B Xi. FIRE FROM HEAVEN. 2 KINGS i. ETWEEN Elijah's interview with Ahab in the vineyard of Naboth, and his intercepting of Ahaziah's messengers on their way to Ekron, a period of at least three or four years must have elapsed. During that interval several events of national importance occurred. In particular, Ahab, forming a league with Jehoshaphat, attacked the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead; but the result, as Micaiah had foretold, had been fraught with disaster; for Ahab was slain, and the Syrians were left masters of the field. The death of Ahab had been followed by the accession of his son Ahaziah, who had proved himself to be the inheritor of his father's character as well as of his position; for “he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; for he served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done." He came to the kingdom when it was weakened, and the people were dispirited, by the recent Syrian defeat; and the first thing he had to do was to encounter a rebellion of the Moabites, who took advantage of the national exhaustion, and broke away from the bondage of tribute under which they had been held by Omri and Ahab. Under the brief reign of Ahaziah, they were not able completely to regain their independence, but they thoroughly effected their emancipation in the days of Jehoram, his brother and successor, as described at length in the third chapter of 2 Kings. Very recently an interesting light has been thrown on this chapter of ancient history by the discovery of the Moabite Stone, which was found by the Rev. F. A. Klein, in 1868, at the entrance to the ruined city of Dibon, and which was a monumental record of the successful rebellion of Mesha, king of Moab, against the king of Israel after a forty years' oppression by the house of Omri. In neither of these times of war, however, does Elijah come into prominence. His mission had not to do so much with the relation of Israel to the surrounding nations as with the reformation of the tribes themselves. The department of work which had been committed to him was religious rather than political. He was more concerned for the character of the people than for the extent of the nation's territory or the amount of tribute paid by its dependencies. Hence all his appearances had for their object the destruction of some prevailing iniquity, like the worship of Baal; or the denunciation of some flagrant wrong, like the robbery and murder of Naboth. There were other prophets in the land who took note of the doings of the king or of the people in their conflicts with other nations. Thus, when Ahab let Ben-hadad slip out of his hands, an unnamed messenger was sent to rebuke him; and when, again, he was to be warned of his danger at Ramoth-gilead, Micaiah was commissioned for that special purpose. Nor is it without significance, as an incidental proof of the effect which Elijah's ministry had produced, that there were now in the land men. of God who were willing to go to prison, or even to death, rather than prophesy lies in Jehovah's name. But still, when sin in high quarters was to be exposed, or sentence against evil executed, Elijah was the minister to whom such work was intrusted. Thus we account for his appearance on the occasion described in the chapter which now lies before us for exposition. Ahaziah, while walking on the roof of his palace, leaned incautiously on the frail banister of wicker-work which formed its only protection on the inner side, and as that gave way under his weight, he was precipitated to the court beneath, and seriously injured. In his weakness and alarm, he sent some of his servants to Ekron, the most northern of the five Philistine towns, where Baal-zebub, the god of flies, was worshiped; and where, in connection with that idol's temple, there was one of those oracles which, in response to the inquiries of liberal devotees, gave out "flattering ambiguities" that, from their double or doubtful meaning, could not be falsified by any event. This action of Ahaziah's was a contemptuous ignoring of the claims of Jehovah upon him, and an evidence that he had withdrawn conclusively from the service of him from whom, as the King of Israel, he derived his authority, and to whom the whole allegiance of his heart and life was due. But as, when Saul went to consult a familiar spirit, God sent Samuel himself to confront him, to the dismay both of the witch herself and of the abandoned monarch, so now again, when Ahaziah sends to Ekron, the Lord commissions Elijah to intercept his messengers, and to give them an answer to their inquiries, not in vague and oracular phraseology, but in words of unmistakable meaning and tremendous force: "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Now, therefore, saith Jehovah, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." This message given, the prophet, with characteristic suddenness, disappeared; and the servants of the king, deeming their journey to Ekron now unnecessary, returned and reported the Tishbite's words to their master. When he heard their account, accompanied with a description of the appearance of him who had so strangely intercepted him, the king knew at once that Elijah had been with them; and his heart was filled with bitterest enmity and fiercest rage. One might have supposed that after he had learned on such authority that he was so soon to die, he would have begun "to set his house in order," and would have given some serious thought to the future life on which he was about to enter. But no! His sole concern seems to have been to get Elijah into his power, that he might destroy him for what he deemed to be his impertinent interference with his messengers to Ekron. He fell into the mistake of supposing that he had to do with Elijah, rather than with Elijah's God, and flattered himself that if he could only silence the Tishbite, he had no one else to fear. Therefore, instead of turning in penitence to Jehovah, he turns in fury against the prophet. As the heathen Xerxes is said to have scourged the Hellespont, because its waves, in the violence. of a storm, swept away his bridge; forgetting that he had to do with Him whom the winds and the sea obey; so Ahaziah took no note of Jehovah, whose servant Elijah was. The matter seemed to him to be only between him and the Tishbite, and not at all between him and the omnipotent God. And yet the means which he took for the apprehension of Elijah indicate that he feared him more than he did an ordinary man; for he sent a company of fifty soldiers, with their captain, to take him. We are not a little surprised at this, for, as Bishop Hall has pithily remarked, "If he had not thought Elijah more than a man, what needed a band of fifty men to apprehend him? and if he did think him such, why would he send to apprehend him by fifty?"* The probability is, however, that he looked upon the prophet * " Contemplations," as before, p. 304. as belonging to the class of wizards, or magicians, who had hidden resources of power which rendered them dangerous to single adversaries, and so he took this plan of overmastering him by a formidable array of numbers. But if this were so, he had miserably miscalculated; for when the military company were ascending the hill at the top of which Elijah had his retreat, and the captain called jeeringly to him, "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down!" he made reply, "If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty;" and forthwith they were destroyed by the flaming bolt of the divine vengeance. No one of them survived to tell what had happened to the rest; but, somehow, either by report spreading out from the immediate neighborhood, or by the result of inquiries which he himself had caused to be made, the king learned what had happened; and, instead of humbling himself at this new manifestation of the power of God, he sent another company of fifty with another captain, who were also consumed in like manner. Undeterred even by this repetition of the disaster, he sent a third company with a third captain. But this time the messengers were not in sympathy with their message; for, instead of approaching with a contemptuous sneer, and cynical defiance, as the others had done, this officer and his men drew near with reverence. When they called Elijah a man of God, they recognized the dignity that belonged to his office, and the protection that encircled it; and their leader made this humble request: "O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty, thy servants, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight." This was a different spirit from that which the former companies had manifested; so at the suggestion of the angel of the covenant, who had been mysteriously present with him |