WWUTT 519 The Providence of God?

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

God is moving pieces around to achieve His ultimate will, and in the process

00:06

He's also taking care of His children, whom He has called to Himself by His love, for His good purpose, when we understand the text.

00:25

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

00:30

Thank you for subscribing and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

00:36

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone. We continue with our study of the book of 2

00:42

Kings, and I think we'll knock out two more chapters today. Last week we studied chapters 6 and 7.

00:48

This week we'll be reading chapters 8 and 9. And I really believe that the events that we read about here at the start of chapter 8 happen outside the chronology of where we are in the story.

01:00

So this part actually would have happened sometime between chapters 4 and 5. I don't really know why.

01:06

We don't read about it until a few chapters later. Kind of difficult to explain without reading the text, so let's go ahead and do that.

01:13

2 Kings 8 1 -6. Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life.

01:22

So this is the Shunammite woman that we read about in chapter 4. He said to her, Arise and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can.

01:32

For the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.

01:38

So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the

01:45

Philistines for seven years. And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the

01:51

Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and for her land back. Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying,

02:01

Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done. And while Gehazi was telling the king how

02:08

Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored appealed to the king for her house and for her land.

02:18

And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son, whom

02:23

Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. And so the king appointed an official for her, saying,

02:32

Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.

02:40

This story just shows the providence of God, how he was taking care of this woman who had been so faithful to the man of God, to Elisha.

02:50

And so God showed favor to her. Through Elisha, she was warned that a famine was coming upon the land.

02:57

It would last seven years. And so she needed to do what was necessary to take care of her household, sojourn wherever you can.

03:06

So she went to the land of the Philistines, where the famine would not affect that part of the world.

03:12

And so then after the famine was over, she comes back into the land and Gehazi is there with the king talking about all of the things that Elisha had accomplished.

03:21

And as he's telling the king about how Elisha had raised the dead to life, here's the woman whose son was raised to life.

03:31

And Gehazi is able to go, Well, this is her. This is the woman I was just telling you about.

03:37

And when the king asks her, she tells the same story that Gehazi had told. And so the providence of God over this whole situation, working all things to take care of this woman, working all things together for good, for those who love

03:51

God and are called to call according to his purpose. Romans 8, 28. Right. So so through the providence of God, she not only gets her land back, but she also gets all the food that she would have lost during that period of time that she was not in the land.

04:06

This is how the king took care of her because of the conviction of God upon his heart.

04:13

Now, like I said, I think that this story actually happens out of order. And what makes me say that?

04:18

Well, because Gehazi is in the story for one, remember in chapter five, because he had disobeyed

04:25

Elisha and had lied and had even rebelled before God, Elisha struck

04:31

Gehazi with leprosy. So it seems highly unlikely that he would then be in the presence of the king talking about all of the great things that Elisha had done when you've got a leprous man right there before the king talking about that.

04:44

So that's one of the reasons why I believe this happens out of order. Also, the king doesn't seem to know about the great things that Elisha has done, whereas in chapter seven, he clearly did know the great things that Elisha has done.

04:58

It was the reason why he wanted to kill Elisha, because he held Elisha responsible for the siege and the famine that had come upon Samaria.

05:07

And so anyway, I don't know why this story is is kind of pulled out of the chronology like that instead of appearing between chapters four and five, that it appears here in chapter eight.

05:18

It's not unusual. We've actually seen events jump around like that in first and second kings, especially when we'll look at events according to who is king in Israel, and then we'll look at events according to who was king at the same time in Judah and kind of back and forth it goes.

05:36

And so we see some of that jumping around not only here, but also a little bit later on in chapter eight.

05:41

But this this part of the story, at least here in verses one through six, shows

05:46

God's providence and how he is working all things together to take care of those on whom his favor rests.

05:55

Let's keep going. Verse seven. Now, Elisha came to Damascus. Ben -Hadad, the king of Syria, was sick, and when it was told him the man of God has come here, the king said to Hazael, take a present with you and go to meet the man of God and inquire of the

06:11

Lord through him, saying, Shall I recover from this sickness? So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camels loads.

06:22

And when he came and stood before him, he said, Your son, Ben -Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you saying,

06:30

Shall I recover from this sickness? Now, that address to Elisha, your son

06:36

Ben -Hadad, just shows how how much Ben -Hadad respected him. Ben -Hadad is one of his chief generals who was

06:44

Naaman, was stricken with leprosy, and Elisha cured him. When Ben -Hadad tried to strike the king of Israel, Elisha warned him about where Ben -Hadad was.

06:56

And Ben -Hadad knew that the man of God was the one who knew his thoughts, even that he thought alone in his room.

07:02

Of course, it wasn't Elisha that had some magical ability, but God would tell Elisha what it was that Ben -Hadad was up to.

07:08

So Ben -Hadad clearly had a certain amount of respect for Elisha because of this great ability that he had, although it was it did not translate into a true fear of God.

