Mt. Carmel Wrap Up

All right, hey, there's Bruce. By the way, Bruce, did a quick fact check on whether or not ahav means father.

It definitely comes from the root of av, but when you do a word study on it, it could also mean uncle or a few other things.

Just a little bit of a note. Let's pray, we'll get started. Lord Jesus, as again, we open up your word to study your word.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, a light shining in the darkness so that we may be guided by your word to you, who is the light of the world.

We pray that through the study of your word and your spirit that you would help us to rightly believe, confess, and do all according to what you have revealed in your holy word.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let me pull up the chat window and I will say this.

Everybody is welcome and encouraged to ask questions. It's the job of the pastor to answer the tough questions, not dodge them or somehow turn things around on you and blame you for being somehow ornery for daring to ask questions.

About asking questions? So, all right, so all of that being said,

I wanted to say this. I thought that last week we ended off in an unsatisfactory end.

I mean, the prophets of Baal are killed, the end. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. Well, the story's actually better than that.

If you remember last week, in fact, let me do this. I'm going to record this also in case we end up putting this up.

I'm gonna record at least my screen, there we go. So, if you remember last week, it made a big to do about the fact that God was bringing, really attempting to bring

Ahav and his wife, the princess of Baal, lovely lady, and bring her to repentance.

And so you'll know, Baal brings the rain. For three years, Baal failed to bring the rain.

Totally, utterly, just biffed it. I mean, well, the reason why is because he's not there.

But all of that being said here, I noted along the way, the right response from Ahav and his wife would have been,

Baal is not God, Yahweh is God. I need to repent and believe. And so, as we continue on with the story, the story is one that I think works very well with our sermon from today, because you'll note that I've made it very clear that in our wilderness wanderings, we are to expect what?

Suffering, temptation, trial, persecution. And you'll note that Elijah, he did not have his best life now, all right?

After the defeat of the prophets of Baal, he wasn't offered a book deal, he wasn't asked to come on the

Today Show, he didn't go on tour and regale everybody with his amazing story of how

God answered his prayer on Mount Carmel. In fact, it's kind of worse than that, like way worse.

And you'll note that Elijah himself kind of does what

Jesus does. He heads off into the wilderness for 40 days. You see, so Elijah does a little bit of this.

Now, a little bit of a note here. There are ways in which Elijah is a type and shadow of Christ, and one of the things that you don't see when you read his name in English is how that all, you know, how that all works.

But one of the ways in which you can actually pronounce Elijah, yeah, it's in Hebrew, is

Yeshayahu, all right, Yeshayahu. If you know Jesus' name in Hebrew, Yeshua, Yeshayahu, Elijah, that's another way that you can say his name in Hebrew.

You can see that there's a connection between the two. And it always fascinates me that modern -day

Hebrew pronounce Elijah, his name, Yeshayahu, all right? So it's one of those things.

But we'll note that he's gonna be a type and shadow of Christ in some degree. So I'm gonna back up, and I want to point something out before we move forward in our text.

1 Kings 18 .30 says, Elijah said, "'To all the people, come near to me.'" So now Elijah's gonna rebuild the altar, and the people came near to him.

He repaired the altar of Yahweh that had been thrown down. Elijah took the 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, "'Israel shall be your name.'"

And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh. He made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two sieves of seed.

He put the wood in order, cut the bowl in pieces, laid it on the wood, and he said, "'Fill four jars with water.

"'Pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.'" And he said, "'Do it a second time, "'and do it a third time, in the name of the

Father, the Son.'" So we have a baptized offering, if you would. And they did it a third time, and the water ran down the altar, filled the trench with water.

And listen then to his prayer once again. "'At that time,' at the time of the offering "'of the oblation,' it's three in the afternoon, "'Elijah the prophet came near and said, "'O

Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel, "'let it be known to you this day that you are

God in Israel, "'and that I am your servant, "'and that I have done all these things at your word.

"'Answer me, O Lord, O Yahweh, "'answer me that this people may know "'that you,

O Yahweh, are God, "'and that you have turned their hearts back.'" God is the one turning their hearts back.

Now, scripture's very clear. God does not desire the death of the wicked.

What does he desire instead? Repentance, he desires their repentance.

But what about Ahav? I mean, this guy is as wicked as they get.

He's as wicked as wicked gets. In fact, in the entire history of the Northern Kingdom in Israel up to this time, starting with Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, all the way through the different people,

Baasha, you think of Omri, Ahav's father, none of the kings of the

Northern Kingdom have repented. All of them have been engaged in steep idolatry.

Does God delight in punishing them, or does he desire their repentance? He desires their repentance.

So you'll note then that here this prayer really kind of lets us know, more than kind of,

God's disposition even towards sinners like you and you, me, that our hearts will be turned back towards God, and God is the one doing the turning.

So the fire fell, consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, licked up the water that was in the trench, and when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said,

Yahweh, he is God, Yahweh, he is God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape, and they all seized.

And Elijah brought them back to the Brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. That's where we left off last week. And you'd think that's the punchline.

Thus perish all sinners, right? But God even desired their repentance.

Did the prophets of Baal repent? Did they not see the same miracle? They saw the same thing.

