May 29, 2016 Rejoice Gods Enemies Have Been Scattered by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Good morning. I'll be reading this morning from Psalm 68 and also from Revelations Chapter 19. If you're using one of the Bibles and you see it in front of you, the page numbers are there on your bulletin.

And it's a bit of a long passage here in Psalm, so if you feel that you need to sit down and refer to that, then you're free to do so. Otherwise, please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. That's perfect.

God’s Majesty in Psalm 68

Psalm 68, verse 1. He rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord exalted before Him. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home.

He leads out prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell a parched land. O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain.

Before God, the one of Sinai. Before God, the God of Israel. Rain and abundance, O God, you shed abroad. You restored your inheritance as it languished. Your flock found a dwelling in it. In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

The Lord gives the word. The women who announce the news are a great host. The kings of armies, they flee, they flee. The women at home divide the spoil, though you men lie among the sheepfolds. The wings of a dove, covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold.

When the Almighty scatters kings there, let the snow fall on Zalman. O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan, O mini-peak mountain, O mountain of Bashan,. Why do you look with hatred, O mini-peak mountain, at the mountain that God desired for his abode?

Yes, where the Lord will dwell forever. The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them. Sinai is now in the sanctuary. You ascend on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men.

Even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there. Blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up. God is our salvation. Our God is a God of salvation. And to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways. The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bashan. I will bring them back from the depths of the sea.

That you may strike your feet in their blood. That the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe. Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers in front, the musicians last.

Between them, virgins playing tambourines. Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are Israel's fountain. There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead. The princes of Judah in their throng.

The princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. Summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us. Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bear gifts to you. Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds.

The herd of bulls with the calves of the people. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute. Scatter the peoples who delight in war. Nobles shall come from Egypt. Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hand to God.

O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God. Sing praises to the Lord. To him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens. Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel.

And whose power is in the skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel. He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God. Amen. Reading from Revelation, chapter 19, starting in verse 1.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19

After this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, Alleluia, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. For his judgments are true and just. For he has judged a great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality.

And has avenged on her the blood of his servants. Once more they cried out, Alleluia. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia.

And from the throne came a voice saying, Praise our God, all you his servants. You who fear him, small and great. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, Alleluia, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, pure and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angels said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him.

But he said, You must not do that, for I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have allowed us to be here to worship you, to praise you, and to hear the preaching, the teaching of your word. We ask that you would be with our pastor, Josh, as he opens your word and shares with us what it is that you have for us to hear.

We ask that you would cause your word to change our minds and our hearts, our motivations, and cause us to live according to your desires. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Be seated.

Elisha’s Final Prophecy Against the House of Ahab

We're working through this series we've been on, if you're visiting with us, on the prophets Elijah and Elisha. And we're now in the second of these two, Elisha, and actually getting fairly close to the end of this series.

In the last message that we had on this, we saw Elisha anoint two kings. One in Syria, his name was Hazael. The other in Israel, his name was Yehu or Jehu. They were both generals in their respective king's armies, and they both ascended to their thrones.

Finally, after hearing the anointing words of the prophet from God, they ascended to their thrones the same way, through assassination. Now this morning, by them, we're going to see the judgment spoken out against Ahab, going all the way back to 1 Kings 20, when Elijah met Ahab and told him what God was going to do to him for the murder against Naboth.

Those judgments are now about to be carried out. Elisha, this prophet we've been following for all this time, is going to fade into the background, and he doesn't come up again in the scripture until 1 Kings 13, and then only in verses 14 to 21, which record his death.

Our scripture this morning is fairly long. It's the record of the end of this house of Ahab, this king whose wife, with his knowledge, with his approval, brought in Baal from Sidon, the Sidonian god. This king who is so violent, so wicked, so murderous, so greedy, is going to finally have the end of his house accomplished, exactly as the word of God through these prophets, through both of them, said it would be.

