1 Kings 15 & 16

Discussion Questions

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel, and we have extra copies. If you need one, raise your hand. Somebody will drop one off at your row, your aisle. There’s a QR code up on the screen. You can also get the notes and quotes if you would prefer to do that and operate off of a device. First Kings 15 and 16. We’ll call this “Truth and Consequences” today. These two chapters describe decades of increasing idolatry, unbridled debauchery, political conspiracy, treachery, turnover after turnover, assassinations, wars, all kinds of civil unrest, international intrigue, violence and strife. It is a modern-day news network’s all-you-can-eat buffet! They would love to pick some headlines from this. And just about the time I start to think we live in the wackiest time that ever existed, I read something like 1 Kings 15 and 16.

Was the God of the Bible aware of what was going on at that time? This is probably close to 3000 years ago. And if He was aware of it, what did God do about it or what was He planning to do about it? Let’s take a look at some of this, and as we do, I’m going to do the best I can. There’s a lot of text here. We’ll skim it over a little bit. So, this is my first time teaching this particular passage and our first time today going through it. So, we’re going to ride this bike together for the first time. It’s going to be really good.

Let me pray first, borrowing from our brother Augustine: Almighty God enter our hearts and so fill us with Your love that, forsaking all evil desires, we may embrace You, our only good. Show unto us for Your mercy’s sake, O Lord our God, what You are unto us. Say to our souls, “I am Your salvation.” So, speak that we may hear. Our hearts are before You. Open our ears, let us hasten to hear Your voice and take hold of You. In Jesus’ name, amen and amen.

I’m going to put this up on the screen because I think it will be helpful as I read. Again, this is a lot of text today. This is just a little chart that gives you, for some of you sort of attention-deficit folk and you should identify, I’m this way, this is my problem. Okay, so that’s why I did this – probably for me more than anybody in the room, but this will help if you have difficulty hanging with this. I think it’s important today, maybe more than a lot of other Sundays, to make sure you have the text in front of you. There’s a lot that’s going on. We’re in the period of the monarchy. You’ve heard us talk about that, and we’re somewhere in and around about 900 BC right now. Jeroboam has been the king in the north. Rehoboam has been the king in the south. We kind of jokingly call them the Boam brothers, Jerry and what was the other one’s name? Yeah, Ray, that’s right. Yeah, Ray and Jerry. Yeah.

So, we’re going to get a little focus on three names of kings from the south first and then we’re going to move right into focusing in on the north. The north is chaos in motion. I mean it’s just nuts. It’s crazy. Watch this. “In 18th year of King Jeroboam,” and this is their pattern by the way, when they’re going to talk about the south, they usually start by referencing it over and against what’s going on in the north and vice versa. So “…in the 18th year of King Jeroboam,” he’s in the north, “the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.” I pronounced the Js kind of like a Y, if you’ll forgive me if yours is spelled differently. “Abijam became king over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abba Abishalom.” Some of the commentators will say, this is actually Absalom and a variant spelling of Absalom.

“He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had committed before him, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God like the heart of his father David.” And so, you’ll remember Abijam’s father is Rehoboam, and Rehoboam indeed did not walk in the ways of King David. Rehoboam’s father was actually Solomon, but in Hebrew thinking they used the title Father often to refer to any of your ancestors. It could be a couple of generations up. We’re going to read about King Asa here. He’s actually the great-great-grandchild of King David, but he’ll call him his father. So, you get used to that. This guy, Abijam, reigns three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name is Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. “He walked in all the sins of his father, which he committed before him and his heart was not holy devoted to the Lord his God like the heart of his father, David.”

“For David’s sake” is a very important verse here. Please underline or asterisk this verse. “For David’s sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah, the Hittite.” So just as you’re about to think this thing is saying, David was the perfect king. No, he’s not the perfect king. This matter of Uriah the Hittite and all that goes along with that – kidnapping, and some would say raping, Bathsheba and arranging for the death of Uriah, all of that is all David, the man who was called a man after God’s own heart.

And the idea is that yes, he had very dark moments of time. None of us want to be judged though by our worst moment in life. The general condition of his heart was toward the Lord. He repented frequently. We have beautiful songs of repentance written by King David and they minister to all of us who are sinners. So “…there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. The rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of Chronicles of the kings of Judah and there?”

