Don't Shoot the Messenger!
2 Kings 1:17a So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
Beginning:
King Ahaziah died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Second Kings Chapter One is a chapter in the Bible that is filled with messengers.
- The first messengers are the ones the king, who had fallen and injured himself, sent to the Philistine city of Ekron to consult their Philistine god Baal-Zebub, to see if he was going to recover or die of his injuries.
- The next messenger is the angel the Lord dispatched to tell his prophet Elijah to go and intercept the king's messengers on their way to Ekron and say...
2 Kings 1:3 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?'
2 Kings 1:4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!'"
- The next messenger is Elijah following the Lord's instruction. Intercepting the king's messengers on their way to Ekron and delivering the Lord's message.
- The next messengers are the captain with his company of fifty who are dispatched by the enraged king to go fetch Elijah.
2 Kings 1:9 ...The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!'"
2 Kings 1:11At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. <Another set of messengers!> The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!'"
2 Kings 1:13So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. <Another set of messengers! This set, fortunately, with a more astute captain.> This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants!
And...
And what did the prophet Elijah, the Lord's messenger say?
2 Kings 1:16 He told the king, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!"
The exact same message the king originally received. The message never changed. And what happened?
2 Kings 1:17So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
And the lesson to be learned from all this is don't confuse the message with the Messenger. And certainly don't shoot him just because you don't like the message he delivers! The message is the Lord's! The messenger is just the delivery system. Billy Graham used to refer to himself as the Western Union boy. Today that might be the mail man or the UPS truck driver. Just doing their job. Delivering their packages. That's all the Lord's messengers are doing. Their jobs. Delivering their packages.
Sometimes packages are a pleasure to open. What could it be?
- Something that you ordered and have been waiting on!
- Or maybe a surprise package, a gift, from a friend or family member, that you never expected. And you tear the paper open saying, "I wonder what they got me!"
- But sometimes packages are nothing more than notices from bill collectors! or Summons to appear in court!
I received a summons to appear once. A police officer knocked on my door. Handed me a piece of paper. I thought it was a joke. I know a lot of the officers down there. I thought they were pulling my leg. I soon discovered the message I received was no joke. I had been summoned to appear in court! As a witness in a domestic dispute! And if you know anything about domestic disputes you know they are no fun. And I can tell you it was with no joy that I received that summons!
King Ahaziah did not like the message he received either. He had injured himself, seriously. And he wanted to know whether he was going to live or die. He wanted to know if this injury was what was going to take him out of this world.
Have you ever wondered what was going to take you out of this world? Some people get feeling bad and go to the doctor. Succumb to tests. Wait for results. Wonder if this is what is going to take them out of this world. Other people are just driving along, and a drunk driver approaching them crosses the center line and its over. Ahaziah had time to think about his accident. He had fallen through the lattice of his upper room and injured himself. And he wanted to know whether he was going to live or die.
And living before the day and age of CAT scans and MRI's, Ahaziah turned to the gods for his prognosis. Specifically, the god Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, a Philistine city 40 miles north of his capital in Israel. Which is what started this whole conversation between the Lord God Jehovah and Ahaziah in first place!
And please remember that is who this conversation is between. God was speaking to the king. All the other individuals mentioned in our text this morning; Elijah, the angel, the soldiers, that captains, they are nothing but messengers, delivery boys. It is Ahaziah that has turned to some foreign god of the Philistines for his prognosis. And it is Ahaziah that the Lord God Jehovah holds in contempt.
2 Kings 1:3 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?'
We read that message being delivered three times in our text this morning. That is what so offended God. And as punishment, Ahaziah is going to die.
...Because you have done this, <God's messenger says> you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!"
2 Kings 1:16
And that is not the message Ahaziah wanted to hear. That is why Ahaziah had gone fishing for answers elsewhere. When Ahaziah's first intercepted messengers returned with the message Elijah had given them, the message the angel of the Lord had given Elijah, the message the Lord had given to the angel, the message which said...
2 Kings 1:6 ...'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!"'"
2 Kings 1:7The king asked them, "What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?"
2 Kings 1:8They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist." The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."
The king knew Elijah! He knew who he was. He knew what he looked like. And he knew pretty well what Elijah would have said if the king had asked that old prophet whether he would live or die as a consequence of the injuries he had sustained in his fall. That's why King Ahaziah had gone witchin' for answers elsewhere! That's why King Ahaziah had sent messengers to fetch answers from Baal-Zebub, the Philistine god in Ekron.
It's a practice that continues right down to the present. People go fishin' for answers they want, instead of answers they need to hear. And if that means going to a different Church, getting a different preacher, or giving up being preached to altogether then that is what they will do. The NT said...
2 Timothy 4:3 ...the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
That time is here. That time existed in OT Israel as well. In the life of Ahaziah. Who bypassed Elijah altogether, for fear of what he would hear. And turned to a foreign god, which was no god at all, in hopes of hearing what his itching ear wanted to hear.
What was it King Ahaziah had against Elijah, a true prophet of God, anyway? Elijah was the prophet who had spoke the Word of the Lord to his mom and dad. Earlier...
1 Kings 21:17 ...the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:
1 Kings 21:18"Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.
1 Kings 21:19Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood--yes, yours!'"
1 Kings 21:20 Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy!" "I have found you," he answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD.
