2 KINGS 1-3 ELIJAH AND ELISHA2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Kings 1-3 Elijah And Elisha

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012.

And for the rest of us, we're here. 1 Kings chapter 18. We'll be going through 2 Kings chapter 3 as we review the chapters that we've been reading this week in the Bible in three years. As we finish up 1 Kings tonight, we're looking at a book. We don't know the exact author. It was probably a compilation of several different accounts that were combined together later on. Tradition says that it was published

Probably Jeremiah who put the final book together, but we don't know for sure. It covers about 100 years of history from 972 to 863 BC. And it's focusing on the kings of both Israel and Judah.

We have been seeing that already as we've been studying through the book of 1 Kings. On our timeline, here's what it looks like. The book of 1 Kings covers this time period. It begins with the reign of Solomon. Then it goes on to Solomon's son when the kingdom is divided and Israel is split in two. And then it's following the history of those two kingdoms now and following the kings of both the north and the south, both of Israel and of Judah.

Here's what that looks like on the map. On the left here you have Solomon's kingdom. It was expanded greatly by David and then Solomon inherited these boundaries, maintained the peace during his lifetime. It was glorious days. It was the peak of Israel's history, the height of their glory. And they experienced the incredible blessings of God.

But then because of their rebellion against God, then soon after Solomon's death, the kingdom was divided. And so there on the right hand side, you get to see that the northern part of Israel kept the name Israel. And so it's referred to as Israel or the northern kingdom.

And that inherited most of the tribes, the majority of the land, 10 of the tribes of Israel, while Judah remained in the south and just had the one tribe or two tribes, depending on how you count it.

But so it was just the smaller portion there. Of course, Jerusalem was there. And so that brought some contention because the people who wanted to worship God had to go from Israel to Judah. And so you remember how Jeroboam set up idolatry right away so that the people of Israel would worship at these places.

idolatrous temples in Dan and in Bethel instead of going back to Jerusalem to worship because he didn't want them to realign with Judah later on. And so we've seen that and now we're following in the aftermath of that where Israel continues to walk away from the Lord.

Judah will have a continual walking away from God as well as they'll have some revivals that come along the way as well. But generally they'll continue this downward spiral of rebelling against God and walking away from God. Well now as we head into our portion that we read this past week, we're looking at 1 Kings chapter 18 and the key verse is verse 38.

It says, Here in 1 Kings chapter 18, we're jumping kind of right in the middle or right near the beginning of the ministry of Elijah the prophet.

In chapter 17, Elijah just appeared. He just came on the scene in full force and he proclaimed that there would be a drought. He said, it's not going to rain unless I say so. And he was doing that because he was speaking on behalf of God. And so he was used by the Lord to proclaim a drought during the reign of King Ahab.

Ahab was the king of Israel, the northern kingdom, which was in full-out rebellion against God and had these idolatrous things already set up. But Ahab also introduced, in addition to the golden calves, the worship of Baal.

And so now this other God he's introduced, he's encouraging the people to worship. And the Bible describes, we saw last week, Ahab as the worst king so far. He was the worst of Israel's kings up to this point. He continued to turn the people away from God further and further.

And so the worst king so far, now God brings the prophet Elijah onto the scene to kind of counteract and to call his people back to repentance. And so he proclaims a drought to get their attention. And now as we head into chapter 18, three years have passed. So Elijah shows up in 17 and says, if there's going to be a drought, it's not going to rain except at my word.

Now as we head into chapter 18, it's three years later and it's not rained. It's a very severe drought that has come upon Israel for their rebellion against God as God is seeking to get their attention and call them back to repentance.

So in verses 1 through 16 now of chapter 18, we have after three years, Elijah presents himself to Ahab once again. So he comes back to Ahab and now he's preparing for the rain to return. He's preparing to announce that the rain will come back.

And so he goes to Ahab. First he meets with Obadiah, who was faithful to the Lord in times past. And so Obadiah is used to bring Elijah before Ahab. And then Elijah there in front of Ahab challenges the prophets of Baal in verses 17 through 24. And so he challenges them to a duel essentially. Challenges them to see which God will answer by fire from heaven.

