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The Life of Elijah - Week 10

The Life of Elijah - Week 10

September 01, 2002 | Andy Davis
1 Kings 20:1-21:19
Judgment

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on 1 Kings 20:1-19. The main subject of the sermon is the war between Israel and Syria during Ahab's rule.

             

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

Well we're going to begin actually with the call of Elisha. Now, I touched on this last time, but I think there's still some things that it's worth our study, and that's at the end of 1 Kings chapter 19. Now, we remember that Elijah, the prophet had really reached the end of the rope in one sense. He had stood up in a mighty way and proclaimed the word of God to people who did not want to hear. He had proclaimed it boldly and courageously and God had used him in a supernatural way to bring down fire and consume the sacrifice and the altar, and burn up even the earth around it. And never again since then has the Lord listened to the voice of a man in that same way. And God is always doing new things. And certainly, he listened to the voice of his son in more dramatic ways, but that was an incredible moment in redemptive history. And after that, he prayed seven times. And God heard his prayer and sent rain on the land for the first time in three and a half years.

But after all of that, it seems that Elijah lost his focus. He somehow lost courage. He lost his focus on God. And when he heard that Jezebel had determined to put him to death, he fled for his life into the desert as you remember. And so he ran, and he was exhausted. He wanted to die, and the Lord sent an angel and ministered to his body, and gave him some bread and a jar of water to drink and he went back to sleep, and then he woke up again and gave him some more food. And on the strength of that, he managed to get to Mount Horeb. He went up on Mount Horeb, the very place where God had met with Moses in an amazing way, and he was up in the cave of Mount Horeb, and he reiterated his desire to die. He's had enough. He's had enough ministry. He's had enough of everything and he wants to be finished. The Lord speaks to him and appears to him in a marvelous way. He doesn't appear in the storm or in the whirlwind or in the earthquake, but he appears in a still small voice and speaks to Elijah.

Now, Elijah's complaint at that point had been that he alone was left, that everybody's been slaughtered and he's the only person that's left to minister. And God's response to him was, "No not at all, but I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to bail." And he also tells him that he's got a future for the political situation, and that's what we're going to look at tonight to some degree. King Ahab will not go on forever, but King Ahab will eventually die for his sins. The strange thing about 1 Kings 20 is he doesn't die in that chapter. You’d think that Ben-Hadad's invasion would be enough to topple this evil king, but if anything, it shocks us in that God supports King Ahab. He sends a prophet to promise him victory, and he gives him a great victory. And not just one, but two great victories over Ben-Hadad. And you just want to throw up your hands and say, "God, what are you doing?" It doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that God would do, but God has his own ways and we're going to study that.

But one of the things that he does to support Elijah is give him a helper, and his name is Elisha. He's going to call a successor, and Elisha's going to come alongside, and he is going to help him in his ministry. And so we begin at 1 Kings 19:19, “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,’ he said,’ and I will come with you.’ ‘Go back,’ Elijah replied. ‘What have I done to you?’ So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his [attendant] servant.” 

Here, we see the call of Elisha, and it's a very significant thing. Elijah communicates the call in an unusual way. He takes off his cloak, and he puts it on Elisha's shoulders. Now, you've heard about picking up someone's mantle. It means to carry on after them the work that they've done. Well, that comes straight out of the Bible. And later on, we're going to see this cloak as a significant symbol of the transfer of the prophetic ministry from Elijah to Elisha. Take a minute and look over at 2 Kings chapter two. Now, this is going ahead to the end of our story, but we're going to see the cloak again in 2 Kings two. The time comes for Elijah to be taken up to heaven, and he crosses the river. And as he's crossing the river, Elijah takes his cloak and rolls it up and smacks the river with his cloak. And the river separates. It parts, and he walks across as Moses and the Israelites did at the Red Sea, or as Joshua did crossing the River Jordan, and they entered the promised Land.

