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. How wrong they were! Elijah told the chief: “Well, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from the heavens and consume you and your 50 men.” God then acted! “Fire came down from the heavens and consumed him and his 50 men.” (2 Kings 1:​9, 10) The tragic end of those soldiers is a vivid reminder that Jehovah does not take it lightly when people treat his servants with contempt or disrespect.​—1 Chronicles 16:21, 22.

How did Elijah endure in the face of the stubborn, rebellious behavior of those around him? That question is relevant today, is it not? Have you ever been frustrated when someone you care about refused to listen to good sense and insisted on pursuing a harmful course? How can we endure such disappointments? 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.