This Omride dynasty, called Omride after Ahab's father Omri, so Ahab's house is called the Omride dynasty, is going to pass from history. In fact, there's only going to be one carrier of any blood from the Ahab's line left, and that's going to be good king Joash in Judah.

We're not going to go there this morning. I just tell you that for your information. This morning, what do we want to see from this? Simply this. God is sovereign. God does not speak without purpose. God's word does not come except with power, and the word of God will be accomplished.

As the prophet Isaiah says, it's like the rain which God sends from heaven. It does not return to him except accomplishes that for which he sent it. And here this morning, we have a wonderful example in actual history.

Remember what we have here in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Samuel, the so-called historical books. Remember they're called historical books because they are, in fact, history. And we're going to see in this history, God's word given time before, accomplished in minute and exact and precise detail.

And what does this tell us? Our God is powerful? Yes. His word is a word to be heard. It tells us that too. God is sovereign, and he speaks his will to his people as it pleases him for them to know what he will do.

And why does he tell us? Why did he tell them? As a warning to cause men to consider their ways, to stop in their tracks and hear the word of God and know the dread judgments that come should they stay on the wrong path, go against God, continue in their rebellions, their blasphemies against him.

Ahab and all his sons after him were warned. They were warned by the prophets. They were warned by Elisha face to face. The man of God who had proven himself to be a man of God by the miracles he worked told these kings what would come.

This morning, understand that this word of God that tells you who are outside of Jesus Christ, this word of God speaks no less surely to your fate than it did to the fate of this house. And what God says to all who are outside of Jesus Christ, to all who do not obey the gospel of God that was accomplished in his son Jesus Christ, no other name given to men under heaven by which they must be saved.

This word that speaks of the coming judgment and condemnation of those, no less sure than what happened here in first kings, or excuse me, in second kings to the house of Ahab. Let's take warning by this.

God is sovereign. His word will be accomplished. It is not sent without purpose. It is not sent without power. This morning we're going to look at the destruction of this awful house. We're going to go back in our Bibles a few times to grasp the grand sweep of history that's being accomplished here and brought about by the word of God who had long before spoken of this.

In his mercy, he delayed this final punishment, this final judgment. He offered men the grace of repentance by the word of his servants, the prophets. Of course, they were ignored. They were ignored, they were persecuted, they were murdered.

God bore all these blasphemies and these insults with patience. He held his wrath at bay, but now the pot can no longer contain his anger. God's avenging angel who is Yehu, the king who was just anointed, his avenging angel has unsheathed his sword and is going to soon drip with blood.

That's what's happening here. The word of God being accomplished. Before we dig into this very much, there's a lot of names here. There's a lot of genealogy to keep track of. Who is under judgment? Who is being spoken of?

Part of the confusion comes in the very names. Ahab's first son was Ahaziah, the one who fell through the latticeworks and asked Beelzebub if he'd survive, and of course he didn't. His brother, Ahab's other son, Joram, then became king.

That's Israel. That's the northern kingdom. Now around this same time, Jehoshaphat, we call him good king Jehoshaphat, though he had his problems, and we're not going to go into that very much this morning, but Jehoshaphat, who in the end is rated by the biblical author as a king who did what was right in the sight of the Lord, well, his first son's name is Joram, the same as Ahab's second son, and his second son's name is Ahaziah, same as Ahab's first son, and at one point, some of these are living at the same time.

So our biblical author, thankfully, calls one Joram, that's the king of Israel, and the other Jehoram, so we can make the difference. That's the king of Judah. You have handed to you a yellow insert, and it's got a very, very simple genealogical chart, so you can kind of keep track of those.

I kept it simple for a number of reasons. One, so you could simply look and see. We're not trying to give you all the detail of every heir to the line, and also so that it wouldn't attract too much attention while we're trying to preach and explain what's going on there.

