I Kings 21:1-2 - II Kings 10:36

[00:00:00] We apologize the listener for a very bad patch of interference. [00:00:04] This interference only lasts at the early part of this recording. We do apologize. [00:00:24] Remember, we have already dealt with each king. [00:00:54] Another army man took charge. And with Omri, King Omri of Israel, the greatest royal house in the kingdom of Israel, came into being. You remember we said that the books of kings dwell on what is spiritually important in these histories. And that is why Rehoboam is. For gospel Abijam is almost forgotten. Jeroboam is dealt with quite fully, comparatively speaking. That is because all the way through kings, it is Jeroboam. The sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he caused Israel to sin. His reign was fatally fundamental to the whole history of Israel and indeed of Judah. For later on we shall find that that is the thing that is written even over the royal house of David, that they walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, particularly the sin with which Jeroboam the son of Nebat caused Israel to sin. [00:02:09] Nadath, Baasha, Elah, Zimri and Omre are passed over almost in virtual silence. Omri was the greatest of all the kings of Israel. [00:02:22] Archaeologically, we know that he was a tremendous king and quite a big political influence in the Middle east at the time. Yet he is given but a few verses in Scripture. Ahab, his son is given more chapters than any other king in his life. [00:02:44] Because the reign of Ahab is. [00:02:53] And that is why it was just at that point that God raised up his message. [00:03:06] There we have those that really are only mentioned more or less by name. Elijah is a man that we know. [00:03:15] He is just called Elijah. We don't know who his father don't know. His mother, don't. [00:03:21] We don't know anything about Elijah. Elijah comes suddenly and Elijah departs. [00:03:28] But Elijah is always looked upon next to Moses and Samuel as the greatest figure in the old prophet. Now, why? [00:03:41] Because Elijah is brought at the greatest point of practice in Israel's history. [00:03:52] Ahab was an evil man. He was a weak man. He was married to a woman that we now have come to know as one of the greatest influences in Israel's history. [00:04:07] She is, we know, an exceedingly clever, strong, ideal, and highly intelligent woman. [00:04:16] It is quite obvious that Ahab was the figurehead as far as Jezebel was concerned. Jezebel was the real power behind the throne. And Elijah knew that Elijah was not afraid of Ahab. He could withstand Ahab. He could speak to Ahab, to his faith. He could intercept Ahab. But as soon as Jezebel threatened to do something about Elijah, you know what happened? He collapsed, fled for his life. [00:04:43] He knew that Jezebel was the real power behind the throne. [00:04:48] We also know that Elijah's great mission was to reestablish the God Jehovah. His name means simply Elijah, means simply the God Jehovah. That is the key to his mission and ministry. That is why Elijah's ministry is full of thunder. [00:05:17] His ministry we do not see. [00:05:26] We don't see really outstanding Plato, any meekness about the character or the temple of a life of man. He was a stern, strong, rough kind of countryman who lived in the rocks and in the desert and who was. [00:05:58] Now you remember how we found that is Elijah. He brought him to H and there he showed the scene on Mount Carmel when God vindicated his honor, vindicated whilst it was part of the sovereign purpose and plan of God, was not the way God permanently moved. It was. [00:06:29] We called it Elijah. And the school of God, you remember, the Lord taught him that it was by the still small voice, not by the earthquake, not by the wind, not by the fire, but by that voice of a gentle whisper that God permanently. [00:06:47] And we have the key to that in the last part of chapter 19, where he tells him to take Elisha as his successor. [00:06:56] Elisha is more altogether different man to Elijah. Elisha is a foster man. He is a gentleman. He is a man that is used to living in courts with a king. Later on we find that he has much to do with the royal house. He's not at all like Elijah. He's not out, doesn't live in caves and amongst the rocks. He's a man who is an altogether different type of man in every way to Elijah. [00:07:22] Now, in those last chapters of the first book of Kings, we find one or two rather interesting things that we ought to look at. [00:07:33] The first is this, and it might surprise some of us, but therein lies a very real principle. [00:07:41] In spite of the fact that Ahab is the most evil king that Israel has yet produced, and in spite of the fact that his heart is set upon really perverting the people in every way possible, just literally obeying every whim and wish of Jezebel. [00:08:00] Yet we are told expressly here that the Lord comes in on the side of Ahab against Syria in the north, and he tells Ahab that he will deliver him out of the hand of the Syrians. And indeed, more than that, he will actually destroy the Syrians. That is exactly