All right, so now Asa is going to come along. Asa’s actually… We’re all going to go, “Man, that was kind of dark to go through that whole Abijam thing.” He walked in all the sins of his father Rehoboam and didn’t follow the Lord. He wasn’t devoted to the Lord. Look at Asa. It’s again a little bit of a contrast and, instead of three years, here at roughly 913 BC, Asa will rise to the throne.

“Abijam slept with his fathers. They buried him in the city of David and Asa his son became king in his place. So in the 20th year of Jeroboam, the king of Israel…” That’s the north and Asa, he’s in the south. “[he] began to reign as king of Judah,” south. “He reigned 41 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. Asa did…” And this is again another use of mother. This is really his grandmother. So you see, in their terminology and the way that they think of those titles, father, mother, again, it’s okay for them to skip a generation and call that person sort of their ancestor. “Asa did what was right in the inside of the Lord,” that’s refreshing to read, “like David, his father. He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land, removed all the idols which his fathers had made.” That’s really important.

Notice how these kings are being judged. By what? By their faithfulness or lack thereof to Yahweh. And it’s exhibited in the way that they literally practice faith. Things like idols run just throughout this passage; it’s everywhere. “But he put away the male cult prostitutes from the land, removed all the idols which his father has made. He also removed Maachah, his mother from being queen mother because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron.” So, he’s literally a reformer and he’s taking physical active steps to do away with those things that led the people of Judah in the direction of false idols and away from Yahweh. “The high places, though…” this is the caveat, “…were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days.”

Very interesting because that’s kind of like what is said about David, wholly devoted heart and yet the matter of Uriah, the Hittite. And so here we have that with Asa. We have a certain thing that he didn’t do that he should have done, but yet in general his heart was really devoted to the Lord, and I think that’s really important.

So, we can drop down a little bit. “There was war between Asa and Baasha King of Israel.” And we haven’t met King Baasha yet. For some reason the writer of Kings is inserting this name when he’s about to tell us a little bit here, he’s about to tell us about Baasha, “but there was war between King Asa and King Baasha, the king of Israel,” the north, “all their days. Baasha King of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going or coming to Asa king of Judah.”

What happens here, basically, is Baasha, king in the north, decides to isolate Asa and Judah in the south. So, he takes over a very strategic city along one of the major roads, and he literally is going to shut down supplies from going into Jerusalem and into Judah. What happens is Asa kind of gets clever, I’m going to summarize this so we can jump down a little bit, but he gets clever and decides that he’s going to send some money and all the treasures that they have to Ben-hadad who’s the king of Syria, completely different party, outside of Israel, outside of Judah. He’s going to bribe him to go against Baasha who’s trying to shut down the flow of supplies into Judah. This isn’t actually a great thing because Asa doesn’t consult God at all in this. He doesn’t turn to the Lord for help at all in this.

And if you read some of the parallel accounts like in 2 Chronicles, you start to see, oh yeah, he really should have done that. But here in the Book of Kings, we just need to know that Baasha, who heard of it, stopped fortifying Ramah. So, he stopped the blockade, and he remained up in Tirzah, which is sort of the capital of the north at this point. And King Asa goes and ransacks Ramah and takes all the materials and fortifies a couple of his own cities. Well, verse 23 sums up Asa. “The rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of Chronicles of kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet.” Isn’t that interesting? Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a foot fungus. No, don’t do that.

This is one of those things that you’re reading along and you’re getting all this history and you’re going like, “Wow, it’s cool history, man.” And you’re starting to get a little, yeah, it’s starting to be a little too hard to follow. Some of the names are similar. This guy over here, Abijah, Ahijah, Amijah, all their names, they sound alike and all that stuff. And yet then they throw in a foot fungus thing. That kind of always stirs me to awaken a little bit. “At the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet.” We’re not really told what that is, but whatever the ancient version of gout or foot fungus was, evidently that’s what happened. “Asa slept with his fathers, was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Jehoshaphat, his son reigned in his place.” Jehoshaphat, he’s just introduced here. We’re not really going to spend any time, but he’s going to reign for 25 years and he’s going to be a good king just like his father, Asa.

