Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 235
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SAMUEL–KINGS
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of Ezion-geber. At one time Ahaziah son of Ahab had proposed to Jehosh
aphat, “Let my men sail with your men in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat refused the request.
When Jehoshaphat died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of
David. Then his son Jehoram became the next king.
Ahaziah son of Ahab began to rule over Israel in the seventeenth year of
King Jehoshaphat’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria two years. But he
did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, following the example of his father
and mother and the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had led Is
rael to sin. He served Baal and worshiped him, provoking the anger of the
Lord, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
After King Ahab’s death, the land of Moab rebelled against Israel.
One day Israel’s new king, Ahaziah, fell through the latticework of an
upper room at his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent
messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether
he would recover.
But the angel of the Lord told Elijah, who was from Tishbe, “Go and
confront the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is there no
God in Israel? Why are you going to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask
whether the king will recover? Now, therefore, this is what the Lord says:
You will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.’” So Elijah
went to deliver the message.
When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have
you returned so soon?”
They replied, “A man came up to us and told us to go back to the king
and give him this message. ‘This is what the Lord says: Is there no God in
Israel? Why are you sending men to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask
whether you will recover? Therefore, because you have done this, you will
never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.’”
“What sort of man was he?” the king demanded. “What did he look
like?”
They replied, “He was a hairy man, and he wore a leather belt around
his waist.”
“Elijah from Tishbe!” the king exclaimed.
Then he sent an army captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him. They
found him sitting on top of a hill. The captain said to him, “Man of God,
the king has commanded you to come down with us.”
But Elijah replied to the captain, “If I am a man of God, let fire come