On the Road to the Top of the Hill
On the Road with Elijah
On the Road with Elijah to the Top of the Hill
1 Kings 22:51-2 Kings 1:17
 
We are now almost at the end of our travels with the prophet Elijah.  We’ve been traveling with him for quite some time, and after tonight there is only one more recorded event left in his life. 
 
Tonight, we come to a little incident that is almost always overlooked in the accounts of his life, but I wanted us to spend some time studying it this evening for a couple of reasons.  First, his life story and ministry is incomplete without it, and second, it has a valuable lesson to teach us.
 
So, first let me tell  you the story and then we’ll look at the application we can draw from it. 
 
Ahaziah was now the new King of Israel. He had inherited the throne from his father who is known as the most wicked king that ever ruled over Israel, Ahab. Ahaziah had grown up around wickedness and had learned the ways of idolatry from not only his father, Ahab, but from his mother, the wicked Queen Jezebel. And we’ve already seen how both Ahab and Jezebel met their demise just as Elijah had prophecied. 
 
So Ahaziah had all of that experience with Elijah in his life as this story unfolds. We find out a few details about that as 1 Kings comes to an end in chapter 22:51-53 I think it important to keep that in mind as we proceed. 
 
 
As 2 Kings opens, we find out two details in the opening verses.  Verse 1 tells us Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.  That becomes more significant later in the book, and more to the point of tonight’s message, verse2 tells us that King Ahaziah had fallen and suffered an injury. 
 
In fact, the injury was so severe, he was afraid he might die, so he sends messengers to go and inquire of a false god, Baal-Zebub if he was going to recover or not. 
 
At the same time all of that is going on, a messenger from God is instructing Elijah to intercept the messengers and tell them to take a message to Ahaziah that he is going to die. 
 
Well, it wasn’t long until Ahaziah’s servants came back with their tail tucked between their legs. They left with the authority of the King of Samaria to seek answers and came back like whipped puppies because they had ran across God’s man of faith and power, Elijah.
 
You would think that this message alone would bring Ahaziah to his knees but it didn’t! He was too proud to admit the sin in his heart. His heart was filled with anger instead of repentance.
 
Now just to keep an open mind, he was dealing with Elijah the Tishbite, the one who, in his mind, is responsible for the death of his parents. 
 
 
 
 
And now, it’s his turn, and he’s not about to allow some backwoods preacher wearing goatskin who hasn’t even shaved his beard or learned to dress for success to tell him what to do or to rebuke him for anything.
 
So Ahaziah sent out his Captain of the Guard with 50 of his strongest warriors to get Elijah. When they found him, Elijah was sitting on a hill waiting for them.
 
Verse 9
 
They didn’t come in reverence of the man of God. They didn’t come in respect to his office as a Prophet of God. They had no regard for Elijah or the God of Israel. They were there to do business for their King.
 
But so was Elijah.  Maybe they didn’t know that Elijah had a lot of experience in dealing with their kind.  They should have studied their history lessons and learned about Mt. Carmel.
 
Verse 10
 
Ahaziah was enraged and sent 50 more.
 
Verse 11
 
This time it’s not just “Come down”, but “Come down quickly”.
 
Verse 12
 
 
 
 
Then notice verse 13a
 
I don’t know about you, but had I been the captiian of the third group, I might have done some pleading with the king!  I see a pattern developing here!
 
By the time the third set came, there was a change in attitude.
 
Verse 13b-14
 
The last group came with reverence to God Almighty and His awesome power. They came to ask Elijah, not to order him to come. They came asking for mercy and grace knowing that they had little choice but to do what the King had commanded.
 
And in response to that attitude change, notice the next verse
 
Verse 15-17
 
Now there is a lot to learn fromthis story about the consequences of sin and the judgment of God, but I want to zero in on Elijah for a moment, because he is really the focus of our study.
 
And I want you to notice the phrase found in verse 9:
 
“Man of God, the king has said, “Come down”.
 
How often has the world said to us "Come Down". Come down from your Bible reading and spend time watching TV or the Movies. Come down from your faithfulness in attending Church and enjoy life for a change.
Come down from your arrogant position that Jesus is the one and only way to God.
 
The call to “come down” is a call to compromise; to bend or bow to someone else.  It reminds me of the experience of the early church in Acts 5 where the Jewish leaders threatened Peter and the others to quit preaching, and they got out of jail and started preaching.  In fact, the accusations was they “filled Jerusalem with their doctrine”.
 
In and response to that, they said, “We ought to obey God rather than men”.
 
The world would love to tell you what to do and how to behave and what your business is as a child of God.  They want to be the one to decide if prayer in school is appropriate or not or whether the 10 Caommandments has relevance in culture. 
 
They’ll decide what is to be taught about creation and religion, and the message to the church is always “Come down and meet us here on our terms!”
 
I mean this is the King commanding Elijah to come down, and when he doesn’t do it, the follow-up is, Do it now or else!  You better come down and come down quickly!
 
