1 Kings 22

Discussion Questions

1. Throughout our study of 1 Kings, we learned that God was not silent or inactive during the reign of Israel’s kings. He was and is a living God who speaks definitively and acts powerfully. What are some ways we can see God at work in the world today? Are we listening to what he says? Are we trusting that the word of the Lord is faithful and true and that his purposes will always be accomplished?
2. Jehoshaphat made alliances with those of questionable character—particularly Ahab and other rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel. Who are we surrounding ourselves with? Are we listening only to people who tell us what we want to hear, or do we have people speaking into our lives who will keep us tethered to God’s word and his will for our lives? Are there people, places, or props we need to avoid?
3. When considering whether or not to go to war against the Syrians, Jehoshaphat paused to inquire of the Lord. As we make decisions (whether big or small), are we taking the time to ask God for guidance? Are we willing to accept his answers, even when those answers are not what we want to hear?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel, and we have extra copies. If you didn’t bring one with you and you’d like one to follow along, maybe I can get somebody to jump up here, and in the back, as well. You just raise your hand up if you’d like a paper copy of the Bible. We also have up on the screen there the QR code, where you can get the notes and the quotes ahead of time. Also, I think there’s a Bible app up there that’s included in our TVC app, and I encourage you to use that. By the way, you can use that to listen to the audio One-Year Bible. I do that myself, Kim and I both do, and we love it.

We have a huge job this morning. We are going to finish up our study of First Kings, looking at Chapter 22. If you want to turn there in your Bible and/or swipe there on your device, First Kings has offered us a 3,000-year-old chronicle that began with the inevitable, but forced, royal succession and continues with the relentless and increasing political disorder, conflict and unrest. Sound relevant at all to our own day and time to anybody? The sort of scene there, very much I think, like ours in some ways.

We started with the last chapter of the final days in the life of the relatively good King David, reigning over a united kingdom. Now we’re going to end here, First Kings, with the dishonorable end of the wicked king, Ahab, who ruled over the northern half of what is now a divided kingdom. Unsurprisingly, we have learned that humanity needs a greater king than any of the 39 kings you can read about in First and Second Kings, presented as the kings of ancient Israel and Judah. We’ve also been reminded that even through our most tumultuous times, God has proven Himself faithful to His people throughout First Kings.

God was neither silent nor inactive. Yahweh’s faithful prophets spoke, and the Word of the Lord remained a central theme throughout our study of First Kings. Join me now as we conclude our exploration of 1 Kings, reminding us to stay alert, and listen for the Word of the Lord, as it comes to us through the written word of God, and also foreshadowing the living word of God that we find in the person and work of Jesus.

So, Chapter 22 is where we’ll be. It goes just like this: There have been three years that have passed without war between Iran, that’s Syria, and Israel. It’s about 853 BC, if anybody wants to mark that down if you’re keeping a chronological sort of map of things. Some of you have wondered about the difference between Chronicles and Kings. First and Second Kings tends to focus a little more on the Northern Kingdom, First and Second Chronicles a little more on the Southern Kingdom. But both will speak a little bit about both kingdoms, so it’s important to know that and see the differences.

If you want to follow the parallel of First Kings 22 that’s in Second Chronicles, that would be chapter 18 there. So, three years have passed without war between the Northern Kingdom and Syria, otherwise known as A-R-A-M, Aram. In the third year, Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, that’s the Southern Kingdom, came down to the king of Israel. And some of you’re going, “Wait a minute, that’s not the way we say that. You would be going up, if you’re going from south to north.”

And that’s just because we’re Westerners. We’re used to thinking that way. We tend to think in terms of north, south, east West, but for ancient Jews, and for Jews today, when you leave Jerusalem, you’re always going down, from Jerusalem, and you always go up to Jerusalem. It’s a holy city. And so here, Jehoshaphat, who is the king down in Judah, son of Asa, whom we’ve already studied, Jehoshaphat is coming down to the King of Israel, even though he’s going north, okay? And Ahab is the King of Israel at the time. Now, the King of Israel, Ahab, said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us, and we are still doing nothing to take it out of the hand of the King of Aram?” And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-Gilead?”

