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.
Now therefore thus saith Jehovah Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die. And Elijah departed.
Ahaziah, king of Israel, lies injured after a fall through a lattice. He sends to a Philistine shrine at Ekron to ask if he will live, and Elijah meets his messengers on the road with an answer from the God he ignored.
Elijah's opening words are a charge, not a question. They expose a nation so far gone that God's existence counts for nothing — and the prophet's job is to say so and then go.
Ahaziah did not even stop at the idol he already served. Behind the foreign god he sent to stood something far worse.
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 the Lord. That idolatrous nation no doubt called on him to keep them safe from the plague of the eastern lands: flies. He was a powerful god to his worshippers. In their blindness they bowed down to him, and so they were worshipping or begging Satan himself — the Beelzebub so often mentioned in the New Testament.
The injury itself was a kindness, and Ahaziah threw it away.
The way God dealt with him only revealed the Lord's tender pity. At the same time it uncovered the desperate hardness of Ahaziah's heart. He had, as men would say, an accident, and as a result he was ill. This gave him a chance to examine his ways and turn to the Lord. He did neither. He sent messengers into the land of the Philistines to ask their god Baal-zebub whether he would recover from his disease. This proved that he had no confidence in his own gods. Yet he still would not turn to the only Source of help.
Judgment on Ahab's family had already been announced. Yet the timing of this sentence guards God's fairness: the son is condemned for what the son did.
This is worth noticing as an illustration of God's judicial ways. During Ahab's reign the Lord had said He would bring evil on the king's house in his son's days. Yet He deals with Ahaziah on the ground of Ahaziah's own wickedness and turning from God. With this record in front of us, no objector can claim that Ahaziah suffered because of his father's sins. "The soul who sins shall die" is God's own declaration. So the sentence on Ahab's house was not carried out until his son had himself brought on the anger of the Lord God of Israel. He did it by an act of turning from God that matched, if it did not exceed, the worst deeds of his father.
Elijah's question stings because the answer was obvious.
Had it not in practice been proved before Ahab and Jezebel that there was a God in Israel? Where you found the man of God, you found God — a very important testimony for the dangerous days we are living through. Why did people find God there? Because God had entrusted His word to Elijah, and anyone could come to him and ask.
One decision from a sickbed puts the same question to us.
God often tests us in things that seem small. But these things reveal the true condition of our hearts. Ahaziah completely ignored the painful lessons his father Ahab had had to learn. He left the Lord out of his thinking — something both foolish and dangerous to do. ... Where do we place our confidence when we are sick or injured? We can be truly thankful for doctors and other healers, for medicines, medical equipment and tests of every kind. 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!
- Question — Elijah asks whether there is no God in Israel. It is a charge, not a question: the king lived as if his own nation's God did not exist.
- Choice — The fall gave him room to examine his ways. He spent it consulting the lord of flies at Ekron, a god whose blind worshippers were really begging Satan.
- Justice — Judgment on Ahab's house waited until the son earned it. No one can say he died for his father's sins.
- Verdict — When unbelief refuses every other evidence, death is what proves that God is real.
- Mirror — God was there all along, in His word through His servant. The sickbed shows whether we trust the remedies or the Lord.
And the messengers returned to him; and he said to them, Why have ye returned?
A king lies injured in Samaria. He had sent servants south to consult a Philistine oracle, and they are back far too soon with an answer he never asked for. His question turns the whole chapter: something has stopped his errand, and he does not yet know what.
The messengers never arrived at Ekron. God stopped them on the road. The One the king had ignored sent His own prophet to meet them.
But the sick king's messengers never reached the oracle. The God of Israel Himself, sending His prophet to intercept the king's messengers, answered His question. "But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them: Is it not because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?"
Ahaziah did not need to be told the prophet's name.
The Lord had heard the orders given to the king's messengers, and He sent a messenger (angel means "a messenger" in Hebrew) to Elijah the Tishbite... Elijah delivered the message; the messengers returned to Ahaziah and he heard Elijah's words from their lips. He knew at once who the mysterious person was who had turned back his messengers.
Where were the messengers going? Ekron held the shrine of a god whose name means "lord of flies." Asking him was no harmless second opinion.
Baal-zebub means "lord of flies." People believed that flies carried disease, so blind pagans turned to this god for help. But Ahaziah should have known better. To ask at Ekron was really to ask demons. Idols are nothing in themselves, but there are demons behind them, as 1 Cor. 10 teaches us. Dealing with demons is all too common in our day. Men call it Spiritualism; "demonism" would be a more correct name for this great sin.
The king already had a religion of his own. He still sent abroad for answers, which shows how little it gave him. The same thing happens today.
That which happened to Ahaziah still happens today to every follower of a false religion. His religion cannot satisfy his heart, calm his fears, or tell him the future. Neither 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.
His accident left him ill, and that itself was an opening. What he did with it showed what was in him.
