Today I read 2 Kings 1 where Ahaziah the king fell down through his roof and got sick. He sent some messengers to ask the priests of Baal-zebub if he would recover and Elijah intercepts them and tells them that the king will die. When the king hears that Elijah is the one that made the prophecy he sends a captain and his company of fifty men to apprehend Elijah. Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume the men and then calls down fire again to consume the second company of men that come to Elijah.
I understand that Elijah is just doing as the Lord would want him to do, or he would never have the sealing power, however, I can’t understand why the Lord would want 102 innocent men to be killed just to prove a point? Although, I suppose if they were truly innocent then their deaths would not be a tragedy. But still, why would Elijah just wantonly kill them like that? Surely there was another way he could have proved his point. I have always thought that Heavenly Father would think like was precious and so would want to preserve it as much as was possible, but perhaps that is not the case. I truly don’t know. It’s one of those questions I will have to ask Heavenly Father when I see him. Whatever the reason, when the third captain approaches with his company and shows proper humility, Elijah lets him live when the angel of the Lord appears to Elijah and tells him to go down with the man. I’m sure I would have reacted the exact same way as that third captain. Obviously Elijah was a prophet so why provoke him? And yet so many did. It just makes no sense. The people have very short memories it would seem. I wonder if such a thing were to happen in our day and age how people would react to it? Maybe it’s a good thing I won’t find out, I hope. Until tomorrow.
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