Well, now here's this one man, this single prophet and he takes this cloak, and he smacks it, and the river separates. And they cross on dry ground in verse eight. “And when they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what I can do for you before I am taken from you?’ ‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied. ’You have asked a difficult thing,’ Elisha said, ’Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.’” As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, ‘My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ and Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own garment and tore it in two.” Now in verse 13,” Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and he struck the water with it. ‘Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?’ he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. The company of the prophets from Jericho, who are watching, said, ‘The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.’ And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.”

So, that cloak becomes a symbol of Elijah's prophetic ministry. And in rolling it up and hitting the water with it he shows that the power, that double portion of the spirit, the very thing he had asked for, had indeed been transferred to Elisha. And Elisha does amazing miracles just as Elijah had. But the cloak represents the prophetic ministry. Back in 1 Kings 19 as Elijah comes to call Elisha to the prophetic ministry, he places his cloak on him. Elisha understood right away what this meant, didn't he? He knew right away. I mean it was an amazing thing. These prophets in first and second Kings just seem to know things that no one else does, right? They understand it's not just, "Oh, thanks, that's a nice looking cloak. Well, I appreciate that. I needed a new cloak." It wasn't that at all. He knew this meant a transfer of the prophetic ministry ultimately that he was going to be Elijah's right hand man, but he had the problem of 12 yoke of oxen.

Now, that's not an insignificant number of oxen. He's got to deal with his business affairs. Now, I'm reminded of the preaching I did recently in Matthew chapter eight, where Jesus challenges someone to follow and he says, "Lord, first let me bury my father." And he says, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." But this seemed to be a different situation. He wants to at least greet his parents and tell them where he is going, and then deal with the oxen. And so, what does he do with the oxen? Well, he slaughters them all and he uses the wood to burn them. And then he cooks the meat and gives it to everyone around. It's basically like a farewell party, similar to the feast that was at Matthew's house. It was a time for his calling. It was a time of celebration and everyone feasted on these oxen. To some degree, I'm reminded of the example I used of Cortes burning his ships. There's nothing left. He's burned his 12 yoke of oxen. He has in no way put his hand to the plow and look back. Says in Luke 9:62, Jesus said, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God." Well, he burned his bridge. He burned the yoke of oxen, and it was finished. He was ready now to follow and to serve the Lord.

Recently, I got a prayer letter from the man who discipled me when I was first a Christian. His name was Tim Schumann. At the top of the letter, it says, "The deed to my life." This is a very interesting document. And it said this, "On this day, I relinquish all the rights of my life to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I acknowledge that my life is not my own and I choose instead to live every day as a slave of Jesus. I surrender fully to him as best I know how, every possession, relationship, ambition and desire. As one who is crucified with Christ, I hereby choose to follow wherever he would lead and to live for him and his glory." Now if you can sign a document like that, that's akin to what Elisha did. He burned the yoke of oxen, and he said, "I'm going to follow the Lord. I'm going to follow him wherever he leads." And so in the New Covenant, we understand that Jesus comes and makes this kind of claim. Well, where did this come from? Well, this is actually a statement that led Bill and Vonette Bright, 52 years ago to commit their lives to the Lord. Over 50 years ago, Bill Bright and his wife Vonette signed this document and a short time thereafter, God gave them the vision for Campus Crusade for Christ. And they've lived out their commitment to the Lord, this serious commitment, a covenant, a deed to their life having been signed over to Jesus Christ, fully committed to follow Jesus wherever he led.

Now, I find this challenging. Am I willing to follow Christ wherever he leads? Am I willing to say, "Wherever you go, wherever you lead, I will go. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do"? I was thinking this morning about what I preached, and Jesus being so available to the will of the Father all the time. He didn't seem to have a personal will for the day. You know what I'm saying? It was whatever the Father wanted him to do, whatever needs came his way, he got up and met them. “Immediately, I will go and heal him all the time.” A need comes, and he gets up and ministers all the time. And he ministers according to the power of God and according to the will of God, but it seemed as though he had no personal will of his own, except to do the will of his father. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work." Now, that challenges me. Have you made that kind of a commitment to Jesus Christ? Have you burned your yoke of oxen? Have you said goodbye to an old way of life and said, "I'm following Jesus no matter where he leads"? And he's going to lead exciting places. You look at Elisha, and the things that God led him into. It's incredibly exciting and thrilling to follow the Lord, but he demands it all, doesn't he? And so we have the call of Elisha.