Now our attention goes to the north and it’s just, man, if you’ve ever like here in the west as you grow up, if you’ve ever thought to yourself after an election period, was that really the best we could do? So the ones that are laughing, you’ve thought this, right? Yeah. Maybe is this the best we can or was that the… That’s happened to all of us. When you read this list, oh my goodness, watch this.

“Nadab, the son of Jeroboam,” this is about 901 BC now, “became king over Israel in the second year of Asa, king of Judah. Remember, it’s always they compare it to what’s going on in the other kingdom. And this guy, Nadab, reigns for two years. “He did evil in the sight the Lord, walked in the way of his father in his sin, which he made Israel sin. And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar conspired against him and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. Baasha killed him in the third year of king of Judah and reigned in his place.”

So Baasha is taking over, it’s about 900 BC. “It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam.” First thing he does when he moves into the palace, his order is that everybody and Jeroboam’s family will be wiped out. It’s interesting. In the south there’s pretty much just one dynasty, father, son, to the son, to the son, to the son. In the north, if you read all this material, there’s like eight or nine dynasties. It’s the most chaotic, it’s the most… It’s just difficult. Think about the transitions that this made and some of the military coups that we’re going to read about, all that that come along. It’s just got to be a really hard time to live in the north… and in the south for that matter. But in the north here especially.

“It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down the household of Jeroboam. He didn’t leave to Jeroboam many persons alive until he had destroyed them according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah, the Shilonite.” That’s the prophet some of you’ll remember from previous chapter. “Because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he made Israel sin because of his provocation with which he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.”

Here I want to just simply highlight that the Lord God really delights in his children, and He loves when His children delight in Him, but He does not rubber stamp just anything and everything you want to do. It’s really important that we get that. I think there’s a lot of sort of designer deities being talked about in our day and time. And it might be because we’re just so addicted to affirmation in our culture that we want to only believe in the god who endorses everything we want to do. And this is clearly not the case with the God of the Bible. You may choose to not believe in the God of the Bible, but I would suggest to you that if you’ll hang with us and read through this, you’ll see that His goodness is running after you, even in the darkness, the deepening darkness of times like this and much easier in the days of darkness that we are experiencing because this is really dark stuff.

“The rest of the acts of Nadab, verse 31, and all that he did are written in the Book of Chronicles the kings of Israel.” Got to meet a couple other guys here real quick. “There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel all their days. In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became king over all Israel at Tirzah.” So, Tirzah again is sort of the temporary capital of the north. “…and he reigned for 41 years.” That’s just amazing. Yeah. “He did evil in the sight of the Lord and he walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he made Israel sin.” Notice overall as we read through these, it seems in the north everybody’s sin is compared to Jeroboam. And in the South, everybody’s compared, whether they were faithful or not, to David. Okay, this is an interesting little parallel.

Now, where’s God in all this? He speaks, verse one of chapter 16. “The word of the Lord came to Jehu, the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, ‘In as much as I exalted you from the dust and made you leader over my people Israel and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam,’ even though Jeroboam wasn’t his daddy, ‘and you have made my people, Israel, sin provoking me to anger with their sins. Behold, I will consume Baasha and his house and I’ll make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Anyone of Baasha who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. Anyone of him is who dies in the field, the birds of the heavens will eat.’”

We’ve heard language like this before. We’ll hear it again. It means it’s not a very good legacy you’re leaving behind; it’s what’s going on. The only ones that would’ve liked that would be the dogs and the birds because they get the free meals. “The rest of the acts of Baasha. And what he did in his might are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?”

Now it’s about 877 BC. “Baasha slept with his fathers was buried in Tirzah, and Elah,” Elah is an interesting guy, “his son became king in his place. Moreover, the word of the Lord through the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani also came against Baasha and his household both because of all the evil which he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck it.” So, in the 26th year of Asa, king of Judah, Elah, the son of Baasha became king over Israel,” that’s north, “at Tirzah,” that’s the capital, “and reigned two years.” So, we’ve gone from a 41-year reign to a two-year reign. It’s going to get even shorter. Watch this.