Now what's interesting about this is that Baal was the farm god or the storm god. And so this drought that has been going on for the past three and a half years has been a direct assault against Baal. Because they're worshipping the storm god, but even though they're worshipping Baal, there's no rain.

And so God has proclaimed a drought to demonstrate the God that you're worshiping is not a real God. That there's only one true and living God and you're not worshiping him. So Baal is being proven to be false by this drought that is going on. Well now as Elijah calls for this duel to answer by fire from heaven,

He is again putting on the spot, showing, highlighting, your God is a false God. And so he says, how long will you falter between these two opinions? The children of Israel, the nation of Israel, didn't consider themselves to be in rebellion against God. They were just adding on to their worship of God, the worship of Baal.

And they just figured that's okay. They just thought, hey, it's not that big of a deal. We haven't, you know, rejected God. We still worship God. They did it wrong because they're doing it at these, you know, for these golden calves in Dan and Bethel.

But they, in their minds, they're fully convinced we're worshiping God. They're doing it wrong, but they think that they're worshiping God. And they think, hey, it's not that big of a deal to add into our worship this worship of Baal. And so Elijah says, how long will you falter between these two opinions?

You're worshiping God and then you're worshiping Baal and you kind of go back and forth and back and forth and you're trying to do both. How long are you going to try to do that and be split between these two gods that you are worshiping? And so he challenges them to a duel. He gives the prophets of Baal the first chance. In verses 25 through 29, the prophets of Baal cry out to their God, but Baal did not answer.

The God that they worshipped was not able to do the thing that they worshipped him for. He's the storm God, but they're not able to get him to bring rain or to bring fire from heaven. Now in this situation here on the top of Mount Carmel where this battle takes place, the prophets of Baal did their best. They worshipped Baal the very best that they knew how.

And they cried out and they cut themselves in order to try to get Baal's attention. They're just doing what they were taught, what they had been declaring is the way to worship Baal. But even though they did the best that they could, everything that was prescribed, Baal did not answer. This is something that you and I, we need to learn about false gods.

We may not bow down before a statue of Baal anymore.

In some parts of the world, that still happens. But for you and I, that's not something that we wrestle with every day. We're not tempted to bow down to statues. But as we've often talked about, false gods, idolatry doesn't have to be bowing down before some type of statue. But false gods and idolatry is, it happens anytime when there are things in our life that get the attention, the devotion, the passion that belongs to God.

And when there are things in our life that take away from our responsibility to God, those things are idols. And we're worshiping those false gods in giving of our attention and passion and devotion to those things that are not God. But here's the lesson that we can learn about idolatry from the prophets here on Mount Carmel.

That is, false gods cannot provide the very thing people seek when they worship them. They were worshiping Baal so that he would provide rain because he was the storm god. So that they would have abundant crops because he was the god of farms. He was the god of their produce. And so they thought, well, if we worship Baal, we'll have abundant crop. He'll send the rain. We'll be prosperous.

But for three years, God has demonstrated when you worship a false god, you'll find that that god that you're worshiping is not able to provide what you are seeking. You're worshiping this god in order to try to get something back. And that false god will never be able to provide that. They were worshiping Baal to call down fire from heaven.

But the false God that they were worshiping is never able to provide the thing that they were worshiping that God for. And when you and I, we take away from what belongs to God in our passion and devotion and we give it to something else. So let's say we take away from what God has called of us, what he's commanded of us, and we devote that to our jobs.

Because we think, well, I need some extra money. The holidays are coming. And I need to have some stability perhaps. Or I need to get into a home. And so I know God wants this from me. But I'm going to go and engage in this. I'm going to pursue this so that I can get some security. So that I can get some extra resources. So that I can establish myself. And so we're worshiping this other God.

