January 7, 2024 - Sovereignty vs Pride
Notes
Transcript
So it’s been several weeks since we’ve been in the book of 1 Kings...
In case you’ve forgotten - we were making our way THRU 1 Kings -
…before we broke for Christmas and New Years.
I think it would be wise to do a bit of a recap of where we were LAST time in this book...
And so - if you remember - last time we were in this book...
We looked at the concept of Inheritance.
King Ahab had wanted to acquire a VINEYARD from a man named Naboth...
And that vineyard - was part of an inheritance - that Naboth had received!
Naboth ALSO received word from the Lord that he should NOT sell or trade the vineyard.
And so he refused King Ahab.
This prompted Ahab to become - sad - and so Jezebel - Ahab’s wife - decided to get involved.
She deceived the elders and the people into KILLING Ahab - and at THAT point - the Vineyard could be taken.
And so that INSTANCE - just ANOTHER instance of Ahab wickedness under God.
TODAY - we’ll come to the final chapter in 1 Kings - chapter 22.
TODAY - we’ll see God enforce His promise to Ahab - from several weeks ago.
We’ll get to what that is - later.
Before we get into chapter 22 - let’s provide some background first...
Ahab and Jezebel - KILL Naboth for his vineyard.
God - clearly - is not happy with this.
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.
19 And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.” ’ ”
God’s not happy...
And God lets Ahab know!
“you will end up JUST like Naboth”
But then this happens...
27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.
28 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”
So Ahab - is remorseful here - and God takes notice.
Wearing Sackcloth was a demonstration of - repentance of sin
BASED on this - God HOLDS OFF on completely destroying Ahab and his house.
What happens next? Chapter 22...
1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war.
2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.
3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”
4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
So what happens?
God brings PEACE between Israel and Syria…for the next 3 years.
And AHAB decides - he wants to go TAKE BACK the city of Ramoth-Gilead.
And he asks Jehoshaphat (King of Judah) - if he’d help him.
5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.”
6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”
Ok, at this point - Ahab - under guidance by Jehoshaphat - seeks counsel from the Lord by way of these prophets...
THEY tell him to go take the city because the Lord will give it to him.
7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”
8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”
Ok - so Jehoshaphat hears the other prophets tell Ahab to take the city...
But SOMETHING didn’t seem right - to Jehoshaphat....
So he asks if there’s ANOTHER prophet of the Lord who can come and speak...
And Micah - the prophet - is the OTHER option.
They end up going to GET Micah - and Ahab’s servants say this to him...
13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.”
Do you see what’s happening?
They’re trying to PRESSURE Micah to = BE NICE = to Ahab...
14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”
Micah - stands his ground - Not caving into the pressure...
And so Ahab comes and ASKS him if he should go take the city...
19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left;
20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another.
21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’
22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’
23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
OK - we have the story...
Let’s dive into this text.
This past week - I was contemplating on what angle I would take with this text...
I feel like you could hammer away at many different areas...
But what I settled on was based on keeping the entire ACCOUNT of Ahab - IN VIEW.
I feel like - when you DO THAT - you can see TWO MAIN PILLARS - come to the forefront in light of this text today...
And what we SEE is this:
SLIDE:
The Pride of Man Under the Sovereignty of God
What is Sovereignty?
Sovereignty has to do with - Authority...
And so in relation to God - Sovereignty refers to God’s absolute Authority over ALL things.
NOW - in light of Man’s PRIDE - here today - we see both play out…in pretty astonishing ways.
We’re going to make our way through this account today - and along the way - we’ll compare God’s Sovereignty - with Man’s Pride.
Recapping what we just read...
Ahab and Jezebel kill Naboth...
God is NOT HAPPY - pronounces judgment on Ahab...
That he will die.
Ahab - chapter 21 told us - humbled himself - and so God PUTS OFF destroying him.
What follows is this...
1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war.
What do we see here?
It’s something we saw several weeks ago as well...
The sermon was called - RADICAL KINDNESS
The Bible tells us that AHAB was the - Worst of the Worst*
and yet…* (God helped him win wars)
And we know that THAT kindness is meant to - - lead men to Repentance!
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
And so - TODAY - we see - EVEN for Ahab - after killing Naboth...
God brings - kindness (IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY) - 3 years of peace between Syria and Israel.
That can ONLY HAPPEN - because of God’s Sovereignty!
And yet - what do we see?