They should have been on their faces saying, Yahweh, he is God, but they didn't. Now comes the fun part, at least in the story.

So Ahav, he's an eyewitness to the events. He's there, right? And if you remember, this story began with Elijah telling

Ahav, it ain't gonna rain until I say so. For three years, it hasn't rained.

So Elijah says to Ahav, go up, eat and drink, for there's the sound of rushing rain.

So Ahav went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel. He bowed himself down on the earth, put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, go up now and look toward the sea.

That would be the Mediterranean Sea. Again, proof that Mount Carmel is in the same zip code as the

Mediterranean Sea is. You get the idea, that's where the extra water came from. So he went and he looked, and he said, there's nothing.

He said, go again, seven times. Seven kind of always invokes the creation account.

Eight is the number of the new creation. So at the seventh time, he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.

And he said, you go up and say to Ahav, prepare your chariot, go down, lest the rain stop you. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

And Ahav rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garments, and he ran before Ahav to the entrance of Jezreel.

Now this is a little bit of a rare miracle, but you'll note that there are times in scripture where people by the power of the

Spirit are able to travel faster than normal, or travel in ways that can only be described as miraculous.

For Elijah to be able to outrun a chariot's a big deal. But who's in Jezreel? Jezebel, okay?

Now this is the days before the internet, before telephones, before texting, before news can travel fast.

What has arrived in Jezreel before Ahav and before Elijah got there?

The rain, all right? So you can just see Jezebel saying, well something's happened because it's raining outside, and here comes my husband's chariot, and look, he's soaked, right?

So you can almost see her going, see, but all one, right?

Right, right. Well, Ahav has got news that's going to get her upset.

Okay, clearly she's a little tightly wound. So Ahav told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

The proper response here is, Yahweh, he is God, I repent.

That's the proper response. That's not how this goes. So then

Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, so may the gods do to me and more also if I don't make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Okay, all right, so much for repentance, right? So now here's the next part, and I'm gonna make something clear.

Elijah is doing nothing wrong. If you've ever heard a bad sermon on this text, they make it sound like Elijah's not acting in faith.

Far from it, all right? This is just what we call practical, all right?

You'll remember the Apostle Paul after he's baptized, after he becomes a

Christian, he's in the city of Damascus, and he's basically confounding all the people in the synagogues, proclaiming that Jesus is the

Christ, and those who persisted in unbelief regarding Jesus being the

Messiah, they decided to do him in. How did Paul get out of the city? They lowered him through a basket out of a window, all right?

Remember the 12 spies that went to spy on Canaan? 10 were bad and two were good, all right? Remember that? Yeah, how were they saved from being slaughtered by the officers and officials of Jericho?

They were hid upstairs in an apartment with the grain, all right? So you'll note that it's a practical thing when somebody's breathing out murderous threats against you, don't sit there and go,

God's going to protect me. No, run. Yes, sir.

Yeah, Fred Price. Yeah, yes.

It's not. Yeah.

Yeah. Right.

Yep. And that's really the point, is that Christ doesn't promise us anything in this life except for suffering and persecution.

He said that because they hated me, they'll also hate you. Your servant is not greater than the master. Well, yeah.

Yep. Yeah, and that's a good prayer that hopefully he did.

So, yep. All right, we're gonna continue here, and somebody asked the question, okay. So in Hebrew, El means

God, right? So in the etymology, Elijah referring, yeah, meaning that Yahweh, he is

God. Yeah, that's kind of the idea behind his name. Tony says, I was there years ago.

Oddly, a student used a photo from that location for a painting. You could see the plane leading to the sea.

Yes, and so here's the question then. Does this mean that those hiding Paul lied when asked where he might be, assuming the scenario?

Tony, I would give you a scenario where you don't have to assume it. So I'll give you an example from the

Old Testament, and this is one of the things that we, as Christians, we have to struggle with, that when we look at the 10

Commandments, that the commandment, thou shalt not murder, is going to come higher in order than thou shalt not bear false witness.

And here's the idea. Sometimes as Christians, or as believers, we're gonna find ourselves in a situation where in order to save life, we might have to engage in deception, and God never condemns that.

There are several examples of that in Scripture, most notably King David. When King Saul is out to kill him,

David, under false pretenses, goes to get supplies from the tabernacle and doesn't speak the truth, in fact, doesn't say the truth about himself at all regarding the mission that he's really on, which is to save his skin.

And so the high priest had no real understanding of what it is that David was doing.

And in another case, David, to flee for his life, he ended up in the land of the Philistines, in Gath, and the lords of the

Philistines were saying to the king of Gath, why aren't you killing David? Kill him, that's the guy who, they were saying

Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands, kill David. So David, to save his own skin, pretended that he was insane, and even having run down his beard and stuff like this.

And so we recognize then that in certain situations that we may be put in as Christians, they're kind of like the ultimate catch -22.

You're not gonna get out of this situation without breaking a commandment. When that happens, life stands above.

So if we were to find ourselves in Nazi Germany and we were hiding Jews in our basement and somebody knocked on the door and said,

I understand that you are hiding Jews in your basement. Your response is, as a Christian, I'm not hiding

Jews. If you would like to look, you are welcome to look for the Jews in my basement, but there are none. Would you like a cup of coffee, right?

