Bent on vengeance, Ahaziah dispatched a contingent of 50 soldiers and their chief to arrest Elijah. When they found Elijah “sitting on the top of the mountain,”a the army chief brusquely ordered Elijah in the king’s name to “come down”​—likely meaning to be led off to execution. Imagine! Even though they knew that Elijah was a “man of the true God,” those soldiers actually thought it right to bully and threaten him.

2 Kings 1:​9,

We may draw a clue from the place where the soldiers found Elijah, “on the top of the mountain.” We cannot say dogmatically why Elijah was there, but we may be quite certain that as a man of prayer, he found that the solitude of that place offered him good opportunities to draw closer to his beloved God. (James 5:​16-​18) We likewise can regularly make time to be alone with God, calling on him by name and confiding our troubles and concerns to him. We will then be better able to endure when those around us act in reckless and self-destructive ways.