And Jehoshaphat said to the King of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” This is just an interesting response. Take a look at the map with me, if you will. Ramoth-Gilead is over on the right. It says Israel, right in the middle there, look to the right. And in dark letters, you see Ramoth-Gilead. It’s a town that’s over there between Aram, Syria and Israel, Northern Kingdom of Israel. And down where it says Jerusalem at the bottom there, that kind of dark blue area, that’s the beginnings of Judah. It continues on off the map. I just wanted us to see where Ramoth-Gilead is.

If you look to the west, and down below the word Israel, you see Samaria there. Samaria is sort of the capital city of the Northern Kingdom. So, Ahab is operating from Samaria, that’s where his palace is. He’s now talking to Jehoshaphat, who’s from Jerusalem down below, and they’ve kind of gotten together a little bit. Their families are starting to get along. And if you read in Second Kings, you find out what has happened, that one of their children has married one of the other’s children. So, daughter and son-in-law are now in-laws, essentially, is what is happening.

And these alliances would come and go, between different nation-states, often not about romance between two of their kids, but often about politics, and sort of making sure, “Economically, we’re secure, because after all, my kid lives over there in your country, or your kid lives in my country, and we’re all one big happy Thanksgiving family dinner together,” or whatever. But they want to go take that city over there, Ramoth-Gilead, that the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad, had said, “I was going to return that to you, Ahab.” Evidently, he hasn’t done that, and so now, Ahab wants to take that, and he wants to get Jehoshaphat to help him do that. So, “My people are as your people.” Verse four, “my horses are as your horses,” Jehoshaphat says to Ahab.

“Moreover,” Jehoshaphat said to the King of Israel, “Please inquire first for the Word of the LORD.” And Lord is in all caps, L-O-R-D. That means, it’s actually in the Hebrew, Yehovah, and that means it’s the personal name of God. You’re going to see in this chapter, capital L, little o, little r, little d, which is the English translation of Adonai, and that’s a more generic term for God. Lord, in all capital letters, is Yahweh the God of Israel, that’s been the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and on down, who’s revealed Himself to Israel, and to Judah, okay? So, he says, “Please inquire first for the Word of the Lord,” Yahweh. Then the King of Israel, that’s Ahab, they have gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?”

And they said, “Go up for the Lord,” Adonai, notice the generic spelling there. “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the King.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord,” Yahweh here, “that we may inquire of him?” See, Jehoshaphat, of all of the 19 kings of the Southern kingdom. He’s actually one of the eight that are considered, I’ll put it in quotes, “good,” and it’s just kind of relative good, okay? But he’s looking for a word from Yahweh, not just spirituality in general, but actually, a specific spirituality, okay? And we want to inquire of Him. The King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, but I hate him, because he doesn’t prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”

He is Micaiah, son of Imlah. Micaiah’s name means, “Who is like Yahweh?” His very name, it just reminds people that nobody is like Yahweh. Nobody is like this God who’s revealed Himself to us. But Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” So, there’s a little awkward moment there, where a king from the south, Jehoshaphat, is kind of rebuking a king from the north, Ahab, right there in front of everybody. And essentially, Jehoshaphat is, like I say, a relatively good king, and he kind of believes that the outcomes belong to Yahweh, not to just generic spirituality. We would do well in our own day and time to understand that, too.

There’s a personal God that actually loves you, knows you by name, came for you to rescue you. In the hum of the universe, the battery of the universe, the impersonal kinds of ideas that people have about God, that’s not the kind of God that can save you. That’s not the kind of God that even knows you. That’s not the kind of God you can appeal to, or that could comfort you during your very dark hour that you’re going through, or the storm you’re about to face, or are facing right now. Don’t you want the real God who is there, and not just a god of your own creation, or god of our culture’s creation?

“Let not the king say so.” Verse Nine. Then the King of Israel called an officer, and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah, son of Imlah.” So, you can see, he’s going to send a driver to go get him. “Now the King of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes at the threshing floor, at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all of the prophets were prophesying before them. Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made horns of iron for himself, and he said, ‘Thus says the Lord, with these,’ meaning these horns, ‘you will gore the Syrians, until they are consumed.'”

So here steps up this guy named Zedekiah, and he’s got these big old Viking horns on his head, or whatever. This is pre-Viking time, I’m sure, but he’s like, he’s ready to go to battle, and he’s going to, “Let’s charge. We’re going to take our helmet with our horns, and we’re going to gore all of the Syrians with that.” Well, all the prophets were prophesying thusly. So, the two kings are sitting there, all the people are gathered around, and these 400 prophets are just running around circles, with their helmets and their horns on them, “Yeah, let’s go, let’s go to battle,” screaming and hollering, just a lot of carrying on, and making noise, and trying to gin up the same kinds of feelings that the prophets of Baal did, in Chapter 18, you remember?