All right, so that's kind of the idea. So you'll note throughout the scriptures, every account where somebody's life is spared through deception, especially when somebody's acting murderously, we are not beholden to participate in somebody's murder of an innocent neighbor.

That love for neighbor requires us to hide them, stand up for them, and if necessary, deceive on their behalf so that they're not murdered.

All right, that's the idea. You are never, ever gonna be called upon God to speak words that will result in somebody being murdered.

So I get a little incensed about the concept myself, but that's okay. Marilyn, you had a question. Yep. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, yeah. Yes, sir. Thrice, yes.

Boy, this is a relevant question, yeah.

In church history, let's kind of walk this out. We have historical accounts of what happens during times of persecution when

Christians are being martyred and being called to deny Christ or to actually face martyrdom.

And in church history, there have been several poignant times when that temptation has occurred, and there are those in a congregation who have confessed

Christ and died as a result of it, and there were also members of the same congregation who bent the knee to Caesar.

And let's, let me, the best way I can put it is this, is that that created some real challenges for the

Christians because always and again, those periods of persecution will come to an end. And the people who denied

Christ, if they had any faith at all, oftentimes come back around.

And so the church has historically, it's kind of an interesting thing.

The church has historically always had a process for restoration for them, but did not immediately receive them back into fellowship.

And in some cases, required them to confess their sin that they had denied

Christ to those who had been imprisoned or who had been flogged or suffered as a result of their confession and holding fast their confession to Christ.

So you read about this, you read about examples like that in the writings of the church fathers, especially prior to the

Council of Nicaea, before Christianity was legal by Constantine, under the

Diocletian and Domitian persecutions of the Christian church. So our understanding is gonna be like this.

Peter definitely denied Christ three times, and Christ prayed that his faith would not fail, and he was ultimately restored by Christ.

But Christ actually, there was a process for his restoration. He wasn't just assumed or treated as if that sin that he had committed didn't matter.

He needed to actually be restored by Christ, and he was. That's why John 21 is such a vital text for us.

So we'll put it into the future here. Sometime in the future, pretend that Christians are actually being martyred here in the

United States for their confession of Christ. What happens to Kongsvinger?

Some of us, we confess Christ, and we're imprisoned, and we're beaten, and we're tortured.

And some of us lose our lives in the prison. And some cowards among us deny Christ and disappear.

And then the time passes, then what? Okay, and I'll note this. This same thing ended up having to be played out in Nazi Germany, where you had real confessional

Lutherans who really persecuted and killed by the Nazis for refusing to bend the knee to the

Nazis and allow their churches to become sanctuaries for Nazism. They'd refused to join the

Deutsche Kirche movement, and there were people who carried their scars with them the rest of their lives.

So after Hitler was gone, there had to be some period of restoration, a way in which to restore those who bent the knee idolatrously to the

Nazis. So the idea then is that the only sin that is unforgivable, only sin, is the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. So we must operate accordingly. There needs to be proper absolution, repentance on their part, and also a time of restoring them.

And I would say in a way that can be done without causing division and scandal for those who actually were persecuted or lost loved ones during the persecution.

And that's how the church has dealt with these things historically. Yeah, uh -huh.

No, that's not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It is blasphemy. It's idolatry indeed, but it's not the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is knowing full well that God is working among you and attributing what

God is doing to the devil. That's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's what the

Pharisees did. Okay, let's continue with our text, shall we? All right. Good questions, by the way.

Yeah, thinking Bonhoeffer. Yeah, Bonhoeffer is a tough nut to crack because he was participating in a coup, an assassination attempt, you know?

And the best way I can put it is if he had succeeded, I would have been the first pastor to give him an absolution. So, just saying.

Anyway, all right. So Elijah's afraid. He rose and ran for his life, came to Beersheba.

So he's heading south, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. So he's on the run at this point.

He himself went a day's journey into where? The wilderness. How many days do you think he's gonna be there?

I'll give you one guess. 40, right. Okay, so you're gonna note, this is kind of a reverse

Israel. And this is part of the reason why God is asking the question, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Because Israel went from Mount Sinai, where they received the law, into the wilderness, to where they crossed the

Jordan into the Promised Land. Elijah's going backwards, and you can't go back to Sinai.

Sinai's the place where you get the law. There's nothing else to be revealed at Mount Sinai, per se, all right?

To move forward, we gotta go forward in salvation history to Mount Zion, to the sacrifice on Mount Moriah.

So there's some interesting typological stuff here that you have to kind of work in reverse to kind of get to the question of why

God's asking. He went himself a day's journey into the wilderness, came and sat down under the broom tree.

He asked that he might die, saying, it's enough. Now, O Yahweh, take my life, for I'm no better than my father's.

So you're gonna note, he confesses his own sin. He recognizes he's not any better than anybody else.

But working for God, man, it can be stressful. He wasn't having his best life now.

Revival didn't break out in Israel. Now you've got the queen threatening him, have him murdered, and he's all, that's it,

I'm done. I'm finished, God. I wanna go home. That's his thing.

And you know, God doesn't condemn him for this. Ultimately, the message he'll get from God is, okay, let's get a few things in order before you come home.

