2 Kings 1:1-8
"1 After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.” 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 went.
5 The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?” 6 And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go back 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 He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?” 8 They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”"
It is clear that the moral and spiritual rot recorded in the first book of Kings is to continue without abatement in the second. What other ending to the book could there be but the disaster of the Captivity when the beginning portrays the sinister picture of Ahaziah appealing to Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Not even Ahab's idolatry is recorded so starkly and blas- phemously as this (2). There is a swift rejoinder from the Lord, and Elijah is commissioned to pronounce doom upon the hapless monarch. It is the insult to the divine majesty in such an attitude that angers God so much and calls forth such swift retribution. If the King had only appealed to God in penitence and contrition, he would doubtless have been healed, for God does not turn away from the needy's cry. But to turn to a false god, when he had been brought up to know, through Elijah's ministry in his father's reign, the only true and living God - this was the sin that brought his life to a close. To know the good, and yet in face of it to choose the evil, is to love darkness rather than light and, to use the words of Jesus, to enter into condemnation. This is the truly frightening element in sin, the wilful, obstinate turning of the heart against truth and grace, in defiance of the claims of God upon the soul. Who amongst us has not known this terrible temptation, when the searching challenge of His word has cut us to the quick as it rebuked our sin and called us to repentance and obedience? To know the good, and yet prefer the evil - how does this find us today?