Bible Study

2 Kings – Bible study 1

Was it right that Elijah called down fire from heaven to destroy the captains and their fifty soldiers sent by King Ahaziah?
Background:
After chapter 21 of 1 Kings, Elijah reappears in this book.
Following the death of King Ahab, his son Ahaziah became king of Israel. He followed in the evil ways of his father Ahab and mother Jezebel, walking in ways that displeased the Lord and worshipping Baal.
Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent messengers with this instruction:
“Go and inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”

At that time, the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah and said:

“‘Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron

‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will surely die.’”
Elijah delivered this message to the king’s messengers, and they reported it to Ahaziah. Enraged, the king sent a captain with fifty soldiers to arrest Elijah.

The soldiers found Elijah sitting on top of a hill. The captain commanded him
,
“Man of God, come down!
”
Elijah replied

“If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty me

Immediately, fire fell from heaven and consumed them.
The same thing happened with the second group sent by the king.
When the third group arrived, the captain approached Elijah humbly and pleaded

“Man of God, please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty servants "
At that moment, the angel of the Lord said to
Elijah,
“Go down with him; do not be afraid "

Two Key Lessons We Learn from This:
Born-again children of God cannot be threatened or intimidated by human authority. God does not permit His servants to be forced into submission by fear.
This event should not be compared with the incident recorded in Luke 9:51–56. In that passage, when the Samaritans did not receive Jesus, His disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven, as Elijah did. But Jesus rebuked them. That act would have been an aggressive attack, not a divine judgment.
In Elijah’s case, calling down fire from heaven was a necessary act to defend himself and to prove that he was a true servant of God. But in the case of the disciples, doing the same would have been a direct attack on the Samaritans .
Moreover, the teaching of the New Testament differs from that of the Old Testament. Many servants of God and believers today imitate Old Testament incidents without discerning the difference between the two covenants — which is
inappropriate.
“In Luke, the action of the disciples was offensive, while Elijah’s action was defensive and an act of God’s judgment.”
— New Spirit-Filled Life Bible

Ezekiel Shanmugavel