what happens. If you look at chapter 20, the Lord says because of his name, because of his name and because Israel is his people, he will deliver them. [00:08:38] I think sometimes we tend to think that the Lord, whenever the Lord moves amongst his people, it's because they are all right and because they deserve it. This is not so at all. The Lord's people can be on the wrong ground, they can be under quite false leadership. And yet in a very real way, the Lord will not forsake his namesake in his people. [00:09:06] That's the thing that we have to learn. The Lord will deliver his people as he did Esther and the people in Persia, just because they are his people and just because his name is at stake. You see, the Syrians have said very simply that if we can only get Ahab to come out against us on the plain, we'll destroy them. But that was a challenge which the Lord himself was going to take on. And in a very wonderful way, he delivers Syria into Ahab's hand. [00:09:43] That story is followed by one of the most intensely evil stories in the Bible. It is the vineyard of Nabal. [00:09:55] Ahab wants that yard, that vineyard, to make into a herb garden. It was on the edge of his palace, and he thought it would be rather nice if he annixed it and made it into a very nice herb garden. Herbal type of garden he sends along to Naboth. And Naboth says, no, my father had this. My father's father had it right down, right through. My ancestors have found this plot of land. I don't want to let it go. And it says, Ahab went into to herself. He went up onto his bed, he turned his face to the wall and he refused to eat. Jezebel laughed at him. And she suggest you leave that to me. She sent a letter down to the chief men of the city and she said, the sacrilege in the town. Proclaim a fast according to the law. [00:10:44] And she said, when you proclaim the fast, make Naboth chairman of the tribunal investigating the sacrilege. Then she said, get two wicked men well, pay them, and they will falsely accuse Naboth of blasphemy. Because the Lord says, in the mouth of two witnesses, it shall be established. Then she said, when it's established, take him out and stone him and all his children. [00:11:13] That's exactly what happened. Pastors proclaimed, people were gathered together. Naboth was chairman tribunal. Two men witnessed against him. And he was stoned, and all his children were stoned with him. So that in one moment the whole of Naboth household were murdered. Then Jezebel just Went to Ahab and said, naboth dead, and he has no heir, as in yard yours. [00:11:46] But the Lord saw what had happened, and he told Elijah to go straight down to Ahab and to tell Ahab that because he had sold himself to do evil on that very plot of ground, he would lose his life. And Jezebel would never be buried because there wouldn't be anything of her to bury. [00:12:14] And Elijah, if you read the story, went down to Ahab and delivered his message from the Lord, which was literally fulfilled a little later. But now we find another interesting principle. Ahab puts on sackcloth and ashes. He weeps, he cries, he repents. [00:12:35] And the Lord says to Elijah, do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? [00:12:45] And the Lord said, because Ahab has humbled himself before me, I will put off the day of his judgment. [00:12:55] You know, some children of God do think the Lord is far, far more severe and harsh than he is. The Lord can spare Ahab because he asked forgiveness and repented after such a vile and filthy murder. He certainly will be merciful, long suffering toward his own who really want him. The most remarkable thing for the man who is sold for evil absolutely out to pervert the people of God is given chance after chance of opportunity after opportunity by the Lord. [00:13:32] But of course, you know how the story ends. [00:13:36] Jehoshaphat and Ahab join forces, and they go out to war. [00:13:43] Jehoshaphat was a good king. [00:13:46] And Ahab said, let the prophets come in and tell us, as was the customer, what way the battle goes. And all the prophets prophesied in the name of Jehovah. And they said, the Lord's with you. And one of them, Zedekiah, took hold of an iron horn. He said, this is what you will be like, Ahab. [00:14:07] You will be like this iron horn with the Syrians. You will destroy them out of them. [00:14:12] But Jehoshaphat, who was a godly man, said, I am not satisfied. Isn't there a need, prophet? [00:14:19] And then we get another little insight into the nature of Ahab. He says, yes, there is, but I don't like him. He has never said a good thing about me. [00:14:31] I don't want that kind of man. I hate him. He says, it's never prophesied a good thing. [00:14:38] Jehoshaphat says, can we hear him? [00:14:41] And Micaiah is bought to the presence of the two kings. [00:14:45] And Micaiah very wisely says, it will be well with you. [00:14:51] And Ahab says, how many times have I told you, Micaiah, to speak the Truth before the Lord. [00:14:59] So Micaiah says, very well, I'll tell you the truth. [00:15:02] I saw vision. And I saw the whole of Israel scattered with no shepherd