The way God dealt with him only revealed the Lord's tender pity, while at the same time it uncovered the desperate hardness of Ahaziah's heart. He had, as people would say, an accident, and so he was ill. This gave him an opportunity to examine his ways and turn to the Lord. Instead he sent men into Philistine country to ask their god Baal-zebub whether he would recover. So he proved that he had no confidence in his own gods; and yet he would not turn to the only Source of help.
The message the messengers carried home was a sentence, not a diagnosis. In a nation that acted as if God did not exist, that sentence was the last argument left.
The falling away from God had become so terrible and reckless that people ignored His very existence. In the middle of it, Elijah stands up to declare that death must prove the truth and existence of God, when unbelief denies and rejects all other evidence. "You shall not come down from that bed on which you have gone up: you shall surely die." If we do not believe that God is, what awaits us but death?
Elijah later brought the same charge to the king's face. It names the one place Ahaziah should have sent to.
Yet the prophet insists upon one thing: "Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?" So people facing troubling questions about their future should turn to the Word of God alone. Despising it brings terrible consequences on themselves. One day this same Word will judge them. "He died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken."
- Intercepted. The messengers never reached Ekron. God stopped the errand on the road and answered the king Himself.
- Destination. Ekron's "lord of flies" was no neutral healer. To ask there was to ask demons.
- Motive. The king's own religion could not calm his fears. So any new superstition was welcome, if it promised escape.
- Opportunity. His illness was an opening to turn to God. Instead it exposed how hard his heart was.
- Verdict. Not a cure but a sentence. When unbelief refuses every other proof, only death is left to prove that God is.
And they said unto him, A man came up to meet us, and said to us, Go, return to the king that sent you and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die.
Ahaziah's messengers set out for a Philistine shrine and never arrived. A stranger met them on the road, turned them around, and sent them home with an answer to the very question their king had asked. What they carry back is not a health forecast. It is a charge against the king's heart, and a death sentence.
Elijah's question is not a real question. It is a charge: the king has acted as though the God of Israel did not exist. The nation had already seen the proof, back in Ahab's reign.
Had it not been proven before Ahab and Jezebel that there was a God in Israel? Where people found the man of God, they found God — a very important testimony for the dangerous days we pass through. Why did they find God there? Because God had entrusted His Word to Elijah, and people could come to him to ask about it.
The state of the nation had sunk so low that God was not so much disobeyed as ignored.
We now come to Elijah's last act of public testimony (2 Kings 1). He comes forward to rebuke the king of Israel for sending to Baal-zebub to ask about his sickness, as if there were no God in Israel. The apostasy had become so terrible and shameless that people ignored the Lord's very existence. In the very centre of it, Elijah is to stand up and declare this: when unbelief disowns and refuses all other evidence, death must prove the truth and existence of God.
The king's choice was worse than it looks.
Finding himself a sick man after a fall from a window, Ahaziah sent messengers to ask Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover. Baal-zebub means "lord of flies." People believed that flies carried disease, so blind pagans turned to this 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 Cor. 10 teaches us.
The shrine lay in Philistine country, and a king's taste in gods tells you something about the king.
Ekron was the northernmost of the five main Philistine cities, and it held the shrine and oracle of the detestable idol called Baal-zebub — the Beelzebub of the New Testament. Men love the gods that are most like themselves, so it is not surprising to see Ahaziah sending to this wretched Philistine god. But the sick king's messengers never reached the oracle. The God of Israel Himself, sending His prophet to intercept the king's messengers, answered his question.
This was not the first time this prophet had announced a death in the royal family.
The messengers therefore knew it was useless to go to the god of Ekron, and they returned to Ahaziah, telling him about the man who met them and about his message from the God of Israel (v.6). When Ahaziah questioned them about the man, he realised it was Elijah the Tishbite (vv.7-8), who had given his father a similar fateful message that came true.
This word was not the first blow to land on Ahaziah.
The prophet pronounces a third judgment on Ahaziah. The first was Moab's rebellion, which struck at the glory of his kingdom. The second was his fall, which struck at his health. This third one strikes at his life: "You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die."
God had warned Ahab's house of coming judgment. Even so, this sentence rests on what Ahaziah himself did.
Notice how God judges here. During Ahab's reign the Lord had said that He would bring evil on the king's house in his son's days. Yet God deals with Ahaziah on the ground of his own wickedness and apostasy. With this record before us, no objector can claim that Ahaziah suffered because of his father's sins.
The king's injury was a small thing that revealed everything.
God often tests us in things that seem small. 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 other healthcare workers, 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 question asked — Ahaziah wanted to know if he would recover, and sent to Ekron to find out.
- The god consulted — Baal-zebub means "lord of flies." Behind the idol stood demons.
- The question intercepted — the messengers never reached the shrine. God answered before they could ask the idol.
- The charge laid — his real sin was living as though there were no God in Israel. God's word stood ready in His prophet.
- The answer given — death, not recovery. It was the third blow, after his kingdom and his health. And it fell for his own apostasy, not his father's.