That's how this is gonna work out, all right? So then he lay down and he slept under a broom tree.

Behold, an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

And he ate and drank and he lay down again. Oh, wow, look at that. He's eating miraculous bread from heaven in the wilderness.

Do we eat miraculous bread from heaven in the wilderness? Yes, that's what the Lord's Supper is.

All right, so he said, arise and eat. And so he looked, and behold, we got that part. So then the angel of the

Lord came again a second time, touched him and said, arise and eat, for the journey's too great for you. So he rose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days, 40 nights to Mount Horeb, the

Mount of God, which is what? Mount Sinai. Now, we'll do a little bit of work here.

I always like to throw this in because I think it's fun. All right, Ephesians chapter four tells us where Mount Sinai is.

Do you guys know where Mount Sinai is? And I won't sing it like, do you know the way to Mount Sinai?

Anyway, all right, we won't do that. But. What? I grew up in the 70s and 80s,

I can't help it. Anyway. All right, let's see. The president of Kongzinger looked at me with like those, you know, like,

I've heard him tell dad jokes too, but pastor jokes are a little bit worse than that. Okay, hang on a second here.

I gotta find this. So, Ephesians four, let's see here.

We've gotta talk about Mount Sinai. Let's see here, I know what I'll do. It's in this text. See, it gave something to, can evangelist waves render?

All right, so let's do this. I'm just gonna do a quick search. Sinai, Sinai, there we go.

All right. I went too quick. I need to go to epistles, Sinai, here we go.

Oh, it's Galatians. My apologies, Galatians four. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically.

Galatians, these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is

Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in where? Arabia, okay.

When you look at all the ancient maps, all right, of the ancient world, all right, where were the

Midianites? Were they in Egypt or were they on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba in Arabia?

They were in Arabia, all right. The Midianites lived in Midian. Where was Moses hiding when

God spoke to him from the burning bush? Midian. Who was he married to?

A Midianite lady, all right, whose father was a Midian, Jethro. All right, so all that being said, let me open up my

Google Chrome. Here we go. And we're gonna go to earth .google

.com. earth .google .com.

And I'm gonna show you Mount Sinai, all right, because it's really interesting, especially in this regard, because we actually know where the place is now.

And it's not in Egypt. It's not in the Sinai Peninsula. It's just super simple. Just let the Bible tell you where things are.

And guess what? You'll find them, right? All right, let's see here. Launch Earth. Sounds like I'm gonna put the

Earth in a catapult. Whew! Didn't God already do that?

Okay, hang on a second here. Waiting for, all right, I know you flat earthers are a little upset at the moment, but that's how the

Earth looks. Okay, and we are gonna go to Jabal al -Lawz in Saudi Arabia.

Okay, the mountain of God. Hang on, please fasten your seatbelts. Put your trade tables in the upright and locked position.

There we go. All right, now I'm going to make this smaller so that I have a little bit more room.

I'm gonna close that up. All right, now in order to do this properly, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna zoom out just a smidge.

And we're going to, I want you to first take a look at kind of the space view first, okay?

You'll note where the red pin is. That's where Midian was, all right? Look at your ancient maps.

Midian lived there. That's in where? Arabia. Yeah, it's not on the so -called

Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai Peninsula is still part of Egypt, has always been part of Egypt. So we're gonna zoom in and we're gonna note a particular mountain, which has some characteristics and some traits that are just oh so interesting.

I know I'm going in slowly. I'm trying to go faster here. All right, and in order to do this, let me come over here and we're going to go 3D now.

Here we go. Oh my goodness, we're spinning. Hang on a second here. And I need to turn this around.

And let's see here. I want to go there. Dwayne, are we there yet?

Yes, tell him to stop touching me. Okay, we're gonna zoom in. This is

Mount Sinai, all right? It meets all of the requirements. And you're gonna note something about the summit of this particular mountain.

This particular mountain is charred on the top. It's made of pink sandstone all around and the very top of it is charred.

That's the latest satellite view superimposed over a topography map.

And why is it charred on top? It's not a volcano. I would argue that, well, the glory of God was there, burning, you know, like, right?

You remember all that? And remember when the children of Israel were on the foot of this mountain and God gave the 10 commandments.

Remember the smoke, the fire, the lightning, and what did God say?

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Swoosh, boom, pew, right?

I do my own sound effects, right? Okay, it was a terrifying event. But note also, in this area,

I'll show you where it is because you can't exactly see it because obviously satellite photos are taken from the top down.

But in this area, kind of in this rock formation over in this area, there is a cave.

And if we were to go to Google and type in Elijah Cave Mount Sinai, all right, let's see here.

And let's do an image search. There are photographs from this area, from that same mountain.

Guess what? There's the cave. It's there like you would expect it to be. That's the actual cave. And people have traveled there.

In fact, the Saudi government, just a couple years ago, opened this up for tourism, really believing that this is actually the legitimate site of Mount Sinai.

So the Saudi government now allows people to go visit the site. So here's some photographs from the inside of the cave looking out.

All of that being said, that's where Elijah's heading to. He's heading to Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia.

Just listen to the book of Galatians. It tells you where it is. And there it is. And this is

Jabal al -Lawz. That's what it's called. So we know where it is. The mountain itself is just screaming that that's

Mount Sinai. And then we'll go back to our text, all right? So we continue here.