that was of. Here's what he meant. Ahab was going to be killed. [00:15:12] And he said, the second vision I saw, I saw the pearl of God and I saw the heavenly host. [00:15:19] And then I saw the Lord saying, who will entice Ahab for me? [00:15:26] And an evil spirit came out and said, I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the promise, and I will forced them to prophesy good things. [00:15:39] And as you read the story, Ahab lost his temper. He turned around to Jehoshaphat and said, isn't that exactly what I told you about this man? He never said a good thing about me. [00:15:50] He wrote out an order straight away. And Micaiah was put into the into dungeon of that particular city and given what is called the bread of affliction. To that was the end of Ahab. But the story proceeds to tell us that in the battle, Ahab was so afraid that he disguised himself. [00:16:13] And Ben Hidat of Syria had his 32 crack chariot captains. [00:16:23] And he said, mark only the king of Israel. Forget all the other men. Just you battle your way right through the ranks for the king of Israel and then destroy him. [00:16:38] And they made for Jehoshaphat. But if you read chronicles, you find Jehoshaphat prayed to the Lord in the battle, and the Lord delivered him. They turned back from him, but suddenly some archer shot. I don't know whether it was deliberate or whether it was just in the battle shot an arrow which pierced the heart of Ahab. [00:16:58] And it says that Ahab died and was he died on the very field of Naboth, whom he had loved. [00:17:10] That anyway is the end of the most evil king of Israel. And then as we move on, you'll find that the next thing after Ahab's death that you find the very last part of the first book of Kings, chapter 22, we find the story of Jehoshaphat of Judah's reign. [00:17:38] Jehoshaphat of Judah was a good king. He was a godly king. We are told that he walked in the Lord's way. [00:17:46] We're told that he carried on the reformation of his father, Asa. You remember, after these two evil kings of Judah, Asa carried through a very real reformation. Jehoshaphat, his son, carried on the work of that reformation. [00:18:05] But we find one or two very real weaknesses about Jehoshaphat. The first is that although he destroyed many of the High places. He also left quite a number which were to grow in number once he has died. [00:18:21] We're told in kings that he left them. In Chronicles, we're told he destroyed quite a number of them. He destroyed the religious prostitutes, he closed down the grove, that the people worshipped him. [00:18:39] He carried through all kinds of reformation to try and clean up the land and somehow or other bring the people right back into alignment with the Lord. [00:18:51] But isn't it amazing that when you get a man who loves the Lord, who is really used of God, and who means business with God so much so that he carries through very real measures to his own cost, yet we find he does one of the most foolish things for whichever after he's remembered he had a son, Jehoram, who was the crown prince, and he thought it would be an awfully good thing if they could only make peace with their brothers Israel. [00:19:30] And he thought the way that they could make peace was by marrying his son to Ahab's daughter. [00:19:38] So Jehoram marries Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and in so doing he introduces into Judah the woman who was nearly used of Satan to destroy God's purpose completely. [00:20:00] It just shows you how we can be one with God, one with God's purpose, walking in God's way, going an awful long way in real measures of holiness and righteousness, and yet, just out of compromise on some small point, do something to us quite right. For what is better than unity? [00:20:24] What is better than trying to somehow bring opposing parties together, but just take the one step without honouring it, which, after our death, is going to open up blood gates to every kind of evil? [00:20:42] Though Jehoshaphat is remembered for that, he was weak on one or two things. He continually went out to war with the kings of Israel, and he nearly always lost, indeed, he nearly lost his life once. Then he combined his navy with the navy of Israel, and he nearly lost the lot, because a tremendous squall hit them in the Red Sea and the whole of Judah's navy sank. [00:21:07] He learned his lesson. And the one thing recorded here in these few verses is that when again King Ahab asked if they could join forces, naval forces, he refused. [00:21:21] So you see, we learn from that, that you can have the people of God on the right ground, and you can have the people of God on the wrong ground. We must always maintain the unity of all the people of God, but we must never become, never involved with the people of God, organizationally or institutionally, who are living on the wrong ground. The children of Israel, the house of Israel, the kingdom of Israel, were as much the children of God as the kingdom of Judah. But every time in the history of Judah and Israel that the two joined forces, there was tragedy. [00:22:03] You couldn't