“His servant, Zimri,” this is the servant of Elah, “commander of half his chariots conspired against him. Now he was at Tirzah drinking himself drunk.” This is it. “Elah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza who was over the household at Tirzah. And Zimri went in and struck him and put him to death in the 27th year of Asa king of Judah and became king in his place. It came about when he became king as soon as he sat on his throne that he killed all the household of Baasha. He didn’t leave a single male, neither of his relatives nor his friends.” The reason it says male is because there’s no person who’s going to inherit the kingdom under Baasha.

So, Zimri metes out the same punishment on Baasha that Baasha meted out on the house of Jeroboam. Interesting. And Elah, who is just a drunk and I think that’s something to take note of, he, like Solomon, let pleasures crowd out his sense of reason or wisdom. And Elah is just literally drinking himself under the table when Zimri comes in and kills him.

Well, some folks get upset about this whole thing happening. Watch this. “Zimri destroyed all the household Baasha according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke against Baasha through Jehu, the prophet.” And so, the Lord uses Zimri, an evil man, to judge Baasha, another evil man. You see what’s happening here? Okay? “For all the sins of Baasha and the sons of Elah, his son, which they sinned and which they made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their…” And this is an interesting word. It’s the plural word for idols “…with all of their idols.” The word in Hebrews is Hebel, and it can be translated, with their nothings or with their nothingness. And that’s what idols are. Idols are little statues made with human hands. They’re not the God that made human hands.

And so here they come with their little statues that have eyes and cannot see feet and cannot walk, mouths but cannot speak. And the living God, who can speak and has spoken, takes great offense at their idol worship. “The rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did. Are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?” Where’s that book? I don’t know. We don’t know. I wish we did know. Perhaps someday someone will be digging around in a dusty old cave and find those scrolls for us. 876 BC, the 27th year of Asa the King of Judah, Zimri reigned. How long? Seven days.

“Seven days at Tirzah.” I mean I think there used to be an old TV show, some of you guys in your fifties and older, was there a show called Queen for a Day? Someone pointed it out. Yeah, this is king for a week. This guy doesn’t get much of an opportunity here and add to that, watch his demise. “The people who were camped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, the people who were camped heard it said that Zimri has conspired and has also struck down the king. Therefore all Israel made [here’s another guy] Omri, the commander of the army, king of Israel that day in the camp. Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel [or the palace of the king’s house] and he burned the king’s house over him with fire and he died.”

He literally committed suicide. This guy had seven days as king and thought, “Oh man, I finally achieved it. The king.” And in seven days’ time he has gone from first to worst and the kind of despair that would lead someone to say “It’s not worth it. I’m going to burn it all down. If I can’t have it, nobody else can either, even if I die in the middle of it.” “Because of his sins, which he sinned doing evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam is sin, which he did making Israel sin. Now the rest of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy, which he carried out, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?” So, there you go.

So Northern Israel is now going to be divided. There’s going to be Omri who’s king. And there’s going to be another guy named Tibni. Do I have his name up there? Tib? I just called him Tib because I ran out of… But it’s Tibni. Okay? And they kind of struggled together for a while, it appears. We’re not really sure how long. Some Bible commentators think for maybe as long as a couple years that Omri and Tibni are fighting over the whole thing. And again, their names are kind of funny. It sounds like a bone in your body somewhere, doesn’t it? It’s like a tibia or something. I don’t know what it is, but their names are just kind of funny.

But Omri became king. He’s actually quite industrious. This guy has got some leadership skills even though he’s not a great man of character at all. “But he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer,” it tells us in verse 24 “for two talents of silver and built it on the hill, named the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer and the owner of the hill.” So, if you ever wondered where Samaria came from, its origins, there it is. And it becomes the sort of the capital of the northern kingdom. “He walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat in all his sins, which he made Israel sin, provoking the Lord their God with their idols.” Idols provoke the Lord, whether they are carved statues or your job or some other thing that you’re kind of demanding God do.

And we all do that. We get it in our heads that we’ll never be happy unless we gain that or achieve that or receive that. And along the way it gets so upsetting, doesn’t it, when you see someone else get that “that” you thought you should have gotten? And you’re just in turmoil. Why? Because that is your carved statue. That is the thing that you’ve put at the center, and you’re convinced that your life won’t flourish unless that is in your life. And if you lose that, your life will be worth nothing, meaningless, nothingness. That’s why it’s an idol. Interesting all of that… So Omri does evil. We’re at about down to 869 BC.