All right. So he, 40 days, 40 nights in the wilderness to Mount Sinai, to Mount Horeb, right?

He's doing an Israel. Like Jesus did. So then he came to a cave, lodged in it.

Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him and said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Now, do you think God doesn't know why he's there? I'm pretty sure

God knows. Why are you here? Okay, because there's nothing else to be said here.

I've given the law here, right? So he said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the

God of hosts, the God of armies. For the people of Israel, they have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even

I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. That's a pretty good prayer.

And is he wrong? No. Faith is gonna disappear from Israel, God.

You've gotta do something, right? So he's speaking that God would intervene, that he would do something on account of the fact that he's kind of like the last of the prophets.

All these other people are dead. They've been persecuted, driven out, and he's the only one left. So God said to him, go out and stand on the mount before Yahweh.

And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great strong wind tore the mountains, broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh, which was what happened when

God gave the law on Mount Sinai, was it not? But Yahweh was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake.

But Yahweh wasn't in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. All of the things we saw at Mount Sinai while the children of Israel were there in Exodus, right?

But Yahweh wasn't in the fire. And after the fire, a low whisper, which is kindness here.

Very different, didn't expect that. Now, I know there's a lot of bad preaching out here, basically saying, you need to learn how to hear the still small voice of God.

This is a descriptive text, not a prescriptive text. All right, if you really want to say that God is gonna talk to you in a low whisper, then petition the

Saudi Arabian government to go to Mount Sinai and see if God whispers to you there. Follow the whole prescription, then, if you're gonna turn this into a prescriptive text.

That's not what this is about. So God speaks to him in a low whisper. So when Elijah heard, he wrapped his face in his cloak, he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here,

Elijah? He said, I've been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of armies.

For the people of Israel, they've forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even

I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And Yahweh said to him, go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.

So he's still got a little bit of business to do. And when you arrive, you shall anoint

Hazael to be king over Syria. Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be the king over Israel.

By the way, anointing another guy to be king over Israel while there's a sitting king could be misconstrued as treason.

Jezebel's not gonna be keen on something like this. So I'm gonna give you another task which could lead to you being killed.

And then Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abba Mehaloah, you shall anoint to be the prophet in your place.

So God, you know, because what does Elijah say? I'm done, I'm done. All right, we're gonna anoint a guy who's your successor.

He's gonna take your place. So no, God doesn't condemn him. Doesn't condemn him at all.

He's done nothing wrong, and God has heard his pleas, but there's still one bit of business that needs to be tended to.

What about the fact that Elijah's the last of the last, right? So then

God says, I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.

That's not a lot. In a land with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, millions, you know, maybe even, only 7 ,000 haven't bent the knee.

So what is God promising? I'll leave myself a remnant. I'll leave myself a remnant. Okay, so that's

God's answer. God's answer to his petition. So he departed from there, found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him.

Ah, 12 yoke of oxen. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles, 12 yoke.

You kind of get the symbology here, right? And he was with the 12th, and Elijah passed by him, cast his cloak upon him, and he left the ox and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and my mother and I will follow you.

And he said, go back again, for what have I done to you? So he returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, sacrificed them, and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people.

In other words, everyone had steak and eggs that day because it was, you know, beef and yokes. Really? I'm afraid they're gonna stone me if I keep this up.

It's a good play on words. It's a pastor joke. Anyway, all right. So, all right, so we got the idea.

Here we've got the oxen, they're sacrificed with the yokes of the oxen, gave it to the people, they ate, then he rose and went after Elijah and he assisted him.

So now, Elisha, who's going to be the successor to Elijah, he's anointed and begins being trained for his duties.

But Elijah isn't done yet. He has to anoint, you know, a fellow in Syria, he has to anoint

Jehu, and also you're gonna note that God still isn't done with Ahav.

And that's really kind of the subtext of all of this. So now, let's just say that a time of crisis now is going to arrive in the

Northern Kingdom in Israel. And Ben -Hadad, who is related to Ahav, probably through marriage, if I'm remembering this correctly, they're either uncle or they're brother -in -laws or something like that, how their marriage works out.

Ben -Hadad, the king of Syria, is going to attack and invade the Northern Kingdom.

And God here, I want you to note something here. God is going to act mercifully and powerfully for the purpose of bringing even

Ahav to repentance. Now, I pointed this out last week. I pointed this out last week that in evangelicalism, always and again in their preaching, they look for the thing that somebody does that then frees

God's hands so that he can act on their behalf, all right? Ahav has done nothing.

He is completely impenitent, an unbeliever, and hostilely so, is hostilely the way you pronounce that?

Hostilely so, you get the idea, right? Okay, so here's the time of trouble.

Ben -Hadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his army together. 32 kings were with him, horses and chariots.

He went up and closed in on Samaria, and he fought against it. He sent messengers into the city of Ahav, the king of Israel, and said to him, "'Thus says

Ben -Hadad, your silver and your gold are mine.'" So he said, I has your silver,

I has your gold. He just takes it all, right? That's what he's saying, all right? And then, "'Your silver and gold are mine.

