Holy Fire

2 Kings 1
The Lord 's Judgment on Ahaziah
1 After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury."

3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, "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?' 4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!' " So Elijah went.

5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, "Why have you come back?"

6 "A man came to meet us," they replied. "And he said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" ' "

7 The king asked them, "What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?"

8 They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist."
The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."

9 Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!' "

10 Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

11 At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!' "

12 "If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

13 So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! 14 See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!"

15 The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

16 He told the king, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" 17 So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram [a] succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 18 As for all the other events of Ahaziah's reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?


Ahaziah is the son of Ahab. Ahab has just been killed in battle so Ahaziah has decided he will stay home where it's safe. He falls through the lattice of his upper room and injured himself. Sometimes the safest place is not in the safest place. Sometimes the safest place is being in the center of God's will. Ahaziah sends men to the prophets of Baal. The same prophets that just a few chapters back were unable to make their gods create fire.

His men were met by Elijah who told them to go back and tell their king that he is going to die.

The king sends three groups of soldiers to Elijah and the first two die because Elijah calls fire down on them and they are consumed. The third group asks Elijah to spare them and the Lord tells him to go with this group and he goes and tells this guy who despite all that has just happened with is dad, still when he needs help, calls on baal.

How can this be important to our lives?

Contrast this with what Jesus says in Luke 9

51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”[e]
55 But He turned and rebuked them,[f] and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”[g] And they went to another village.


Jewish kids were schooled in religion from the start and there were three basic stages. Bet Seder, Bet Midrash, and Bet Talmud

If you passed the first stage (which consisted of memorization of the Torah) you could move on to the next. which meant memorizing the entire Tanach. (acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah ("Teaching," also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings") - hence TaNaKh. The elements of the Tanakh are incorporated in various forms in Christian Bibles, where, with some variations, it is called the "Old Testament.") If you didn't make it any further you would go home and learn whatever work your family did.

If you made it through the second stage you would apply to train under a rabbi or you would be invited. If chosen you would then become a "follower" of that rabbi,

They would want to know what the teacher knows, do what the teacher does, become like the teacher. There was a saying "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi" In other words, you would be following your teacher around all day and so closely that you would be covered in the dust from his sandals.

When you think of the disciples you think of fisherman. Chances are the disciples were the ones who did not move on - not the best students. Jesus CHOSE them and they left their nets and followed him. They were the b team and they changed the course of history.

What wonderful pictures for us. First of all - when we look at the disciples and how they were not the "A" students and how they were still able to change the world because they followed the greatest rabbi - who is also our rabbi!

In Luke when the disciples ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven just as Elijah did, it' s obvious that they knew their bible. They just didn't quite get Jesus. The next time we are wanting to call down fire from heaven on someone we think is deserving of it - we can remember this picture and rejoice in the fact that Jesus came to save us. We can also pray that we would be following Him so closely that we would just be covered up in the dust of His sandals. We can pray that holy fire from heaven might rain down on us and consume the flesh and let Jesus light shine through. Amen?