Drop down to verse 27. “Omri did that which… With all his might…” His stuff is all sort of in the same book. The Book of Chronicles, the kings of Israel. “He slept with his fathers, was buried in Samaria and Ahab, his son, became king in his place.” Whenever we say Ahab, you should go, dun da da dun. I mean Ahab is like the worst of the worst that we will come to here and we’ll spend more time with Ahab, believe it or not, than we did with Solomon. We’re going to spend more time moving forward and thankfully next week we’re going to move right into the sort of the life and times of Elijah. I’m really looking forward to this. But let me just finish reading the chapter and make a couple points before we come to the table.

“Ahab, the son of Omri became king over Israel in the 38th year of Asa the king of Judah.” Remember, they’re always comparing it to the reign of the other kingdom. “And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel and Samaria,” again now that’s the capital, “22 years. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who went before him. And came about as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam.” He’s flippant about it. “And he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal or Ethbaal or Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians.” Not a Jewish person at all, not an Israeli at all.

“And Ahab went to serve Baal and worshiped him.” So now we’ve gone from kings that just leave a few things laying around from the previous wicked king. Now we’ve gone from that to now Ahab not only just leaving stuff hanging around, but he’s actually proactively going to worship Baal. And that’s one of the reasons why he turns away from Yahweh as far and fast as he does. “He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah.” And the Asherah would’ve been, you’re welcome to look it up online if you would like, but it is something quite notoriously decadent in terms of the worship experience of pagans. Okay? I’ll just leave it at that.

“Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Do you want that to be your epitaph? Oh, my goodness. He did more, Ahab did, more to provoke the Lord than all the other kings of Israel before him. Now I have got to read this last verse. It’s just fascinating to me. “In his days,” Ahab’s days, “Hiel, the Bethelite, built Jericho.” You remember Jericho, right, from Joshua chapter six. “He laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn.” In other words, he is rebuilding this city, and his firstborn dies as he begins rebuilding. “And he set up its gates with a loss of his youngest son, Segub.” So, he loses yet another son as he rebuilds Jericho. Watch this. “According to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.”

And if you have an inclination, I have to read for you, Joshua 6:26. Turn to your left in your Bibles, and you can find the book of Joshua, I’m pretty sure. Joshua chapter six, see what God said to the people of Israel in Joshua 6:26. The Lord speaking through Joshua. “Joshua made them take an oath at that time saying cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city, Jericho.” Remember they destroyed the city of Jericho when they came into the promised land. Its walls came what? Tumbling down. That’s right. We’ve all sung the song. And it was cursed here in chapter six of Joshua: “…the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho, with the loss of his firstborn, he shall lay its foundation. And with the loss of his youngest son, he shall set up its gates.” Is that not profound? That is 500 years before the time we’re currently reading about.

Ahab and this man Hiel are going to rebuild Jericho. All right, so much I don’t even know where to start, but I do have four things I want to say. So, I have given it some thought. There’s so much though that I would love to say. First of all, I think it’s really important in our day and time, as well as in their day and time, to ask the question, who is in charge of the world and of reality? I think that’s an important question. I think people are asking it out here and coming up with the wrong answers and that’s one of the reasons they’re despairing so much. If the answer is there’s no God at all, there’s no moral lawgiver, then we don’t really know whether something is good or bad, true or false, right or wrong.

And I suggest to you that as I read pages like this and I think about the world in which we live, that God is the only one capable of righteously defining good and evil or defining it righteously, however you want to say that, okay? In other words, human beings, king after king, after king after king are failures. We just can’t get it right. Even Asa, who is a relatively good king and Jehoshaphat who follows him, who is a relatively good king, and even go back to King David, who is a relatively good king (still had that “except in the matter of Uriah, the Hittite.”) And so, in a sense, the question I asked early on that y’all chuckled at: “Is this really the best we can do?” In a sense the answer is, yep, it’s the best we can do. How about we turn to the God whose goodness is running after us?