But just to keep track of who it is we're talking about and where they are in that line, we've given that to you. I will try and make it specific when I speak of a king, say, of Judah or of Israel. I want to speak first of the death of King Joram of Israel, Ahab's son.

Jehu Carries Out Judgment on Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel

It's interesting that after Jehu's anointing, he's a man of action. He goes immediately to work. He was told by the prophet who Elisha sent to anoint him what he is to do. He's going to destroy the house of Ahab.

He's going to make them like the house of Jeroboam. It's now time, as I said, God had given plenty of time for repentance. He had had his word preached through the prophets, been ignored, murdered, persecuted.

God's patient is at an end, and Jehu begins immediately. He goes after Joram. A read of this in 2 Kings 9 21 -26, the first part of that passage tells about how Jehu comes to this city where Joram is at with his army, having accumulated his followers.

Joram sends out a rider to see if he's coming peaceably. Jehu says, no, get behind me and follow me. He sends out another rider. Jehu says, you better get behind me too. We come now right to verse 21 in 2 Kings 9.

Then Joram said, make ready. And his chariot was made ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, and we'll speak a little bit later about what Ahaziah is doing there and his relation to Joram.

But now both kings go out to meet Jehu. Joram king of Israel, Ahaziah king of Judah. They went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu and met him on the property of Naboth, the Jezreelite.

Now it happened when Joram saw Jehu that he said, is it peace, Jehu? So he answered, what peace? As long as the harlot trees of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many. Then Joram turned around and fled and said to Ahaziah, treachery, Ahaziah.

Now Jehu drew his bow with full strength and shot Jehoram between his arms. And the arrow came out his heart, and he sank down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, pick him up and throw him into the tract of the field of Naboth, the Jezreelite.

For remember, when you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, that the Lord laid this burden upon him. Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, says the Lord. And I will repay you in this plot, says the Lord.

Now therefore, take and throw him on the plot of ground according to the word of the Lord. This is gonna become a refrain as we go through this. This is where we get this warning to you who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You who do not obey the gospel. Jehu is accomplishing exactly what God had said must be done to this house, beginning with his son, Jehoram. I caught myself while I was speaking pronouncing that name two different ways.

Jehu and Yehu. It's just a habit. I can't land on one. Jehu is sort of the English. There's no J sound in Hebrew. And so in the Hebrew, it's Yehu. And we don't mean Yehu like he's real Yehu. That's a whole different silly expression.

So forgive me as I go back and forth. I can't seem to quite land on one. I even do that while I read. I pronounce it in my mind both ways. Jehu has immediately begun to accomplish that word of God for which he was anointed.

Now Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoshaphat's son, Ahaziah had come there to visit Joram because Joram had been wounded in his fight against Hazael of Syria. Now if you look at that chart I gave you, I don't know if it comes out clearly, but Joram was actually Ahaziah's uncle by the marriage that Jehoshaphat brought down into Judah.

The intermingling of Ahab's family with this line of Judah began then under Jehoshaphat. And it gets very hard to explain. It gets very intricate. But at one time, as I said, there were two Jorams, one in Judah, one in Israel.

That's why you have the chart there. Ahaziah is nephew to this Joram. So when he heard his uncle had been wounded, that's why he's there. We're gonna speak about the sovereignty of God throughout this message, but that's something to keep in mind that both kings are in one place at a time.

Now Joram is gone. He's the first one that Jehu goes after, according to the word of God. And we need to go on. I want you to hear Ahaziah, king of Judah's end. 2 Kings 9 and verse 27. But when king Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to Beth-hagan.

So Jehu pursued him and said, But shoot him also in the chariot. And they shot him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Iblium. Then he fled to Megiddo and died there. And his servants carried him in the chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.

Do you see already, just in these two short passages, the sheer sovereignty of God and the certainty of his word? And this man who God chose for Elisha to anoint as king of Israel, specifically to carry out God's vengeance against this house, how quickly and how inexorably he moves.