have thought of anything better to end the very real antagonism than by Jehoram marrying Ahab's daughter. What better thing, what more diplomatic thing, what more political thing could be done? Nothing. It's got everything about it which is right and good. [00:22:23] But Athaliah was like Jezebel, her mother. She was the ruling force behind Jehoram of Judah, not Jehoram. We shall find that out when we come to them. Then if we turn to the last part from verse 51 and turn over to the second book of kings, we find the story of Ahaziah of Israel. We're back now. Here, Ahab's son, Ahaziah, Elijah, still ministry. Ahaziah is engaged in a battle with, I think it's the Edomites. And he, it says, we're not told exactly how it happened. He fell out of an upper window and was very, very badly hurt. [00:23:12] And he was very afraid. And he asked his servants to go down to Baals above and ask Baals above the gods whether he would die or whether he would live. And Elijah, who was nearby, heard the voice of God. [00:23:29] The Lord said, you go down and intercept those messengers and say, are you going down to Beelzebub to inquire because there is no God in Israel? [00:23:39] Go back and tell Ahaziah that he shall surely die. [00:23:45] And the messengers go back to tell Ahaziah says, why have you come back? [00:23:51] Prophet met us on the way. He told us, didn't we know there was a God in Israel? [00:23:57] Why are we inquiring or BAAL about it? [00:24:00] You shall surely die, he said. So he said, what was he like? They said he was a hairy man. He said, it was Elijah the Tish bite. [00:24:07] So he said, well, you send out a captain with 50 soldiers and had him executed. And the 50 soldiers came up. He was our course fired down, and they're all consumed. Another band of 50 go out. And again it happens. It seems terrible to us. [00:24:24] A third time, a band go out. And the captain shook freedom, falls on his knees and says, oh, please let my life be precious in your sight. And the Lord said to Elijah, so that you can trust this man, go down with him. [00:24:36] Those men, you can't judge the Lord and things like that. Those men were evil men. The moment Elijah gave himself into hand, they would have murdered him. That would have been the end of Elijah. God stepped him before anything could be done. But that last one was a different kind of man. And the Lord said, you can go down with that man. He won't harm you. [00:24:55] Come down. He delivers the message himself, the way Hosanna says, just quickly, so are your hezai have done. [00:25:03] That was the end of Ahaziah. Then we are introduced almost immediately to Jehoram of Israel, the son of Ahaziah. And immediately Jehoram is left and we are immediately introduced to Elisha. Elijah leaves this world in the way he came into it. He goes in a whirlwind. There is something about Elijah that is a whirlwind. His whole life, his whole ministry has been a whirlwind. He's come crashing onto the scene. Everything's been devastated by his presence. Wherever he's gone, he's just been saying he's been just a whirlwind. [00:25:45] One lesson he learnt was in the midst of it all, he could hear the voice of God. [00:25:53] He goes over and is very instructed that when Elisha goes with Elijah, everyone tries to stop Elijah. Elijah turns around and says, look, will you stop following me? [00:26:04] Elijah says, I will not stop. She said, I'll make an Elijah. Will you go back from following me? Don't follow me. Elisha said, I'm going to go the whole way with you. [00:26:16] Then the sons of the prophets come out and they say, don't you know that your master is going to be taken from you? Leave him. [00:26:23] Many of the Lord's people will try to stop us from really going right on in the paths of God. But Elisha goes on and goes on and goes on, till in the end there are only the two of them and they go over Jordan together. And then the two of them left. Elijah says to Elisha, what would you like while I'm doing? What is the one thing you want? [00:26:48] He said, I want the firstborn son's inheritance, a double born. [00:26:56] Elijah says, if you see me when I go, that will be the one thing you will have. [00:27:02] And then it says, suddenly he saw the chariots of God. [00:27:10] Elijah went up in the whirlwind. It is very interesting. It does not say that he went up in the chariots. [00:27:17] Elisha saw the Chariots of Fire, but Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven. [00:27:24] And it is also very interesting that when the mantle fell back off, Elijah fell onto an Elisha. The sons of the prophet said, we're quite sure his dead body must be somewhere. Would you mind if we go and have a search party to find that. Elisha says, certain enough. But they worried him so much, it says, that Elisha became ashamed. [00:27:46] I suppose they made him feel that he couldn't care less about his master. So he said, all right, send out your search party. For three days they scoured the hills and the desert for where the body they thought had been dropped by the world. But they couldn't find any body. And when they came back, Elijah said, I told