34. Death sounds like a comfort
One bright morning, the Spirit of the Lord prompted Elijah to leave his secret place to sit in sunlight upon the crest of a modest hill. Not long afterward, there appeared before him a captain from Samaria upon a horse, ahead of fifty men. That captain said to Elijah, “You there, man of God, Ahaziah king of Israel says, Come down.”
Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I be a man of God then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”
And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
*
Bidkar sat chatting with the Micaiah in the Samaria lockup when a runner arrived from the palace and summoned Bidkar to return. Two years in Samaria’s prison (after several more in Jezreel) had not dented Micaiah’s spirits. Upon seeing the runner’s agitation, Micaiah grinned and asked, “Could our friend, Elijah, be stirring trouble?”
The runner fidgeted impatiently while Micaiah and the captain traded goodbyes.
*
“They are gone,” Ahaziah shouted before Bidkar reached his bedside. “The captain and fifty I sent out have vanished. Others who knew their route went looking. They found a burnt patch of grass on a hilltop toward Tirzah. The company’s weapons were all about and the captain’s horse, nearby, grazing but singed upon his withers as if…”
Ahaziah stopped, in desperate pain and out of words.
“O king,” Bidkar said, “can you not see that this is the hand of Israel’s God?”
“No, I cannot,” Ahaziah said, “and I command you to stop suggesting it.” The king had begun to shake with fever and his fracture had grown even uglier in the short time Bidkar had been gone. “Yes, look again, Captain, at what my mother did to me,” he said, “and then speak with me about power.” He bellowed for his servants. They rushed to his bed to turn him and, after that painful encounter, the king spoke again. “You know Elijah, Captain, what must I do to force him to stand before me?”
“No man, O king, can force the prophet to do other than God’s will. If you wish, sir, I will ride toward Tirzah and, if he appears, ask Elijah humbly to present himself.”
“I do not trust you to do this thing,” Ahaziah said.
“Then allow me, O king, to return to Jezreel.”
“No, remain here,” Ahaziah said. “I may yet call upon you.”
*
Later that same day, while in his secret place, the Spirit of the Lord again prompted Elijah to go out and sit in the sun on the crest of a hill. Soon after, there appeared before him a second captain, horse and fifty men. This captain spoke to Elijah saying, “You there, man of God, Ahaziah king of Israel, says, Come down.”
Elijah said to the second captain, “If I be a man of God then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.”
And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
*
Bidkar was standing near the palace in the kings gardens, chatting with royal guards, when he heard Ahaziah shout, “Elijah has murdered a hundred and two good men!” So Bidkar appeared at the king’s side even before he was summoned.
Ahaziah was furious. “These men your prophet murdered,” he said, “also had families, Captain. They, like you, had hopes and dreams. How do you hypocrites of the old god justify such obscene violence as Elijah’s and find it any different than my mother’s?”
“Do you honestly wish to hear my answer, O king?” Bidkar asked.
Ahaziah seemed surprised. “I had not thought about it,” he said. “Have you got an answer?”
“Sir,” Bidkar said, “like you and your mother, I once honored idols in my home. I visited the high places, alone as a young man and later with my sons.”
“Ah, springtime,” Ahaziah sighed. “The old god has nothing like that.”
“He has, instead, justice, mercy and humility,” Bidkar said.
“I do not understand.”
“Understanding is the opposite of faith, I have learned.”
“A pithy lesson learned from the old man, Micaiah?” the king asked, “the same who rots in my jail and still, somehow, commands your respect?” He lowered his voice. “I say your one god and my several are all murderers.”
“Baal murders, the God of Israel judges.”
“I fear I am too near death to weigh distinctions,” Ahaziah said. “You serve your god, I’ll serve mine. In the meantime, I am short two good officers and a hundred able men and their murderer, Elijah, remains at large.”
“You will not speak with him,” Bidkar said, “until he is asked humbly to appear.”
“Leave me then,” Ahaziah growled. “I grow weary of your face.”
