1 Transcription of 20ID3363 2 Kings 8-10 “Ahab Had a Great Fall

Transcription of 20ID3363 2 Kings 8-10 “Ahab Had a Great Fall” August 19, 2020 So let’s open our Bibles tonight to 2 Kings 8, as we continue our study through the historical books of the Old Testament, and we have been going through them chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse. They are written in narrative style, and we’ve told you many times that narrative is a telling of a story that the best way to learn is to place yourself in with the people of the story and then just stand there and say, “What would I do?” And, “If the Lord spoke to me, how would I respond?” It is a lot of verses that we cover because it is a narrative, it is a story. Sometimes we wish we had more of the story, but this is what God has given us to grow by, and so this is what we want to learn well. And we will continue that tonight in chapters 8, 9 and 10. If you were with us when we were in person here in the sanctuary, we handed out to you a list; they look kind of like this, of the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel. They’re important to have because when the kingdom split in two, there were kings of the north and kings of the south. Israel was called Israel in the north only; in the south, they were called Judah. The northern kingdom, at the death of Solomon in 931 B.C., would last about 209 years before the Assyrians would come in and overthrow the north. The north never had a good king. They were in rebellion against God from day one. In the south, called Judah, they would last until 606 B.C., and then the LORD would bring the Babylonians in to take them into captivity for seventy years because of idolatry and disobedience. But the south would be returned back to their land after seventy years, as God had promised. The north would no longer be allowed to exist in that form. And once they were captured, they would have to go back – if they survived it – to the south to be where God had put His name. So if you have these charts with you, dig them out for tonight. It’ll kind of help you to follow along. I’ll refer to them a couple of times. If you don’t have one, if you go to our Archive page, there is a link there that you can click, and you can actually print these out for yourself, and they’d be good for you to have. We are currently in the reign of a fellow named Jehoram in the northern kingdom; he reigned from 852-841 B.C. He was one of the sons of Ahab. He followed his brother, Ahaziah, to the throne. In the south, in Judah, during that time, 1 Jehoshaphat was reigning, and he would be followed by his wicked son, interestingly also called Jehoram. But we’ll get to that in the next little while. In the last several chapters, the LORD has had us focusing on the ministry of Elisha. First Elijah and then Elisha, both of them prophets to the northern kingdom, that kingdom of ten tribes – aside from Judah and about half the tribe of Benjamin – who were in rebellion against God But the LORD continued to love them, to reach out to them. He wanted to bring them to Himself. And so we’ve been looking at that ministry of God’s goodness. Elijah had lots of miracles in his life, but they were mostly judgment; they spoke of God’s anger and His dissatisfaction with the unbelief of the people, their idolatry and disobedience and all. When Elisha took over his ministry (in chapter 2), his ministry was very personal, it was very much the mercy and the goodness of God. Rather than to the nation as a whole, God individually began to show His goodness towards those who believed in Him and then to those who did not so that they might turn from their wicked ways. Unfortunately, very few did. But in the last several weeks, as we’ve been looking at Elisha, we saw him healing a poisoned water well in Jericho; sending some lions after forty-two very extremely disrespectful kids who called him bald-headed (so I can relate to that); ministering to a widow of the prophets who was destitute with her two sons; the miracle of the oil that was filling the jars (as you might remember if you were with us); he raised a Shunammite son from the dead; he healed a pot of stew that the prophet students were eating there in Gilgal; he touched the commander of a Syrian army who had leprosy, that the LORD miraculously healed; he had an ax head float as the prophets were building a new school, as they were expanding their facilities. And even just back a little bit down the road, King Jehoram in the north, when he decided to attack from the north, God told Jehoram where the Syrians were hiding that were out to get him (the attackers from even further north), and God spared his life time and time again. And yet, when the attack finally came publicly, rather than kind of hit squads, it was this king that, rather than thanking God for protecting his life, turned on Elisha and sought to kill him but instead was given a prophecy of how, in one day, God was going to deliver the nation of Israel in the north to show them His power. And so you might remember that Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, who had seen his military leader healed by the LORD, first had sent out ambushes to kill King Jehoram. Those hadn’t worked because Elisha kept tipping him off. And then, when he sent this army against them, they were locked down in the city, it looked like all was lost there in Samaria. But God had a way of 2 delivering them, and while they were angry with Elisha, like he had brought this upon them, God brought a deliverer that night to the city. In fact, the noise of some attacking army entered into the ears of the Syrian troops, and they decided they would go and fight there, and they left the city unguarded, if you will; whereas they were locked down and even eating their own flesh. They were ready to die. There were four lepers who, outside of the walls, found the camp of the Syrians, ate, and took spoils before realizing, “Gosh, we’ve got to go tell the city.” And when they went in to tell the city of the deliverance, even then King Jehoram refused to believe it; sent some other people out; and even when he saw the deliverance of God, he refused to repent. So a lot of these stories – at least what we’ve read so far, lately anyway – have been God’s willingness to just reach out to the unbeliever, reach out to the saints, reach out to His nation, reach out to the heathen; just everything He could do to make Himself known. And yet the response has been sparse and so often so inconsistent. Well tonight we get to an interesting couple of chapters that I think you should know well – chapters 8, 9 and 10. There’re about 100 verses, so it’s always good that you read ahead before Wednesday night, especially while we’re going through historical portions which use a lot of words and lay out for us the story. And we’re going to look at the ministry of Elisha and the judgment of God against King Ahab, once and for all. And God will take out, completely, everyone that belonged to Ahab’s family and even those in the south who were friends with Ahab in the north who allowed some of the worship of Baal that Ahab had brought into the north to be drawn to the south. And God really wipes out that whole connection with Baal worship and with the life and the influence of Ahab. So tonight, in chapters 8, 9 and 10, God is going to raise up a fellow named Jehu. He is going to establish him in the north as a king of Israel. You can find him on your list there under Jehoram, and he is going to rule for twenty-eight years; he’s going to be a very wicked king. In fact, the end of his life, Jehu, I’m pretty sure that by the time you read what he has done and where he has gone, you’ll say to yourself, “Gosh, maybe he never made it with the LORD,” and there’s certainly no indication in the Bible that he did. But he did do what the LORD gave him to do as far as his bringing God’s judgment upon a family that had led so many of His people astray; when the hammer falls on the house of Ahab, they had a great fall. But when that is finished, God will reward Jehu with allowing four of his sons to reign 3 upon the throne (you can see that in your printout as well). And then the LORD will deal with Jehu’s wickedness and his family’s wickedness against the things of God. So tonight God’s judgment upon a house that He had declared judgment for years earlier, and we’re going to see how God keeps His Word, is faithful to what He tells us, He is merciful, and He’s gracious.

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