Calling Down Fire

  1. This is one of those stories that comes across as wrong. Why is Elijah calling down fire and killing fifty innocent men?
  2. God is just and carries out Elijah’s order.
  3. These are men who follow other gods. These men are sinners. Their leader is demanding of God’s prophet, as if they could control one submitted to God’s control.
  4. The one who humbles himself before Elijah and His God is the one who is saved. When God sees him humbling himself, God intervenes and stops Elijah, telling him to go with the captain.
  5. It would seem that maybe this is what it will be like with those called “the two witnesses” in Revelation 11. They speak and can bring plague, death. People will hate them and rejoice when they are finally killed.
  6. They need to be careful to carry out God’s word with justice and holiness, but also love and goodness.
  7. We can speak the truth and be right, but it can bring destruction. I know two Christian women who don’t speak to each other because of a true word. Being right came before being loving and it caused death to the relationship and in their hearts.
  8. Paul tells us to speak the truth in love to build each other up. We’re to speak only what is useful for edification, to impart grace to the hearer.
  9. While I enjoy saying into the phone when I answer a spamming computer call, “May the Lord judge you according to your deeds,” I should pray for my enemies in a different way.
  10. God desires that all might be saved and come to repentance. We should seek their life, not death.
  11. The disciples ask Jesus if they should call down fire on the town that didn’t welcome Him, Jesus rebukes them.
  12. Can you hope for the good for everyone?
  13. Can you pray prayers of forgiveness and healing and restoration and life and peace and prosperity and life in Christ for those who persecute you, who aggravate you, who have come against you, who just don’t like you?