you, you shouldn't have gone. I know. He's got the glory. [00:28:07] Elisha, life and ministry so different to Elijah. [00:28:12] It's entirely different. [00:28:14] Everything about him is different. He doesn't wear that leather, hairy leather, kind of rough country garment. He wears clothes he is continually found in the court of the king. He assumed spoken. [00:28:30] Everything about Elisha is different. [00:28:34] It is very interesting. The first two miracles he performs give the key to his ministry, his name. By the way, Elisha means God for salvation in the same way that Elijah, the God Jehovah is the key to his ministry. Elisha's name, the key to his God yourselves. [00:28:57] His ministry was the building up of river which he did, the sons of the prophets or the schools of the prophets, sorting out the few faithful that remained in the land, 7,000 who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal, and comforting them, edifying them, strengthening them. [00:29:17] That is why the very first thing with Elisha does when he comes to the city, they say there's something wrong with the water. He says, bring me a little cruise of salt. [00:29:28] He puts the salt into the water and he said, the water is healed. Now this is the key to Elisha's ministry. Nearly everything that Elisha does is constructive. [00:29:43] Much, much of Elijah's ministry in many ways has been negative. Although it's been a great declaration of who God is and who the Lord is, it's been very, very in some way destructive. It's been the tearing up and the pulling down, rooting out. Elisha, on the other hand, is a very real ministry of the positive all the way through. Of course, we have the story of the. Of the. As the authorized Version put the little children that ran out after Elisha, calling him baldhead. [00:30:16] But we might as well point out that the word there doesn't mean little children, it means young fellows. [00:30:23] And also they weren't being rude about his polished head because he had something on his head. It was much more than just that. It was a deliberate insult of young fellows of anything between 10 and 12 who went out after him from a city which in which we believe we know there was a shrine to baal. The deliberate insult, Elisha, cursing of them in the name of the Lord, was a very strong stern measure which must have left its mark upon the people at the beginning of his public ministry. [00:31:03] Nevertheless, let's not think that Elisha's ministry was like that all the way through. But if you look through, you'll find some wonderful things about Elisha's ministry. See the things that are noted about him. [00:31:17] Generally speaking, we'll have to leave some. But just take up these, the first thing we find. And they're not in chronological sequence, by the way. That's why you don't get the kings mentioned by name. You just get called the kings of King of Israel. The first thing is a woman in oil. [00:31:32] This woman's in debt by the law. That means that that woman is going to be taken into slavery by the one that her husband is in debt to. Evidently, her husband was in debt. He died. And it meant that she and her sons were now going to go over as payment to whoever her husband was in debt to. She came to Elisha in a terrible state. She was on the verge of slavery. What should she do? [00:32:00] She had only one thing, a little pot of oil. [00:32:04] Elijah said, take that pot of oil and pour it out. Take every vessel you can in the house and pour it out, and pour it out and pour it out until you haven't got another thing you can pour into. And that's what she does. [00:32:16] And then when she comes back, everything is overflowing. [00:32:19] He says, now go sell the lot and live on it. Pay the debt and live on the rest. What did that teach us? The key to Elisha's ministry of life is resurrection. [00:32:31] In these days of death and decline and disintegration, the resurrection, the God of resurrection is the answer. But where is the God of Resurrection? He is found in the Holy Spirit. [00:32:46] You may have only one little tiny oil pot of oil. That may be all you have, but it's the Holy Spirit where you say it reverently. [00:32:56] Whilst you leave that one pot of oil corked up and left in your house, you will live in poverty. [00:33:05] But Elisha said, uncork it. Pour out the little you've got. Go on pouring out, go on pouring it out. And you'll pay all your debts and you'll have a lot to live on. [00:33:18] The lesson we're all very slow to learn. Elisha's ministry began a little later with the woman and the oil. Then he finds the woman who is barren and he tells her that she's going to bear a son. She cannot believe it. But when the time comes round she bears a son, he's born. And a so often the case when God gives us something we desperately want, then he tests us out. God gives us son. God takes away his son. The little lad runs out after his father. When they're repealed and gets sunstroke, he comes back and dies on his mother's lap. And in the afternoon he dies. [00:33:57] She lays him out in the prophet's chamber that she had specially built on the roof for Elisha. Whenever he went by that way. She was a wealthy woman. She laid him out. Isn't it strange? Had everything else the world could give her, but the one thing she wanted about everything else was her son she hadn't got. Now her the son the Lord promised her had died. She laid him out. She said, look. [00:34:20] Her husband said, what are you doing? She said, it, it will be well. [00:34:25] When he asked her, he wouldn't, she wouldn't tell him. She just said, it will be well. That's faith. Then she went out on the journey and perhaps I met her on the way. And Elisha said, you run down there and ask her, is it well with your husband? Is it well with you? Is it well with your son? [00:34:47] Has I come down? Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? She says, it is well. [00:34:57] Now, that was faith. [00:35:00] Some people, of course, say that she was just refusing to share burdens with people that didn't really matter, but I don't think that is so we can't read into it anything like that. That woman was a living symbol. [00:35:20] When she got to Elisha, it was a different story. [00:35:24] All she could do was clutch his feet and her grief poured out of her. She said, didn't you tell me that the Lord was going to give you a son? [00:35:33] And Elisha said to her, you run down very quickly with my staff to the her house. Find where the son is put it. Find out what he did. He was dead. Elisha followed on quickly. And then it says, he shut them all out. He went into the room and he, it says, expressly laid himself out upon the sun. He prayed. Then he put his mouth to his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, his hands to his hands, his feet to his feet. [00:36:02] And after he'd done this a number of times, three times, it says, the little lad sneezed seven times. [00:36:12] And he went down to the woman, said, is restored. What does this teach us? [00:36:17] It teaches us again the key of Elisha's ministry is resurrection. [00:36:21] It's all resurrection. You see, first of all, this woman was given a son. Then when the Lord's great test came to K, her son was given back in a new way. This is what God does with us. Again. Again. If we're going to belong to such a revenant in days of decline, we have a great desire for the Lord. [00:36:42] We desire and we desire and we desire. It's long beyond possibility. And everything dies within us. And then the Lord gives it to us and then all unwittingly, our hands get onto it again and it has to die. [00:37:01] And how is it given back to us? In an increased way, a new way. It is given back by resurrection again. So you go on to the next story and you find the next story is there's famine in them. By the way, all these stories have trouble at the background. They've all got need as a background. The next one will famine. And they're having to scrape together the food. And someone very foolishly cuts some wild gourds for poisons, pops them into the. Into the big pot, a stew. [00:37:30] And when they're eating it, some of the prophet cries out, there's death in the pot. [00:37:35] Poison it, Elisha, he takes meal, puts it in, and there's no death in the pot. Every picture there of something very, very wonderful, it was rich. And again, when something poisonous has crept in, what is the answer? Meal. What is meal? Meal is grain. It's been ground. [00:38:02] It's a picture of resurrection once more, giving itself life. [00:38:09] Life being given the only counteraction to poison in Israel in that day, there was poison in the pot. [00:38:20] Nationally, the only answer was a little handful of meal. [00:38:28] That's what Elisha, that Shunammite woman, those other faithful few in the land, they were just like the meal. They, in the day of crisis, were keeping the whole country going. They were the salt that was preserving it all. And then Naaman, or you get the. You can go all through these stores, you get the 20 loaves that fed the hundred men. You get Naaman. Here's a man that comes from a far country. He's got leprosy, the white kind's malignant, he's going to die. [00:38:58] But Elisha's got an answer. He says if you dip seven times in the Jordan, you'll be all right. Although Naaman's very angry at the beginning when he dipped seven times in the Jordan. He's all this little remnant have got the answer to foreigners. They've got the answer to the unsaved if the unsaved come to them, well, let the name of the Lord be in disrepute, Let the name of the Lord be dishonor. But Elisha is in the land, and there are others like Elisha in the land there of the faithful few, they've got the answer. And the God of Israel is found in the land with Elisha. [00:39:32] The God of Israel is found in the land, in the land of Elisha. Naaman can come from afar and he can be cured of something which is so malignant that it's going to kill him. [00:39:43] And then, you know when the king of Syria gets really angry and sends his army because he finds out that every time he sends a marauding band down, somehow or other the King of Israel knows. So he says, we've got a splay the court, who is it? [00:40:02] But someone very wisely