Now as we look at chapter 20, we are looking at some history here. And I haven't really known how to attack this chapter. Now, you know I'm a verse-by-verse expositor, but the problem is there's no Elijah in this chapter, and we've got 42 or 43 verses to get through. So I've decided what I'll do is give you a summary of the history of what's going on in this chapter, rather than going verse by verse. Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram and it says in verse one that he mustered his entire army, and accompanied by 32 kings with their horses and chariots. He went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it.

Now, Samaria of course is the northern kingdom of Israel. It's another name for Israel. He goes and he attacks this wicked, this evil King Ahab. He sent messengers to the City of Ahab, King of Israel saying... this is what Ben-Hadad says, look at verse three. "Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine." Now, there's a challenge. “The King of Israel answered, ‘Just as you say, my lord the king. I and all I have are yours.’” What a wimp. I mean this guy is weak. He has no strength. He has no courage. Later, other kings are going to take a challenge like that like Hezekiah and bring it before the Lord. You're going to spread out a wicked evil letter like this to the Lord, and they're going to say, "God show yourself powerful and strong, defend your people," but Ahab has no strength like that. He says, "Whatever you say. Go ahead come and take it." I wondered before what Jezebel felt about that. "The best of your wives are mine," I don't know if he thought that she was included. I don't know if he was hoping that she would get hauled off at that point or what happened. It probably would've been an improvement in Israel. But at any rate, he says, "Whatever you want." But then in verse five, the messengers come again and say, "Well this is what Ben-Hadad says. I sense to demand your silver and gold, your wives and your children, but above this time tomorrow, I'm going to send my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. And they'll seize everything you value and carry it away." Now this reminds me very much of how the devil works, all right? Give an inch, he'll take a mile, right? You yield for a second, and he'll take it all.

You can't argue with people like this. I mean you can't do anything, but stand firm and say, "No, not an inch." And at this point, he realizes what he's up against. Might as well fight, and that's what he says. The King of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and says, "See how this man is looking for trouble. When he sent for my wives and my children, my silver, my gold, I did not refuse him." The elders and the people answered, "Do not listen to him or agree to his demands." He replied to Ben-Hadad's messengers, "Tell my Lord, the king, your servant will do all you demanded the first time, but this demand, I cannot meet." They left and took the answer back to Ben-Hadad. Then Ben-Hadad sent another messenger to Ahab, "May the God's be with me, be it ever so severely. If enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful. I'm going to destroy you completely, so get ready for battle." The King of Israel answered, "Tell him..." I love this line. It's Ahab's best line in the whole Bible. "One who puts on his armor should not boast like the one who takes it off." All right? It's basically saying, "Let's go ahead and fight, because there's nothing else left for it." Don't boast before the victory's over.

Now in verse 13, a prophet comes to Ahab, King of Israel and announces, "This is what the Lord says. Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today. Then you will know that I am the Lord." Now that is shocking, isn't it? When you stop and think about it, the prophet of the Lord comes. Now, I think it's interesting that we don't know who this prophet is. And throughout chapter 20, prophets come in minister to King Ahab, but their name is not Elijah. And so it underscores again what the Lord said. “You're not alone, Elijah. There are other people of God here ministering. You're never alone.” And so this prophet, an unnamed prophet of God, comes and gives him this message from the Lord. And he says, "God is going to hand this vast army over to you."

