2 Kings 1 - Elijah Taken Up to Heaven | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church
The Bible by David Alley · David Alley
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Show Notes
In this video listen to 2 Kings Chapter 1, read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.
In 2 Kings Chapter 1 King Ahaziah of Israel is sick and sends a messenger to Ekron, one of the cities of the Philistines to enquire of their god. Why is he going down to a PHilistine city, there to enquire of a false god? The result of this is that the Lord sends Elijah as a messenger to meet him on the way with a word of judgement. Ahaziah is only king for 2 years until he dies.
Ahaziah is furious and wants to capture Elijah and sends a group of 50 men, who are very disrespectful to Elijah, and he calls down fire on them. This happens twice, but a third time the leader of the fifty men is humble and contrite and his life is spared. In the NT when James and John were annoyed with some of the people in Samaria, they wanted to call down fire on the village, but Jesus stopped them, and told them they were of another spirit.
Their nickname “sons of thunder” comes from that moment. So why the difference? Why could Eliah call down fire, but Jesus didn’t allow it? There are differences which may explain. Firstly the Samaria in Elijah’s time was not indifferent, but antagonistic towards the Lord. They were intent on rescuing and destroying the Lord’s messenger. God had plans, and demonstrated his power through Elijah. But when Christ came, he came to demonstrate mercy.
Christ wasn’t under threat, and the people of Samaria at that time were clueless about Jesus. Being antagonistic would have undermined their openness, which was considerable as demonstrated in John 4. The two circumstances were very different. Wisdom knows how to act in its time.