>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast with your host, Jen. Make sure to grab a cup of coffee this morning because we're going to be reading Second Kings, chapter one, the entire thing. So we are in a, uh, brand new book of the Bible. This is Second Kings, and it's a continuation of First Kings, which is why I decided not to change the seasons, but to just roll right into
Second Kings from First Kings. But now that we have completed First Kings, you guys, if you've been following with me from the beginning, you have listened to 11 books in the Old Testament. And if you're following along with me in the New Testament, you have listened to, From Matthew to 1 Corinthians, seven books of the Bible. So seven plus eleven is eighteen. If you are following along with this podcast from the beginning, you've listened to 18 books of the
Bible. So give yourselves a round of applause, because that is amazing. But today, we're going to move into our 12th book of the Old Testament, 2 Kings, chapter one, and we're going to read the whole thing. I'll be reading this as I usually do from the web version. Moab rebelled against Israel. After the death of Ahab, Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his
upper room that was in Samaria, and he was sick. So he sent messengers and said to them, go and inquire of beelzebub, the God of Ekron, whether I will recover of this sickness. But Yahweh's angel said to Elijah, the Tishbite, arise and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and tell them, is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Now therefore, Yahweh says, you will not come down from the bed where you have gone
up, but you will surely die. Then Elijah departed. The messengers returned to him, and he said to them, why is it that you have returned? They said to him, a man came up to meet us and said to us, go and return to the king who sent you. And tell them, Yahweh says, is it because there is no God in Israel that you sent to inquire of, uh, beelzebub, the God of Ekron? M. Therefore, you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely
die. He said to them, what kind of a man was he who came up to meet you and told you these words? They answered, he was a hairy man and wearing a leather belt around his Waist. He said, it's Elijah the Tishbite. Then the king sent a captain of 50 with 50 to him. He went up to him. Um, and behold, he was sitting on the top of a hill. And he said to him, man of God. The king says, come down. Elijah answered the captain of 50. If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and consume
you and your 50. Then fire came down from the sky and consumed him and his 50. Again he sent to him another captain of 50 with his 50. He answered him, man of God. The king has said, come down quickly. Elijah answered them, if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and consume you and your 50. Then God's fire came down from the sky and consumed him and his 50. Again he sent a captain
of a third 50 with his 50. The third captain of 50 went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and begged him and said to him, man of God, please let my life and the life of these 50 of your servants be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from the sky and consumed the last two captains of 50 with their 50s. But now let my life be precious in your sight. Yahweh's angel said to Elijah, go down with him. Don't be afraid of him. Then he arose
and went down with him to the king. He said to him, Yahweh says, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Therefore you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely die. So he died according to Yahweh's word which Elijah had spoken. Jehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, because
he had no son. Now, the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, which he did, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? So if you remember what happened at the end of 2 Kings, King Ahab of Israel died in battle because he didn't listen to God. God told him, don't go out to battle. You're not going to make it. And King Ahab was like, nah, I'll go out to battle, and I will make it. And it turned out he didn't make it. So he died in battle. And so his son
Ahaziah reigned in his place. And Ahazia did not reign for very long. It was approximately two years is what scripture says. And during that time, it rolls right into 2 Kings, chapter 1, verse 1. It says Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. So now that Ahaziah is the new king, Moab, which was under Israel's control since the time of King David,
decided to rebel. And this just shows how much power Israel was losing after King Ahab died, because now Moab has gotten strong enough to actually rebel against Israel. Now, the area of Moab would have been on the other side of the Jordan river, right above the tribe of Manasseh, if I'm thinking correctly. So Moab was. Was on the other side, but still Israel had control of Moab, and. And now they do not, after the death of Ahab. So they rebelled, and they are their own separate entity.
Now. During this time, Ahab's son, Ahaziah, who is now the king, fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria. And he was injured very severely because he probably fell several stories down onto the ground, because back in these days, you know, people often would use the upper room for entertainment purposes. So if the upper room had these lattices, like around the edge that weren't very secure, which apparently was this, uh, case,
somebody could fall down through that lattice. And it looks like that's what happened to Ahazia. So Ahazia is in his bed, and he is in really rough shape from falling from the third story. And so he asks one of his messengers to go to Ekron and inquire of, uh, baal zebub, which most people now call this beelzebub. I mentioned maybe a couple months ago, and I'll keep mentioning this because it's kind of funny, the word zabub translates to either flies
or feces. And because baal worship often went hand in hand with the worship of feces, like human excrement, it's kind of funny that now the people are actually referring to baal as baal zabub, which translated would mean the god of excrement or the god of flies. And that is what satan's name is. Nowadays we call him beelzebub. So Ahaziah decides to ask beelzebub for wisdom instead of Yahweh, who was the true God of Israel. So the messengers go out
and they're traveling to Ekron. And meanwhile, God appears to the prophet Elijah. And He says to Elijah, go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and tell them, is it because there Is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of beelzebub, the god of Ekron. So God's like, ask these men why they're going to inquire of some foreign god when I'm right here. Is there really no God in Israel that you
can ask for help? So God continues, tell these messengers to tell the king you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely die. So Elijah goes and he meets the messengers. So the messengers meet Elijah on, um, the way. Elijah tells them this message. And the messengers immediately turn around, they don't go to Ekron, and they come straight back to King Ahazia. So the king's like, why are you here? I sent you out not too long ago.