Now in Romans chapter 11, it says there that God's paths are beyond tracing out. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?’ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." We cannot trace out what God is doing. It seems to us, as we read that Ahab, evil wicked King Ahab, is ripe for judgment. We already know from what God prophesied to Elijah in the cave that he will be judged for his sins, just not yet.

Now the question is why? Why doesn't he give Israel over into the hands of this King of Arab, Ben-Hadad? Well, there's different ways to look at. First of all, if you look at Daniel chapter two, you don't have to turn there. But listen, after Daniel gets the vision of the statue from Nebuchadnezzar, you remember that as I preached about it several years ago, Daniel had a worship time after he understood. And the statue represented the rise and fall of one kingdom or empire after another, from the head of gold through the chest and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron, down to the feet of clay, it represented human history as one king after another rose and fell. And once Daniel understood that, he praised the Lord and he said this, "Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes sets up kings and raises up others." And he does it in his own way. We can't trace out what he's doing. If you look at the history of World War II, you might have thought maybe in 1941 that God was being incredibly good to Adolph Hitler, as he had been successful everywhere that he turned. Once he invaded Russia, he was just rolling their armies back. And it seemed that everywhere he went, it was nothing, but success. How could it be? How could the enemies of an evil man be given into his hands so easily? God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and we can't trace out what he's doing.

And so this messenger, this prophet comes to Ahab and says that, "God is going to give this vast army into your hands, and then you will know that I am the Lord." That's an interesting thing, because he's never going to know that he's the Lord. There's evidence, isn't there? There's certainly plenty of evidence to the ministry of Elijah, the drought three and a half years, and then the miraculous rain, the fire from heaven. There's been plenty of evidence. Also, this victory over this vast army will be evidence, but I think there's something deeper going on. Remember, how God said to Elijah, “I have reserved myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to bail?” Could it be they hadn't been converted yet? Could it be that if the king of a sweeps through at this particular moment, they'll be slaughtered? The Lord is patient, not wanting any of us to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. He's giving time for the ministry to occur.


"The Lord is patient, not wanting any of us to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

And so he gives the vast army into the hands of a wicked king. "Who will do this?" verse 14 says. The prophet said, "This is what the Lord says, ‘the young officers of the provincial commanders will do it.’" "And who will start the battle?" he asked. The prophet answered, "You will." So in verse 15, Ahab summoned in the young officers of the provincial commanders, 232 men and he assembled the rest of the Israelites, 7,000 in all. They set out at noon, while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings aligned with him were in their tents getting drunk. The young officers of the provincial commanders went out first. Now, Ben-Hadad had dispatched scouts who reported men are advancing from Samaria. He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive. If they've come out for war, take them alive." Now this is a terrible commander here. All his guys are drunk, and an arm's advancing and he says, "Go do something about it. Take them." And he said, "If they've come out for war, take them alive." The young officers of the provincial commanders marched out of the city with the army behind them, and each one struck down his opponent.

At that, the Arameans fled with the Israelites in pursuit, but Ben-Hadad, King of Aram, escaped on horseback with some of his horseman. The King of Israel advanced and overpowered the horses and chariots, and inflicted heavy losses on the Arameans. The word that the prophet had spoken and come true. Evil King Ahab had marched out with a relatively small army, and had conquered the army of 32 kings, plus that of Ben-Hadad. It's an amazing miracle, and it's done for only God's purposes. In verse 22 after where the prophet came to the King of Israel and said, "Strengthen your position and see what must be done because next spring, the King of Aram will attack you again." Again, see the grace of the Lord. He's preparing him for yet another battle. He's giving him wisdom. He's saying, "Get ready because it's coming again, and you need to get yourself ready." Meanwhile, the officers of the king of Aram advised him, "The gods, their gods are the gods of the hills. This is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the planes, surely we'll be stronger than they." And I'll stop right there. I believe that's the key to the whole thing. I really do. Do you really think that God is elevating and blessing King Ahab? Do you think not rather that he is elevating and blessing his own holy name?