This upstart king, he was a general to his king. All of a sudden there comes this prophet, what his captain said, you know, this madman. They said, no, he's not a madman. He said something to you. He said, well, I'm going to be king.

They all follow him and immediately he has his army and very immediately he's carrying out this exact word of God. See how quickly it happens. How determined he is. So Joram of Israel, dead. Ahaziah of Judah, the same.

It doesn't slow down. The scripture doesn't slow down for a moment. We don't even get to catch our breath. Jezebel whose name is the symbol for sexual immorality. She's next. Same chapter beginning at verse 30.

Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head and looked through a window. Then as Jehu entered at the gates, she said, is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?

Now this reference to Zimri goes way back to first kings. Zimri was a king, well not a king, he was an upstart who assassinated the king then, king named Elah. Elah had reigned for all of seven days, Zimri being the one who put an end to him.

And what Jezebel is doing is taunting him with that memory. It's sort of, if Zimri was an upstart, you're no better, you're just an upstart. Today we might say punk. And Zimri lasted for seven days and you, Jehu, are gonna last no longer.

She's taunting him. There are a lot of commentators who think that she painted her eyes and got dressed because she's preparing herself for death. She knew she was gonna be executed. I don't think that's the case.

It seems much more likely that she hoped to gain Jehu's allegiance by seducing him. And so she was dolling herself up, I think we might say. Jehu, as you might expect, have none of it. Continuing at verse 32,.

And he looked up at the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Then he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot.

And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, Go now, see to this accursed woman and bury her, for she was a king's daughter. So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.

Therefore they came back and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, On the plot of ground at Jezreel, dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.

Now, of course, we all know it was Ahab who wanted the land that Naboth had. It was Ahab whose covetous, wicked heart desired to have that one plot. Out of all Israel, he who could have all he wanted, he had to have that spot.

And it was Jezebel who saw him depressed and said, Are you not a king? Are you the king of Israel? You just go eat and drink, anoint your face, stop repenting, get out of the sackcloth and the ashes, and we'll take care of it.

Remember, she plotted against Naboth, had him falsely accused of blaspheming God. He was executed for that crime of which he was falsely accused. Ahab went along with it. Ahab is the one responsible for it.

And that's what Naboth's vineyard, why it was so important that Ahaziah and Joram were killed there. And that's how Jezebel fits in. It goes on, And the corpse of Jezebel shall be his refuse on the surface of the field in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, Here lies Jezebel.

The Slaughter of Ahab’s Sons and the End of His House

We have a long ways to go. So, the bloodletting is not over. Jehu goes to Jezreel where Ahab's 70 sons are. They are there in the custody of the elders of that town. They are there being raised and taken care of as royal children often were.

2 Kings 10. I'll read to you all the verses 1 -11. Now Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote and sent letters to Samaria to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to those who reared Ahab's sons, saying, Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and weapons, choose the best qualified of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.

In other words, he's calling them out. He's saying, Here I am, and you know I'm here, and obviously they knew what had happened to the king of Israel and the king of Judah, Joram and Ahaziah. They say, You want to do something about it?

Here I am. Come on out. Let's duke it out, we might say today. He's challenging them. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Look, 2 kings could not stand up to him. How can we stand? And he who was in charge of the house, and he who was in charge of the city, the elders also, and those who reared the sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants.

We will do all you tell us, but we will not make anyone king. Do what is good in your sight. Then he wrote a second letter to them, saying, If you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.

Now the king's sons, 70 persons, were with the great men of the city who were rearing them. So it was when the letter came to them that they took the king's sons and slaughtered 70 persons, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him at Jezreel.

Then a messenger came and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning. So it was in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people, You are righteous.

Indeed, I conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these? Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab.

For the Lord has done what he spoke by his servant Elijah. So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests until he left none until he left none remaining.

You know, it strikes me as we look at this that Ahab had 70 sons. It strikes me because if you remember back to Genesis, Israel's seed as a nation was what? It was the 70 souls. We could say the sons of Jacob, those who went down with him to Egypt.