They cut themselves, they screamed, they hollered, “Please help. I’m going to come bring down your fire,” and nothing. Because Baal was a God that had been created by humans. It was the subject of someone’s imagination, not the God who was there. Baal was a God, that if they carved little statues of Baal, had a mouth, but couldn’t speak, had feet, but couldn’t walk, had hands, but couldn’t do anything. In other words, Baal’s no God at all. And they’re sitting there, just running around, these kind of yes men, they’re boot lickers, in a way. They’re literally going to tell Ahab whatever he wants to hear.

And they’re running around, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, prosper, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the King.” And man, this is an ancient version of, you know what God wants for you? Anything you want for you. That’s what this is. This is an early version of health, wealth and prosperity kind of Gospel, and there’s no justification for it. It tickles people’s ears, like the Apostle Paul would write about later. It’s the kind of thing that people like to hear, but it doesn’t help them grow in the faith. It doesn’t help them grow closer to the Lord at all.

The messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him. So, the Uber driver from Ahab is picking Micaiah up now, and he’s going to talk to him. On the way back, he says, “Behold, now the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the King. Please let your word be like the word of one of them. Speak favorably, Micaiah.” Remember, why does Ahab not want to hear from Micaiah? Because he doesn’t tell him what he wants to hear all the time. He tells him the truth. He speaks from Yahweh, right? The God who is there.

This is interesting, though. Watch what happens, Verse 14. Micaiah says, “As the Lord,” that’s Yahweh, “lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.” So, in the Uber, on the way back, it feels a whole lot like he’s drawing a line, and saying, “I got to be true to who I am.” So, they pull up to where all the 400 prophets are doing all the running around, with all their horns, and making all kinds of noise, and rattling their swords and sabers, and all that sort of thing. And the kings are sitting there, in their thrones, in the gate of Samaria. “And when they came to the king, the king said to him, ‘Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?’ And he answered him.” Here’s what Micaiah says. “’Go up and succeed, and Yahweh will give it into the hand of the king.’”

Now, I wish that I knew enough about ancient Hebrew, and I wish that actually, anybody, because none of the commentators could do this, either, as I was reading through all of them. They all said, “I wish we knew enough to know what kind of facial expressions …” Sometimes, when people speak, they can say something, and if their body language is one way, you know it means this. But if their body language is this way, it means a completely different thing. When you were little, if your mother used your full proper name, it kind of meant, it was time for you to come home, and face facts, right? So was Micaiah there, going, I mean, did he grab one of the sets of horns, throw it on his head and go, “As the Lord lives, here’s what you should do, go up and succeed?”

Was he mocking them openly, in front of all these prophets, in front of all of the people? Possibly. Watch what happens. Verse 16, the king, Ahab, says to Micaiah, “How many times must I adjure you to speak to me nothing but the truth, in the name of Yahweh?” So, he’s mad. Why is he mad? Well, because publicly he said, “Micaiah is never going to go along with whatever I want. Micaiah is going to say this.” Then Micaiah comes along and doesn’t say what Ahab said he would say. And I think Ahab has got a little egg on his face. He’s a little embarrassed. He predicted it would go one way, and it didn’t.

So, Micaiah says to him, Verse 17, “’I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd.’” In other words, afraid and vulnerable. “’The Lord said, “These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace.” Then the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?'” Now Ahab’s going, “See, I told you so, right?” Here’s what Micaiah does. This is amazing. He’s going to give Ahab and everybody there, including the 400 prophets, false prophets, a real vision of what’s going on in the heavenly realm.

“’Therefore, hear the word of Yahweh. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, all the hosts of Heaven, standing by him on his right hand, and on his left. And Yahweh said, “Who will entice Ahab to go up, and fight and fall, at Ramoth-Gilead?” And one said this, while another said that. ‘Then a spirit came forward, and stood before the Lord and said, “I will entice him.” And the Lord Yahweh said to him, “How?” And he said, “I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.” And then, he said, “You are to entice him, and also prevail. Go and do so.”

