And Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and was sick; and he sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this disease.
A king falls through a window screen in his own palace and is badly hurt. His first move is to send messengers to a Philistine shrine, and that address tells us everything about his heart.
The lattice was an ordinary feature of an eastern house.
The window of the East was made of trellis work. It let in air and light, but it screened the room from view. Judges 5:28; 2 Kings 1:2; Song of Solomon 2:9.
So this was a household accident. But commentators see the timing as a test for a king who had already lived without God.
But it is impossible to harden yourself against God and prosper. Troubles gather around the wicked king. Moab rebels, and a fall from an upper room in his palace lays him flat. Will this sickness sober the king and turn his thoughts to the Lord God of Israel? Sadly, in good times he had lived without God, and in trouble he despises the Lord's discipline.
The name is not a title of honour. It points to what people believed this god could handle.
The name of Baal as the god of Ekron, meaning 'lord of the fly.' People regarded him as a protector from poisonous flies, and so as a healer of diseases. In the New Testament there is the similar name Beelzebub, and people blasphemously credited him with the Lord's miracles of casting out demons.
Ekron was a Philistine city — foreign soil, foreign worship. What makes the errand worse is that Ahaziah already had a god of his own at home.
His own Baal, before whom he bowed, was not enough for him; he sends to the Baal of the Philistines to learn his fate. Baal-zebub, the lord of flies, was much more valuable in his eyes than Jehovah.
Commentators say the trip to Ekron was more than a superstitious mistake. It meant contact with real spiritual powers, and that trade still goes on today.
Idols are nothing in themselves. But demons stand behind them, as 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us. Dealing with demons is sadly common today. Men call it Spiritualism; "demonism" would be a more correct name for this great sin. This is beyond excuse where Bibles are plentiful and people freely preach the gospel of Christ.
Elijah's answer is a question about where a frightened man takes his future.
Still the prophet insists on one thing: "Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?" So people who face uneasy questions about their future should turn to the Word of God alone. If they despise it, they bring terrible consequences on themselves. One day that same Word will judge them. "So he died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken."
The accident was not only exposure. One writer sees mercy in it.
The way God dealt with him only showed the Lord's tender pity. At the same time it uncovered the desperate hardness of Ahaziah's heart. He had, as people would say, an accident, and it left him ill. That gave him a chance to examine his ways and turn to the Lord. Instead, he sent messengers into Philistine country to ask their god Baalzebub. The eyes of the Lord were on this wicked sinner, and He sent His angel to tell Elijah to go up and meet the king's messengers.
Commentators treat Ahaziah's behaviour as a pattern, not a one-off.
What happened to Ahaziah still happens today to every follower of a false religion. His religion cannot satisfy his heart, calm his soul's fears, or tell him the future. No more could the Baal of Jezebel and Ahab, whom Ahaziah worshipped, satisfy him. So every new superstition is welcome, as long as it offers hope of escaping the fate we fear.
- Fall — The fall through the lattice was a chance to examine his ways and turn back. God's pity showed in the very act of exposing his hard heart.
- Choice — He looked past his own Baal to a foreign "lord of flies" at Ekron. His religion could not calm his fear of death.
- Reality — Idols are nothing in themselves, yet demons stand behind them. The errand to Ekron was dealing with the same powers the New Testament calls Beelzebub.
- Answer — God sent Elijah to meet the messengers with one question: was there no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Those uneasy about their future should go to Scripture and nowhere else.
- Verdict — The Word he refused to consult will one day judge him. Ahaziah died according to that word, just as Elijah said.
And the angel of Jehovah said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?
Ahaziah, king of Israel, is hurt in a fall at his palace in Samaria. Instead of turning to the God of Israel, he sends messengers to a Philistine shrine to ask whether he will live. God has the messengers stopped on the road with one question that exposes the whole state of the kingdom.
The idol's name shows what help the king wanted, and what stood behind it. Notice too what the angel calls him.
Baal-zebub means "lord of flies." The belief that flies carried disease led blind heathen people to turn to this particular god for help. But Ahaziah should have known better. To inquire at Ekron was really to inquire of demons. Idols are nothing in themselves, but there are demons behind them, as 1 Corinthians 10 teaches us... An angel of the Lord told Elijah to go and meet the messengers of the "king of Samaria." The angel would not call such a man "king of Israel."
Ahaziah was not the first king of Israel to look for answers in that direction.
Ekron was the great heathen oracle of that day — the shrine of the Sidonian god Baal-zebub. His followers believed he had power to heal diseases and to cast out demons. This is why, in New Testament times, the Pharisees accused the Lord of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Generations before, Saul in his desperation had turned to demons. He only heard the prophet Samuel announce his immediate doom. Ahaziah, in his day, repeats the awful sin of King Saul.
Elijah's question is not asking for information. It shows how far the nation has drifted.
The apostasy had become so terrible and shameless that people ignored the very existence of the Lord. Right at the centre of it, Elijah is to stand up and speak. Death must prove the truth and existence of God, when unbelief refuses and rejects every other evidence. "You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die." If we do not believe that God is, what awaits us but death?
The king's men never got where they were going. God answered first.
Men love the gods that are most like themselves. So it is not surprising to see Ahaziah sending to this miserable Philistine god. But the sick king's messengers never reached the oracle. The God of Israel Himself sent His prophet to intercept the king's messengers. He answered the king's question.
The injury gave the king time to stop and think. What he did with it says more about him than the fall did.
The way the Lord dealt with him revealed His tender pity. At the same time it uncovered the desperate hardness of Ahaziah's heart. He had, as people would say, an accident, and as a result he was ill. The Lord gave him the chance to examine his ways and turn to Him. Instead of doing either, he sent a delegation into the land of the Philistines. They were to inquire of their god Baal-zebub ("lord of flies") whether he would recover from his disease. He proved by this that he had no confidence in his own gods. Yet he would not turn to the only Source from which help could come.
God had already announced judgment on Ahab's house. Yet the sentence falls here for what this king himself did.
God's judicial ways are worth noticing here. During Ahab's reign the Lord had said He would bring evil on the king's house in his son's days. Even so, Ahaziah is dealt with on the ground of his own wickedness and apostasy. With this record before us, no one can claim that Ahaziah suffered for his father's sins. "The soul who sins shall die" is God's own declaration. So God did not carry out the sentence on Ahab's house until his son had himself drawn down the anger of the Lord God of Israel.
The man who once ran from Jezebel is now sent, at an angel's word, straight into the path of the king's messengers.
At the command of the angel of the Lord, Elijah the Tishbite appears on the scene again, and we find him with all the boldness and energy of faith he had shown from the brook Cherith to the destruction of the prophets of Baal. The broom tree in the wilderness and the lesson at Horeb had borne their fruit for the prophet.
A small decision made in pain shows what is in a heart.
God often tests us in what seem to be little things, but these things reveal the true condition of our hearts... Where do we place our confidence when we are sick or injured? We can be truly thankful for doctors and others who work in healing, for medicines, medical equipment and tests of all kinds. We are free before God to make full use of them. But our trust must not be in things or in people, but in the Lord alone!
- The fall — the injury was an opening to examine his ways and turn to the Lord; Ahaziah sent to Ekron instead.
- The address — "lord of flies" was a god known for healing. To inquire at Ekron was to inquire of demons: idols are nothing, but demons stand behind them.
- The interception — the messengers never reached the shrine. God sent His own prophet to answer the king first.
- The question — it exposes a nation that ignores God's very existence. Where God is not believed, death is what remains.
- The verdict — Ahaziah dies for his own sin, not his father's; the test of a heart is where it turns when the body fails.