That's Pretty Cold

“And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.” (2Ki 1:13 AV)

Ahaziah, son of Ahab, fell and injured himself.  He was laid up on his bed and asked his messengers to do to a pagan god to see if he would recover.  Elijah intercepted them and sent back word to Ahaziah that he would not recover.  Rather, he would die on the bed.  Ahaziah then sent a captain with fifty of his men to bring Elijah to the palace.  Elijah calls down fire from heaven and consumes the captain and his fifty.  Ahaziah sends a second time.  The second time Elijah does likewise.  He calls down fire from heaven which consumes the fifty with their captain.  What we read of above is the third captain with his fifty.

The thought that come to mind was the callousness of Ahaziah.  I am struck with the reality this man would have continued to send up men to die until Elijah felt bad enough to stop the killing and come to the palace.  He had no regard for the worth of an individual.  What is worse is all this loss would amount to nothing.  The judgment was going to come regardless of Elijah’s presence.  What did Ahaziah hope to accomplish by bringing Elijah to him?  All this loss was not going to change the outcome.  In his stubbornness and pride, he wasted the lives of a hundred and two souls because he demanded the presence of the man of God.

Before we are too hard on Ahaziah, let us remember we can get the same way.  Our sin effects all around us.  Whether we intend it to or not, our sin has a ripple effect.  We do not live in a vacuum.  The tragedy come when we do not consider the effect of our sin on others, or worse yet, we do not care.  If we are a husband or wife, our sin effects our spouse.  If we are a mother or father, our sin effects our children.  If we serve in the church, our sin effects our church family.  Knowing this, yet continuing in it is no better than Ahaziah.  We get to the point where we think we have nothing personally to lose.  Ahaziah was going to die anyway regardless of Elijah’s visit.  He simply wanted what he wanted.  He didn’t care how it impacted anyone.  We get this way.  We need the chastening of the LORD to root out such selfishness.  May God be faithful to those around us that we might be chastened for their good.