SLIDE:
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will use God’s kindness to suppress man’s fear of God.
Another way to say that would be this....
OUR pride will use God’s Kindness to suppress our FEAR of God.
Remember - God had told Ahab that he would DIE - because of what he had done to Naboth…in killing him.
But then Ahab - HUMBLED himself under God.
God then BRINGS - kindness to him - 3 years of PEACE.
What did THAT lead to - for Ahab?
3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”
4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
SO Ahab goes from - MOURNING his sin of killing Naboth...
TO - declaring that ISRAEL should have the city of Ramoth-Gilead....and recruiting people to help him TAKE IT...
How did he go from MOURNING to - GREED?
The Kindness of God.
3 years of PEACE!
And in Ahab’s PRIDE - he decides to START demanding LAND!
But THAT’s what PRIDE DOES!!
It will RECEIVE the Kindness of God - MEANT to lead us to REPENTANCE…meant to KEEP US in a HUMBLE posture under God...
and it will USE that Kindness to LESSEN our FEAR of God.
Examples of this PRIDE is found…all over Scripture.
What happened with these people’s forefathers?
GOD - in His mercy - BRINGS them OUT of Egypt...
OUT of slavery....
AND THEN...
11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
So God - MIRACULOUSLY saves them from death… God’s KINDNESS on display! - AGAIN...
LEADS them through the wilderness...
AND THEN...
3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
When the people of Israel were in SLAVERY in Egypt - they - - WANTED OUT…FREEDOM!
They wanted God to - RESCUE THEM!
But then - KINDNESS after KINDNESS after KINDNESS - and these people became - STIFF-NECKED!
They were RECEIVING food from heaven - LITERALLY - and they complained.
No fear of God...
In Jesus’ day - He ends up healing 10 lepers...
And He tells them to go show themselves to the PRIESTS!
What happens?
15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;
17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?
KINDNESS - leads to - No Fear of God.
What does that?
PRIDE! - - Our pride!
And so - FOR US - it’s as though God’s Kindness toward us - can end up EMBOLDENING us - to our rebellion against God.
We all deal with sin.
Have you ever experienced - wrestling with a sin…over and over again...
Something you struggle with...
Gossip
Anger
Anxiety
Lust… whatever
And then - you realize God hasn’t STRUCK you with lightening, and so you feel = ALMOST - ok going back to that sin...
Almost like - God’s not watching?
PRIDE will do this to us.
PRIDE will use God’s Kindness toward us to SUPPRESS the fear of God in us.
We need to be on guard.
But what else?
What else will Pride do?
AHAB wants to take the city of Ramoth-Gilead - but Jehoshaphat wants to seek the Lord FIRST to see if it’s the Lord’s will for this to happen.
What does Ahab do?
6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”
Now - SOUNDS Great…Ahab gathers prophets to help him...
BUT…listen to what Jehoshaphat says…in response
7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”
Its been debated - but - it seems that the majority thinks that these “Prophets” were actually the priests of the high places of Bethel and Dan…OR - at least THEIR sons.
And so - what do we SEE here?
SLIDE:
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will proclaim its own truth as God’s truth.
NOW - a bit later in the text - this idea will be confirmed in relation to Ahab and his motives...
Jehoshaphat hears Ahab’s prophets - is not convinced - and WANTS to hear from a true Prophet of God...
7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”
8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”
Here we see that Ahab - ONLY - EVER wanted to hear what PLEASED his own ears.
He wasn’t REALLY interested in hearing from the Lord!
BUT AGAIN - this is what Pride will do!
PRIDE will proclaim its own truth.
Ahab knew Jehoshaphat was interested in HEARING from the Lord - YET - he called in these pseudo prophets - KNOWING they would speak WELL of HIMSELF.
Pride here - pretending that its OWN truth - was God’s truth.
And didn’t Jesus speak against this VERY THING?
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,
2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,
4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Doesn’t get much more clear than that!
PRIDE will seek to PROCLAIM its OWN truth.
And AS we can see - It’s ALWAYS been that way!
The Pride of Man doesn’t want to HEAR the truth of GOD...
You know why?
SLIDE:
God’s truth puts man under God’s authority.
And so as fallen men and women - we don’t want to hear God’s truth.
Pride HATES it...
Pride proclaims its own truth as God’s truth.
But what else?
SLIDE:
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will choose its own destruction over life in Christ.
