Then King Ahaziah sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. So the captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king declares, 'Come down!'" Sermons
I. MAN RUINED THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. The messengers which the king sent to Elijah - fifty each time on three different occasions - were all, except the last fifty, destroyed by lightning. This awful judgment came upon them, not merely on their own account - although, like all sinners, they had forfeited their lives to eternal justice - but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race, in all races and times, there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others. In this world the innocent suffer for the guilty; the "fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." II. MAN EMPLOYED AS THE EXECUTOR OF DIVINE JUSTICE. These hundred men, messengers from the king, were struck down by Elijah at the command of God. There was no personal vengeance in the act. Elijah was used as the organ of Heaven. God's plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man. How was Pharaoh punished, and the Canaanites, etc.? By man. Sinful nations are punished, often by worthless kings and ruthless despots. III. MAN STEPPING INTO THE PLACE OF THE DEAD. The King Ahaziah dies; Jehoram steps into his place. "So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead." "One generation cometh, and another passeth away." Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. Thus the world goes on, and the dead are soon forgotten. The greatest man on earth today is but a mere bubble on the great river of human life; he sparkles for a moment, and is lost forever in the abyss. - D.T.
Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty. Outlines of Sermons by a London Minister. Consider —I. THE STEPS WHICH LED UP TO THIS MIRACLE. 1. Seeking help where it was not to be found, in direct violation of the law of God. If a member of a family were to break his arm, and instead of applying to the family surgeon who had in the past given full proof of his skill, were to seek the advice of a quack, he would be sinning against himself, and insulting the man who was able and willing to cure him. This was the conduct of Ahaziah towards the God of his nation. 2. A Divine rebuke (ver. 3). God does not leave transgressors to pursue their way without remonstrance. 3. A message to take Elijah prisoner. II. THE MIRACLE ITSELF. 1. The fire, if not miraculous in itself, was miraculous in its manner of executing the will of God. It came from heaven at the call of Elijah. 2. It was in keeping with the recent proof of Elijah's Divine commission given on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38). 3. The miracle was arrested, and the prophet was arrested by a force not sent by the king (vers. 13-15).LESSONS. 1. Help must be sought where God has appointed that it shall be found (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). 2. The responsibility of the individual man. 3. When God has spoken He cannot change His word unless the sinner changes his way. 4. The only strength that can conquer heaven is the strength of supplication. (Outlines of Sermons by a London Minister.) Homilist. I. MAN RUINED THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. This awful judgment came upon them not merely on their own account, but as messengers of the king. Throughout the human race there are found millions groaning under the trials and sufferings brought on them by the conduct of others.II. MAN EMPLOYED AS THE EXECUTOR OF DIVINE JUSTICE. God's plan in this world is to punish as well as to save man by man. III. MAN STEPPING INTO THE PLACE OF THE DEAD. The King Ahaziah dies, Jehoram steps into his place. "One generation cometh, and another passeth away." Places, positions, and the various offices of life are no sooner vacated by death than they are stepped into by others. (Homilist.) (F. S. Webster, M. A.) 1. See, here, the power of God, revealing His wrath from "heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." In all, and each, of these cases, the authority was that of God, the power was that of God. Let no man, therefore, wrest this Scripture to his own destruction, nor look upon it as furnishing any precedent, or encouragement to persecute, in our own day, the enemies of the Lord.2. Our duty is to confess Christ before men, and neither by word, nor deed, to compromise any, the minutest parts, of His gracious counsels. We must rebuke the gainsayers, recall the erring, confirm the wavering, and instruct the ignorant; but, in doing this, we must not take a single step in our own strength, or wisdom, we must look ever unto Him, who in this, as in every other case, hath left us "an example that we should follow His steps"; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, knowing that we are thereunto caned, that we should inherit a blessing." 