You couldn't have gone to Ekron and back, so why have you returned? And they say to him, this man came up to us and meet us, and he had a message for us. He, uh, said, go and return to the king and tell him, Yahweh says, is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, you will not come down from the bed where you
have gone up, but you will surely die. And you might ask, well, why did these messengers come back to the king if just some random guy came up to them and told, uh, them this prophecy? Well, because Elijah was not a random man. He was pretty well known in Israel, as we're about to find out. And also, the prophets in the days of Elijah would often wear things that distinguished them as a prophet. I believe they are called mantles. And these mantles would often be like really furry kind
of coats. In fact, John the Baptist in the New Testament, who was also a prophet, he wore something kind of similar. He wore, um, animal skins and goats hide and things like that. And that is what the prophets would wear. They would distinguish themselves and dress very differently because they were a prophet from God. So when these messengers meet this man that has this, like, furry thing on, they're going to listen because they're like, oh, this guy is a prophet. So the king asks,
who was this man? And they say, he was a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist. And so this, this phrase he was a hairy man most likely is referring to the clothing, the hairy clothing that he was actually wearing. Once again, that mantle made of goat's hair or whatever it was made of. So now immediately King Ahaziah distinguishes that this is Elijah. He said, it's Elijah the Tishbite. And the king gets very angry.
So he sends a captain with 50 men out to meet Elijah and to forcibly bring him to him, possibly either to punish or kill Elijah or to make Elijah change what he had just said. So this captain of 50 has his orders, and he goes and meets Elijah. And Elijah, it says, was sitting on top of a hill. So he says to Elijah, man of God. The king has said, come down. So Elijah answers The captain of 50, well, if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and
consume you and your 50. And indeed, fire does come down from the sky. And you might be like, well, this seems really cruel. Why would Elijah call down fire from the sky? It seems like he's always calling fire down from the sky. Well, firstly, you have to remember that it wasn't Elijah calling down the fire from the sky. Because he said, if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and consume you and your 50. And God was the one who sent the fire from the sky. It wasn't
Elijah. In fact, it specifically says, I believe in the book of Hebrews that Elijah was just as ordinary as you and I. But yet when he prayed and when he talked to God, God would listen to Elijah because Elijah had great faith in God. So it wasn't Elijah himself who was special or who had, like, magic powers, who could call down fire from the sky. It was the fact that Elijah had great faith. He was just an ordinary human being. But yet when he prayed to God, God would send
droughts. When he asked God to stop those droughts, God would stop the drought. And when he asked for fire from the sky, God would send fire from the sky. Because since Elijah had that great faith, that means that he was more in line with God's will. And so Elijah could ask for these things knowing that he was within God's will. So it was actually God's will to send this fire down on this captain and these
50 men. And why is that? Well, because this captain, first and foremost, even though he knew Elijah was a man of God because he called him a man of God, he still was willing to kill a man of God. And you might be like, well, that was his orders. Well, sure, but there's two other captains mentioned after this. And one of those captains actually believed, truly believed, that Elijah was a man of God. And he didn't want to mess with that. And
he still had his orders. But yet instead of being like this first captain and like the second captain, who was even more arrogant than the first captain. The third captain didn't actually want to kill Elijah because possibly he had some level of faith, but he was still carrying out his orders. So this first man, even though he claims to believe that Elijah is a man of God, he didn't actually care all that much. He was still willing to take Elijah to, to his death. And that was against
God's will. It was against God's will for Elijah to die at all, actually. So God sends this, uh, fire down on this captain and these 50 men who were purposefully trying to go against God's plan for Elijah. And it was also probably to protect Elijah's life as well. So this fire does indeed come down on the first guy. And then when King Ahazia hears about this, because word travels back to him, he sends another guy to go meet the
same fate. So Ahazia doesn't care. He could care less what happens to his captains of 50. So the second captain of 50 is even more arrogant. Like I said, verse 11, again, Ahazia sent to Elijah another captain of 50 with his 50 men. And the captain answered, elijah, man of God. The king has said, come down quickly. So this second captain also does not care about Elijah's status as a man of God.