They became a nation. They became a great nation. They became so great a nation that Egypt became afraid of them and said, Look, if our enemies come against us and they should choose to side with them, then we'll have nothing left.

They will be wiped out. 70 sons could have become a nation. These might have well done that, but a nation that would have been abominable to God, more abominable than even the Amorites or the Moabites or the Philistines and all the rest.

I mean, it would have been a nation that lived on the promised land, the land that God gave his people, the land he gave them when he took them out of Egypt, that promised land. And they would have been a people who bore his name, Israel.

Now, God will not have such a thing. Ahab's sons are gone. There's no chance for this to become that nation, if indeed they could have. If you look down, I'm not going to read them all, but if you look down, verses 12 to 14, we have 42 brothers or relatives of Ahaziah, Ahaziah of Judah, the one who had just been killed.

They're found by Jehu traveling to Samaria. What are they doing? He says, who are you guys? We're Ahaziah's relatives. Where are you going? We're going to Jezreel to greet the queen mother. In quotes, that's what the scripture says.

We're going to greet the queen mother. Obviously unaware that Jezebel had been executed. What does Jehu do? They're relatives, brothers, depending on your translation, of Ahaziah. Therefore, in the direct bloodline of Ahab, the ruler, the one who started this house is being taken out.

What does Jehu do? Kills them all. He says, take them alive. So his men took them alive and slaughtered them. The bloodletting is not over. God's word against this house, against their abominations, against their battle worship, all that God said would come upon them because of all these things, having warned them in advance, clearly is coming to pass.

It's not over. Second Kings 10, beginning of verse 15. Now when he, that's Jehu, when he departed from there, the place where he killed the 42, he met Jehonadab, the son of Ahab, coming to greet him. And he greeted him and said to him, is your heart right as my heart is toward you?

And Jehonadab answered, it is. Jehu said, if it is, give me your hand. So he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chariot. Then he said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they had him ride in his chariot.

And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to Elijah. How are you doing with this? Have you had enough?

Men being assassinated? Killed? Travelers on a road just going to visit their aunt or whoever Jezebel was to them? Slaughtered. Seventy sons of Ahab being reared in the custody of these men. They're supposed to protect them, raise them to be a king.

Heads in baskets and given to this man, Jehu. This one I call the avenging angel. That's my word. That's not what the scripture calls it, but you can see where I get that from. Have you had enough? Do you see the dread consequence of ignoring God?

Of blaspheming His name? Of disobeying His word? Of thinking of Him as a light thing or person? Who does not actually speak and does not actually accomplish? Do you see the consequence? The bloodletting is not over.

What God speaks in His word will be accomplished. Remember, dear ones, I'm speaking to you of a historical record. The Bible needs no outside source to confirm it, but the outside sources do help us to strengthen us that yes, even those who don't believe have to affirm that these things did happen.

Much of this is confirmed in secular sources. Archaeologists have uncovered steels, have uncovered records that confirm much of what the scripture says. The scripture does not need them. Be clear on that.

The scripture is true because God spoke it. And yet, even those sources outside of the scripture, even those who do not believe in God, must confirm much of this. Remember this as we preach this. I'm speaking to you of history, of things that occurred in time and space.

Have you had enough? Is this like one of those awful movies where they just can't be violent enough? No. This is Holy Scripture. And the bloodletting is not over. Baal, this awful God that Jezebel introduced from Sidon, Baal remains in the land.

And verses 10 -18 of the chapter we've been reading tell us how Jehu kills all the priests of Baal more thoroughly than even Elijah had on Carmel. And what else does he do? He destroys Baal's temple. In that whole passage, I just want to read the last verse.

I commend it to your reading later this afternoon. Verse 28 in that chapter says just this. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. This is what he was anointed for.

And his anointing is what Elisha was anointed for by Elijah, his master, his predecessor. All this in exact accordance with the Word of God. There's a single theme for this morning's message. It's just what I said earlier.