And he says, "These Arameans think that I don't fight well in the planes, or I don't fight well in the hills. Just watch and see what I can do." God is extremely zealous for the glory of his own name. One of the most striking verses that I've ever come across in this. If you take a minute, look at Deuteronomy 32:26 and 27. And I think it explains some of first King's 20 if we really can understand what he says there. But in Deuteronomy 32:26 and 27, this is the song of Moses, one of the most striking chapters in the entire Bible. And in the song of Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy before Israel comes and takes the promise land, basically this song is taught to Israel, which prophesies everything that's going to happen, predicts all of what's going to happen, including Israel's eventual exile because of their failure to keep the covenant. It's all in the song. And you know how songs are easy to memorize. You sing a song, you taught it from your youth, and you can remember. All of it's predicted ahead of time. Said, "You are a nation without sense, and you're going to turn away from your true God. And you're going to be evicted."

But there's something interesting right in the middle of the song of Moses. In verse 26 and 27, he's speaking of his own people. He's speaking of the Jews and he says, "I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind," verse 27, "but I dreaded the taut of the enemy, less the adversary misunderstand and say our hand has triumphed, the Lord has not done all this." Now this is a stunning verse. It's the only verse in the entire Bible that I can find where God expresses fear or dread concerning himself. And I looked up the word in the Hebrew and every other place that has to do with fear or dread. Now, God doesn't fear anything, but he's accommodating his language to us, so we might understand something very significant about him. And that is he is extremely zealous for the glory of his own name, and things are done in a certain order, so that everyone may see who he is and what kind of power he has, and that the enemies of Israel might not misunderstand and think, “We have done this, because we are powerful militarily.” It's not that at all, but rather, God has given his people over, because of their sins. Look at that verse again, "I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, less the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed. The Lord has done all this.’" He didn't want them to misunderstand. If you look at 1 Kings 20 verse 23, look what the officials of the king of Aram say, "Their gods are gods of the hills.” “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plane, surely we will be stronger than they." Could this not be the secret to the whole thing?

Look down at verse 28. Actually, I'm going to go back a little bit to set the stage, and then you'll understand. Verse 26, it says, "The next spring, Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them. [Listen], like two small flocks of goats while the Arameans covered the countryside." The tiny little army, little flocks of goats and there's the Arameans more than you can count. They just blacken the hills with their military power. It seems very, very plain who's going to win this battle, until you understand what's in the heart of the Lord. Look at verse 28, "The man of God," that's the prophet, "came up and told the King of Israel," that's wicked King Ahab, "This is what the Lord says. Because the Arameans think the Lord is a God of the hills and not a God of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands. And you will know that I am the Lord." That gives us an insight into the heart of God. He cannot let this Arameans army win thinking it's because he's not good at fighting on the planes. "I can fight anywhere," said God. "I'm a mighty warrior. I am undefeated in what I try to do. I act, and no one can reverse it. When my hand is stretched out, no one can turn it back. Do you understand who I am? I am the God who created heaven and earth, and I am the God who will take this physical universe and wrap it up like a garment, throw it into a hamper, and make a new heaven a new earth. You understand who I am? Heaven, even the highest heavens can't contain me. And so you will lose tomorrow to this tiny little two flocks of goats, because I say so." That's the power of God.

So, that gives us the motive. And I think if we look through in 1 King's 20, I think verse 28 is the key to the whole thing. God is exalting his own name and his own glory. Verse 29, "For seven days they camped opposite each other and on the seventh day, the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted 100,000 casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day. The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on 27,000 of them. And Ben-Hadad fled to the city and hid in an upper room." Now at that point, a prophet confronts wicked King Ahab, because he allowed this man, Ben-Hadad to escape. Wearing sack cloth, verse 32, around their waist and ropes around their heads, they went to the King of Israel and says, "Your servant Ben-Hadad says please let me live." The king answer, "Is he still alive? He's my brother." I'll tell you something, King Ahab is always out of step with God, isn’t he? No matter what's going on, he didn't understand. He was ready to capitulate right from the beginning to Ben-Hadad. It was only when he realized that he wouldn't gain anything, but might as well fight that he was willing to make a stand. And now at this point, once the battle's over, this wicked king of the Arameans who should be destroyed says, "Is there any way I can affect an escape here? Is there any way you can be gracious and merciful?" He said, "You're my brother. Let's eat together, let's be friends." Probably he had more in common with Ben-Hadad than he had with Elijah.

And he said, "He's my brother." Verse 33, the men took this as a good sign, and they were quick to pick up his word. "Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad," they said. "Go get him," said the king. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot. "I will return the cities my father took from your father," Ben-Hadad offered. "You may set up your own market areas in Damascus as my father did in Samaria." And Ahab said, "On the basis of a treat, I will set you free. I made a treaty with him, and let him go." Unbelievable, completely out of step with what God's doing. A prophet of God comes along, again unnamed, unnamed. Now, we're going to get in a minute to what I think Elijah and Elisha were doing all this time, but this prophet comes up. And verse 35, by the word of the Lord, one of the sons of the prophets said to his companions, "Strike me with your weapon. Wound me with your sword basically. Poke me. Give me a wound," but the man refused. Now listen, so the prophet said, "Because you have not obeyed the Lord, as soon as you leave me, a lion will kill you." And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him. Stop right there. Do you realize that the wages of sin is death? Do you understand that? Do you realize that God doesn't owe you as a sinner another day of life on earth? You realize that? The wages of sin is death and we can never say, "Well, I didn't know. I always thought I'd have more time to repent. I'd have more time.” God doesn't owe us sinner anything. And when God speaks, we need to obey. This challenges me because my obedience isn't what it should be. Is yours? Do you realize that when God commands, we need to obey all the way, right away, with a happy spirit everything he says? Well, this man wouldn't wound the prophet, and so God killed him with a lion. That's striking to me, isn't it? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And yet, I cling to one verse, Psalm 103 verse 10. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities." Amen?

We have to keep them both there. The wages of sin is death. We don't deserve another day as sinners. Thank you, Herbert. Preach, yes, encourage me please. Yes, he does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our inequities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. And so, the second man, the prophet finds another man and says, "Strike me please." So, the man struck him. Now, that was wise. Now, I don't know if he had heard about the lion, but this time, he said, "Okay, I'll do what you say." And he struck him, and he gave him a wound. When the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king, he disguised himself with his headman down over his eyes. As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, "Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he's missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’ While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared." "That is your sentence," the King of Israel said. You've pronounced it yourself. Then the prophet quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the King of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. He said to the king, "This is what the Lord says, “You have set free a man I had determined should die."

Now, the word is “herem”. “I had given him over to destruction. I had given him over to be destroyed.” Just like the city of Jericho was herem, it was given over completely for destruction. “So this man, Ben-Hadad was meant to be destroyed and you didn't do it. I had determined that he should die and therefore, it is your life for his life, your people for his people.” Boy, is that striking? “You didn't obey me, and so therefore you will die.” Verse 43, "Sullen and angry, the King of Israel went to his palace in Samaria." Now, that's first King's 20. What's going on here? It's the sovereignty of God. I think that he's giving room for the Word of God to spread through Samaria through Israel, so that those 7,000 would come to faith in the eternal God. But I think also that Elijah and Elisha were busy during this time. What were they doing? Well, I think they were setting up schools of prophets. Now, you have to read between the lines for this, but they were setting up basically seminaries where people could be trained to proclaim the Word of the Lord. Now, we already have some indication of this in the chapter we've looked at. One of the prophets or one of the sons of the prophets said, "Strike me with your weapon." So there's this group of prophets that we have. But you know that in Samuel's day, there was a school of the prophets. Remember, the prophets were prophesying all the time? And Saul went and suddenly, the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he began to prophesy. And they said, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" So there was this group of prophets in Samuel's Day. You remember that the same thing happened when Saul sent men to capture David. In 1 Samuel 19, word came to Saul, David is in Naioth at Ramah. So he sent men to capture him. And when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came up on Saul's men. And they also prophesied. Saul was told about it, and he sent more men and they also prophesied. Then Saul went himself, and he prophesied.

So there was this group of prophets, this school of prophets in Samuel's Day. Well, we get the same thing I think in Elijah and Elisha's Day. In 2 Kings, turnover there, we're just there a minute ago. But in 2 King's chapter two, verse three and five, right before Elijah is taken up to heaven, you see there, it says, the company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, "Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," Elisha replied, "but do not speak of it." Verse four, 2 Kings two verse four. Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here Elisha. The Lord has sent me to Jericho," and he replied, "As surely as the Lord lives and you live, I will not leave you." And so they went to Jericho, verse five. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," he replied, "but do not speak of it." So we've got a company of prophets at Bethel, and then we've got a company of prophets at Jericho. I think that Elijah and Elisha were not idol during this time, but they were going around basically witnessing and evangelizing in the name of the Lord, God of Israel, setting up schools of prophets. And these were the very ones who understood that Elijah would soon be taken from Elisha.

And so 1 Kings, chapter 20. Now as we end in verse 43, we have the King Ahab, sullen and angry. And he goes to his palace in Samaria. And in chapter 21, we have the account of Naboth's vineyard. Sometime later, it says there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth, the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the Palace of Ahab, King of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden since it is close to my palace. In exchange, I will give you a better vineyard, or if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it's worth," but Naboth replied, "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my father's." Now stop there. What's going on here is that this sullen, evil king really upset at the word of the Lord that he's going to die, but I don't know that he really believes it, tries to cheer himself up by stealing Naboth's vineyard. Now, here's how it works. In one sense, it's a fair exchange. He says, "Listen, I want your vineyard. I want your land for a vegetable garden for myself. I like it. It's pretty." Well, what's going on here? Well, it's nothing less than covetousness. He sees it. He likes it. He wants it. This is the whole problem with kings is that they think they can take what they want. Exodus 20 verse 17 says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not your neighbor's wife, or his man servant or maid servant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor, and yet this man has set his heart on Naboth's vineyard. 

Now, what's going on there? I think at the root of covetousness is a failure to be content with God, and with what he's provided for you, right? God has given you this. He's given you himself. He's given you salvation in Christ, and then he's given you some earthly possessions, and some blessings along the way to bless and strengthen you and your life in ministry here. Is it enough for you? Are you satisfied with what God's given you? Are you satisfied with your spouse? Satisfied with your children? Satisfied with your possessions? Satisfied with your job and your lifestyle? Is it enough for you? Because covetousness is a form of idolatry, isn't it? It's a form of saying, "I'm not satisfied with God. I want more. I've got to have something else than this. God is not enough for me." Well, it shouldn't surprise us that Ahab had a covetous heart, because there was no God in him at all. He had no desire, no hunger for God, but really was living in this world. Naboth's Vineyard was just another thing to desire. It seemed to him reasonable that he as the king should he really could just take it. I think he believes that. And as a matter of fact, Jezebel in a moment's going to say, "What's the matter with you? You're king, take it. If you want, it take it." But he says, "Listen, I'm offering a fair exchange. I'll give you some money for it. I'll give you what it's worth and money, or I'll give you a vineyard, a better one." 


"I think at the root of covetousness is a failure to be content with God, and with what he's provided for you"

And Naboth responds properly. You see, Naboth was actually not free to sell. You may not understand this, but Naboth lived in the promised land. And the land he had gotten, he had gotten by allotment from his ancestors traced back to the book of Joshua, when the land was divided up by lot. In numbers 36 verse seven through nine, it says, "No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers. Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father's tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land that it inherits." And so he was not free to trade that land. He was not free to sell it. He said, "I can't." look at his answer in verse three. Naboth replied, "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my father's." What a wonderful response. The Word of God is above the word of kings. The word of God is above the word of kings. And so he will not trade his land. 


