When wicked king Ahab died, his son, Ahaziah, became king over the northern tribes of Israel. Sadly, Ahaziah was much like his daddy. “He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He walked in the ways of his father, in the ways of his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. He served Baal and bowed in worship to him. He angered the Lord God of Israel just as his father had done” (1 Kings 22:52-53).
Without warning and without explanation, we read next: “Ahaziah had fallen through the latticed window of his upstairs room in Samaria and was injured” (2 Kings 1:2).
How did he fall? What kind of a domestic accident caused the king to crash through the lattice-covered up-stairs window to the ground below? Was he in a drunken stupor, stumbling and falling out the window? Did he get in a fight and get tossed out? As he was playing pen the tail on the donkey, did he take a wrong turn? I’d like to know how it happened. Okay. I’ll never know, and when I get to heaven, I probably won’t care.
Here’s what I can say with certainty. God knows. And God judges the wicked, the idolators, and the foolish.
Poor Ahaziah, banged, busted, and bruised after the fall, sent messengers to Ekron to ask Baal-zebub, the Canaanite god, if he was going to recover. Ekron, twenty-five miles west of Jerusalem, was in the heart of Philistine country, far from Samaria. Ahaziah may have sent his messengers to the distant Ekron because he didn’t want anyone to know about his infirmed condition. That would make him vulnerable to possible overthrow by a rival. Ahaziah might have kept his condition secret from others within Samaria, but he couldn’t keep it a secret from God.
Notice that he didn’t ask the pagan god to heal him. He just asked about a prognosis (2 Kings 2:2). Maybe, deep within his heart, he knew that Baal was powerless to help.
An “angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, this is what the Lordsays: You will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die” ’ ” (2 Kings 1:3-4).
Ahaziah was a fool. He trusted in the god who had been defeated on Mount Carmel and refused to seek the Living Lord. He thought that a lifeless figurine could bring him answers, but he was wrong. Horribly wrong.
God gets the final word. Always. God’s word to the faithless king was clear.
Later, when Elijah stood at the king’s bedside, he looked confidently into the eyes of the evil man and repeated, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel for you to inquire of his will?—you will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die’ ” (2 Kings 1:16).
The next words in the Holy Script... “Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord” (2 Kings 1:17). God always keeps His promises.