“’And now, therefore, behold, Yahweh put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these, your prophets, and the Lord Yahweh has proclaimed disaster against you.’” This is Micaiah. And he’s now doing what Ahab had originally said he would do, but he’s adding more than that. He’s even telling him how God’s going to go about doing it. Now some of you’re getting all crazy, some of you’re going, “Now, I got questions.” Sure. Sounds like God’s endorsing, rubber-stamping, lying. Is that what’s going on here?” No, it’s not lying when you tell somebody you’re deceiving them. Think that through for just a second.

Micaiah says to Ahab, and everybody else there, “The Lord has got this heavenly realm, and in that heavenly realm,” just like in Job, Chapter 1 when Satan comes before the Lord, and there’s some discussion going on there about Job, right? Just like in Isaiah 6, just like at the end of Revelation, and there’s all this stuff going on in the heavenly realm. And what Micaiah does is the Lord gives him a vision of what’s going on in the heavenlies. And he lays it out. And he tells Ahab exactly what’s going to happen. “You are going to be deceived by all 400 of those prophets. You are going to be deceived.” And now, Ahab, it’s sort of like, the ball is kind of pushed in Ahab’s corner there. You get to do with that information whatever you want to do.

Now watch what he does. It’s amazing. The King of Israel, Ahab, “Take Micaiah, return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, put this man in prison. And feed him sparingly, with bread and water, until I return safely.’” It’s going to be, just not even bottled water and saltines, man. I mean, this guy is throwing him in jail, and that’s his response to the Word of the Lord, when it’s right up front. And Micaiah, then, gets the last word, as they’re kind of carrying him toward the chariot there, Micaiah gets the last word, Verse 28. “If you, indeed,” and I love this, so he says, “Give him just water and bread,” I love this, “until I return safely.” Isn’t that interesting?

Ahab can say, “Throw him in jail, give him just bread and water.” But those of us who have read the rest of the chapter know he can’t say, “Until I return safely.” He doesn’t have that power. So, Micaiah, on the way to jail, says, “If you, indeed, return safely,” if, big if, “the Lord, then, has not spoken by me.” And then he says, Micaiah does, to all of the people, “Listen, all you people.” It’s very public. All of this is very public. So, the King of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, went up against Ramoth-Gilead. The King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I’m going to disguise myself, and go into the battle. You put on your robes.” So the King of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. The one thing I think Jehoshaphat is pretty lame at? He’s not very good at seeing when he’s being manipulated, it feels like, to me.

Because Ahab is basically saying, “Huh, I better hedge my bets against what Micaiah said, and what Yahweh is predicting will happen. I’m going to go into the battle, not looking like I’m in the king’s chariot, with the king’s robes. I’m going to go among the enlisted men, with just everyday clothes. And you, Jehoshaphat, you go in looking like a king. You go in.” And watch what happens. Well, here’s what happens. “The King of Aram [or Syria] had commanded the 32 captains of his chariots, saying, ‘Do not fight with small or great, but with the King of Israel alone.’ So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, ‘Surely, it is the King of Israel.’” Why? Because of his robes, because of his fancy chariot. “And they turned aside to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out.” I don’t know what he said. He might have said, “I’m not Ahab,” because the King of Aram wanted to go after the King of Israel, Ahab. Verse 33. “When the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the King of Israel, Ahab, they turned back from pursuing him. Now, a certain man drew his bow at random.”

I love those two words, “At random.” You can underline them in your Bible… “And he struck the King of Israel [that’s Ahab] in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot [Ahab does] ‘Turn around and take me out of the fight, for I’m severely wounded.’ The battle raged that day. The king was propped up in his chariot, in front of the Arameans [or the Syrians] and died it evening. And the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot.” Wow, amazing. “A cry passed throughout the army, close to sunset, saying, ‘Every man to his city, every man to his country.’ So the king died.” This is Ahab. We’ve been six chapters with Ahab, people. He just died, and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.

Listen to this live body detail: “They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria. The dogs licked up his blood.” And this is gross, I’m sorry, but look at the detail. “The harlots bathed themselves there in that pool of Samaria, according to the Word of the Lord, which he spoke.” You can reference Chapter 21, Verse 19 on your own. You’ll see that it was predicted that the dogs would be licking up the blood of Ahab when he died.