07:22

He still worshiped his false gods. Naaman kind of alludes to that in chapter five. So then in verse 10,

07:28

Elisha said to Hazael, Go say to Ben -Hadad, You shall certainly recover.

07:35

But the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die. And he fixed his gaze and stared at him until he was embarrassed.

07:43

And the man of God wept. Elisha wept there before Hazael. And Hazael said,

07:49

Why does my lord weep? And Elisha answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel.

07:57

You will set on fire their fortresses and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.

08:07

And Hazael said, What is your servant? Who is but a dog that he should do this great thing?

08:13

And Elisha answered, The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria. And then he departed from Elisha and came to his master who said to him,

08:21

What did Elisha say to you? And Hazael answered, He told me that you would certainly recover. But the next day he took the bedcloth and dipped it in the water and spread it over his face until Ben -Hadad died and Hazael became king in his place.

08:38

Now, it seems kind of confusing in verse 10 where Elisha says, Go say to him,

08:43

You shall certainly recover. But the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die. So why did

08:49

Elisha tell Hazael that Ben -Hadad would recover? Well, probably the way that that's translated in the language there.

08:58

It's kind of something that we lose in translation from Hebrew to English. It probably means that if if Ben -Hadad were not to be killed, he certainly would recover from his sickness.

09:10

But Elisha doesn't tell Hazael that what he sees happening is that Hazael is actually going to end up going and killing

09:18

Ben -Hadad. But if Ben -Hadad had not been killed, then he would have recovered from the illness that he had.

09:24

That's that's kind of what Elisha is saying to Ben -Hadad. And then in verse 11, it says he fixed his gaze and stared at him until he was embarrassed.

09:33

And the language doesn't actually tell us who the he and the his are here. So was

09:39

Elisha staring at Hazael until he was embarrassed? Or was Hazael staring at Elisha until Elisha felt embarrassed about it?

09:47

It doesn't really say. But we do know that Elisha started weeping as they're kind of standing there staring at each other with no words.

09:55

And it causes Hazael to say, why does my Lord weep? And Elisha says, because I know the evil that you're going to do to the people of Israel.

10:03

God has shown Elisha what Hazael is going to do. And it makes his heart mourn.

10:11

Even though Israel is a wicked people, they have been worshiping false gods. The king that is sitting over Israel at that time is not a righteous king.

10:20

Nonetheless, Elisha's heart is with his people. The covenant people of God, he does not want to see them destroyed, but he knows it's because of their sin that God is raising

10:31

Hazael up in the place of Ben Hadad to bring judgment upon the people of Israel. So now in verse 16, in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, here's another place where we're kind of jumping around a little bit.

10:44

In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.

10:53

He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done.

11:03

For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did what was evil in the sight of the

11:08

Lord. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah for the sake of David, his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

11:17

So I'm going to backtrack a little bit before continuing on. Jehoshaphat actually had this desire that the houses of Judah and Israel would be reunited again.

11:29

And so perhaps in that effort, you have Jehoram marrying Ahab's daughter.

11:35

But what we actually see the result of that becoming is that Judah falls into greater sin.

11:41

So it's the whole concept of bad company corrupts good character. It did not reunite Judah and Israel.

11:48

As a matter of fact, it just made Judah more sinful. So continuing on here in verse 20, in his days,

11:55

Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. Then Jehoram passed over to Zahar, I'm sorry,

12:04

I have trouble pronouncing that, Zahar with his, Zer? I'm going to say Zer. Then Jehoram passed over to Zer with all of his chariots and rose by night.

12:15

And he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him. But his army fled home.

12:21

So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libna revolted at the same time.

12:27

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

12:33

So Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David.

12:39

And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place. In the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.

12:50

Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was

12:57

Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Amri, the king of Israel. He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of the

13:07

Lord as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son -in -law to the house of Ahab.

13:13

He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war against Hazael, king of Syria at Ramath Gilead, and the

13:20

Syrians wounded Joram. And king Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the

13:27

Syrians had given him at Ramath when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see

13:35

Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel because he was sick. Now we get to chapter 9, and to kind of spoil it for you, chapter 9 is where we will finally see the death of Jezebel, who has not yet died in the story, at least in the story as we have it laid out for us in 1st and 2nd

13:56

Kings. To kind of keep all of these things in order, because once again, we're jumping around between who's king in Judah and who's king in Israel and kind of lining up all the events based on who's king, it's easier to go and look at a chart.

14:10

So look for somebody who has put a chart together of who was king and what event happened during that reign and in what land it happened in, because sometimes it's even difficult to follow, well, this happened in Israel and this happened in Judah.

14:22

So anyway, that might kind of help you picture the chronology of these events a little bit better since we're jumping around so much in the narrative.

14:31

So coming to chapter 9 now, then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, tie up your garments and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth Gilead.

14:44

And when you arrive there, look for Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, and go in and have him rise from among his fellows and lead him to an inner chamber.

14:55

Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.

15:03

Then open the door and flee. Do not linger. Elisha is fulfilling what

15:09

God told Elijah that Elisha would do in setting up kings and anointing new kings.

