He is waiting for you
But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ ~ 2 Kings 1:3
Where do you go when you don’t know what to do or when you are feeling bad? Most of us have a few favorite places. We might call a friend, search the internet, ask someone we trust, or, if we’re being completely honest, worry about it for three days and then finally think about praying about it. Sometimes we know exactly where we should go, but we look everywhere else first.
That’s what makes today’s scripture passage so challenging. King Ahaziah was injured after falling through the lattice of an upper room. Instead of turning to the God of Israel, he sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, to find out whether he would recover. God sent Elijah to intercept the messengers with a question that went straight to the heart of the problem, “Is there no God in Israel?”
The issue wasn’t simply where Ahaziah was looking for an answer. The deeper issue was that he was looking everywhere except to God. He sent messengers to a pagan city with gods that were not real and looked to the world for answers.
We may not send messengers to Ekron today, but we can still look in the wrong places for direction, security, approval, and answers. It’s easy to find ourselves putting our confidence in the world around us through people, money, relationships, our own ability, or even the latest advice we find online. None of those things are automatically wrong, but they were never meant to take God’s place.
Here are three points from this chapter that can help us when life leaves us uncertain, uncomfortable, or searching for answers.
1.Where you turn reveals what you trust
Ahaziah’s first response to his crisis tells us something about his heart. When he was injured, he didn’t turn to God. He turned somewhere else. Crisis has a way of revealing where our trust really is. When everything is going well, it’s easy to say, “I trust God.” But when the unexpected phone call comes, the financial problem appears, the relationship becomes difficult, or the diagnosis changes the plans you had, our first response locates our heart very quickly.
Where do you go first? Do you immediately panic? Do you call everyone you know? Do you start trying to control every detail? Do you spend hours searching for answers? Or do you bring the situation to God?
There’s nothing wrong with seeking wise counsel. There’s nothing wrong with gathering information or asking for help. God often works through people, doctors, counselors, pastors, friends, and practical resources. The problem comes when we look to those things as our ultimate source instead of recognizing our heavenly Father as our source.
Maybe you’re facing a decision right now and you’re tempted to ask people you know what they think before asking God what He wants. Maybe you’re worried about a family situation and you’ve been trying to figure out every possible outcome. Maybe you’re facing an uncertain season and your mind is running twenty-four hours a day, even though your body would really appreciate a break. Start with God.
Before you make the phone call, say the prayer. Before you make the decision, open His Word. Before you allow fear to write the entire story in your mind, invite God into the situation. Your first response doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to turn in the right direction.
2.God may interrupt the direction you’re going
Elijah was sent by God to intercept Ahaziah’s messengers. I love this part of the story because it shows us that God will sometimes interrupt our plans before they take us somewhere we shouldn’t go.
We don’t always appreciate interruptions. Most of us have schedules, plans, lists, calendars, and carefully organized ideas of how the day is supposed to go. Then something happens that wasn’t on the schedule, and suddenly we’re asking, “Who messed up my day?”
But sometimes what we call an interruption is actually God’s redirection. Maybe you’ve had a door close that you desperately wanted to walk through. Maybe an opportunity didn’t work out. Maybe a relationship ended. Maybe a plan you’ve spent months preparing suddenly changed. At the time, it may have felt like everything was falling apart. Remember those times are usually God protecting us from something we can’t see.
That doesn’t mean every disappointment is automatically God’s intervention. Life happens, people make choices, and circumstances can be complicated. But we can choose to bring our disappointments to God and ask Him what He wants to teach us or where He wants to lead us next. Instead of immediately asking, “Why is this happening to me?” we can also ask, “God, is there something You want me to see in this?”
Perhaps that unexpected delay gives you time to hear something you would’ve missed. Maybe that closed door keeps you from stepping into something that wasn’t right for you. Maybe the interruption causes you to slow down long enough to recognize that you’ve been heading in the wrong direction. God isn’t afraid to interrupt our plans and most of the time we should be thankful He does.
