Man of God

 DEVOTION

2^nd  KINGS

MAN OF GOD

2 Kings 1:1-10

1:1 After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury." 3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?' 4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!'" So Elijah went. 5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, "Why have you come back?" 6 "A man came to meet us," they replied. "And he said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" '"  7 The king asked them, "What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?" 8 They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist." The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite." 9 Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!'" 10 Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

NIV

Why do men think there is no God in Israel? It must be the same reason people today think there is no God. Why would Ahaziah, the king of Israel send his men to consult a god that is blind, deaf and mute? Of course, it is possible that Baal-Zebub, could been under the power of Satan, for he is referred to in the New Testament as Beelzebub. However, in the context, this Baal-Zebub was supposed to be the fly god, one who would drive away flies. But, that had to be only in the mind of men, for this Baal-Zebub is not a god, but a figment of man’s imagination, or making. We would never worship anything we could make, for that would be totally against our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It might be bad enough that we could become prideful, boastful or puffed up because of what we make or do. This fits into the story about Elijah who spoke the word of the LORD, but then went and sat on a hill. Ahaziah knew it was Elijah because his men described what Elijah was wearing, and he sent a caption and fifty men to ask Elijah to come down and go to the king. When the caption called Elijah, man of God, it was all over for the caption and his man. We see the power of God consume all those men. When the fire of God fell upon them, they were not just killed, but consumed. The Hebrew word means to be totally burned up, to be consumed by fire, as in cremated, except in this case, not any ashes were left. We will see this happen again, but what we want to focus on is the power of the LORD God Almighty. Just as the fire of the LORD consume the sacrifice, the altar of stones, all the water, and mud, leaving nothing but a dry hole in the ground, the LORD’s fire consumed those men. It is good that we have accepted His grace and do not have to fear being consumed by fire. The prophets speak of a consuming fire, and in the revelation given to John an angel speaks of the consuming fire of God. His power is so much more then we can imagine, we wonder why we do not avail ourselves of His power more than we do. All Elijah had to say, “if I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” Down came the fire and consumed them. Are we not people of God? Could we not say “if I am a person of God, a man or woman of God, then let God demonstrate His power, pour out his healing power?” What we noticed was that Elijah did not include, “If it is your will,” but simply let them know the power of the Almighty God as the fire fell upon them. Let us know His power, let us speak His truth with confidence, but most of let us be a man of God.