And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber, which was in Samaria, and became ill. So he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.” (v.2)
This book begins by recounting that Ahaziah now reigns (v.1). We know from 1 Kings 22:51-53 that Ahaziah “did evil in the eyes of the LORD”; he served Baal and provoked God to anger. Now in 2 Kings 1, Ahaziah has injured himself severely enough to wonder about his life. Instead of seeking God, he consults a foreign god, Baal.
There is little doubt that King Ahaziah believed that Yahweh lived, but he lived as if there were no God in Israel. He was a practical atheist, and the way he sought Baal-Zebub instead of the LORD demonstrated this. Because Ahaziah did not seek help from the real God, he would get no real help. Instead this would be an occasion for the real God to send a message of judgment to King Ahaziah, which He did through the prophet Elijah, "you shall surely die."
This prophetic announcement might also explain why Ahaziah did not want to seek an answer from the LORD: He knew what the answer would be. In seeking Baal-Zebub for an answer, Ahaziah may have wanted to find a god to tell him what he wanted to hear. Many people are just like that today. They want a god they can control.
The most important lesson in today’s passage is revealed in God’s severe opposition to idolatrous disobedience. On three separate occasions God’s message to Ahaziah is repeated: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub … You will certainly die!” (vv. 3-4, 6, 16). In the end, God proved true and Ahaziah died “according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken” (v. 17).
In our busy lives may we be careful not to push God aside for other interests or to put our faith into a false deity. For He alone is God and there is no other.
The Truth: For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:18)