How about we look at what He has done in terms of space/time history, entering it and coming to bring rescue? These chapters demonstrate the world can be dominated by evil. Some of you might think that’s happening right now, as do I to some degree. Some of it can be very loud and very obvious, but I want you to know some of the most insidious evil is quiet and subtle. And it’s very creative and it’s strategic, whether you believe that or not. The ubiquitous proof of this is that we hear so many people in so many places crying out for justice. They wouldn’t do that if they thought the world was all right and we could figure it out on our own. They’re crying out for justice because they know something’s broken, something’s wrong. We need help. Where can we turn? The longer I’m on the planet, the less confidence I have in what we can accomplish on our own.

God is the only one capable of defining good and evil in a very righteous way. If we believe that real justice, that real truth, that actual right and wrong really matter, what would be the most likely source we should go to find the standards for truth and for justice? I believe the Bible is here giving us a clue, pointing us to those big questions. Each of the kings assessed here in these chapters were measured by what they did in the sight of the Lord. Your translation might say in the eyes of the Lord. Do you know how many times that phrase comes up in this book? Oh, my goodness. Four times in chapter 15, four times in chapter 16, and 23 times in 1 and 2 Kings.

The sight of the Lord, the eyes of the Lord, are what matter. If I’m trying to discern what’s good, what’s right… How do I navigate this situation right now? I’m at a moral crossroads. What do I do? The sight of the Lord, the eyes of the Lord are what matter. I want to stir you up to that. Some of us, when we ask that question, we’re just looking for somebody to tell us what rule to follow. No, I’m going to say, look to the eyes of the Lord. What does He say? See what He thinks. Don’t just come to me for a rule or someone else for a rule.

The eye of God is a picture I’m going to post up on the screen here. I think this one comes from the James Webb Space Telescope. It’s called The Eye of God. It’s NGC 7293. It’s a Helix Nebula. It’s a 10,000 year old planetary nebula of about 5.75 light years across, located roughly 700 light years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius, and it’s one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebula. Just a reminder that perspective is everything.

Is that meant to be the eye of God in a physical sense? No. But you know who I think has the best perspective on how we should start to define and employ, deploy what is true, good and beautiful? It’s the God that can make that kind of stuff, the God that can do that and that could put within us a sense of wonder when we look at it or when we think about it. That thing there is not God. It is one of His paintings. It is something He manages every single day. He gets up and says, do it again. And I love that. He’s the one that we should go to when we’re trying to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong.

“The relativism, which is not willing to speak about truth, but only about my truth or what is true for me is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.”

As we watch these dynasties, one after another fall. It’s signs of death are they abandoned Yahweh, they turned away from the Lord. They turned their hearts toward these idols and away from God.

Two. “There will always be consequences from the spiritual legacy we hand down.” You see that with these kings, right? David handed down the legacy of being a man after God’s own heart. Well, not all of his descendants who became kings followed that legacy or fell into it. The record indicates that eight did. We’ll find eight along the way. Likewise, Jeroboam became the model of idolatry and selfishness and literally every one of these named descendants in the north will all prove to be evil, away from the Lord into the deepening darkness of their demise. There will always be consequences from the spiritual legacy that we hand down.

How about you bring that into our own day and time now? What is the spiritual legacy that you want to hand down? I don’t have any children, but I still will hand down a legacy. I have people watching me all the time. You have people watching you all the time. Some of you here are actually the best version of a Christian that somebody knows, and I know some of you just went, “Oh.” But it’s true, it’s likely true. Will you take the Gospel and allow it to flow freely from your lips? Will you take the Gospel and allow it to fall to be seen visibly in your life? I think that’s really, really important. These kings did not do that. This is a lengthy quote, two slides.

“God has given us this relentless catalog of human stupidity and failure…” I love Gary Millar. He’s so good. “…that we can comprehend just how big of a mess we are in.” Isn’t that awesome of God to do that? You medical people? We need a proper diagnosis if we’re ever going to get to the right kind of treatment. So, I love this. It’s a catalog of human stupidity and failure so we can comprehend just how big of a mess we are in. “God wants us to be so attuned to the rhythms of evil that when we are just going with the flow, sinning effortlessly, when we are ungrateful and stupid and act like we are immortal, building a legacy which cannot last, ignoring God, all kinds of warning bells will go off in our heads and we run to Christ.” There’s the purpose of 1 Kings 15 and 16, ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-ling-ling. Warning bells. Watch out for this to happen in your life.