And he says, get down here quickly. I am going to take you to the king and I don't care what happens to you. So once again, Elijah answers the same exact phrase. He says, well, if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky and consume you and your 50. So then God's fire came down from the sky and consumed him and his 50. And you might wonder about those 50 men as well. Like, did
any of them actually want to go through with this plan? Was God being mean by killing every single one of these people? Well, the short answer is we don't know what those 50 men were thinking. They could have been just as on board, just as willing to kill Elijah as the captain was. We know that faith in Israel at this point in time was not very high. Israel was kind of failing because they refused to believe
in Yahweh. So finding people that actually were Yahweh followers was becoming harder and harder as the years go on. And it's going to become harder and harder as well, uh, as we get into second kings. But we don't know what those 50 men were thinking. So we can't really say one way or the other. But we know that God is a just judge, and God knows the hearts, and He Also
works on an individual basis. I think when we see God in the Old Testament, like sending plagues or, you know, sending fire from heaven or something like that, we think that God is just willy nilly killing people left and right, because whatever, who cares? No, God cares about every single individual He's made. Every single individual, Every person is created in God's image and God loves the entire world is what John 3:16
says. So because God loves the entire world, He works on an individual basis with each individual person. So in the case of these 50 men, or rather these hundred men that died under these two captains, we don't know what they are thinking, but all we know is that God is just and He doesn't do things willy nilly. So then Ahazia hears about the second captain that dies due to fire. And so again in verse 13, he sends the third captain and his 50 men as well. But this time something is different.
The third captain of 50 goes up and he fell on his knees. He was put in such a hard place, like you can't even imagine, like I'm sure how much stress this man was under because he's like, I am between a rock and a hard place. I have to serve an evil king who will kill me if I don't bring Elijah back. Or if I go to Elijah and take him, God's fire is going to come down from heaven and kill me and all of my 50 men. And so this man has a humble heart before
God. And so he gets down on his knees in front of Elijah and he begs him, man of God, please let my life and the life of these 50 of your servants be precious in your sight. Behold, I know that fire came down from the sky and consumed the last two captains of 50 with their 50s. But now let my life be precious in your sight. And we don't know if this man was a Yahweh follower or not, because he doesn't mention here that God was the one who sent the fire. He believes that Elijah was the one who
sent the fire. And so he's begging with Elijah instead of begging with God. But still his humility of coming before Elijah, put in a really difficult position, makes God do something different. God says to Elijah, go down with this man. Don't be afraid of him. So Elijah goes down with this captain, and this captain takes him, uh, to the king. So you see, God does have care and concern for the lives of his people, as demonstrated here with this captain and with these 50 men.
So Elijah goes to the king, he meets the king who is in bed. And he, verse 16, Yahweh says, because you have sent messengers to inquire of beelzebub, the god of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely die. So Elijah gives the news to Ahazia that Ahazia is going to die on this bed. He is not going to recover from that
fall. And honestly, we don't know what happened to Elijah right after he tells this situation. But he was able to leave because possibly Ahazia died right then and there. I don't know. But one way or the other, Elijah was able to leave this situation. He was not thrown into prison that we know of. He just left after telling this message to the king. The king had very little power, and maybe he died very, very soon after that. So verse 17 says. So he died.
Ahaziah died according to Yahweh's word, which Elijah had spoken. And after this, Jehoram, his brother, began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. So Ahaziah's brother Jehoram begins to reign. At this point in time, there's a King Jehoram in Israel and also a King Jehoram in Judah, because, uh, Jehoshaphat's son was actually also named Jehoram. Apparently, it was a pretty popular
name back in these days. So Jehoram of Israel begins to reign shortly after Ahazia dies. And then it says in verse 18, to conclude now, the rest of the Acts of Ahazia, which he did, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? So this is all we really know about Ahazia, because once again, the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, we don't have those books. We have first and Second Chronicles, which talk mainly about the kings of Judah. So we
don't have the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. But what we know of Ahazia is that he was a terrible king, because the only thing he's notable for is the fact that Moab actually rebelled against Israel. So Israel lost land during the reign of King Ahazia. And then Ahazia died very shortly after that. So he had that, uh, we know of no notable achievements. But anyway, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed the first episode of Second Kings and, uh, enjoyed a little bit of this history of
King Ahazia. Now Second Kings is going to get real crazy as we move into the life of Elisha, who is going to be the next prophet of Israel. Elisha does some really, really fantastic things and they actually say that Elisha was a picture of Jesus and Elijah was a picture of John the Baptist. And in fact John the Baptist is by Jesus called the second Elijah. And what's also kind of funny is that Elijah and John the Baptist dressed very similar. You know, they both wore those animal skins and,
uh, leather belts and things like that. So yeah, Elijah and John the Baptist have many similarities and Elisha and Jesus have some similarities as well. So we'll get into all of that and talk about some of these interesting stories coming up in the Book of Second Kings. But faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Monday. I'll see you guys tomorrow for an episode from Second Corinthians. Happy listening and God bless.