2 Kings 1:9-16 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill… The act of Elijah, in calling down fire from heaven on his enemies, is thus remarked upon by Dean Stanley, with reference to Christ's allusion to it in the gospel (Luke 9:51-56). "When the two apostles appealed to the example of Elijah 'to call down fire from heaven,' he to whom they spoke turned away with indignation from the remembrance of this act, even of the greatest of his prophetic predecessors" ('Jewish Church,' vol. 2. p. 258). We cannot endorse this remark. Jesus, indeed, gently rebuked his disciples, telling them they did not know what manner of spirit they were of, and reminding them that the Son of man was not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. But he did not mean to imply that the spirit which Elijah showed was, in its own time and place, wrong. It was a pure and holy zeal for God's honor, and God sanctioned it by sending the fire. Only there was a better and higher spirit-the spirit of love and grace in Christ; and it was by this the disciples of Christ ought to have been actuated. What was congruous with the old dispensation was not necessarily congruous with the higher spirit of the new. Christ may have intended to suggest also that the disciples were mistaken in thinking that their spirit was exactly that of the Old Testament man of God. He was moved solely by regard for God's honor; in their case personal anger and resentment probably gave an impure tinge to their passion. I. BEDCHAMBER REVENGE. It is pitiable to see this sick king, within a few hours of his death, instead of humbling himself in repentance, stretching out his puny arm to do battle with God in the person of his messenger. If he must die, he is resolved that Elijah shall die also. This resolve is: 1. A sign of character. It shows the thoroughly hardened and irreligious nature of the man. There are no limits to a sinner's madness in warring against God. 2. An act of infatuation. Knowing what he did of the prophet's history, he might have understood that his enterprise was hopeless. He may have reasoned that, as the blood of prophets had been spilt before (1 Kings 18:4), so it might be spilt again. But he was now crossing a prophet in the direct discharge of his duty, and was thus, in a sense, giving a direct challenge to God. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth" (Isaiah 45:9). A knowledge of the perilousness of the task in which he was embarking is shown in the fact that a band of fifty men is sent to arrest one prophet (cf. John 18:3). If a band was necessary, it could only be because Elijah had supernatural aid to rely on; and, if he had that aid, no amount of force could overcome him. 3. A trace of evil influence. It is the spirit of Jezebel which breathes in this Heaven-defying resolution. The queen-mother had not forgotten her yet unfulfilled threat, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time" (1 Kings 19:2). There were old scores to pay off against Elijah, and this wicked woman was no doubt there to strengthen her son in his resolution to pay them. II. ELIJAH ON THE HILL. The band that was sent to apprehend Elijah found him seated on the top of a hill Observe: 1. The solitary grandeur of his situation. The situation was characteristic. We may say of Elijah what Wordsworth says of Milton, his "soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." He is a strange, solitary figure from first to last - stern, rugged, unconquerable. 2. His moral fearlessness. The appearance of Ahaziah's soldiers inspired him with no terror. He had apparently waited in the neighborhood where he met the messengers, and did not now retreat. Strong in his sense that God was on his side, he did not fear what man could do to him (Psalm 118:6). 3. His invisible protection. The result showed how entirely Elijah was justified in his confidence. "The angel of the Lord," who had sent him on his mission, "encamped around him" (Psalm 34:7), and kept him from all evil. Those who are engaged in Divine work can confidently rely on Divine protection. Not till they had "finished their testimony" was the beast allowed to kill the witnesses (Revelation 11:7). The mountain on which Elijah sat was no doubt as "full of horses and chariots of fire" as the hill of Samaria was in after-days for the protection of Elisha (2 Kings 6:17). What could bands of fifties avail against one thus defended? III. THE CAPTAINS AND THEIR FIFTIES. 