Lord of the Flies

Beelzebul is accused of supplying power to Jesus to heal a man of a dumb demon. (Luke 11) Jesus associates Beelzebul with Satan. I wonder how Satan felt being accused (especially since he is the accuser) of supporting the mission of Jesus? Didn't Satan do all he could to destroy the work of Jesus, and even Jesus Himself? Satan is all about tempting folks to fall (Gen.3), moving them to do things that deny the protective power of God (1 Chron.21:1), inflicting pain to get people to curse God (Job), sifting men like wheat (Luke 22:31), blinding the minds of unbelievers, taking people captive (2 Tim.2:26), killing, stealing, and destroying (John 10), and weakening the nations (Isa.14:12). So for him to give Jesus the power to cast out one of his demons is absurd. Perhaps to suggest such a thing was offensive to both Jesus and Satan.

Beelzebul means lord of the flies. It is speculation as to how he got that name. There must be a story behind it. He was a god of Ekron in Philistia. I grew up with flies. I mean they lived in my house. Our late afternoon entertainment was to sit on the front porch each armed with our own fly swatter and see who could kill the most. It was an exercise in futility as there were always as many the next day as the day before. It was especially fun to see if you could catch them in your hand. I wonder if they thought flies were demons and if you swallowed one you were possessed. I made that up. It was one of the Egyptian plagues. In some art work demons are depicted as flies whispering in the ears of men to tempt them to do evil. The flies on a dung heap also seems a fitting connection for Satan.

But it seems to me one of the best stories to help us understand Beelzebul is found in 2 Kings 1. King Ahaziah fell through a lattice and injured himself and thought he might die. So he decided to send messengers to Ekron to enquire of Beelzebul as to whether he was going to die. An angel told Elijah about this and told him to intercept them. Elijah asks, "Is there no God in Israel that you are going to enquire of Baalzebub (another spelling), the god of Ekron?" They reported back to the king who was none too happy with Elijah. Ahaziah sent three separate companies of 50 soldiers to bring Elijah in. The first two were burned to a crisp. The third captain pled for his life, and was allowed  to escort Elijah to the king and delivered the message personally that he would not recover from his fall. Interesting! God does not take kindly to competing with an idol. God does not want His power attributed to another who is nothing at all. When man gives credit to another what God alone can do he is blaspheming God. The next time you see a fly, remember this story.