1:1 The nation of Moab decides it an opportune time to separate from Israel upon Ahab's death.
1:2 Ahab's son, Ahaziah falls and is injured. He commands his servants to ask the false god Baal-Zebub if he will recover.
1:3 Meanwhile, God readies and sends Elijah to intercept those servants. Elijah is told to ask the servants if the reason why they seek a false god is because the true God has been removed from them. The rhetorical question is foreboding and accusatory.
1:4 Elijah prophesies that Ahaziah will not recover and will die. He then departs. Whenever God sends Elijah, the prophet is entrusted with delivering extreme admonishment from God. Imagine the courage of such a man! Elijah walks into his enemies lands and homes and bravely, faithfully, tells them exactly the opposite of what they want to hear.
1:5-6 The servants return to Ahaziah early and he asks them why they have returned before completing their mission (reaching the false god). The servants explain that they were approached by a man who delivered a grave message concerning Ahaziah's recovery.
1:7-8 Ahaziah asks the men who approached them, what kind of man. They describe a hairy main wearing a leather belt around his wake and Ahaziah identifies this as Elijah.
1:9 The king is enraged by Elijah's appearance and prophecy. He sends a captain and fifty men after Elijah. They find him on the top of a hill and command him to come down. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah had an emotional breakdown; for Elijah's heart and soul has always wanted to more for God than he felt capable of. He felt that his stalwart faith and fervent bravery were to be consumed by his enemies. In those moments of despair, God restored Elijah and reaffirmed His presence. Elijah is no longer afraid of his enemies.
1:10 Elijah's response to the command given by the enemy army is this: If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men. And fire comes down and consumes the captain and the fifty men. The joy and pride of Elijah's heart is to be a man of God. It is therefore easy for him to make this declaration.
Perhaps we cannot expect actual fire to consume our enemies, but through Elijah we learn that our enemies ignite our God's indignation. Flame is symbolic of the thorough nature of His destruction of that which seeks to harm us. This instance of immediate fire speaks of the immediacy with which God responds to that which tries to break our borders of defense.
1:11-12 True to his nature of disregarding God, Ahaziah sends another captain and fifty men after Elijah. The men are again consumed by fire. God fiercely defends Elijah as a statement: a declaration against evil and a proclamation for righteousness that cannot be ignored.
1:13-14 The statement is made. The declaration and proclamation is heard. Ahaziah sends another captain and fifty men but these men have heard the voice of God through the fire. Though the king refuses to, these men recognize Elijah as a prophet of God. They wish not to destroy the prophet but to retain their lives. Because they have sided with righteousness, they are not consumed by fire.
1:15 An angel of the Lord tells Elijah that it is finally safe to descend the hill and to go to Ahaziah. God has promised to send a helper, an advocate, to the children who do His work (John 14:16). The angel appears to Elijah as an assurance and comfort from God. Though he is instructed to confront the enemy who wants him dead, the angel delivers the most important part of God's message: do not be afraid of him. Because our enemies are useless against the defense God raises around us.
1:16 God instructs Elijah to personally deliver the message that Ahaziah will not recover from his injury. The word of God is always to be delivered precisely as He instructs. Elijah does not boast or antagonize, he simply delivers the prophesy.
1:17-18 And so Ahaziah dies exactly as God said he would. Azahiah has no son, his brother Jehoram becomes king.