3. Elijah's history furnishes us with fresh motives to prayer and perseverance. If God hath spoken, here, in the accents of terror, He hath spoken, also, in the accents of compassion; if the destruction of two of Ahaziah's captains, with their companies, points out the danger of persecuting the saints of God, and the speedy death of Ahaziah exposes, no less clearly, the wretched presumption of the rebel creature, when he attempts to set at nought God's counsels; yet, the withholding punishment from the third captain, who fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated that the life of himself and of his followers might be precious in his sight, proves no less clearly that, in His wrath, the Lord remembers mercy! What greater encourage. ment to well-doing can the faithful servant of God receive, than the protection here vouchsafed to the Tishbite? 4. Assuredly, the records of Elijah's ministry have placed this blessed truth plainly and palpably before us; may they lead us more heartily to obey the will of Him who revealed it! May the lustre which the Gospel pours upon those records, reveal more distinctly the weakness of our own nature, and the glorious hope of redemption, set before us through Christ! May this guide our footsteps in peace along the course of the life that now is! (J. S. M. Anderson, M. A.) The Bible does occasionally lift the veil, and shows us how the destructive forces of nature have been the servants of the will of a moral God. It was so when the waters of the Red Sea returned violently on the Egyptian pursuers of Israel. It was so when at the prayer of Elijah the messengers of Ahaziah were struck dead by lightning. It was so when Jonah was fleeing to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord: "The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken." It was so when there arose a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, that the disciples might learn to trust the power of their sleeping Master. And it was so when St. Paul, bound on his Romeward voyage, was wrecked on the shore of Malta. In all these cases we see "the wind and the storm fulfilling His word"; because the Bible enables us to see exactly how in each case God's word or will was fulfilled. But there is much in modern history, perhaps in our own lives and experience, which seems to us to illustrate the matter scarcely less vividly. Our ancestors saw God's hand in the storm which scattered the great Armada; and a century later the wind which buried the intruding successor of the saintly Ken beneath the chimneys of his own palace at Wells, seemed to pious Churchmen of the day to be not improbably a mark of the Divine displeasure. There are obvious difficulties which our Lord points to in His allusion to the loss of life at the fall of the Tower of Siloam; there are obvious difficulties in pressing such inferences too confidently or too far. But we may see enough, and we may have reason to suspect more that enables us to be certain of this, that nature is in the hand of the Ruler of the moral world, and that we may be sure of a moral purpose, whether we can exactly make it out or not, in the use which He makes of it.(Dean Farrar.) People Ahab, Ahaziah, Baalzebub, Elijah, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, JoramPlaces Ekron, Moab, SamariaTopics Behold, Captain, Company, Elijah, Eli'jah, Fifty, Hill, Mount, O, Sat, Says, Seated, Sitting, Spake, Speaketh, Spoke, SpokenOutline 1. Moab rebels2. Ahaziah, sending to Baal-Zebub, has his judgement by Elijah 5. Elijah twice brings fire from heaven on those Ahaziah sent to apprehend him. 13. He pities the third captain, 15. and, encouraged by an angel, tells the king of his death 17. Jehoram succeeds Ahaziah Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Kings 1:1-14Library Whether the Sin of those who Crucified Christ was Most Grievous?Objection 1: It would seem that the sin of Christ's crucifiers was not the most grievous. Because the sin which has some excuse cannot be most grievous. But our Lord Himself excused the sin of His crucifiers when He said: "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do" (Lk. 23:34). Therefore theirs was not the most grievous sin. Objection 2: Further, our Lord said to Pilate (Jn. 19:11): "He that hath delivered Me to thee hath the greater sin." But it was Pilate who caused Christ to be crucified … Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether it is Lawful to Curse an Irrational Creature? Answer to the Jewish Rabby's Letter. An Address to a Soul So Overwhelmed with a Sense of the Greatness of Its Sins, that it Dares not Apply Itself to Christ with Any Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men. The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria A Prayer when one Begins to be Sick. Kings Links 2 Kings 1:9 NIV2 Kings 1:9 NLT 2 Kings 1:9 ESV 2 Kings 1:9 NASB 2 Kings 1:9 KJV 2 Kings 1:9 Bible Apps 2 Kings 1:9 Parallel 2 Kings 1:9 Biblia Paralela 2 Kings 1:9 Chinese Bible 2 Kings 1:9 French Bible 2 Kings 1:9 German Bible 2 Kings 1:9 Commentaries Bible Hub |