It's the sovereignty of God. That he speaks with purpose and he speaks with intent. And the purpose is that you be warned. The purpose is that you know that what God says he will accomplish. Usually, most commonly, through men he is ordained to those purposes.

Such as Elijah handing his ministry over to Elisha and Elisha fulfilling it by accomplishing these men to do these very things. A sovereign, powerful God. And why does he speak? He spoke then for the same reason I speak it to you today.

It's so that men might examine themselves and consider what is their fate. He speaks so men will know it is God who determines that fate. And it is to God to whom they must turn. Turn from your evil ways for why will you die O house of Israel?

Why would you contend with a God whose word is so certainly accomplished as this God? This God who has spoken and done exactly what he said. Why would you stand before that God as though you could resist him?

If the men of Israel said look he's already killed two kings he's already destroyed them. How are we going to stand against him? They're speaking of Jehu. They're speaking of man who God in his sovereignty chose to accomplish these things.

But just a man. How then will you stand against the God whose word it is that brought all this to bear? Why will you die O house of Israel? When it suits him. When it suits God. When the sin of the Amorites so to speak when the sin of the Amorites is complete then suddenly he acts and there's no one who can stay his hand and say what are you doing?

What are you thinking? How can you do this thing up there? It's too much blood for me. It's too violent. It doesn't seem fair. Nobody's going to answer back to God. When he's ready he moves. No one will be able to say that they weren't warned.

Not a single hair on a single head will be harmed but those whom God designated for the just reward of their deeds. As we look at this record I can only say take warning. Take warning all of you that God's will revealed in his word cannot be stayed and cannot be avoided.

We spoke a couple of weeks ago about the anointing of how the anointing of Hazael in Syria and Jehu the one we've been following here how it fulfilled Elisha's prophetic purposes. It's Jehu and Hazael who together will destroy Ahab's line.

Now I haven't said much about Hazael. Hazael the one who was anointed by Elisha's assistant as it were. Who went to this place at Ramoth Gilead and anointed him as king there. I haven't said much about him.

He's going to have a great impact on Israel but most of it is beyond Elisha's ministry. It will come later and we're not going to continue that far in this series. But I will point out just one verse about him for now.

Don't pass by this parenthetical statement if you're following a New King James or the ESV Bible out there. It's a parenthetical statement. Don't pass by it too quickly because it's terribly important and it reminds us of the sovereignty and the sheer unmitigated power of God.

Second Kings chapter 9 verses 14 and 15. Again this is parenthetical. Now Joram Joram king of Israel, the first one who was killed by Jehu. Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead. You remember this is the place where Ahab got Jehoshaphat to go along with him.

So do you not know that Ramoth Gilead is ours and yet the Assyrians have it? And so Jehoshaphat joins him. It's the same place. Sort of northeast of Israel a bit. Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead he and all Israel against, guess who?

Hazael this one who was just anointed king and who became king by murdering, by assassinating his king Ben-Hadad that Hazael he'd been defending it against Hazael king of Israel. But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Assyrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.

That's why Joram was at Jezreel because he'd been wounded. That's why Ahaziah was at Jezreel to visit his uncle King Joram. Hazael this king of Syria anointed by Elisha is the one who brought these men to that same spot.

Do you see the sovereignty of God? Do you see a God who works all things in accordance with His will and with His purposes? All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

Including this as violent and as bloody as all this record seems including this. Hazael unknowingly but in exact accord with the will of God is the one who enticed these condemned men to come to the executioner's sword that is in Jehu's hand.

Do you see the sovereignty of our God in this? As awful as some of this record might seem, it was the will of God who can do no wrong that all these executions take place. And He had spoken of just these events.

He had warned of them by His prophets. As a reminder of this God didn't just suddenly start smiting people but had warned them. Had told them exactly and specifically what would happen if they didn't turn from their evil ways.