September 12

Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. - 2 Kings 1:6.

“SKIN for skin,” says even Satan, “yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Who does not “love life and wish to see many days?” But a man of the world like this man, what can wrench him from life except violence? Observe then, first, His inquiry. He sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron. If the inquiry showed a love of life, the manner of it displayed the love of idolatry. Ekron belonged to the Philistines, and Baalzebub was the god of flies; the heathens made gods of everything which they imagined would secure them from apprehended evils; guilt is always fearful, fear is always superstitious, infidels are often some of the most credulous of mankind; it is only the testimony of God they cannot believe.

They can believe any thing else, every thing else- improbabilities, yea, impossibilities. Those who would condemn others as guilty of the folly of idolatry, would do well to remember that a man may make gold his hope and fine gold his confidence; he may make an idol of reputation, of friendship, or of anything else; and if Ahaziah is worthy of censure for inquiring of a heathen god, what shall be said of those who go to fortune-tellers, and to prophetic almanacks, and to dreams and inspirations, or to anything else in order to obtain the knowledge of futurity which God has designed to keep from us! It is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his power; “secret things belong unto God, but things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children.”

Now we see that God considers himself insulted even by neglect, or by preferring others to him as our portion, our guardian, or our guide. And thus he might, by a similar mode of interrogation, reprove many. But it is not because there is no help in God that we make flesh our arm. It is not because God refuses to direct our steps, that we neglect to ask counsel of him, but lean to our own understanding. It is not because there is no power in the gospel that many go about to establish their own righteousness, and will not submit themselves unto the righteousness which is of God.

Let us therefore observe, secondly, The rebuke and the threatening he received. The messengers were now on their way to Ekron; the Lord knew all. He saw them going from the sick chamber, and he knew the way by which they were going, and sent Elijah to meet them, who gave them this message of rebuke and threatening, which he charged them to deliver to their royal master. Although the messengers appeared to have been ignorant of the person who addressed them, they however soon returned with the message they had thus received from the prophet. Alarming and confounding as it was, Ahaziah was not so affected by it-or at least he pretended not to be affected by it-as not to inquire concerning the person charged with such a declaration, or reproof and foreboding; and after hearing the description they gave of him, he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

We see from hence that Ahaziah was not ignorant of the character of his reprover, and therefore he sinned against light and knowledge, and this aggravated his following conduct. Now let us see the effect of this message, which he knew to come from the prophet of the Lord. We know how it was with Hezekiah, when Isaiah came to him with this message: “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.” “He turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight; and Hezekiah wept sore.” And surely we shall find Ahaziah with a broken heart, and with a contrite Spirit; surely we shall find him in the dust of self-abasement, crying, “Lord, save me or I perish,” “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

He believed the message; at least it is probable that he did, but he is not influenced by his convictions. Does this seem strange? And who are influenced by their knowledge? Whose practice is conformable to their principles or belief? Are we not continually meeting with persons who have the sentence of death in themselves; who by years, or accident, or disease, or infirmity, are forbidden to think of their return to life, and yet are no more concerned to be prepared for the grave than the young and the healthful. It is not the certainty of the thing that sways with men. No, but it is the thinking of it; it is the realizing of it by meditation, bringing it home to ourselves. It is thus the belief becomes practical.