“The rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did in the ivory house, which he built, and all the cities which he built there, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah, his son, became king in his place.” He will also be another horrible and wicked king. As a matter of fact, all 19 of the kings in the Northern Kingdom are wicked. Let me finish reading the chapter, and then I’ll come back and make a few comments. “Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became King over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, the King of Israel.” This keeps in line with what we’ve been seeing throughout the book of Kings, that it steps back, give us the big picture view, and they overlap.

Usually, they’re overlapping, by showing, “Who’s the king in the south? Let me tell you about the king in the north. Who’s the king in the north? And then, let me tell you about the king in the south.” So, they’re always overlapping. “Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king. He reigned for 25 years in Jerusalem,” till he’s how old? 60. “And his mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. He walked in all the ways of Asa, his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord.”

Isn’t that so refreshing to hear, after studying Ahab? Amen. “However, the high places were not taken away.” Okay, he’s not perfect. “The people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the King of Israel. Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might, which he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles, of the Kings of Judah? The remnants of the male cult of prostitutes,” some of your translations might say Sodomites, “who remained in the days of his father, Asa, that is, in Jehoshaphat’s father, Asa, the kinds of male cult prostitutes in the temple, that were there during Asa remained, except in Jehoshaphat’s time. He expelled them from the land.” Did not want to have that sexual immorality happening, especially in and related to the worship of Yahweh.

“There was no king in Edom. A deputy was king.” And this is just interesting little details, as we finish out the chapter. “Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go out to Ophir, for gold.” Remember, Solomon went there? Solomon would come back with tons of gold every year. “But they did not go, for the ships were broken at Ezion-Geber.” For Jehoshaphat, it didn’t happen. The ships had been broken, or either that, or they had just decayed. “Then Ahaziah,” the son of Ahab,” remember, he took over for Ahab, “said to Jehoshaphat, ‘let my servants go with your servants in the ships.’ But Jehoshaphat was not willing.” That’s an important fact right there.

It’s never too late to start employing common sense and doing the next right thing. He wasn’t good at his alliance choices, and he made an alliance with Ahab, the most wicked King of Israel, up to this point. So here, he says, “I’m not going to make an alliance, any kind of a deal, with Ahaziah.” Well… “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father, David. And Jehoram, his son, became king in his place. Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel and Samaria on the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. And he reigned two years over Israel.” That’s a pretty short reign. “He, Ahaziah, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked away in the way of his father,” that’s Ahab, “in the way of his mother,” that’s Jezebel, “and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.” That’s the sort of fountainhead of the Northern Kingdom, who caused Israel to sin. Is that how you want to be remembered? No.

“He [Ahaziah] served Baal, and worshiped him,” and notice this, “provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger according to all that his father had done.” There’s so much here. As we close out First Kings, as we look back over all the chapters, I think the theme that continues to run through the whole thing is not so much the kings themselves, but the ultimate king. And so, I’ll put up on the screen for you what has been, when we started this study of First and Second Kings, we’re calling it “The King of Redemption History.” We saw, in the first 11 chapters, the wisdom and folly of Solomon. We saw the kingdoms reduced, or falling into chaos, in Chapters 12 through 16. And we got a glimpse of Elijah, and Elisha, even, as we turned into Chapter 17. And we’ll see that storyline run.

Those of you that choose to go to the Sunday school class that will pick up Second Kings in the nine o’clock hour, don’t come up and attack us, because we’re making a Sunday school class out of Second Kings. You can still come to the 11 o’clock service afterwards. We love you, but we have to do some things. This’ll be good, I think, really. And Second Kings goes on, to show more and more of the decline of Israel in the north, till 722 BC, when they are literally dismantled by the Assyrians. And it shows, also, the decline of Judah in the south, up until 586 BC, when it will be dismantled by the Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar. So, this is the constant stream.

The message that we keep seeing is: “We need a better king.” Here’s all these kings, 39 of them. None of them are going to do. Is this best we can do? Sadly, yes. But is it the best God can do? No. Gladly, no. Because these kings as failures, not only do they expose our need for a better king, but they point forward to, and foreshadow, the one who is coming. What standard or measure does 1 Kings use to distinguish between a good king and a bad king? It’s the way they respond to the Word of the Lord. Ahab, how does he respond to the word of Lord? Never seeks it, never heeds it, and isn’t really interested in it. As a matter of fact, I’ll put one slide up that kind of summarizes, or let me give you two slides.