But what we'll find is that God that we worship is not able to provide the very thing that we are seeking to obtain by worshiping that God. Remember, the Lord says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these other things will be added unto you. But when we seek all the other things, because we're convinced we need those things, and we seek God second,

we're worshiping false gods. And what we'll find is those false gods can never provide the thing that we're seeking when we engage in the worship of those things. And that's what the prophets of Baal are shown. They're worshiping Baal. The people are worshiping Baal. For three years, God has said, look, this is unfruitful. When you turn away from God,

To get something else, to obtain something for yourself, you don't get what it is you're seeking. You don't find the fulfillment in the worship of another God. Well, then Elijah's turn comes up in verses 30 through 40. And he calls upon the Lord and the Lord answers with fire.

The Lord answers with fire. In verse 36 it says, And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant and that I have done these things at your word.

Here Elijah's making sure it's known. His prayer is calling attention to the fact that this is so that the people will know that he is God. He's God. And Elijah is giving us insight here. He says that I've done these things at your word. And so we understand here Elijah was instructed by God to do this.

So it's not just that Elijah had a good idea. Well, I know how to prove that he's God. God said, here Elijah, here's what I want you to do. Set up a duel. Set up a challenge. I want to prove that I am the Lord. And so Elijah, he prays this simple prayer. The prophets of Baal, they're dancing, they're singing, they're chanting, they're cutting themselves for hours. All day long.

And Baal does not answer because false gods are unable to provide the things that people seek when they worship them. But Elijah prays this simple prayer. He doesn't have to cut himself or make a big hoopla. He doesn't even have to pray a big long prayer. He just prays a real simple short prayer and God answers by fire.

Not only does God answer by fire, but when God answers, it's all consuming. It consumes the altar. It consumes the dust off of the altar. It consumes all of the water that they poured on the sacrifice. It consumes all of the water in the trench around it. You see the contrast here? They're worshiping this false god. They're giving so much. They're cutting themselves. They're sacrificing greatly to worship this false god. And the god is not able to provide anything.

But Elijah prays a simple prayer to the true and living God and God's response is consuming. It's overwhelming. It's overflowing. It's more than even what was required. God is demonstrating that not only is he the only true and living God, he's demonstrating that only he can satisfy. And when you worship him, he provides abundantly.

When you look to Him, when you call upon Him, He provides abundantly. So that not just the sacrifice itself is consumed by fire, but the whole altar. And then the ground around the altar where the trench is and all the water in it. That God is able to provide above and beyond what we could ever ask or think. It's amazing seeing this contrast that we would ever imagine.

worship false gods. And yet it's a continual battle for us. And we need these reminders to remember, oh, seek first the kingdom of God. Put him first. Worship him first. Keep him the center, the focus, the passion, the devotion of my life. And then he'll take care of all those needs and he'll supply abundantly. He'll provide because only he can do so.

And so the Lord sets up this demonstration to prove that he is God and to prove that he is the only one who can provide. And then verse 41 through 46, he ends the drought. And so Elijah, at the instruction of God, goes up and he prays for rain. God allows it to be a little bit of a struggle. And so he prays for rain seven times.

Is there a cloud yet? No. Is there a cloud yet? No. Is there a cloud yet? But he keeps on praying. He keeps on praying. He's persistent in his prayer because he knows God will provide. Do you think Elijah at some point, maybe around prayer four, well, maybe I should start praying to Baal. He's the storm God. Maybe he can provide. No, of course not. God's already demonstrated he alone is God. He doesn't always answer the first time we ask. He doesn't always answer according to our timeline.

But he does answer. He does provide. He does meet our needs. And so Elijah prays for rain and then it comes. And it comes in great abundance just like the fire came in great abundance. And so through this, the drought ending, God is demonstrating to all of Israel, he alone is God. But all is not God.

It's an idol, a false god that they have been worshipping. So chapter 18 is one of those classic, hallmark, important chapters that we love to read through as we continue on reading through the scriptures. Well, here on the map you can see where these things take place.

Mount Carmel is the area there on the coast in the northern part of Israel. It's a mountain. Everywhere around it is kind of valleys and lower lands and so it really stands out. And it was there that this all takes place and all Israel is gathered together to watch this demonstration where God proves that he alone is God.