When we do begin to see what the God of the Bible can do with a life or with a church that is surrendered to Him. And I know a lot of you here are actually living, breathing, walking, talking testimonies of the power of redemption at work in your life. That’s why I love this church. That’s why I love the people of this church. But we need to learn, we need to be reminded along the way of lessons like this and pointed to the only great king who can be the king we really, really want and need. And N.T. Wright says this, “When God gives human beings responsibility, He means it. The choices we make, not only individually but as a species, are choices and consequences God, alarmingly, allows us to explore. He will warn us; He will give us opportunities to repent and change course; but if we choose idolatry, we must expect our humanness, bit by bit, to dissolve.”

So, you may be flirting with some sinful activity, or you may be flirting with some temptation not having fallen into the sin yet. And you think because something bad hasn’t happened to you yet that you’re under God’s blessing, and I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. You might be just under God’s patience. Do not confuse God’s patience with God’s endorsement or with God’s imprimatur for you to do something that the Word of God says is against God’s will. So be very, very careful with that. I think that’s important. We see that even here.

Point number three. Even in the trajectory of deepening darkness, God ensures that he has a lamp that shines forth His glory and grace. I’ll put it up on the screen. Look up there. “But for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and establish Jerusalem; because David did what was right in the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days it was life, set except in the case of your Uriah the Hittite.”

For whose sake did the Lord do this? Please tell me. David’s sake. The Lord was kind to even Abijah here. He’s kind to him, and Asa, these aren’t perfect people. And He’s even kind to the people in the north because He keeps sending people like Jehu to speak the word of the Lord. That’s God trying to stir people up and waken them, and He does that all the time with us each and every Sunday as we open His Word. It’s for the sake… The Lord is the one who gave this lamp. That’s the other thing I have got to point out. It wasn’t that Ahijah is out there trying to build a lamp and getting rid of everything that he needed to get rid of. No, he wasn’t. But the Lord is generous, and the Lord is preserving. The Lord has made a promise, and the Lord is going to be faithful to His promise even though we’re foolish in the middle of our own lives.

So, Dale Ralph Davis asks a really good question, “Why doesn’t the kingdom of people of God vanish into the midst of history? Because God will not permit it. He’s decided that His kingdom will come. Grace is not only greater but more stubborn than our sins.” Somebody say amen. Amen.

Grace is greater than our sin, but it’s also more stubborn. Hallelujah. Hold me fast. That’s beautiful. That’s His goodness chasing after you, chasing after me. That’s Jesus leaving the 99 and going for the one that’s strayed. It’s really beautiful, really powerful. Eugene Peterson is my closing thought. “As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice, or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment, or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we’re not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith.”

Yeah, one of Asa’s mistakes was to not even inquire of the Lord, but to turn and trust in Ben-hadad, to give all the treasures of the temple to Ben-hadad, the Syrian king, because he thought he could save him from Baasha. All of these kings, and every king or queen since, every prime minister, every president, every pope, every priest, and yes, every pastor, remind us of our need for a better king and a brighter lamp than any of these.

Both of these chapters point us forward to the grace of God that would provide, about 900 years later, through the greater king we really need, the one true lamp, the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Do you recognize your own need for the light of God in your life? Do you see how Jesus has come to rescue and to redeem you not only from the darkness of the world around you, but from the darkness that can sometimes rise up from within you? And that’s what we keep seeing over and over again here. We need look no further. Jesus really is the one that all of these pages point to.

Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for this text and, as confusing as all the names are and trying to keep the dates straight and who’s the son of who and all of that, Lord, in spite of all of that, would You lift us up to a 30,000-foot view of this to see what You’re really up to, what You’ve been doing, what You’ve done already about what’s broken in this world, and even what’s broken in my heart and in our hearts, Lord? Open our eyes to see how You have been in pursuit of a people You can call Your own and how You’ve made it possible through the finished work of Christ on the cross and in His glorious resurrection for each and every person within the sound of my voice, whether in this room or at home, watching online, Lord, You’ve done everything necessary to make it possible for us to live in right relationship with You.

Oh Lord, Holy Spirit, move on Your people. Move in all of us right now. Draw us to Yourself. Help us to see the beauty of Your grace. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen and amen.