So how are we to deal with all of that?  How does Elijah respond to the call to "come down"?
 
The first thing I notice is:
 
 
 
1. Elijah’s Position
 
Notice verse 9
 
Where was Elijah?  He was on the mountain top! Listen, Elijah had been in by the brook, and he had been to the widow’s home, on the mountaintop and in a cave.  And along the way he had learned a little about God. 
 
What was he doing on top of this hill?  I believe he was worshipping God; meditating on His goodness; resting in His care; listening for His voice. 
 
 Why is it so important to develop the discipline of spending time with God?  Because you never know when the temptation will find you to “come down”. 
 
Elijah’s position; then notice
 
2. Elijah’s Confidence
 
verse 10
 
Where does that kind of confidence come from?  It comes from having a relationship with God.  Elijah understood what it means to honor God, and this confidence that he exhibits comes from understanding that God will defend His name and His glory. 
 
Listen, here’s a backslidden king on the throne of Israel, who has the audacity to send messengers to inquire of Ball-Zebub whether or not he’s going to die?  Is God just going to roll over and pretend that’s not going on? 
 
You sense God’s indignation in the tone of Elijah’s question?  “Why are you inquiring of Baal? Is there not a God in Israel that you could ask?”  It’s almost like God is saying?  “What am I? Chopped liver? You’ve got to got find Baal-Zebub and ask him?
 
Elijah knew that God was a jealous God!  He knew that God would defend His honor!  So he says, “You can ask Baal if you want, but God has a message for the king”, and by the way, if you want to question my authority to deliver a message on his behalf, you better get yourself some asbestos pajamas because God’s fixing to fry your chicken!
 
Elijah’s position fed Elijah’s Confidence.  But it all stemmed from
 
3.  Elijah’s Faith
 
You say, “How do you know Elijah had faith? 
 
Notice verse 15
 
How do I know Elijah really trusted God?  He got up and went to confront Ahaziah personally.  It’s one thing to set up on the mountaintop and fricassee soldiers.  It is quite another to put your faith into action.
 
A lot of people want to brag on what their church is doing but they glory in someone else’s faith. 
 
The “church” may be doing it, but their doing it through those who faithfully get up and leave the mountain of worship and get down in the trenches where the confrontations take place. 
 
Elijah was a man of action.  He didn’t ride the coattails of someone else’s faithfulness.  In fact, he was pretty sure he was the only one the Lord had He could depend on! 
 
I wish a lot more people would develop that kind of attitude.  No one else is going to do it, so I better.  We need some folk to say that about teaching classes and giving tithes and sharing the gospel and singing in the choir and serving the Lord.
 
If you want to develop confidence in your life, then take what you’ve learned about God, get off the mountaintop and get busy!
 
Now, what King Ahaziah wanted was for Elijah to come down and that’s exactly what he got, only he got it on God’s timetable and not his own.  And when he got what he wanted he didn’t like what he got.
 
Verse 16-17
 
I find it interesting that in one way of looking at it, King Ahaziah wanted Elijah to come down, and when he did, the King died. 
 
But in another way of looking at it, the king wanted Elijah to come down, and he didn’t, and because of his obedience to God, instead of going down, Elijah gets to go up as we’ll see next week in the next few verses. 
 
The point:  The call of the world is always to “Come down”, but God’s call is to “Come up”. How do you get to “come up” with God”? 
 
There’s only one way:  Put your trust in God.
Some of you are old enough to remember Steve McQueen.  He was born March 24, 1930 and died November 7, 1980.  He was one of the top box-office draws of the 60’s and 70’s.  He was nicknamed "The King of Cool. 
 
He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. You might remember him from The Magnificent Seven or The Towering Inferno. In fact, in 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world.
 
Success filled his life until alcohol and a failed marriage left him empty. In his despair he attended a crusade led by one of Billy Graham’s associates. McQueen made a profession of faith and requested an opportunity to speak with Billy Graham.
 
A connecting flight in Los Angeles allowed Dr. Graham to spend a couple of hours with Mr. McQueen in the actor’s limousine. Dr. Graham shared numerous scriptures in his quest to give spiritual hope and confidence.
 
Steve McQueen struggled with the thought of God giving eternal life to a man who had such a checkered past, but Graham just kep giving him scripture after scripture to help him.  The one that stuck was Titus 1:2, "the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago."
 
He requested something to write down the verse, but instead Billy Graham gave McQueen his Bible. Later, Steve McQueen died in Mexico while seeking experimental treatment for his terminal cancer.
 
He passed into eternal life with his Bible opened to Titus 1 and his finger resting on verse 2.
 
Whether you are a prophet on the mountaintop or an actor who’s wasted his life or anything in between, there is only one place to put your confidence for time and eternity and that is God.
 
The world says, “come down” but God says “come up”.  How do we get to come up?  We’ve got to come down to Jesus. 
 
Sin, etc. . .
 
Let’s pray