Fire Fall Down

My daughter has a close friend her age who goes to a Christian high school. We'll call her friend, 'Kelly' for lack of identity protection creativity this morning. Kelly said that when two of her school friends are having a verbal conflict, she stands there, with her one hand raised and with reverent humor, sings, "Jesus reigns in this place...Showers of mercy and grace..." Susan said, "Huh! I would sing, "Fire, fall down..Fire Fall Down...on them we pray...!" Which just strikes me funny every time I think about it.

There are several stories about fire falling down in the Bible.
One of them is written up in 11 Kings chapter one.
Here goes.
Please grant me some creative license
as I retell the stories.

Ahaziah was the 8th ruler in the northern kingdom of Israel.

He was at home when he had his accident.

There was a lattice around his upper balcony
in order to provide him with some privacy.
He could see out. Others couldn't see in.
And somehow, the poor guy fell through this lattice
and took quite a tumble.
What in the world
was he doing up there?
Oh well, don't think about
that too much.

He injured himself severely and thought that
it was possible that he wasn't going to make it.
So he sent some messengers to ask Baal-Zebub,
the god of Ekron, whether or not
he was going to die.


Meanwhile, an angel of the LORD told Elijah
to go meet these same messengers and say to them,
and I quote, because I love the godly sarcasm here,
"Is it because there is no God in Israel that you
are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?"

And then he continued giving the LORD's message,
"You are not even going to be getting out of bed.
You're going to die, man!"
Great news for a Monday morning,
or any morning for that matter.

With that, Elijah was finished, so he left
and the messengers returned to Ahaziah and he said,
"Back so soon?!"
And they told him all about Elijah
and his encouraging word.

So Ahaziah grew suspicious and said,
"Give me a description of this man you met."
And they said, "Dude! He was so hairy!
And he had a leather belt around his waist."
Ahaziah said, "I'd recognize him anywhere.
This man is Elijah the Tishbite."

(How would you like to be known as
"Lindsay, the Tishbite?" or
"Judy, the Leathered One?" or
"Gil, the Hairy?")

Anyway,
Ahaziah decides to bring him in.
He sent a captain with fifty men
to Elijah who was sitting on top of a hill.

They called up to him,
"Man of God, the king wants you to come down NOW!"
Elijah spits out a few sunflower seeds
and says without a lot of drama,
"If I am a man of God, let fire fall down from
heaven and burn you up."

They didn't even have time to put on
their fire proof jumpsuits.
Just like that,
Fire Fell Down.
And there was nothing left but
a pile of ashes.

Somehow,
the king heard about this,
(perhaps the surrounding trees
caught fire and the fire company
had to come out)-
so he asked for volunteers-
no, not really-
he actually sent another captain,
with another fifty men,
and the same thing happened all
over again!

Then he sent a third captain
who was beginning to perceive
a pattern developing here
and this captain didn't even bother
calling out to Elijah.
He hurriedly scrambled up the hill
and fell on his knees before Elijah
and pled for his life and the life
of his men.

(I personally think that this was a wise move
to go right up to Elijah like that
because it wouldn't have been smart
for Elijah to call down fire when
they were in such close proximity
of each other.)

And God's Angel told Elijah to go ahead
and go back with the man
and so he did,
and Elijah delivered his
message of doom eyeball to eyeball
and the king died, just as Elijah
said he would.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had to tell that story because it ties in
with the next story.
I woke up thinking about this one.
It's recorded in Luke chapter nine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, a history lesson, taken right out of
my Bible notes written under Luke 9.
"The Jews and the Samaritans had been
enemies for centuries. Pilgrims to Jerusalem
ordinarily avoided Samaria."

Jesus was headed towards Jerusalem
because He knew the time was near.
And He turned His dear face towards
the very city where He would die.
The scriptures say that He
'steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.'
(Thank you, Jesus, for showing us what our faces
should look like when we are facing our cross.)

He and the disciples were going to go through Samaria
in order to get to Jerusalem.
Messengers were sent before Him to prepare
for His coming. Perhaps they wanted a place
for Him to rest. Perhaps they wanted to
let them know that they could bring their sick
to Him. We can only surmise.

But because the Samaritans didn't want to have
anything to do with Jews,
and especially those who were headed to Jerusalem,
they refused to receive Jesus.

James and John,
sons of thunder,
got a little mad about this.
They rubbed their hands eagerly together
and asked,
"Jesus, how about we do what Elijah did.
How about we call down fire from heaven
to consume them?"
And they were chaffing at the bit
in their zeal for God,
wanting to use their spiritual authority
to take hot revenge
on those who rejected Jesus.

But Jesus turned and looked at them
and said, with rebuke,
"You do not know what manner
of spirit you are of.
I have come to save people;
not destroy them."

And so the pyromaniacs felt
the fire of His words as it purged their souls
and they received a bit more of His heart
for mankind,
and they turned and went with Him
to another village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What can we learn from this story?

We must not allow an offense against our ministry
to cause us to react with a different spirit
than Christ's.

Jesus responded with love and acceptance
to those who had rejected Him.

James and John reacted to the rejection
with a desire to retaliate.
They had taken things personally.
They thought they could change a people's way
of doing things even though they had done those
things for years and years.

It is always God's will to save and to restore.
It is always His will to reconcile men to Himself.

It is not His way to call down the heat of shame
on someone who does not receive our ministry
or Christ's ministry the way we want them to.
It is not His spirit that rises up in us
and says, "Yeah! Give it to them!"

And Jesus didn't shame the disciples either.
He just said, "You don't know what spirit you are of.
I want to save lives, not destroy them."

He didn't make a big deal out of any of it.

He knew Who He was and Where He was going
and Why He was going there.

And the disciples
saw their mistake,
got ahold of His mercy,
and went on with Him
and later died for Him
because they were so filled with that
same spirit of Christ's that wants
everyone to be saved.

Sometimes,
we get it wrong.

I am so thankful that I can go to Jesus
in the wrong spirit and say what I have
to say,
and He straightens me out
in His humble kind way,
and keeps me on as His friend along the journey.