Well, after this happens and the rain begins to come, then Ahab and Elijah both go separately, but they go to Jezreel, which is there in the valley of Jezreel near Megiddo. And so that's where he runs to. He runs ahead of Ahab in the chariot, if you remember there in chapter 18.

here's a closer up uh image of that so you can see mount carmel in the top left and uh the purple line there is you know maybe the kind of direction that they went but they go down the valley of jezreel this is an important uh geographic location in israel lots of things happen in this valley but the the one that you're probably most familiar with is armageddon will take place here armageddon is a uh

is declaring that the battle will be at Megiddo. The name basically means that that's where the battle is going to be. So Armageddon happens here in the Valley of Jezreel when it talks about blood flowing, you know, to the horse's bridle. That's talking about the Valley of Jezreel. And so we'll see that, you know, in the future as we continue to read. But that's where they go. They run down to Jezreel as the rain comes upon the land and the drought is concluded.

Well, that brings us now to chapter 19, verse 9 is the key verse. It says, And there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? So verses 1 through 10 now, Elijah runs from Jezebel. Jezebel, Ahab's wife, was hugely instrumental in the promotion of the worship of Baal.

She comes from, actually she was like a priestess of Baal. And so she was a huge part of that. And so she hears now about what happened. How Baal was proven to be a false god. How they executed the 400 prophets of Baal. And so she hears about it and she threatens Elijah. And she says, you got 24 hours dude. And within 24 hours you're going to be dead just like you killed those prophets. And Elijah here freaks out.

And he begins to run. It's amazing to see often in the scriptures, whenever there's a great victory, there's oftentimes a battle or a defeat that follows shortly after. And here we get a glimpse into Elijah's heart. He gets discouraged. He gets depressed. He's thinking, hey, it's better for me just to die because he was threatened by Jezebel.

We don't know exactly what was going on in his heart, but we get little glimpses. And I think one perspective that's a little bit interesting is that, you know, Elijah probably expected some type of revival to take place as it's been demonstrated very clearly now to all of Israel. They were all gathered there to Mount Carmel. They all saw what God did and

And how Baal could not answer by fire. They saw the rain come at the word of the Lord. It's been clearly demonstrated and yet he's not seeing the massive turn to the Lord. Instead he's being threatened by Jezebel. And so he doesn't see perhaps

The response that he was hoping for, that he was expecting, that would go along with this great and incredible, impressive demonstration of the power of God. Whatever his expectations were, whatever he was thinking at that time, he becomes depressed and discouraged. I think Spurgeon has something interesting for us to consider on this point. He says, Elijah failed in the very point at which he was strongest.

And that is where most men fail. In scripture, it is the wisest man who proves himself to be the greatest fool. We saw that in Solomon. Just as the meekest man, Moses, spoke hastily and bitter words and then was not allowed to enter into the promised land. He goes on to say, Abraham failed in his faith and Job in his patience.

So he, now talking about Elijah, who is the most courageous of all men, fled from an angry woman. He challenged 400 prophets of Baal to a battle, to a duel. I mean, this is a bold guy, courageous. But this threat from Jezebel causes him to run, caught up in depression and discouragement. And it's oftentimes our strengths where we fall the hardest.

That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Those things that you think, hey, I've got this covered. I've got this taken care of. I'm solid on this issue, this area of my life. Watch out.

Because what ends up happening is we begin to rely upon our own resources in that area and then God has to remind us, hey, hey, hey, you don't have the resources that you think you have. You got to rely upon me. And so often those areas that we think we stand, yeah, I'm strong in patience, man. I don't have those anger issues anymore. That's been licked. I took care of it. I don't have to worry about that. I don't deal with pornography anymore. I have victory there.

I don't deal with materialism any longer. That's been conquered in my life. Those areas that we think, yeah, I've got victory. I've succeeded. Paul says, take heed. You might find yourself like Elijah, where you showed great strength, where great victories were accomplished. If you don't continue to rely upon the Lord, that also will be a great failure for you.

