King Ahab died in the battle with the king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead and his son Ahaziah succeeded him. Ahaziah’s reign was cut short when he leaned against the lattice of an upstairs window and fell through it, injuring himself. He sent messengers to the city of Ekron to consult the god Baal-Zebub about whether he would survive his injuries.

The Philistine city of Ekron was a seat of Baal worship. The name Baal-Zebub meant Lord of the Flies and, in the New Testament, Jesus used it as a name for Satan (Matthew 12:25-28). King Ahaziah surely knew about the mighty God of Israel, but he chose to go to the lord of the flies when he needed help most.

Ahaziah and Elijah

As the king’s messengers were on their way to Ekron, God sent the prophet Elijah to meet them with a question.

“Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will surely die!’” 2 Kings 1:3-4

The messengers turned around, went back to the king and told him what the prophet said. As soon as Ahaziah heard a description of the prophet he knew it was Elijah. He sent a company of fifty men and their captain to go and bring Elijah to him.

The captain found Elijah sitting in plain sight on top of a hill.

“The captain went up to Elijah and said to him, ‘Man of God, the king says, Come down!’ Elijah answered the captain, ‘If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!’ Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.” 2 Kings 1:910

Ahaziah sent another company of men and when the second captain demanded that Elijah obey the king, he and his men were also consumed by fire.

The third captain who was sent fell to his knees before Elijah and begged for mercy for himself and his men. This time the angel of the Lord told Elijah to go down to the king.

Was There No God in Israel?

Elijah made his way to King Ahaziah’s bed and asked him the same question he asked the king’s messengers.

“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?” 2 Kings 1:16

Of course God was in Israel! Ahaziah knew that Elijah, the great prophet, had called down fire from Israel’s God to consume the altar at Mt. Carmel. He had called down the fire of God on two companies of soldiers Ahaziah sent to fetch him. Ahaziah knew very well that there was a God in Israel, but he had chosen to worship Baal-Zebub.

Elijah delivered the rest of the message from God: “‘Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’ So he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.” 2 Kings 1:16-17

Moses told Israel that God was a jealous God, unwilling to share his glory with a false god. Ahaziah found out the hard way that it was true.

King Joram and the Rebellion of Moab

Ahaziah had no sons so the throne of Israel went to Joram, another of Ahab’s sons when Ahaziah died. King Joram got rid of an idol his father Ahab had made, the sacred stone of Baal, but he still followed in the idolatrous footsteps of Jeroboam, the founding king of Israel.

Joram inherited a difficult situation when he became king. King Ahab had subjugated the nation of Moab and regularly collected a large annual tribute in lambs and wool from them. But when he died Mesha, the king of Moab, rebelled against this taxation and stopped sending it.

At the end of 1 Kings we saw how Moab joined forces with Ammon and Edom to wage war on Judah, but God defeated them by turning them against each other. The defeat crippled the alliance among those three nations and Moab was now alone in their rebellion against the king of Israel.

Jehoshaphat Joins Joram

King Joram contacted King Jehoshaphat and asked him to join him in a war against Moab. Jehoshaphat, ever agreeable, said he would go. He suggested that they take the southern route and pick up the king of Edom and his forces on the way. The route took them around the south end of the Dead Sea and through a stark desert. After seven days they ran out of water.

“‘What!’ exclaimed the king of Israel. ‘Has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?’” 2 Kings 3:10

King Jehoshaphat believed God would guide them through a prophet so he asked, “Is there not prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?” 2 Kings 3:11

God had a prophet ready. Up north in Israel there was the prophet Elijah, but way down south in Judah, near where the kings now needed help, there was Elisha, Elijah’s protégé.

Elisha Prophesies

The three kings went to find Elisha, but when Elisha saw Joram, the idolatrous king of Israel, he was offended.

“Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘Why do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.’” 2 Kings 3:13

King Joram claimed that it was God (not Baal) who had brought the three kings together to attack Moab. Now they had to inquire of Elisha, God’s prophet, to find out what God had in mind.

“Elisha said, ‘As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you. But now bring me a harpist.’” 2 Kings 3:14-15

Elisha had a great reverence for the words of God and he appreciated that King Jehoshaphat had been so diligent to preserve the Law in Judah. Now Elisha listened to the music of the harp and under the hand of God he received a startling prophecy for the three kings.

Their armies needed water and water was the means by which God would bring about the defeat of Moab. That night, without bringing a storm or rain, God made water flow up from Edom and fill the land.

Moab is Defeated

The next morning the Moabite army saw something they had never seen before. Water filled the land of Edom and the rising sun turned it red. They thought they were looking at the blood of the armies of the three kings who must have destroyed each other in the night. It was not so long before this that God had caused the armies of Ammon, Moab and Edom to do that very thing (2 Chronicles 20:1-30)

Encouraged, the Moabites crossed into Edom to take plunder, but instead were met by a fierce army from three nations that rose up and slaughtered them. The Israelites invaded Moab and plundered it, filled the fields with stones, cut down all of the trees, and stopped up all of the water sources.

The King of Moab tried to retaliate against Edom for joining Israel and Judah, but he failed. In a final desperate act, he took his son and heir to the wall of the city and sacrificed him to the god Chemosh. The three kings retreated and returned to their home countries. Moab was devastated, but it remained undisturbed for the next two hundred years.

King Jehoshaphat’s Reign Ends

Jehoshaphat reigned for twenty-five years in Judah. His father Asa was a relatively good king, but Jehoshaphat was truly good.

“In everything he followed the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” 1 Kings 22:43

His weakness was that he liked to keep the peace and he didn’t stand up to the idolatry of the kings of Israel. He allied with them in wars that could have taken his life and destroyed his country. Jehoshaphat didn’t stand up to idolatry in Judah either. He didn’t tear down the high places where his people dabbled in alternate forms of worship.

Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram took over the throne before Jehoshaphat died, and Jehoram immediately aligned himself with the kings of Israel, even marrying a daughter of Ahab. Jehoshaphat tried to lead by education and example, but it wasn’t enough to keep his nation and his son from sliding into idolatry.