He was evil, and provoked the Lord more than any other king, and there’s the reference there. He worshiped false gods, Baal and Asherah. He was known for his cunning and cruel wife, Jezebel. He was known for his childish and selfish behaviors. He was known for his own failure to seek the Lord. He failed to worship the Lord. He failed to offer thanks to the Lord. We saw, over and over again, the Lord being merciful to Ahab, the Lord attempting to communicate to Ahab, and Ahab would have none of it. Ahab rejected, ignored, walked away, indifferent to Yahweh, and he consistently refused to listen to the Word of the Lord.

When we study any Bible passage, we always ask these four questions:

How does God reveal Himself in this passage? What about His nature, character, wisdom and will and ways do we see here?

Second question. What aspects of our need for redemption are exposed in this book of First Kings, or any passage we’re studying?

Thirdly, we always ask the question, how’s the Gospel of Jesus reflected in this passage? And certainly here, we can say, “This book shows us we need King Jesus.” We need the King who will come, who is all wise, all knowing, and loves us, even while we were yet sinners. See, He’s the greater king, even than Solomon and David.

And then, the fourth question is always, what faith response does this passage compel from us? And I guess the question is, what would you do with the Word of the Lord?

I know you who come here and I know those of you who are online with us, are drawn to this church, for some reason. One of the distinctives of our church, and there are many reasons why I would choose to come to this church, even if I didn’t work here, but one of them is that we study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, on purpose. Because what we don’t want to do is just pick and choose our favorite little pet words of the Lord, our just, Adonai generic, sort of Word of the Lord, that happens to make us feel better about ourselves. We’re not doing that here.

I was reminded this week, when we started the Village Chapel, the very first book of the Bible we studied was almost, I look back on it now, and I go, “We could probably write the book on how not to start a church,” because we chose the book of Judges first. But I got news for you. It’s overflowing with the grace of God. It’s an amazing book and the whole Old Testament points forward to and finds its fulfillment in Jesus. And this is one of the reasons why we study verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, so that we don’t just go salad bar spirituality on you guys that come here. We want the whole counsel of God. Why?

Because sometimes, this world just really gets crazy, nutty, and our world gets crazy, too. And sometimes, the darkness seems so strong. Sometimes, our drift seems so far our own, the undulation of my spiritual life, and your spiritual life. We need the whole counsel of God, not just the feel good verses, not just the ones that look nice on a plaque. We need the hard truth about people like Ahab, whom God is consistently, faithfully, merciful to, over and over and over and over again, but His patience comes to an end. And we need to be told that.

And we don’t get that from the prophets of Baal. We don’t get that from the false prophets. Even if these are prophets of Yahweh, they use the name Adonai, and the name Yahweh, but they’re not faithful to Yahweh. They’re telling the king what he wants to hear. We don’t want to choose our prophets, based on the fact that they’ll tell us what we want to hear. We want them to tell us what we need to hear. It’s so important for our growth. I’m going to throw a Warren Buffett quote up here, because we need some comic relief. “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive, than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Ahab would have done well to step out of the, “I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it” boat, into the, “Speak to me, Yahweh, let me hear from You” boat. And it might not line up with everything I want, or I prefer, or the timing I want. It might be tough; it might be a call to suffering in some way. I might not want this, but for Your glory, and for Your good, and maybe the good of Your people, and maybe some unknown good that I can’t even imagine right now, I am Yours.

Just as Jesus said, “Father, not my will, but thine be done,” even though He’s about to face the cross. If only Ahab had had a level of self-awareness that helped him see his disconnect from God was literally killing him. We cannot expect to lead a flourishing life if we have cut ourselves off from the very source of life, who is God. Verse 34, I think, is fascinating. “A certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint.” Hey, listen, I’ll throw this quote up on the screen, so I can keep things moving here. But in a world that is governed by a sovereign God, there are no random arrows.

Does that make sense? Infinitely sovereign God, okay? There’s just no random arrows. And I know, for some of you, you’re going, “Yeah, but what about this? Yeah, but what about …” I know you got the “Yeah, but what abouts” going. And I can’t answer every question about everybody’s suffering and pain experiences. I can’t even answer all the questions about mine. Here’s what I can do: I can tell myself, and offer to you the encouragement, that you can trust this God of the Bible. Why? Because He knows what suffering is all about. This is a God who willingly laid down his life on a cross, so that you and I could use the word “forever,” forever. Such a beautiful word.