And so he runs from Jezebel and now God reveals himself and speaks to Elijah in verses 11 through 18. God leads Elijah down to Mount Sinai, the same place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Elijah goes into this cave which some scholars speculate that perhaps this is the very place where God put Moses. Remember when Moses said, show me your glory?

And God says, well, hey, you can't see my face. You can't see the fullness of my glory, but you can see the afterglow. So I'll cover you until I've passed by and then you'll get to experience the afterglow of my presence. But it says that God put him in the cleft of the rock there at Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai. Same place. So Elijah goes to the same place, perhaps the same place where Moses was and God speaks to Elijah. But first comes the wind. Wind so powerful that it breaks rocks.

It's a pretty powerful win. Then comes the earthquake. Then comes the fire. But God was not speaking to Elijah in those things. Instead, after all of those things came the still small voice. And God spoke to Elijah in the still small voice. David Guzik says, The still small voice of God speaking to the human heart is actually more powerful than outward displays of power or displays of God's judgment. Perhaps,

Let's speculate for just a moment. Elijah is discouraged because there's not massive revival as they've demonstrated and proven that Baal is a false god. And God here is teaching Elijah a lesson. It's not about the big outward displays, the wind breaking rocks, the fire, the earthquakes. The word of God that transforms lives, well, it really happens in the still small voice. And it's the word of God.

That changes lives. That's living and active. That's powerful and sharper than a double-edged sword. The word is more important than miracles. We see that in Luke chapter 16. I'm not going to get into the details there, but it proves it there as well. Abraham declares in Luke chapter 16, hey, if people don't respond to the word of God, they won't respond even if someone rises from the dead.

And so God is revealing himself. He's speaking to Elijah and teaching him the lesson. It's the still small voice, the word of God that comes forth that has the power to change. And so God gives Elijah instruction. Go anoint Haziel as king of Syria. Go anoint Jehu as the next king. And then also enlist Elisha to carry on the ministry of

After you are gone. And so the first thing he does in verses 19 through 20 now. Or 21 now. Is he goes to Elisha. Now Elisha begins to follow Elijah. And he's his servant for the next 10 years or so.

Well, what this looks like on the map here, you can see kind of we're zoomed out far. You have Egypt there on the left, Israel's there on the right. Jezreel, which is where he started from, is a little bit farther north than the map shows, but he goes down about 80 miles from Jezreel to Beersheba. He leaves his servant there, and then he continues on down the desert 40 days onward.

And he ends up at Mount Sinai and there he meets with the Lord and God speaks to him. So it's about 200 miles from Beersheba to Mount Sinai. So altogether it's almost 300 miles that he goes. And then of course he has to go back. And you know this was a real difficult season for him as he journeys through the wilderness. He feels all alone. He's discouraged. He's bummed out. But what brings him back is his encounter with God.

In his encounter with God, God calls him, serve me, do what I've instructed you to do. And in doing so, he's restored, he's renewed, as he is obedient to what God instructed him to do. Well, that brings us now to chapter 20, verse 21 is the key verse. It says, Then the king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and chariots and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

In verses 1 through 12, we have Ben-Hadad besieging Samaria. Ben-Hadad was the king of Syria. He gathers together, it says, with 32 kings. So this is quite a massive army, a gathering of the kings there in the northern area. And they come against Samaria, which is the capital of Israel, the northern kingdom.

In verses 13 through 22, we see that Ahab defeats Ben-Hadad. Now remember, I just shared a few moments ago, Ahab was the worst king thus far. The worst of Israel's kings up to this point. And yet, God uses Ahab to bring forth victory. This is a great demonstration of the grace and the mercy of God. But it's also an important point that

To understand that God gave Ahab victory to magnify himself. So it wasn't because Ahab was good or because he turned to God or even trusted in God. But God gave Ahab victory. Just like he brought down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel. He's demonstrating once again that he is God. He's proving himself to be God. And so he's using Ahab even though Ahab didn't.

is not faithful, is not obedient, and really does not deserve to be used by God or to have victory at all. You know, it's amazing how many times we look at a person and we look at whatever achievements or accomplishments that, you know, we admire in their lives and we think, man, they must be really close to the Lord. They must have, you know, a great prayer life. They must have, you know, some wonderful thing happening in their hearts and

We look at their victories and we think that their victories must be because they've earned or deserved them. And yet this is a good illustration for us to show us that, you know, they might be rebellious against God. Victory is not always the indication that they're right with the Lord. Their hearts might be far from God. But God could be using them, could be accomplishing those victories for His own name's sake. To magnify His own name.

