
go and take Elijah prisoner. The captain soon found the prophet
sitting on the top of a hill; and he cried to him, "Thou man of God,
the king hath said, come down." But wicked Ahaziah, and his
captain, and the soldiers, had no power to hurt God's prophet. God
had before often taken care of Elijah, and he could take care of him
still. The prophet knew this; and he trusted in God, and did not
feel frightened when he saw the soldiers coming to take him. Elijah
answered and said to the captain, "If I be a man of God, then let
fire come down from Heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty."
And God sent fire down from Heaven, and it burnt the captain and his fifty
soldiers. All died; not one escaped to tell the king. Then
Ahaziah sent another captain, and fifty soldiers more. Elijah was
still upon the hill; he did not try to run away and escape from his
enemies. When the second captain called to Elijah to come down, the
prophet spoke as he had done before, "Let fire come down from Heaven,
and destroy the captain and his fifty soldiers." And fire came
again and destroyed them all. Ahaziah
had lost two captains and a hundred soldiers; yet he sent a third captain
and fifty more soldiers, to take Elijah prisoner. The third captain
was not like his wicked master; nor like the two other bold wicked
captains. He had seen what power Elijah's God had to punish His
enemies, and His prophets' enemies; and this third captain began to fear
that powerful God, and he came and fell down humbly before Elijah, and
asked him to spare him and his fifty soldiers. And did Elijah spare
him? Yes; the good prophet was not cruel nor revengeful. When
he called down fire on his enemies, it was because God commanded him, not
because he himself was angry and passionate. And now God told him
not to fear, but to go with the captain to the king; so Elijah arose, and
went to Ahaziah. Was Elijah afraid to stand before the wicked
king? No; for he knew that God would keep him safely. Elijah
spoke very boldly to Ahaziah, and said, "Thus saith the Lord, Because
thou hast sought Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, and not the true God of
Israel, thou shalt not come down from the bed upon which thou liest, but
shalt surely die." Then Elijah left him. Ahaziah had no
power to hurt him; God protected his faithful servant. Ahaziah
did not live long after this. He lay upon his bed in pain and
sickness, and without any comfort, for a few days; and then he went away
to a world of greater pain and greater sorrow. Baal-zebub could not
save Israel's God, who alone could save him. How said it is to lie
upon a sick bed without comfort, and to die without hope. Death is a
fearful thing to those who are not ready to die; and only those who love
the Lord can be ready. "The wicked is driven away in his
wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death." Proverbs
14:32.
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