"'Your best wives and children are also mine.' And the king of Israel answered, "'As you say, my lord, O king, "'I am yours and all that I have.'

And then the messengers came and said, "'Thus says Ben -Hadad, I sent to you saying, "'Deliver to me your silver and your gold "'and your wives and your children.

"'Nevertheless, I will send my servants to you "'tomorrow about this time.'" So at first, it was like, deliver it up, and he says, okay,

I'll give you everything. And then he said, no, no, no, no, we're gonna send a contingent. They're gonna take it from you. All right, so I'll send my servants tomorrow this time.

"'They shall search your house and your houses "'of your servants and lay hands on whatever pleases you, "'and they will take it away.

"'Whatever you like, it's gone.'" What do you think of her? I don't like her. Oh, you can keep her, all right, yeah.

That's kind of how this works. So the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, "'Mark now and see how this man is seeking trouble.

"'For he sent to me for my wives, my children, "'for my silver, my gold. "'I did not refuse him.'

"'And all the elders and all the people said to him, "'Don't listen or consent.' "'So he said to the messengers of Ben -Hadad, "'Tell my lord, the king, "'all that you first demanded of your servant

I will do, "'but this thing I cannot do.' "'And the messengers departed and brought him word again.

"'And Ben -Hadad sent to him and said, "'The gods do so to me, and more also, "'if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls "'for all the people who follow me.'

"'And the king of Israel answered, "'Tell him, let not him who straps on his armor "'boast of himself as if he who takes it off.'"

In other words, you haven't even fought the battle yet. So those are what we call fighting words. So when

Ben -Hadad heard this message as he was drinking with the kings in the booths, he said to his men, "'Take your positions.'

"'They took their positions against the city.'" Now you'll note Ben -Hadad has kind of left no stone unturned and he clearly is going, his army is outnumbering the army of Samaria at this time.

By all intents and purposes, Ben -Hadad should easily win this battle, this war, whatever it is.

So now God is going to do something kind for Ahab's repentance.

He's going to miraculously act on his behalf and on the people of Israel, and not because they have earned that, but for his own name's sake.

So behold, a prophet came near to Ahab, the king of Israel and said, "'Thus says Yahweh, "'Have you seen all this great multitude?

"'Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, "'and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" Just give it to him.

And Ahab said, all right, by whom? And he said, thus says

Yahweh, by the servants of the governors of the districts. And then he said, all right, who will begin the battle? And he answered, you will.

Huh. So let's see if this goes down the way the prophet says, right, what has he got to lose?

He's going to fight Ben -Hadad either way. So then he mustered the servants of the governors and the districts, and there were 232, and after them he mustered all the people of Israel, 7 ,000, and they went out at noon while Ben -Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the booths that he and the 32 kings who helped him.

You see, drinking at noon, that's just silly. I mean, that's what Aussies do, but, you know.

Drinking at noon, yeah, you see, you gotta wait, this is why, the moral of the story is wait till five, okay?

No, it's really not, but you get the idea. So he's got himself drunk at lunchtime, he and the kings, so the servants of the governors of the districts went out first, then

Ben -Hadad sent out scouts, and they reported to him, men are coming from Samaria. He said, if they have come out for peace, take them alive.

And here's the thing, he's drunk, so I'm pretty sure he's saying, because this saying makes no sense, so you almost have to kind of say it like he's not in his proper mind, as if he's inebriated.

If they have come out for peace, take them alive! If they've come out for war, take them alive!

You know, which makes no sense, right? So, those went out of the city, the servants of the governors of the districts and the army that followed them, and each struck down his man.

The Syrians fled, Israel pursued them, but Ben -Hadad, the king of Syria, escaped on a horse with horsemen, and the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and the chariots and struck the

Syrians with a great blow. It happened just the way the prophet of God said it would happen.

So then the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and he said to him, come, strengthen yourself and consider well what you have to do, for in the spring, the king of Syria will come up against you.

So now, God, in his mercy, says to Ahav, get your rest, strengthen yourself, he's coming back.

He has advanced warning and knows full well Ben -Hadad is coming back in a few months.

All of this by God's mercy. Ahav, does he deserve any of this?

No, not at all. What is God doing? Does he really think that Ahav will repent?

Well, let's keep going. So the servants of the king of Syria said to him, and this is ridiculous, their gods are the gods of the hills, so they're stronger than we.

So let us fight against them in the plains and surely we'll be stronger than they. Is God a god of only hills?

Yeah, we call this moon logic, okay? This doesn't make any sense. This is nuts, all right?

So let us fight against them in the plains, surely we will be stronger than they. And do this, remove the kings each from his post and put commanders in their places and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, chariot for chariot.

Then we will fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they. And so Ben -Hadad listened to their voice and did so.

Now this is kind of getting personal because this is getting on God's turf. You think God is gonna take kindly to the fact that through their moon logic, they've discovered that the reason why they lost is because they fought

Israel in the hills? No, so God's about to, let's say, give Ben -Hadad a thrashing on the plains too.

So in the spring, just like the prophet said, Ben -Hadad mustered the Syrians, went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

And the people of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went against them. And the people of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the

Syrians filled the country, all right? So we all know how this is supposed to go down. The camp of Israel, not so impressive, described in terms of being like two small flocks of goats, but the

Syrian army fill in the whole plain, all right? So then a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, thus says

Yahweh, because the Syrians have said, Yahweh is a God of the hills, but he is not a God of the valleys.