I can share personally. Listen. If things that I teach bless you, please understand it's because God loves you, not because I'm so awesome. We might look at, you know, kind of mega church pastors and think, wow, they must be really incredible. We've got it backwards. God loves the people. He's ministering to the people. He cares about the people. It's not about that one person and how awesome they are.

God often uses the foolish, the base, the unqualified. He even uses the disobedient because he loves the people and he wants to magnify his own name. And so Ben-Hadad, this massive army, is defeated by Ahab who follows the instruction that God gave him.

To demonstrate both to Ahab and to Syria that he is God. But then the Syrians come back. In verses 23 through 30 they're defeated again. Because they figure well they defeated us in this area. Their gods must be strong in that area. Let's go to this other area. Their gods probably are weaker in that area. And so we can be victorious if we come against them in that way. They believed that gods were localized. Localized.

So hey, their gods are strong in the plains, so we'll fight them in the mountains. Their gods are strong in the mountains, so we'll fight them in the plains. God is demonstrating through this victory once again that he is the God of all. He's not limited to certain contexts, to certain areas. And so they're defeated again.

But Ben-Hadad survives. In verse 31 through 34, Ahab makes a treaty with Ben-Hadad. And he says, hey, you're my brother. And so we'll stop fighting each other. And so they make an agreement. They make a treaty together. Well, verse 35 through 43, now the Lord rebukes Ahab for this treaty. He uses a prophet to come to Ahab and say, look, I delivered Ben-Hadad into your hand. You were supposed to put him to death.

You were supposed to end his reign. You were supposed to eliminate this rebellious person. But you let him go. And so you're going to experience the consequences, the judgment of God for not being faithful with the one that I entrusted to you.

Syria is in the northern part, a little bit higher than Israel, a little bit higher than what's on this map. And so he gathers together 32 of his buddies and they come down and attack Samaria. And so those battles are taking place there around Samaria where Ahab is ruling the nation of Israel. All right, chapter 21, verse 16 is the key verse. It says, so it was when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

In verses 1 through 4, we have King Ahab now trying to buy Naboth's vineyard. He liked the vineyard. He said, give it to me. Naboth said no. And so he pouted. And then verse 5 through 16 tells us how Jezebel has Naboth killed. So her husband will stop pouting. And so he goes to take possession of the field. And then verse 17 through 29, Elijah meets with Ahab and announces the calamity upon him.

Because he and Jezebel had been involved in this conspiracy in order to get this field or this vineyard for Ahab. What's amazing about chapter 21 is in verse 29, God tells Elijah about Ahab. Because Ahab, when Elijah meets with him and announces this calamity, Ahab, it says that he humbles himself.

And the Lord says in verse 29, See how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days, and the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house. So God says, I'm going to withhold judgment because he humbled himself. You know, Peter tells us that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And we see that demonstrated all throughout the scriptures.

Ahab deserved judgment, but he humbled himself. And God says, I'm going to withhold the judgment. Such an important reminder to humble ourselves, to not be proud, but to repent. As God brings things to light, that we turn from them. Whenever judgment is prophesied or announced, it's always an invitation to repentance. And so Ahab responds with humility, and God says,

I'm going to give grace to the humble. He always gives grace to the humble. Well, all of this happens in the kind of northern part of Israel. Again, back at Jezreel, where Ahab and Elijah ran to earlier. That's where the field was. And so that's where this takes place. Chapter 22 now, verse 30 is the key verse. And it says, And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your robes.

