2 Kings 1:8 Under His Breath

2 Kings 1:8 They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.” The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”

Are there some people in your life that you would rather not deal with because of their personality or viewpoints? Most of us have at leas a few in our lives, enough to work on our character! They seem to act like sandpaper smoothing out our rough edges. I like my rough edges, so no thank you!

King Ahaziah had a household accident. Most accidents that happen happen at home. Things have not changed that much in thousands of years. And the home is still a dangerous place.

Ahaziah was on the second floor of his house and had fallen through some lattice work. It was probably a railing of some sort and he fell to the floor below. You can imagine falling from a second floor down to the first floor and getting injured. I certainly can.

Ahaziah wants to know if he will get better. I would if I were in his shoes. So he seeks advice from those whom he has always sought advice: the gods of the enemies of Israel. This is the downfall of the Northern kingdom of Israel. They have the habit of worshipping other gods.

So he sends messengers to ask the question and receive and answer. But something happens to interrupt that mission. The LORD tells Elijah the prophet to interrupt that misguided trip.

Elijah brings the truth from the LORD. The verdict is in: Ahaziah will die from his injuries. So the messengers from Ahaziah turn around and go back to their sender with this message.

They arrive sooner than Ahaziah had expected and begin to relay the message. But Ahaziah wants to know the identity of the message holder. And this is where our text picks up the story.

They reply to the king and start describing Elijah’s clothing, his distinctive trademark. Everyone knows about Elijah’s strange clothing. It is from the “Prophets” brand of clothing, very exclusive.

And when Ahaziah hears about the clothing he mutters under his breath, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.” If we were writing a graphic novel of this story we would have the character swing his tightened first and declare “Drat!” or some similar expletive. The screenplay version would have notes that read: “Say with a voice of disgust and show appropriate anger.”

This was not a happy moment for Ahaziah. He knew it was over for him. But he tried to do as the kings of Israel did. He tried to sway the verdict. He wanted to see Elijah face to face in order to change his mind.

Three commanders and fifty men groups were sent to Elijah to convince him to come and see Ahaziah, and the first two sets met with a fiery death. The third group was spared, due to the wisdom and pleading of the third commander. Elijah went and delivered the message personally.

And Ahaziah died, just as Elijah had spoken.

Sometimes we don’t like the messenger of the message. Will we listen to the message? Or will we allow our opinion of the messenger to prevent us from hearing the message?

It can be easy to dismiss a truth because we don’t like either the messenger or the message. But we must be open to the truth no matter how it arrives. Or we will face dire consequences for ignoring the truth.

Are there truths that you are just not willing to obey?