said, you've got no spy. Elisha tells the King of Israel all that you say in your bedchamber. [00:40:12] So he said, well, then, we'll finish Elisha. And he sends not a few, not a band, but quite a number of divisions of his army to encircle the whole town of Dothan, where Elisha was. Elisha. He woke up in the morning quite calmly, if we follow one reading, he walked out to meet them. [00:40:32] I'm not quite sure just what it means, but he certainly got up. He knew his servant was terrified. [00:40:37] He said, dude, you've seen what's round the city. He didn't have to be asked what they were there for. The servant knew only too well what that army was doing round the city. But Elisha wasn't the term. He said, o Lord, open his eyes. [00:40:54] And when the servant's eyes were opened, he saw that there was another kind of division stationed all around Elisha. [00:41:06] Then it says, according to the word of Elisha, the Lord smote them with blindness. And Elisha leads them divisions of the army of the king of Syria right into the capital. [00:41:18] He says, I'll take you, you've come to the wrong place. I'll take you to the right place, you just follow me. And it says from here in the word that he led them blinded quite docilely, lamb like, they followed Elisha into the capital. [00:41:33] And then it says they suddenly got their sight back, only to find that they got enclosed in the capital of the King of Israel. [00:41:44] But of course, the king of Israel, Jehoram, wants to slay them. But Elisha owed just two of his whole ministry says, you don't slay them, no, you don't slay them. You give them a good meal. [00:41:59] And so it says, king Jehoram gave them a banquet. [00:42:04] And the little word at the end was, they came no more. [00:42:11] That was a way to deal with enemies. [00:42:14] The next story is a very different one, that is, because it would almost seem to be a contradiction, but it's not in chronological sequence. The next story tells again of the Syrians coming into battle, and this time they lay siege to Samaria, and people are eating their own children. The siege is so terrible, and the story goes, that a woman calls out from the walls to King Jehoram. She says, could you do something about this? I and my neighbor made a pact that today we'd eat my son and tomorrow we'd eat hers. [00:42:47] Today we've boiled my son and eaten him, and she's hidden hers. [00:42:53] Could you do something about that? [00:42:55] And it said, the king was so shocked that he went his. And then the people saw for the first time that underneath his king, his royal Galia, he had sackcloth. [00:43:08] But his faith wasn't very strong in the Lord, and he said that he would execute Elisha. He felt that Elisha had failed him. But Elisha said, by this time tomorrow there will be such abundant that there'll be no famine and no drop. [00:43:28] That's exactly what happened. If you read the story, you find that suddenly in the night, the Syrians fled because they heard the sound of an army moving. Who it was, what it was, we don't know, except the Lord did it, and they fled. And they left all their grain, their horses, their treasures, their everything. [00:43:45] And so for one moment, from terrible famine, within a matter of hours, the city was sharing out the spoil. That's the key to Elisha's ministry all the way through its building up, all the way through its constructive, all the way through its resurrection everywhere. Wyatt even recorded that when Elisha died and they laid him to rest in his sepulcher, it says a Moabite band raiding the country came in and they killed a man, and they were burying him. And suddenly they saw the Israelites. And so they very, very hastily flung man's dead body into the tomb of Elisha. And it's as when the dead man's body touched the bones of Elisha, he stood up on his feet. [00:44:30] So there you are. Elisha is so full of the life of God that even when he's dead, the ministry goes on. It is interesting to note that has been said about the kings of Israel and Judah that it's better to have a dead, righteous man than a Live, unrighteous one. When Elisha was already gone, he was still the symbol of resurrection. He was still the symbol that God was able to do something amongst his people. So we learn from that ministry of Elisha some very real lessons. Now, all that takes us right through to the ninth chapter of 2 Kings, when we come to Jehoram, Jehoram of Israel. And by the way, you notice that here you've got two men of the same name, Jehoram and Jehoram. They don't. They're nothing to do with each other. They just happen to have the same name, which is rather confusing for us. The Jehoram of Israel is an evil man. He was assassinated by Jehu, who was, or Jehu, who was an army man. Jehu was the commander of the army council, as far as we can make out. And he slew Jehoram. And he also slew Ahaziah. [00:46:06] You can read the story of that, exactly how it happened. [00:46:10] When we come to Jehoram to Ahaziah of Judah, we find both of them are evil. Jehoshaphat married Jehoram to Athaliah. [00:46:22] Her influence was evil. He introduced BAAL worship into