The Biblical Age of Kings #8: Is There No God in Israel?

In our moments of greatest need, we reveal what lies beneath outward appearances. For those who are empty on the inside, times of crisis can reveal a bankruptcy of character. For those who are filled with the wrong things, catastrophe tends to unearth wrongheaded priorities and misplaced frenzy. But in those who have been filled with the love and grace of God, we can see a calm strength that seems out of place in a world that values hysteria.

King Ahaziah, son of Ahab & Jezebel, reigned slightly more than a year. The narrators of 1 & 2 Kings don't tell us much about him, except that he walked in the evil ways of his parents and of the founding north Israelite king Jeroboam. Ahaziah is an unimportant figure in the annals of history.

His failure to trust in God, however, is the perfect canvas for the narrators to close out the prophetic work of Elijah. In Ahaziah's dumb and futile desperation, we see a clash of powers and priorities, and we discover the outcome of such misplaced trust.

In 2 Kings 1, we read that Ahaziah suffers a fall in the palace that results in severe injury. What should the king of Israel do? His first instinct does not lead him to the path of a faithful Israelite. Instead, following the route of his predecessors and mother, Ahaziah demonstrates no faith in God. He sends messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub in the Philistine city of Ekron. He wants to know if he will recover from his injury.

God sends a messenger or angel (the same Hebrew word) to Elijah: "Intercept Ahaziah’s messengers and inform them that their king will surely die." So Elijah does as instructed, and the messengers return forthwith to the palace. Ahaziah is stunned when they return so quickly, "Why are you back?" He soon discovers the reason: Elijah is behind this trouble.

The rest of the chapter describes the confrontation between the messengers of king Ahaziah and the messenger of King Yahweh. Which king and whose messengers will triumph? The outcome is foreordained, and the events of the chapter do nothing to alter or delay Ahaziah's ultimate demise. But many people become the collateral damage of his stubborn and ungodly ways.

The people of Israel were God's chosen people, a nation set aside to glorify and honor the God of their fathers. The prophets of God, along with the narrators of these books, make clear their overall disdain for the monarchy. David emulated a sincere and steadfast love for God, and his reign was always the standard-bearer for what Israel's kings could achieve. In crisis he repeatedly turned to God and relied on God's strength. His hope was unerringly in God, and this is the abiding mark of a godly Israelite and the model of faithful behavior.

What lurks beneath the surface of your life? What comes out, voluntarily or not, when you face serious challenges and struggles? Is your immediate impulse to cry out to God for help? Or does crisis reveal in you a set of misplaced priorities or perhaps even spiritual emptiness?

I pray that you can be encouraged & challenged by the story of Elijah's encounter with the messengers of Ahaziah. Note carefully how pretend power perishes in the face of God's unbridled power. And think carefully whether or not you're patterning your life after the counter-cultural example of Elijah who trusted fully in God. May no one be able to say of you, "Is there no God for you to turn to?"