Elijah and King Ahaziah's Messengers

After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. King Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper room in Samaria and became sick. He sent messengers to ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover.

The angel of the Lord told Elijah the Tishbite to meet the messengers. Elijah gave them the Lord's message: was there no God in Israel, that the king was sending to ask Baal Zebub? Because Ahaziah had done this, he would not come down from his bed, but would die.

The messengers returned, and Ahaziah asked why they had come back. They repeated the message. Then the king asked what the man looked like. They said he was a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. Ahaziah knew it was Elijah the Tishbite.

Ahaziah sent a captain with his fifty to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill. The captain told him to come down. Elijah answered that if he was a man of God, fire should come down from the sky. It did, and the captain and his fifty were consumed. The same thing happened to a second captain and his fifty.

Then a third captain came and fell on his knees before Elijah. He begged for his own life and for the lives of his fifty men. The angel of the Lord told Elijah to go with him and not be afraid. Elijah went to the king and gave the same message again. Ahaziah died, just as the Lord had said through Elijah. What kind of answer do we seek when we are in trouble?