3.Don’t let fear make your decisions for you
After Elijah delivered God’s message, Ahaziah sent a captain with fifty men to capture him. The captain approached Elijah and demanded that he come down because the king had commanded it. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.
A second captain was sent with another fifty men, and he made the same demand. Again, fire came down. Finally, a third captain approached Elijah, but his response was very different. He humbled himself and pleaded for his life and the lives of his men. God then told Elijah to go with them.
There’s an important lesson here about humility and fear. The first two captains approached Elijah as though authority and force could solve the problem. The third recognized that there was a greater authority in the situation. Fear often makes us react instead of respond.
When we’re afraid, we may become controlling, defensive, angry, or demanding. We may say things we wouldn’t normally say. We may make decisions simply because we want the uncomfortable situation to end.
Maybe you’re dealing with a difficult conversation right now. Perhaps someone has disappointed you, and your first instinct is to respond immediately. Maybe you’re worried about something your child is facing, and you’re tempted to control every detail. Maybe you’re waiting on an answer, and the uncertainty is making you want to take matters into your own hands.
Pause, pray and ask God for wisdom before responding.
Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is lower your voice, calm your heart, and let God lead you. Humility doesn’t mean weakness. The third captain wasn’t weak. He was wise enough to recognize that his approach needed to be different than the others.
There is something else in this chapter that we don’t want to miss. God knew exactly where Ahaziah was looking for help, and He knew exactly what Ahaziah needed to hear. God wasn’t distant from the situation. He was involved.
I hope that encourages you today. God knows where you’re looking. He knows what you’re worried about. He knows what you’re trying to figure out. He knows the questions you’re carrying and the answers you’re waiting for. The question is, are we willing to turn toward Him?
We live in a world full of voices. There are endless opinions, endless advice, endless information, and endless ways to distract ourselves from sitting quietly before God. We can spend hours searching for an answer and five minutes asking God for wisdom.
Maybe today God is asking you the same question He asked through Elijah, “Is there no God in your life?” Not as a question of whether you believe He exists, but as a reminder that He is waiting to hear from you, He is present and He is still your source.
Today I want to encourage you to pay attention to where you turn when life gets difficult. When fear rises, turn toward God. When you’re uncertain, turn toward God. When your plans get interrupted, turn toward God. When you don’t know what to do next, turn toward God.
You don’t have to have all the answers before you come to Him. You don’t have to clean up your emotions first. You don’t have to pretend you’re not afraid. Just turn in His direction and He will take care of those things.
God isn’t asking you to figure everything out today. He’s asking you to trust Him with today. If you’ve been looking everywhere else for the answer, it’s not too late to turn around. The God you need isn’t hiding in some faraway place. He’s right there, ready to lead you, strengthen you, correct you, and remind you that you don’t have to walk through uncertainty alone. Sometimes the greatest breakthrough isn’t getting the answer we wanted. It’s discovering that the One we were looking for has been with us all along.
Today’s scripture reading: 2 Kings 1
1 Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.”
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’
4 Now therefore, thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah departed.
5 And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, “Why have you come back?”
6 So they said to him, “A man came up to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” ’ ”
7 Then he said to them, “What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?”
8 So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.”
And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to him; and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down!’ ”
10 So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Then he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men.
And he answered and said to him: “Man of God, thus has the king said, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”
12 So Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
13 Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: “Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.
14 Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight.”
15 And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king.
16 Then he said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”
17 So Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. Because he had no son, Jehoram became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Journal:
- When I face uncertainty or a crisis, what is my first response?
- Is there an area of my life where I’ve been looking everywhere for answers except to God?
- Have I experienced an interruption or closed door that God may have used to redirect me?
- What situation am I currently trying to control because I’m afraid of what might happen?
- What would it look like for me to turn toward God first in that situation?
- What is one practical step I can take today to seek God’s direction before seeking everyone else’s opinion?