1. The first captain. Clothed with a little brief authority, this first captain, accompanied by his fifty men, approaches Elijah, and orders him to surrender. (1) The terms of his summons: "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down." In the same breath in which he acknowledges him to be a servant of Jehovah, he demands his submission to the wicked King of Israel. Le roy le veult - the king wills it. Thus poor, paltry, human authority ventures to assert itself against the authority of the King of kings. No uncommon thing, it must be said, in history. In the extravagance of its conceit, too often has royal authority presumed to set itself above the law of heaven, and to dragoon, imprison, and coerce those who chose to obey God rather than man. Nor have tools ever been wanting to carry out these infamous behests. (2) A lurking fear. Notwithstanding his bravado, the officer was not without his own fear of Elijah. He does not boldly mount the hill to secure his prisoner, but stands at a respectful distance, and summons him to "come down." The wicked often inwardly fear the righteous at the very time when they boast most loudly of having them in their power. (3) The answer of fire. This insolent summons to Elijah, in his character of "man of God," was a direct challenge to Jehovah to vindicate his own honor, and that of his insulted servant. The insult was wanton and public, and must be as publicly met. Elijah met it by invoking God, if he was truly his servant, to send down fire from heaven to consume this blustering captain and his myrmidons. As before, in the contest with Baal's prophets, his prayer was granted, and the answer came by fire (1 Kings 18:21-39). "Elijah will let him know that the God of Israel is superior to the King of Israel, and has a greater power to enforce his commands" (Matthew Henry). Thus at length, gospel dispensation though it is, will fire descend from heaven to consume the hosts of the ungodly (Revelation 20:9). 2. The second captain. One example of this kind should have been enough. But when men are inspired by fury and hate of God, above all, when it is not their own lives they are risking, they are not easily deterred. As if this first defeat but added fuel to the king's anger, the order goes forth for another band to he equipped, and sent to take the prophet. The captain who received the mandate had no choice but to obey, and military pride may have led him to suppress any outward show of misgiving. But it must have been with no small quaking of heart that he set out on this now doubly perilous service. Still Elijah sits on his hill, and, putting as bold a front on matters as he can, the second captain, in the king's name, repeats the summons to come down. "O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly." Elijah from his height returns the former answer; and once again the thunderbolt descends, and scatters the bodies of this second fifty at the hill's foot beside the first. 3. The third captain. Not even yet will the king own the folly of resistance. Like Pharaoh in conflict with Moses, each new calamity but seems to harden him the more. A third captain is dispatched with the same peremptory orders to seize the recalcitrant prophet. (1) But this captain is wiser than his predecessors. He does what few in his position could help doing - accepts a lesson from experience. He abandons the insolent tone of previous captains, and, failing on his knees before Elijah, sues for peace. "O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight." He sees the folly of flinging away his life, and the lives of his men, to please a foolish king in a contest as wicked as it was vain. (2) This prayer robs his mission of its offensiveness, acknowledges God's supremacy, and shows that Elijah's life is in no danger. The angel of the Lord accordingly says to Elijah, "Go down with him: be not afraid of him." By this timely humbling of himself, the third captain (a) saved the lives of himself and his men; (b) obtained what the former captains could not obtain by their bullying, viz. that Elijah should go with him. No fire descended from heaven upon him, for God takes no pleasure in the wanton destruction of human life. And not only was his life spared, but he was saved from the king's anger, by Elijah consenting to accompany him. He was a living example of the truth, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6). IV. THE WORD OF DOOM CONFIRMED. Brought, not as a prisoner, but as a conqueror, to Ahaziah's bedchamber, Elijah repeated in person the terrible message he had formerly sent by the messengers. "Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." It is the word of doom, and as such Ahaziah cannot but hear it. This is all he has made of his futile attempts to fight against God - to hear that doom confirmed by the very prophet whose head he had vowed to bring to the dust. The counsel of the Lord, it alone stands; the imagination of the sinner perishes. It is from Christ's own lips that those who now fight against him and despise his gospel will hear their final sentence. - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. |
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