Falling Hard

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?’ “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. 2 Kings 1:3-4

I am the reigning queen of falling on dangerous surfaces. In fact, if someone in my house drops a cube of ice or anything else remotely dangerous my children don't says, "Wipe that up so no one falls." Instead they say, "Wipe that up so Mommy won't fall." It will be me. Always me. But I am not alone with my problem! Although I doubt if it was because of an ice cube, according to 2 Kings 1 somehow King Ahaziah of Israel managed to fall through the lattice roof of his summer palace in Samaria and seriously injure himself.

Not surprisingly since he was the son of wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, Ahaziah was seriously into Baal worship. In fact, laid up after his accident and very concerned for his future, he sent his servants to ask the prophets of Baal whether or not he would survive. But the God of Israel, the true and living God, was in no way stymied by Ahaziah's refusal to acknowledge Him. In fact, as the servants of Ahaziah were headed to Baal country, God sent an angel to His prophet Elijah who told him what had happened to Ahaziah and what Elijah should tell Ahaziah's servants. 

Although it was scary to bring a negative message, Elijah obeyed God and went to find the king's servants. These servants were so surprised and bewildered by this unexpected encounter that they turned around and returned to the king. When the king heard the prophet Elijah had said he would never recover—a very unwelcome message and probably not what the king had expected to hear from the prophets of Baal—he wanted him killed.

While I have no temptation to worship Baal or to listen to the messages of his priests, I have been tempted by other "voices" giving messages more to my liking than the one in God's Word. For various reasons what God said was not what I wanted to believe. What God asked was very hard and I wanted things to be easy. What God asked required everything and I wanted to keep back part. But God is not into my human reasoning and God's truth is truth whether I believe it or not. No variant message from a "prophet of Baal" can change truth.

How thankful I am for a loving and patient God who has given me His Holy Spirit to guide me into truth. Without Him I, like King Ahaziah, would be ever-so-tempted to reject God's truth in favor of a more palatable lie. But in the end the lie would change nothing. Truth would not be changed simply because I rejected it. 

See A Bitter Pill to Swallow.