Pride will always try to - CONQUER - instead of - Submit
And this is what we see here…today...
Jehoshaphat wasn’t having Ahab’s prophets....SO...
Micah is called as the TRUE prophet - and he’s asked whether they should go and attack Ramoth-Gilead...
We’re gonna look at what Micah says - in 2 parts.
19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left;
20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another.
21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’
22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’
23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
The first aspect of this I want us to see - is that Ahab is told that he will die in battle...
He knows God is telling him that he will die in battle...
YET - what happens?
30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes.” And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
Ahab here decides he’s gonna disguise himself for battle - so that the ENEMY won’t know who he is...
He also tells Jehoshaphat to wear Ahab’s robes so the enemy THINKS Jehoshaphat is Ahab the King.
WOW - Jehoshaphat complies.
Would they get away with it?
32 And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “It is surely the king of Israel.” So they turned to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out.
33 And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
34 But a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.”
35 And the battle continued that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, until at evening he died. And the blood of the wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot.
And so - OF COURSE - God was right!
But PRIDE - didn’t want to hear it!
PRIDE - chose it’s OWN DESTRUCTION - over submitting to God!
Do we see examples of this in Scripture?
OF COURSE - how about in the very beginning?
Adam and Eve - told if they would eat of the tree of knowledge - they would - DIE!
What did they do?
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
If you DO THIS - you will SURELY die!
Well what happened?
PRIDE happened!
It chose its OWN destruction over - SUBMITTING to God.
And it ALWAYS has...
When satan and the angels fell (pride)
Adam and Eve sin in the garden (pride)
Cain killing Abel (pride)
Tower of Babel (pride)
Jacob and Esau (pride)
Pharoah refusing to let the Israelites go (pride)
The Israelites murmuring in the wilderness (pride)
Refusing to take the land (pride)
Saul going after David (pride)
David and Bathseheba (pride)
David and Uriah (pride)
and on and on and on....(pride, pride, pride)
And THAT’s WHY - the bible tells us this...
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
And here’s the crazy part…about Pride...
Even OUR FEAR is a form of pride.
HOW?
Fear wants to RULE OVER US...
But - TRUTH tells us - God REIGNS!
AND BECAUSE He does!!....
We look now at the OTHER side of Ahab being killed in battle.
As we read those passages, maybe this one stood out to you...
23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
Those PROPHETS of Ahab - they were used by God - to entice Ahab into battle.
Remember - those prophets TOLD Ahab - that if we went into battle - He would WIN the city of Ramoth.
But NOW - we see that God orchestrated this whole thing.
God ALLOWED a lying spirit - TO DECEIVE Ahab.
NOW - who takes ISSUE with that?
Who feels like - WOW - seems kinda strange...
…that God would USE a LIE - to accomplish His purposes.
Here’s how I THINK - we can address this.
We can look at ANY scenario / any STORY found in Scripture - and deconstruct it - from the end - to the beginning.
We’ve DONE this before - but maybe not in this particular way.
It was God’s WILL - that Joseph become enslaved.
How did God CHOOSE to make that happen?
He USED - the EVIL intentions of Joseph’s brothers.
They lied...
They plotted and schemed...
YET God USED that - to accomplish His purpose.
It was God’s WILL - that Jesus Himself would come and die on a cross..
But HOW did God choose to make that happen?
He USED - the EVIL intentions of MEN...
They LIED...
They Schemed against Him...
YET - God USED all of that - to accomplish His purposes.
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
God HAS ALL authority to USE mankind - IN HIS FALLENESS - - to be a part in BRINGING about - God’s purposes!
NOW - we’ll close with this...
The PART OF YOU - that hears that - and thinks - EHHH....NOT SURE I LIKE THAT!
I’m not sure that SITS RIGHT with me!!
God USING OUR Fallen Nature to accomplish His purposes - where WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE to God - and yet HE is STILL Righteous!!....
The part of you that thinks it’s HARD to ACCEPT that -
IS.... your - pride.
See - the PRIDE of man - will always WAR against the Sovereignty of God.
The pride of man will seek to make God - LIKE US...
Pride will seek to make God - in OUR IMAGE
We should be THANKFUL - He’s not.
SUMMARY
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will use God’s kindness to suppress man’s fear of God.
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will proclaim its own truth as God’s truth.
Under God’s sovereignty, the pride of man will choose its own destruction over life in Christ.
Let’s pray
Have a Great Week