Therefore, I will give all this great multitude into your hand and you shall know that I am

Yahweh. Now, a little bit of a note here. When God is speaking in this way,

I'm gonna give them into your hand and stuff like that. Sometimes he's speaking in terms of judgment. Do you remember when

God told Saul that he wanted him to devote to destruction, that those people that he had sent him out to destroy as the hand of God's judgment?

So by invoking the fact that this guy has dared to blaspheme

God and say that God is only a God of the hills and not a God of the plains, God's intent is that Ben -Hadad be devoted to destruction.

And when God has devoted somebody to destruction and a king of Israel doesn't follow through on that, that usually goes poorly for them.

Saul, when he didn't do that, that resulted in God tearing the kingdom out of Saul's hand and led to the anointing of King David.

So keep that in mind. All right, so they encamped opposite one another for seven days. Then on the seventh day, the battle was joined.

The people of Israel struck down the Syrians, 100 ,000 foot soldiers in one day.

And the rest fled into the city of Aphek and the wall fell upon 27 ,000 men who were left.

Ben -Hadad also fled and entered an inner chamber in the city and a servant said to him, behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings.

Let us put sackcloth around our waist and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel.

Perhaps he will spare your life. So they tied sackcloth around their waist, put ropes on their heads, went to the king of Israel and said, your servant

Ben -Hadad says, please let me live. And he said, does he still live?

He is my brother. Now the men were watching for a sign and they quickly took it up from him and said, yes, yes, that's the ticket.

He's your brother, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, that's kind of what's going on here. Yeah, keep focusing on that word, brother.

He is your brother, Ben -Hadad. And then he said, go and bring him.

Then Ben -Hadad came out to him and he caused him to come up to him in the chariot. And Ben -Hadad said to him, the cities that my father took from your father,

I will restore and you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.

And Ahab said, I will let you go on these terms. So he made a covenant with him and he let him go.

Then a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow, at the command of Yahweh, strike me please.

Now note, this is a command from God. God's gonna engage in a little bit of theatrics here, if you would.

All right, strike me please. But the man refused to strike him, but God is the one who commanded him to do so. Then he said to him, well, because you've not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, behold, as soon as you have gone out from me, a lion shall strike you down.

And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down. Then he found another man and said, strike me please.

And the man struck him and struck him and wounded him. So now he's bleeding. So he needs a good wound to kind of pull this off.

So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.

And no, this doesn't make him a pirate. If he was, if he had a parrot and the eye patch, that makes him a pirate.

This just makes him a wounded soldier. I wanna make that clear. Okay, so, right, right, right.

I'm an expert in pirating. All right, so the king passed by and he cried to the king and said, and you're gonna note this, this is kind of like one of those parables.

This is similar to what Nathan did with David. When David said there was a guy who had a little lamb and his fleece was white as snow.

Wait a second, wrong. That's not how that went, but you get the idea. All right, so, hang on a second here.

Your servant went out into the midst of the battle. Behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, guard this man.

If by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life or else you shall pay a talent of silver.

And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said to him, so shall your judgment be.

You yourself have decided it. And then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

And he said to him, thus says Yahweh, because you have let go out of your hand the man whom

I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, your people for his people.

And the king of Israel went to his house, vexed and sullen, and then came to Samaria.

Similar judgment that we heard regarding King Saul, right? All right.

But God does not desire the death of the sinner. What does he desire? Repentance. Now, this next story, you know, this kind of adds to the sin of Ahav and really shows you the depravity of not only him but also his wife.

And so this is the last story before we get to where God just pronounces utter judgment.

On Ahav. So it goes on. Now Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahav, the king of Samaria.

And I'm gonna note that Naboth here is a fellow who I think is a great stand -in for Christ because he's completely innocent, he owns a vineyard.

I know another fellow in the New Testament who talked about owning a vineyard and he also died and was killed via lies and similar things like this.

So you can kind of see how this works, all right? So Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahav, the king of Samaria.

And after Ahav said to Naboth, give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is near my house and I will give you a better vineyard for it or if it seems good to you,

I will give you its value in money. But Naboth said to Ahav, Yahweh forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my father's.

And Ahav went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth, the Jezreelite, had said to him for he had said,

I will not give you the inheritance of my father's. And he lay down on his bed, turned his face and would not eat any food.

What is this? This is what we call a temper tantrum, okay? Ahav is behaving like a three -year -old.

This is the kid at Walmart, throwing themselves on the ground, kicking their legs, going,

I want a toy. You promised me that I would get a toy. Right?

We've all had that. Yeah. All right. This is kind of that same thing.

But now in steps Jezebel and boy, is she just coolly wicked.

So she said, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food? And he said to her, and you have to say it in this voice.

Every time I read this. Well, because I spoke the name of the Jezreelite and I said to him, give me your vineyard for money or else if it pleases you,

I'll give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I'll not give you my vineyard. You know, you just know that's how he said it, right?

I hate to say this. We men can be total babies at times. All right. So Jezebel, his wife said, and you can almost hear it this way.