“Though you criticize your father’s confusion,” Bidkar said, “you surely have your doubts as well, O king. Else why are we speaking? Why would you seek Elijah’s counsel if you yourself did not have doubts?”
Ahaziah looked like he might cry. “I am tired, Captain,” he said, “and nearly insane with pain. Do you think you might find Elijah and simply bring him here?”
Bidkar promised he would try, and he kept his promise even after Ahaziah, who still did not trust him entirely, insisted that fifty men from the Samaria garrison accompany him on his search.
*
Men rarely think about life or its value when their lives are not on the line. A sergeant at the garrison took Bidkar aside and said, “We have lost 100 brothers, Captain. We will do our duty but we are in no way anxious to die like them.”
“How many in this company follow Baal?” Bidkar asked.
“I suppose it’s the same in this garrison as in the land,” the sergeant said. “When the old god speaks we listen, but always with an ear to the wind.”
“As it once was with me,” Bidkar sighed.
The sergeant leaned closer. “What, sir, changed your heart?”
“Rain, Sergeant,” Bidkar said, before telling the soldier an amazing story.
*
They marched east toward Tirzah along a well-travelled notch in the hills. Bidkar thought of Sara on the way. How he missed her. How he was certain she also missed him, and yet… The courage of the men following Bidkar amazed him. Boys, barely men, with families, children, curiosity and dreams had obeyed the king’s orders to search for the prophet while holding no hope to survive. They were much braver than Bidkar; what did it matter to him if the day were his last?
Halfway to Mount Ebal, on an impulse he never paused to question, Bidkar led the company off the road and up a sunny slope. They found Elijah alone up top, his hair blowing in the late afternoon breeze, smiling pleasantly. When he saw the captain, though they had never spoken before, Elijah’s eyes lit up as though he were pleased.
Bidkar fell to his knees. “O man of God,” he cried, “I pray you let my life and the lives of these fifty, your servants, be precious in your sight.”
Nothing happened.
“Behold,” Bidkar added, “I know there came fire down from heaven and burnt up two former captains with their fifties. So let my life now be precious in your sight.”
All the men in the rear also fell to their knees, waiting.
Bidkar peeked at the prophet. Elijah tilted his head as if listening to something. After a nod directed into the air, he stood, stretched and stepped past Bidkar and his men, headed down the hill. Tears welled in every soldier’s eyes as they rose and followed the prophet. After they reached the road to Samaria, Bidkar allowed them to break ranks and chat amongst themselves. They hugged and laughed like schoolchildren the remainder of the way home.
*
Night had fallen. Torches blazed in the palace halls when Elijah met the king. The prophet wasted no time. “Thus says the Lord,” he started before coming to a stop. “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you enquire of the god of Ekron?”
Ahaziah seemed unable to answer.
“Therefore you will not come down off this bed on which you now lie but you will surely die.”
“Forgive me, O great prophet,” Ahaziah said, “if I find this anticlimactic, having lost over a hundred men to hear it. Is there no leeway in your thinking? Frankly, I can imagine worse things than death after a day like this.” He propped himself up, groaning, and pointed out the window toward Jezebel’s house. “Do you know, prophet, who lives across the way?”
“The Lord’s enemy,” Elijah sniffed, “in darkness.”
“Yes, my mother,” Ahaziah said, “from whom you, sir, once ran like a rabbit.”
“Jezebel had her moment,” Elijah said. “The Lord will have his.”
“As concerns me, prophet,” the king said, “my pain has become unbearable. I swear that I would give up or embrace anything for a day’s relief. Is there no room in your god’s heart for my healing? Is there no chance now, as I lay here shattered by your god’s and my own worst enemy, to say or do something to gain a fraction of the mercy he once granted to my father?”
“None,” Elijah answered.
Ahaziah fell back onto his bed with a groan and, when the agony of his having changed positions passed, he considered asking again. But the prophet, somehow, had disappeared.