“The Real Troublemakers” – FBC Morning Light (6/5/2023)

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Well, a good Monday morning to you. We're beginning this week in our Bible reading in 1 Kings, chapters 17 and 18, the 22nd chapter of Acts, and Psalm 111.

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I want to focus on 1 Kings 18 this morning, and just a couple things I want to point out.

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One of them has to do with this individual named Obadiah. Now, there's a book in the

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Bible by that name, but this isn't the same guy. The minor prophet Obadiah is not the same man referred to in 1

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Kings 18. This individual, Obadiah, we're told in verse 3, is actually in charge of Ahab's household.

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Now, you've got to get the context of that. You remember who Ahab is, and you remember to whom

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Ahab is married, Jezebel. Ahab has been very influential in introducing

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Baal worship into Israel, and prompted by his very wicked other half,

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Jezebel. And Obadiah is serving in the household, and is over the responsibility of that entire household, of these two individuals, who have done more to promote paganism in the land of Israel than really anybody prior to them.

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So this Obadiah, we read in the end of verse 3, it says, he feared the

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Lord greatly. So think about the position that this man must have been in.

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He's one who fears the Lord greatly, and yet he's serving in a household of the two individuals more responsible for the apostasy of Israel than anybody else at their time, in their time.

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And he's not just sitting on his hands with that love for the

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Lord. We read in verse 4 that Jezebel had massacred prophets of the

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Lord, but Obadiah had taken 100 of those prophets and hidden them, put 50 prophets in a couple of different caves, and he fed them with bread and water.

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What great risk this man took for the sake of sparing the lives of these prophets of the

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Lord. And you have to realize, that took a tremendous amount of courage, and I would suggest also faith, trust.

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Trust that the Lord would protect him and preserve him from being found out. He certainly would have been executed had

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Jezebel found out what Obadiah was doing. Well, what I want to point out here is that these actions of Obadiah demonstrate that God has people in places of influence and opportunity who will be instrumental in the help and protection of his people.

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Maybe individuals that we would never know, never suspect, and yet there they are.

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God has put them in those places, and they are there for the benefit of his people.

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Their role and the value that they are to the people of God, and their faith and trust in God himself, may not be evident until it comes that time of testing, that time where they have to make a choice and take risks in order to stand up for God's people, stand up for what's right.

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Well, the other thing I wanted to point out in chapter 18 is in verses 17 and 18, where Elijah finally comes into contact with Ahab, and when

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Ahab meets Elijah, listen to what he says in verse 17. It says, when Ahab saw

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Elijah, Ahab said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel? Elijah is the troubler of Israel?

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Elijah retorts quite accurately, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the

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Lord and have followed the Baals. Well, Elijah's spot on, and Ahab is totally distorted in his thinking.

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But we're seeing that same kind of attitude played out in living color in our day and age, aren't we?

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God's faithful people, those who want to stand firm on what

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God says, God's word related to marriage, related to things like homosexuality and transgenderism and abortion and all of these issues, those who want to stand firm on these things and decry the direction that the culture is going, those of us who are like that, we're the ones that are considered to be the troublemakers in the land, upsetting the peace of the land by opposing the new norms or the new way of looking at things and what's supposed to be the new reality.

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Well, in reality, it's the activists and it's the promoters of this corruption and godlessness that's really causing so much of the trouble.

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So why has Target had the trouble that it's had? Is it because of the people who are decrying the push to immorality among children, even?

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Or is it Target itself? They're creating their own problems, creating their own troubles.

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But nevertheless, this is the attitude, and it's all the way back in 1 Kings chapter 18.

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Is that you, you troubler of Israel? No, no.

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You who are pursuing the path of unrighteousness and promoting wickedness, you are the real troublers of the peace.

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Well, let's take these couple of passages at the beginning and the end of chapter 18. Find encouragement.

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Encouragement to be faithful like Obadiah, even if it's risky. Be committed to be faithful to the

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Lord and his word, even if we're considered to be the troublemakers. Father in heaven, help us to live faithfully to you, faithfully according to your word, we pray.

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And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, listen, have a good Monday.