And we have no claim on that word, apart from Jesus and His resurrection and His crucifixion before that. It’s so important, I think, for us. Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” Pilate said to Jesus, “What is truth?” And then he walks out, didn’t even wait for an answer. Jesus tells us what truth is, two different occasions. Here, on John 17:17, His high priestly prayer that He’s praying to God. “Father,” He says, “God, with my disciples here, the ones that you’ve given to me, sanctify them.” That means, “Set them apart in the truth.” In other words, just, Lord, wash over us, with the certainty of your Word, the promises, the hope of your Word. And let us know that it’s the truth.

And then, Jesus, in His prayer to God on behalf of His disciples, says, “Your Word is …” He doesn’t put a definite article, “the,” or “a,” he says, “Your word is truth.” And then, later, Jesus would also say this, “I am the way, the … Truth And the life.” It’s not just something that He has, and gives, or points to over there or, “Follow these rules,” or whatever. No, He is the way. So, if you’ve lost yours, go to Him. He is the truth, if you’re looking for some of that, and I can’t imagine you aren’t, go to Him. And He’s the life. If you need more of that, if you feel yours is languishing and wasting away, go to Him. He’s the one we’re going to point you to, over and over and over again here at the Village Chapel.

History’s not a random series of meaningless events. It’s rather a succession of periods and happenings under the sovereign rule of God, who’s the God of history. There are no random arrows if there’s a sovereign God. What about Ahab? What about this very sad story, that he comes to this end, this very ignoble end? “God, in the end,” as Lewis said, “gives people what they most want, including freedom from himself. What could be more fair?” Ahab wanted life without the Word of the Lord, and without the Lord who speaks the Word. What do you want? Because it’s likely that God will give it to you.

That’s what I see here, when we get to the end of this chapter. I think that’s important for us to know. How much have your dreams been personal, earthbound physical in here and now? Have you been motivated by your kingdom more than God’s kingdom? How’s your present discouragement, disappointment, confusion, or grief, a window on what has actually captured your heart? It can be that way. Paul Tripp goes on to say, “Have you really wanted God to be your wise and loving Father, who brings into your life what He considers best? Or have you wanted Him to be a divine waiter? The all-powerful deliverer of your dreams, the cosmic concierge in your life?”

Good questions to ask, and I’ll close with a second stock quote. “If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts, and never the thunderclap of God’s, then indeed He will not speak to us. And we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency, and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.”

What did Ahab really want in life? He wanted prophets that told him what he wanted to hear. What do we want? We want to hear from the Word of the Lord, and from the Lord Himself. We want a God who occasionally disagrees with us, because then we know we got a real God. We want a God who   occasionally calls us to tough stuff, because then we know we got a real God that we’re worshiping. So how should we approach the Word of God? Humbly submitting ourselves to it, just like we have attempted to do here, as we’ve studied First Kings. We don’t want to become like Ahab.

But this is God’s Word. It’s unique in its source. It’s timeless in its truth, it’s broad in its reach, and it’s transforming in its power. And I pray, as we continue on next week, we’ll be looking at some Palm Sunday passages, and the week after that, the Easter message, of course, especially focusing in on 1 Peter, Chapter One, and then we’ll start 1 Peter, up here, in the chapel. And Second Kings will be a part of that Sunday school class, which will also be recorded and posted online, if you would like to know about that, as well.

Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for 1 Kings, we’re so grateful for this book. As we sit here today, and as we close it up, I wonder what role Jesus, You might be calling each of us to play in the ongoing story of redemption history. God, You have saved us. Then You must also have given us a story to tell, of Your faithfulness, in our good times and in our bad times. Lord, I pray that You give us utterance, give us opportunities to have the Gospel fall freely from our lips, and even be seen in our lives, especially in our relationships, especially here in Your church, this local expression of Your church we call The Village Chapel.

And Lord, no matter what happens, whether our earthly leaders, or whether our nation, or even the leaders in our churches, for that matter, we always will be looking for the Great King, Jesus, and always seeking to place him on the throne of our lives, because he’s the king that no other king could ever be.

He’s the true king of redemption history. He is strong to save. He is wise to lead. He is gentle and lowly to receive us, and he’s worthy of our praise.

We bless him and praise him. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.