Do you now govern Israel? Arise, eat bread and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the

Jezreelite. Uh -oh, uh -oh. All right. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with a seal.

She sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in the city. And she wrote the letters, proclaim a fast.

Set Naboth at the head of the people. Oh, we're gonna have a fast. It's under religious holiday pretenses here.

She knows how to play the game, right? Declare a fast, set Naboth at the head, set two worthless men opposite him and let them bring a charge against him, saying you have cursed

God and you've cursed the king. Aren't those similar charges that Jesus faced when the false witnesses came up against him, right?

We have no king except for Caesar, right? All right. So then take them out and then stone him to death.

So the men of the city and the elders and the leaders who lived in the city did as Jezebel had said, sent word to them.

As it was written in the letters that she had sent them, they proclaimed a fast, set

Naboth at the head of the people. And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people saying,

Naboth cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city, stoned him to death with stones.

And then they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth has been stoned to death. And as soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead,

Jezebel said to Ahav, rise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to give you for money for Naboth is not alive, he's dead.

And as soon as Ahav heard that, I like to throw this into the text, he said, oh, goody, goody, goody, goody, right?

That shows you how much respect I have for him at this point. Ahav rose and went down to the vineyard of Naboth the

Jezreelite to take possession of it. All right, now you think this is gonna sit well with God?

Nope, was David able to cover his sin? No, you think Ahav's gonna pull that off?

No, I mean, all right. So God doesn't desire the death of the sinner but that the sinner repent and live.

So then the word of Yahweh came to Elijah, the Tishbite. Now Elijah gets to stand up again. And I don't know if you've noticed this but Elijah and Ahav are not on the best terms, okay?

Let's just kind of put it that way. So saying, I want you to rise, go down to meet Ahav, the king of Israel who's in Samaria.

Behold, he's in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him, thus says

Yahweh, have you killed and also taken possession? And you shall say to him, thus says

Yahweh, in the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick up your own blood.

What you did to him, I'm gonna do to you. So Ahav said to Elijah, the way they greet each other is so heartfelt and warm.

Have you found me, oh my enemy? You'll note, who's in the right here?

Elijah. Who is in rank sin? Ahav. And yet he doesn't even recognize his own sin.

But notice, over the course of chapters 18, 19, 20, and now into 21,

God has been chipping away at this person. Does God wish to send him to hell or does

God wish that this man repent? Repent. And again, look at the kindness, the steadfast love, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, pardoning sin,

God, that we have. So have you found me, oh my enemy? He answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what's evil in the sight of Yahweh.

Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up. I will cut off from Ahav every male, bond, or free in Israel and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahaz, for the anger to which you have provoked me because you have made

Israel to sin. And of Jezebel, Yahweh has also said, the dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel and anyone belonging to Ahav who dies in the city, the dogs shall eat and anyone who dies in the open country, the birds of the heavens shall eat.

Now, quick question here. Has any word of Elijah failed?

When Elijah said, it's not gonna rain, did it rain? It didn't rain. When Elijah said, it's gonna rain, did it rain?

When Elijah said, God's gonna answer by fire, did God answer by fire? His track record is impeccable.

So at this point, Ahav has 100 % certainty, there is no doubt that this word of judgment spoken against him and his wickedness, is this going to happen?

You betcha. All right? Here's what happens next.

There's an aside in the note. Verses 25 and 26 are there to remind us just how wicked this man is.

There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of Yahweh like Ahav, whom

Jezebel, his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols as the

Amorites had done whom Yahweh cast before the people of Israel. And that's not where the story ends.

When Ahav heard those words, he tore his clothes. Yeah. He tore his clothes.

He put sackcloth on his flesh. He fasted and he lay in sackcloth and he went about dejectedly.

He repented. And the word of Yahweh came to Elijah the

Tishbite saying, have you seen how Ahav 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.

The great archenemy of Yahweh, of the truth of the word of God, the prophets of God, God did not relent but pursued him and broke him down through his law.

And he repented. And God relented. And you would be wise to consider this, that none of us are righteous before God.

Each and every one of us have invoked the curses of the covenant that we have earned from God, his wrath, his displeasure in eternity in hell.

But God does not send these words of judgment in order to condemn us because he not only sent those words of judgment, he sent his son to bleed and to die for our sins.

And so I would always point this out. And that is, is that if God can have mercy on Hav, he certainly can have mercy on you and I.

And that nobody is too far gone that God cannot reach them with his word.

Nobody. Saul of Tarshish is another example. The man who murdered

Christians, rounded him up. He had an encounter with God himself, with Jesus himself, and God turned him from being a murderer and a blasphemer into the great apostle

Paul. And here we see that God's word to the prophets brought a Hav down in humility.

What was the cost to Elijah though? It was huge.

It was absolutely huge. There was nothing easy about bringing the word of God to somebody as wicked as a

Hav. There's always a cost to pay. He didn't have his best life then, he's with Christ now.

And so there's so much that we can plumb out of this, but I think this just speaks volumes to the mercy, the kindness, the love, the steadfast pursuit of God towards erring sinners, even as wicked as a

Hav. And that's where we'll end today. All right? Peace.