1 Kings 21:21'I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel--slave or free.
And then, this parenthetical explanation of the Lord's decision delivered by Elijah, the Lord's messenger...1 Kings 21:25(There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.
..."I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."Ahab & Jezebel were King Ahaziah's mom and dad! You think their son is going to turn to Elijah for a message from God about whether he is going to live or die? No way! No way. Ahaziah...
1 Kings 22:52 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he walked in the ways of his father and mother...
The apple didn't fall very far from the tree. And Ahaziah turned to a pagan god outside of Israel for his answer. And that decision sealed his fate. Elijah...
2 Kings 1:16 He told the king, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!"
2 Kings 1:17So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
And the sad thing about this whole story is, it may not have had to happen! If Ahaziah had only summoned, and listened, to the Lord's messenger, instead of fishin' for some more pleasant answer elsewhere, Ahaziah may have been saved! That's what happened to King Hezekiah.120 years later. Second Kings 20 speaks of...
2 Kings 20:1 ...days <when King> Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The <true> prophet <of the Lord god Jehovah> Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."
Kind of sounds like what Elijah said to Ahaziah. So what does Hezekiah do? Hezekiah doesn't go witchin' elsewhere for answers. Instead...
And...2 Kings 20:4Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:
2 Kings 20:6I will add fifteen years to your life...
Maybe something like that would have happened for King Ahaziah, had he only called upon the Lord and listened to the Lord and experienced a changed heart, like Hezekiah. King Ahaziah decided to shoot the Lord's messenger instead of being changed by his message. And that decision sealed his fate.
- Several years ago my baby sister stopped going to Church. And that bothered me. So I asked Hattie why she stopped going to Church. She said it was because of something the preacher said. And I don't know what it was the preacher said. I never asked her. But I did ask her if what the preacher said was something that God had said in the Bible or if it was something the preacher had just said on his own. And I will never forget the answer of my baby sister, an answer for which I could not be prouder. Hattie dropped her head and said it was something that God had said in the Bible. My baby sister, whom I baptized with my own hands, had the chance to shoot down another one of God's messengers! And to do so safely, in his absence, where he could not even defend himself! And my baby sister refused to pull the trigger! May God in heaven bless her, and all those like her, who choose to honor God's messengers. Not because their perfect. Heavens no! But because of the perfect message of God they've been entrusted to carry.
- We have a lady in this congregation, of whom I am just as proud. Years ago, we had a difficult conversation. Over which she could have left, and sought out a more pleasing preacher. Instead, she chose to stay, and listen, and learn and grow knowing that the bulk of what she would hear in this Church would come from me, who spoke to her so harshly. And I truly believes she accepts me today as her brother.
- I can't say that about everyone. I don't say that about everyone. There are some here who hold grudges because they have not been able to separate the Lord's message from the Lord's messenger. And they've done their best to shoot the Lord's messenger. And I just have to leave them to the Lord to deal with. And go on.
But to the far majority of us this morning the message is clear, don't confuse the message with the messenger. And whatever you do, think long and hard before you ever even consider shooting one of the Lord's messenger's down.
- When David, a man after God's own heart, had the opportunity to take King Saul down, a man who had gone rotten, who was inhabitated by an evil spirit, David refused, and later told King Saul...
1 Samuel 24:10 ...Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, 'I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the LORD's anointed.'
David chose, instead, to let the Lord deal with him.
Psalms 105:15 "Do not touch my anointed ones; <the Lord says in Psalm 105:15 &1 Chronicles 16:22> do my prophets no harm."
1 Chronicles 16:22"Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm."
That's a lesson King Ahaziah would have done well to learn. That's a lesson the first two captains of the first two contingients of fifty would have done well to learn. That's a lesson the third captain of the third contingient of fifty, thank God, had learned. And that's a lesson we can all go home having learned this morning.
And if not, you can take it up with my Boss! But whatever you do, don't confuse the message with the messenger! And for heaven's sake, don't shoot the messenger! I'm just the delivery boy!
And God's people said? Amen.
Ending: King "Ahaziah." Funny that Ahab & Jezebel, the most wicked ruling couple of Israel, funny that they would name their son "Ahaziah." Does anyone know what "Ahaziah" means? "Held by God." And not just any god! But "held by the Lord God Jehovah!" That's what the ending syllable of Ahaziah distinguished. The Lord God Jehovah! Just like "Elijah" means "God is Jehovah", "Ahaziah" means "held by Jehovah!" And yet, as the story of Ahaziah's life unfolds we discover the only thing God holds about Ahaziah is God holds him in contempt; for turning to other gods for answers, and for daring to lay his finger on one of the Lord God Jehovah's messengers. For confusing the Lord's message with the messenger. For that the Lord took his life.
Messengers come and go. But the Lord's message forever remains.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but <Jesus said> my words will never pass away.
What are you doing with Jesus' words this morning? Jesus said...
John 14:6 ..."I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 8:24 ...if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins."
However,
Still...
Luke 13:5...unless you repent, you too will all perish."
And...
John 3:5...no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
For...
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
We're going to give everyone here who has not already done so, the opportunity to respond to the Lord's message. Forget the messenger. Focus on the message. What has the Lord told you to do that you haven't done? This is your opportunity to do it. We'll help you.
Who would come as we stand and sing?
John 3:3
2 Kings 20:2Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
