“Dark Devotion” (Ray Patchett and Steve Messer)
Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.” But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
In August 1756 when George Whitfield was preaching outside to thousands in Yorkshire Parish he began by announcing his text. He was about to proceed when there was a loud shriek from the crowd, which turned out to be caused by the fact that someone had just died. He announced his text a second time and extraordinarily a similar thing happened again. For the third time he announced his text, Hebrews 9:27.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement, (Heb 9:27 ESV).
Not surprisingly he proceeded to preach to a completely silent and humbled audience. The situation of the prophet Elijah being sent three consecutive groups of military agents from king Ahaziah, two of which were destroyed by fire, was designed to cause a Baal worshipping Israel to take God’s word seriously.
A major reason for the book of Kings is an explanation for the exile of the northern Israel and then southern Judah, interpreted in light of the covenant terms outlined in Deuteronomy. Fundamental to this failure is that the kings refused the word of the Lord given by the true prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha in the northern kingdom of Israel.
The context is that Ahaziah has replaced his father Ahab (the husband of the notorious Jezebel) and has followed his father’s Baal worship and is about to die through a work place accident. Unlike the faithful Hezekiah to come, Ahaziah seeks Ball-zebub not Yhwh (1 Kings 20:1- ). But, Elijah is instructed to meet the king’s messengers and confront his gross idolatry. The king’s response is to send a group of 50 soldiers. Clearly from the context, this is not
a guard of honour. This is a hostile action towards Elijah, the faithful bearer of Yhwh’s word. Here we see again in the book of Kings this failure of the kings to heed God’s word. And the soldiers represent the king’s disdain of God’s word by how they speak to Elijah – probably in mockery they call him ‘man of God’ and then command him to ‘come down’. The response is severe – ‘‘if I’m a man of God, let fire come down from heaven…’ And it does.
Obviously, this reminds us of 1 Kings 18 where Elijah set up a contest between Baal and Yhwh and fire came down from heaven to burn up the water soaked sacrifice and demonstrate that Yhwh is God. This however, did not rid Israel of Baal and his servants, which included king Ahaziah.
The narrative continues and a second group of soldiers are sent, who speak even more harshly, ‘come down quickly’, with the same outcome. For the third group of soldiers there is no longer any mockery or arrogance, only a plea for mercy, verse 13. Elijah subsequently went and told the king face to face what Yhwh had already said concerning his imminent and deserved death. The basic concern of this passage is that no-one who mocked or disdained Yhwh’s word is alive by the end of the account. The third group of soldiers are a pattern for how Yhwh’s word should be responded to, but rarely is.
When Israel’s ultimate prophet came, who was also their king, his word and authority was also mocked (Matthew 27:37-44).
Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Kings: The Power and the Fury (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2005), 24.