Judah. [00:46:29] He died. Ahaziah's son took over. Ahaziah was killed by Jehu, and Athaliah came to the throne. [00:46:39] The first thing that Athaliah did when she came to the throne was to murder every single person of the royal house. She did not leave a single one alive. No one quite knows why she did it, but she did it. It was a bloodbath. And the whole of Jerusalem ran with blood. [00:47:02] But there was one child of nine months of age who was saved by his aunt, who happened to be the wife of the high priest. And she stole him away with his nurse and hid him in the temple. [00:47:17] And that child was kept alive, nurtured, and brought up in the temple without anyone knowing about it except the temple priests. For six years on that one little baby. The whole purpose of God depended if that child had died. The messianic line died with him. But that little child, kept alive by the Levites and the priests in the temple, brought up secretly, was the hope of God and the hope of the people of God. That is a wonderful story. How in the end they guarded in those days, they guarded Joash until at last they came to the coronation. And they very secretly laid preparation for a coronation. And then at last, when the coronation day came, Athaliah heard all the trumpets and the shouting and the cheering. You know the story, how she walked to the house of God and saw the king crowned there. He was only seven years of age, but she saw him there on the platform, crowned. Before she could say anything, she was hustled out and executed. The one great attempt of Satan to destroy the royal house and the line by which the Messiah should come was wonderfully, wonderfully thwarted by the spirit of God through that little tiny group, just a little remnant of people who remained faithful. [00:48:50] When you come to these others, for instance, Jehu, you find that this man, and here's the big lesson in Jehu, he was a man who was intensely evil, but he believed in doing the Lord's work. [00:49:10] Zeal without the life and character is no good to God. [00:49:16] Jehu did the Lord's work. He carried out the Lord's work to a. To a letter. Indeed, he exceeded it far, but his was not backed up by a character. Jehu's reign was a terrible blood pass. You've only got to read it. First of all, as you know, he murdered Ahab. Then he murdered the king of Judah who was visiting Jehoram. He murdered both of them one day. Then he murdered Jezebel. Probably you don't want to hear the story of how he murdered Jezebel. It's too terrible for words. Then he murdered the 70 sons of Ahab, 70 royal princes. He had their heads all cut off at once and put into a mound outside. [00:50:03] Then he proclaimed he met 42 of the princes of Judah and slew them when they came to visit royal supporters. [00:50:16] And the worst thing of all with Jehu was when some people, by the way, believe this is right. I don't. He proclaimed a fast and a great festal day for baal. And he said, if Ahab was a BAAL worshipper, I am much more so. And he said, let all the BAAL worshipers in the land gather together all the leaders the BAAL wash and we will have a great festal day in the house of BAAL and Samara. So they all came. The place was packed to capacity. He said to everyone that be given garments that they could be easily distinguished from everyone else in the town. All dressed beautifully. He offered a burnt offering in the name of baal. But he'd already put the guards right way round the whole house when he offered up the burnt offering. A massacre began and every one of the BAAL worshiper leaders of the BAAL worship in Israel was murdered. Now even the prophets spoke against that. It was doing the Lord's work in a wrong way. [00:51:23] He was remembered long after for what he did in Jerusalem. He not only wiped out the royal house of Ahab, but he wiped out every single man known to have any sympathy whatsoever or any distant connection or relationship to Ahab or to Jehoram. [00:51:43] Each assassination and each change of dynasty here had been worse than the one perceived. So I think we'll leave it there tonight with Jehu, that he certainly wiped out BAAL worship. But what did he introduce? [00:52:03] He introduced what he called the worship of Jehovah. But his worship of Jehovah was nothing more than a terrible caricature of the real thing. [00:52:15] And it was the curse of the kingdom of Israel till the day that it was carried away captive. [00:52:25] Joash, on the other hand, that young king carried out very real reformation. He rebuilt part of the house of God, he cleaned out much of the rubbish, tried to do as much as he could, all the days that the man who brought him up, Jehoiada, the high priest, lived. But when Jehoiada died, Joash turned back and his last days. We're not happy. We learn some lessons then. I know it's rather a lot trying to cover a lot of ground. Maybe there's not a lot of lessons we can draw out until we come right to the end of it all and we look back and we can draw out some big lessons that underlie it all. But I do trust that at least gives some kind of background to your understanding of those books.