"A Different World"

Scripture Passage

2 Kings 1:1-18; 2 Kings 3:1-27; 1 Kings 22:41-49; 2 Chronicles 20:31-37; 1 Kings 22:50; 2 Chronicles 21:1-4; 2 Kings 8:16-22; 2 Chronicles 21:5-7

Scripture Focus

Once more the king sent a third captain with fifty men. But this time the captain went up the hill and fell to his knees before Elijah. He pleaded with him, “O man of God, please spare my life and the lives of these, your fifty servants.” (2 Kings 1:13 NLT)

Observation

It’s just a different world—the world of Scripture versus the world of today. Here’s Elijah, the prophet of God, who supernaturally comes to know that Israel’s king, Ahaziah, has chosen to inquire of the false god Baal-Zebub instead of Jehovah, the God of Israel (and all else). So Elijah interrupts the inquiry with a message for the king—“You’ll not recover because you inquired of this false god instead of Israel’s true God!”

Unhappy with both the interruption and the news, King Ahaziah sends an army captain and fifty men to arrest Elijah. These men are promptly destroyed by fire from heaven. So Ahaziah sends fifty more. These men are promptly destroyed by fire from heaven. Can you imagine being the captain of the third contingent of fifty soldiers?

“O man of God, please spare my life and the lives of these, your fifty servants.”

Now there’s a guy who had it figured out. Elijah honored that and spared his life and the lives of his men, and traveled with them to deliver his message of rebuke to the king personally.

My thoughts, this morning, are not so much about the story itself—my thoughts, this morning, are where I started this brief note… It’s just a different world—the world of Scripture versus the world of today.

Or is it?

“Elijah was a man just like us,” James says. “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:17-18 NIV).

Now, that passage is not about today’s incident—but it is about today’s God…who’s just the same as He was in Elijah’s day…and about Elijah, who was “a man just like us.” So maybe it’s not our world that’s changed—I’m sure it’s not our God who’s changed—maybe it’s us.

Maybe, with our left-brain dominated, rationalistic culture, we miss some ways God would like to move…ways God would like to speak. Maybe there’s revelation knowledge and fire from heaven to be had—to those who dare to be open to it. Maybe it’s not about all we know or think we understand, but about who we know—the God who’s ways infinitely exceed our puny understanding. Maybe if we did less rationalizing and more listening and believing, we’d see and know what Elijah saw and knew. Just wondering…