So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. This verse always cracks me up. Here in verses 1 through 12, Jehoshaphat and Ahab agreed to go to battle together. So here you have Ahab, the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. So it used to be one nation. It's split in two. Now this is a couple generations into that. And

They're making alliances together. They're joining together. The king of Israel, the king of Judah joined together and say, yeah, let's go to battle together. Jehoshaphat was a good king. He was the son of Asa, who was a good king. Asa had some areas where he wasn't totally faithful, but overall he's described as a good king. Jehoshaphat is kind of similar.

He has some issues in his life, but overall he was a good king of Judah. One of the issues is these alliances that he makes. And he falls into this a couple times where he allies himself with Ahab and says, okay, let's go to battle. But let's seek the Lord first. Let's consult God on whether or not this is what we should do. And so he calls a bunch of prophets together. And the prophets are saying, oh yeah, go. God's going to give you victory. It's going to be great.

But Jehoshaphat sees through what's going on. He says, look, isn't there a prophet of the Lord? I mean, these guys, they're just making up stuff. Isn't there someone who really we can seek the Lord from and hear from God about? And Ahab says, well, yeah, there is one guy, but I don't like him because he always says bad things about me. His issue was that God was against him, but he's blaming the prophet. But they summon the prophet, just like Ahab predicted, and

Verse 13 through 28, Micaiah prophesies of Ahab's death. He declares, Israel is going to be without a shepherd. You're going to go into battle, but you're not going to come back. Verses 29 through 40, that is fulfilled as Ahab dies in battle. Amazing though, Ahab tries to make the word of God not come to pass. He does his best. He comes up with this clever idea. I know, I'll disguise myself. You dress in your royal attire. Now,

It's a funny picture, right? It's like, how could Jehoshaphat fall for that? But I think the idea here is that he's saying, Jehoshaphat, you take that honorable role. You know, to lead the troops in battle, that was a position of honor. It was like a glorious thing. You remember, that's what they tempted David's son with Absalom.

Hey, you lead the troops into battle later on. Gather all of Israel together. And Absalom's like, oh, that's a good picture. I like me, you know, leading this massive army. I think that's what Ahab is doing here. He's saying, look, you take that position of honor. I'll just go as a regular soldier. So, you know, you get the honor, you get the glory. And so he's kind of tempting Jehoshaphat with this. And so he's thinking...

Hey, I won't get killed. They won't even be paying attention to me. I'll just be an anonymous person. But Jehoshaphat doesn't get killed. They recognize, hey, that's not King Ahab. And then I love how it says that an archer at random, you're just not aiming for anything, not shooting anything in particular, just shooting up in the air. I don't know if you've ever done that. One time I shot an arrow up in the air and it hit my dad's truck right in the scene.

We had the cab, you know, the extended cab and then the thing, the cover on the back and then right in the middle. Just as my parents were walking up too, they see the arrow, boom, hit the truck. Just like that, just random. I wasn't aiming for it. Ahab gets shot. He might be anonymous. He thinks, hey, I've got it figured out. I got a way around so God's word's not fulfilled. And God says, I've got it under control. And so he is hit with this arrow and he dies as a result.

Well then verses 41 through 50 describes the reign of Jehoshaphat. Again he was a relatively good king for the nation of Judah. And then verses 51 through 53 describe Ahaziah's reign in Israel. So after Ahab dies Ahaziah takes the throne and he begins to reign in Israel. He was not a good king. The northern kingdom of Israel never had a good king throughout their history.

Well, all of this happens at Remeth Gilead, which is there on the east side in the northern area of Israel. And so that's where the battle takes place. And that's where King Ahab is shot.