15:17

And so that's now we see that taking place, even though that was prophesied back in first kings. That's what it is that Elisha is doing.

15:24

So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council.

15:31

And he said, I have a word for you, O commander. And Jehu said, to which of us all?

15:36

And he said to you, O commander. So he arose and went into the house and the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, thus says the

15:46

Lord, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the Lord over Israel.

15:52

And you shall strike down the house of Ahab, your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel, the blood of my servants, the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the

16:02

Lord. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. And I will cut off from Ahab every male bond or free in Israel.

16:10

And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah.

16:17

And the dog shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel and none shall bury her. Then he opened the door and he fled.

16:25

When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?

16:32

And he said to them, you know the fellow and and his talk. And they said, that is not true.

16:38

Tell us now. And he said, thus and so he spoke to me, saying, thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.

16:44

Then in haste, every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed,

16:52

Jehu is the king. Just like that. Now, as I have mentioned previously,

16:59

Israel had no righteous kings, but if there was any king that was close to being righteous in Israel, it would have been

17:07

Jehu. But all of the kings over Israel did not worship the Lord, their

17:12

God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and their hearts strayed after other gods. Only eight of the kings that reigned over Judah actually had hearts that were for the

17:22

Lord. So we'll see some good things being done by Jehu, but he is not going to be a man who truly fears

17:29

God. Verse 14. Then Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram.

17:35

Now, Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth Gilead against Hazael, king of Syria, but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the

17:44

Syrians had given him when he fought with Hazael, the king of Syria. So Jehu said, if this is your decision, then let no one slip out of the city and go and tell the news in Jezreel.

17:55

Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel for Joram lay there and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come down to visit

18:03

Joram. Now, the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the company of Judah as he came and said,

18:11

I see company. And Joram said, take a horseman and send to meet him and let him say, is it peace?

18:18

So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, thus says the king is at peace.

18:23

And Jehu said, what do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me. And the watchman reported saying the messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.

18:32

Then he sent out a second horseman who came to them and said, thus, the king has said, is it peace?

18:38

And Jehu answered, what do you have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me. So he's not letting the messengers go back and say that Jehu is coming in peace.

18:46

Again, the watchman reported, he reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.

18:56

Joram said, make ready. And they made ready his chariot. Then Joram, king of Israel and Ahaziah, king of Judah, set out each in his own chariot and went to meet

19:05

Jehu and met him at the property of Naboth, the Jezreelite. And when Joram saw

19:11

Jehu, he said, is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, what peace can there be?

19:16

So long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many. Then Joram reigned about and fled saying to Ahaziah, treachery, oh

19:26

Ahaziah. And Jehu drew his bow with its full strength and shot Joram between the shoulders so that the arrow pierced his heart and he sank in his chariot.

19:36

Jehu said to Bidkar, his aid, take him up and throw him on the plot of the ground belonging to Naboth, the

19:42

Jezreelite. For remember, when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab, his father, how the

19:47

Lord made his pronouncement against him. As surely as I saw yesterday, the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons declares the

19:55

Lord, I will repay you on this plot of ground. Now, therefore, take him up and throw him on the plot of ground in accordance with the word of the

20:03

Lord. When Ahaziah, the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth Hagan.

20:09

And Jehu pursued him and said, shoot him also. And they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Ger, which is by Iblium.

20:17

And he fled to Megiddo and died there. His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.

20:26

In the 11th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.

20:33

When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window.

20:40

And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?

20:47

And he lifted up his face to the window and said, who is on my side? Who? Two or three eunuchs looked out at him and he said, throw her down.

20:56

So they threw her down and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her.

21:03

Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, see now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter.

21:10

But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and her feet in the palms of her hands.

21:15

When they came back and told him, he said, this is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by a servant

21:20

Elijah, Elijah, the Tishbite in the territory of Jezreel, the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel so that no one can say this is

21:36

Jezebel. And thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled. In the book of Daniel chapter two, it says that God is the one who sets up kings and tears down kings.

21:49

Even if you live in a government where the people decide who the ruler is going to be, ultimately it is

21:55

God who has decided who will reign over a people. Peter says this in first Peter chapter two, verses 13 through 17 be subject for the

22:04

Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

22:15

For this is the will of God that by doing good, you shall put to silence the ignorance of foolish people live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear

22:31

God, honor the emperor. So let us stand in fear of God and be in subjection to those whom

22:40

God has appointed to reign. Even wicked kings in Israel and even wicked and sometimes righteous kings in Judah.

22:49

God is using them to accomplish his will. God is still sovereign.

22:55

He is still sitting on his throne. Nothing is happening outside of his control.

23:00

So even if you see such wickedness happening in the world around you in your own country or neighborhood or what have you know that none of this is shocking

23:10

God and he is indeed working all things together for our good for those who love

23:15

God and are called according to his purpose. So turn from your sin and obey God, worship

23:21

Jesus Christ, king of kings and Lord of Lords for he loves you and is taking care of you.

23:28

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt