2 Kings 1
Kingdom, Come • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scripture Reading:
Scripture Reading:
Introduction
Introduction
A Discussion that Norah & I have had Several Times…
Is How We Want Our Girls…
To Always Feel Comfortable Coming to Us about Anything
We Know that’ll Take Years of Building Their Trust…
And Seeing that We’re Willing to Listen…
And Not Fly Off the Handle Every Time They Mess Up
The Last Thing We Want…
Is for Our Girls to Not Feel Comfortable…
Coming to Us with Their Problems
I Imagine it would Hurt as a Father…
For My Children to Seek Help/Advice/Love from Someone Else…
Instead of from Me
Especially if I Knew that the Person Who They Turn to…
Doesn’t have Their Best Interest in Mind
That would Be Heartbreaking
But, isn’t that Often How We Treat Our Heavenly Father?
He’s Promised/Proven to Always Be Faithful to Us
He’s Always Wanted What’s Best for Us
But, so Often, We Turn to Everyone/Everything But Him
In Our Times of Crisis, Fear, Stress, Suffering, Depression, Sorrow, Difficulty…
We So Often Turn to Idols Before We Turn to God:
Money
Medicine/Drugs
Alcohol
Family/Friends
Government
Work
Internet
Sex
Worldly Wisdom
Our God & Father has Made it Abundantly Clear…
That He Wants Us to Turn to Him
He Wants to Help/Bless Us
In Our Text Tonight…
We’re Going to See a Situation…
In Which a Man Turns to Idols Instead of God
Spoiler Alert:
It Doesn’t Turn Out Well for Him
2 Kings 1
2 Kings 1
2 Kings Begins with:
2 Kings 1:1 (NASB95)
1 Now Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
This will Come Back Up in Chapter 3…
And We’ll Talk about that Then
But to Remind Us of Where We are:
King Ahab of Israel has Died & His Son Ahaziah is Now Reigning
Our Text is Going to Be Focused on Him
2 Kings 1:2 (NET)
2 Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders, “Go, ask Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.”
So, the King Fell from the 2nd Story of His Palace & is Badly Hurt
He Wants to Know if He’ll Recover from this Accident…
So He Sends Messengers to a Philistine City, Ekron
Ekron Worships an Iteration of the God Baal, Called Baal Zebub:
“Lord of the Flies”
This Name May be a Parody of the Actual Name to Mock the False God:
Baal Zebul - Possibly “Prince Baal” or “Lord of the Height”?
Regardless, for One Reason or Another…
That’s the God He Wants to Hear from
2 Kings 1:3–12 (NIV)
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’ ” So Elijah went.
5 When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?” 6 “A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!” ’ ” 7 The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?” 8 They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.” The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”
9 Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’ ” 10 Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.
11 At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, “Man of God, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’ ” 12 “If I am a man of God,” Elijah replied, “may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.
Elijah Meets Ahaziah’s Messengers…
Sends Them Back to Him with this Message:
“Is it Because There isn’t a God in Israel that You’re Going to Consult Another?”
“You Do Realize that Israel has Her Own God, Don’t You!”
“The Only 1 True God!”
“But, Since You have No Interest in Consulting Him…”
“You’re Going to Die on that Bed You’re Lying on”
Ahaziah Obviously Doesn’t Like that Message…
So He Sends a Captain & His 50 Soldiers to Elijah
We aren’t Told What They were Supposed to Do to Elijah…
But We can Imagine They weren’t Sent to Throw Him a Party
But, Elijah, Sitting at the Top of a Hill…
Calls Down Fire from Heaven Upon the Soldiers & Their Captain
Does this Story Sound Familiar?
Elijah Being on a Hill/Mountain & Calling Down Fire from Heaven?
The Mount Carmel Showdown was to Prove to the Ahab & All Israel…
That God is the One True God, Not Baal
I Believe the Same Message is Being Made Here to Ahaziah
But, He Doesn’t Get the Message
He Sends Another Captain with His 50 Soldiers
But the Same Thing Happens to Them
2 Kings 1:13–14 (CSB)
13 Then the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. The third captain went up and fell on his knees in front of Elijah and begged him, “Man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious to you. 14 Already fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains with their companies, but this time let my life be precious to you.”
There’s a Quote that’s Attributed to Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, & Mark Twain:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Of Course, that’s Not the Literal Definition of Insanity…
But it is a Pretty Insane Thing to Do
This 3rd Captain of 50 Caught on to the Insanity…
Of What He was Commanded to Do
Instead, He Chose a Different Path…
Seeking a Different Result
He Chose Humility & Pleaded for Mercy
And that’s Exactly What He Received
2 Kings 1:15–18 (NIV)
15 The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king. 16 He told the king, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”
17 So he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 18 As for all the other events of Ahaziah’s reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?
Elijah Tells King Ahaziah to His Face…
What He’d Told His Messengers Before:
“You’ve Refused to Consult the God of Israel…”
“Almost as if He Doesn’t Even Exist…”
“And You’ve Gone to Another God”
“For this Reason, You will Die”
So, Ahaziah Died & His Brother Joram Took His Place as King Over Israel
Application
Application
Let’s Take 2 Applications from this Chapter:
“Did You Think to Pray?”
“Whenever You Left Your Room this Morning…”
“Did You Think to Pray?”
“When You Met with Great Temptations…”
“Did You Think to Pray?”
“When Your Heart was Filled with Anger…”
“Did You Think to Pray?”
“When Sore Trials Came Upon You…”
“Did You Think to Pray?”
Every Time We Turn to Someone/Something Other than God…
In Our Times of Sorrow, Suffering, & Difficulty…
We Need to Remember Elijah’s Message to Ahaziah:
“Do You Not have a God to Talk to about this?”
“Is it Because You have No God to Turn to…”
“That You’re Turning to All of These Other Things…”
“To Fix Your Problems?”
How Hurt would We Be…
If Our Children Never Turned to Us in Their Times of Need…
But Instead Turn to Others?
How Hurt is God When We Do that to Him?
Like Any Good Parent…
He Wants What’s Best for His Children
And He will Help if We’ll Just Turn to Him
Stop the Insanity!
It’s Insanity to Repeat the Same Mistakes…
And Reap the Same Consequences…
Without Learning that Change is Needed
Ahaziah wasn’t Learning the Lesson…
And Many Times, Neither Do We
The Reaping of Consequences for Our Actions…
Should Humble Us…
And Cause Us to Give Up Our Stubborn Will…
And Turn to God’s Will Instead
That’s What We See in the 3rd Captain
He Stops the Insanity & Humbles Himself
He Gets Down on His Knees & Seeks Mercy
He Recognized that There’s No Reason…
To Continue Making the Same Stubborn Mistake…
That Destroyed Those Who Came Before Him
We Need to Be as Perceptive as that 3rd Captain…
And Recognize that it is Much Better…
To Submit to God’s Will…
Than to Continue in Stubbornness & Insanity