"The Word of God is above the word of kings."

What does Ahab do? Ahab went home sullen and angry. Have you heard that before? What is it with this man? He's not content. I think the demons are not content. They roam to and fro looking for a place to rest, don't they? The devil is roaming to and fro looking for someone to attack, right? And so this man is restless. The evil are restless, stirred up like waves churning all the time. He doesn't have what he wants. He wants his vineyard, and he goes home sullen and angry because Naboth, the Jezreelite had said I will not give you the inheritance of my father's. And so he lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. I have no respect for this man. None. He is a weak, evil man and he's laying there and won't eat his dinner. His wife Jezebel comes in to give him some backbone. Jezebel comes in and says, "What's the matter with you? Why are you so sullen? Why won't you eat?” And he answered her, "Because I said to Naboth, the Jezreelite, ‘sell me your vineyard or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’" Can you hear the whining? “But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”

Jezebel sees things clearly, "This is how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat. Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite." She's got ways, and she doesn't lack courage and backbone wicked as she is.

What does she do? In verse eight, she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth city with them. Now, what's going on here? First of all, she forges letters and she steals his seal, so that it's in his name. It's interesting to me how wicked people will try to cloak what they're doing in righteousness. Why don't she just go down to kill this guy? But instead, she's got to concoct this whole plan to make it look righteous. I was reading recently about the beginning of World War II. Do you know how it started? It started with the Nazis invading Poland, September 1st, 1939. You know how it began? Well, a bunch of Nazis put on Polish uniforms, and attacked a German radio station in Polish uniforms. And then Hitler through a hundred divisions sent a blitzkrieg that wiped out Poland. Why the ruse first? Why not just the invasion first? It's insightful to understand something about wickedness. They try to cloak themselves first with some legality, some righteousness.

And so instead of just killing Naboth, we're going to go through this ruse of a fair trial. She signs letters in his name, puts his official seal on them, sends them to elders and the nobles who lived in Naboth city with him, and in these letters, she wrote, "Proclaim a day of fasting." Why the fasting? “Because there's been some evil in the city, and we have to uncover a crime here. There's going to be an investigation. We need to fast and seek the Lord, and find out who did the evil thing and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people, but seat two scoundrel, sons of Belial [is what it literally says], evil people among opposite him, and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. And then take him out and stone him to death." And so she's going to concoct a trial, a false trial against him. And he's going to be stoned to death. I find it interesting, A. W. Ping brings this point out. How much Naboth is really a type of Christ, right? If you stop and think about it, did not Christ also have a vineyard? Remember, the parable? The owner of the vineyard sent his son, and the owner of the vineyard wanted to steal the vineyard from him. What do they do? They try to put him to death. They put him to death, and think that they're going to steal his vineyard. How do they do it? Well, they can concoct a false trial, and false witnesses accuse him. And he's put to death falsely. There's a really a parallel here between Naboth, who I think is a type or a picture of Christ and Jesus Christ himself. And so they through this false witness, they attack Naboth. 

Verse 11, "The elders and the nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had directed them in the letter she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place. And then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him, and brought charges against Naboth before the people saying Naboth has cursed both God and the king. They took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel, ‘Naboth has been stoned and is dead.’" Verse 15, "As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, ‘Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.’" Does that make your skin crawl, the wickedness of this woman, the evil? Take his vineyard because he's dead, Verse 16. Ahab passive as always, weak before the power of his wife, what does he do? Verse 16, "Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, and he got up and went down and took possession of Naboth's vineyard." Now Elijah comes back into the story and with this, we'll close. Verse 17, "Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite. ‘Go down to meet Ahab, King of Israel who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone in to take possession of it. Say to him, this is what the Lord says. ‘Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?’ Then say to him, [this is what the Lord says], ’In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood. Yes, yours.’"

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