Well, that brings us to 2 Kings. As we continue on in the book of 2 Kings, we're continuing the account of the king. So just picking up right where we left off here. Ahaziah is on the throne. Jehoshaphat is on the throne. And we're continuing on their account. 2 Kings covers a lot more time period though. It's about 300 years that it's covered in this book versus 100 years in 1 Kings. We're going to be still keeping a slower pace for the next couple of

chapters as we look at the ministry of Elisha, but then after that we're going to start to pick up the pace and just look at king after king after king after king and be covering a lot more time period as we continue on in the upcoming chapters. So here's what this looks like on the timeline. We're starting here, the kingdom is divided there, and then we're heading into the time where the northern kingdom, Israel, is going to be conquered by Assyria. The

Then we'll head into the time where Babylon conquers Judah and destroys Jerusalem. And then we'll look at a couple of things that happened actually during the captivity as well as we finish up 2 Kings.

The geography of 2 Kings. Here you have the divided kingdom. So we're continuing on in that. But then also we'll be looking at in the top right there you see the nation of Assyria. And we'll be looking at their rise to dominance and the world power that they become. And then immediately after Assyria Babylon takes over and reigns over the whole region and is finally able to conquer the nation of Judah and Jerusalem.

Well, we begin 2 Kings with chapter 1, verse 10 is the key verse. It says, So Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50, If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.

In verses 1 through 8, Elijah declares that Ahaziah will not recover. He had a fall. He fell through some lattice at his home. And so he wanted to find out if he was going to recover. He sought to go to a false god to find out. And so Elijah intercepts that and says, you're not going to recover.

Ahaziah then sends soldiers to bring Elijah to him. In verses 9 through 16. And here you have Elijah calling down fire. If I'm a man of God, let fire consume me. And...

And so then he sends another group of soldiers and he says, if I'm a man of God, let fire consume you. Finally, the third guy gets a clue. He humbles himself. He says, hey, hey, please don't hurt me. You know, I'm just doing what I'm told to do. And God tells Elijah to go and meet with Ahaziah and deliver that message personally. You will not recover from this disease. And so verse 17 through 18, we see the death of Ahaziah here in chapter 1.

Here in chapter 2, key verses, verse 9, it says, And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask, what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? Elisha said, Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

So here we're having, we're seeing the end of Elijah's ministry and the beginning of Elisha's ministry. And their names are really similar and their ministries are very similar so we often get them confused. But in verses 1 through 3 we have Elijah and Elisha going to Bethel.

At this point, Elisha has been serving Elijah for about 10 years. He's been his servant. He's been along, you know, as all the different things have been happening. But now Elijah's time is up and God's calling him home. And so it begins with them going from Gilgal to Bethel. Elijah says to Elisha, hey, stay here. I'm going to go on. God has other things for me. He says, no, I'm sticking with you to the very end. Then verses 4 through 8, Elijah and Elisha go from Bethel to Jericho.

Then verses 9 and 10, we have Elisha requesting a double portion. Elijah says, hey, what can I do for you? And Elisha asks boldly, I love this. He says, I want a double portion. Not only do I want to carry on the ministry that you've been doing, but I want a double portion of that anointing, of that work, of the power of God in your life.

great bold thing it reminds me of what jesus said ask seek knock you know like a son is in the shame to ask his dad for you know some bread or for something more he says look even more when you ask the lord he'll give you the holy spirit and so like elisha we don't have to be ashamed we can be bold and say lord give me a double portion of the holy spirit let me do the work of ministry

And I would encourage you to pray that as you put on the shirts that we're giving out. Give me a double portion. Give me opportunity. Empower me with your spirit that I would be able to do the work that you've called us to do. Well, this time in verse 11 through 18, the chariot now takes Elijah to heaven. A fiery chariot comes and separates them and then carries Elijah into heaven. So he doesn't have a death in the traditional sense. He's just immediately transported into heaven.

Elisha then in verses 19 through 22, he heals the water of Jericho. And so he's beginning to do miraculous things already. And then in verse 23 through 25, he curses some youths and bears come and eat them. So watch out when you make fun of bald people, especially bald people in ministry. All right. So

Here's Elijah and Elisha. They start out in Gilgal. They go over to Bethel. They go down to Jericho. Then they cross over the Jordan River. And the Lord divides the Jordan River for them. And then there on the other side of the Jordan, God takes up Elijah into heaven. It's interesting that Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit in the ministry. And so here you have a list to kind of see side by side of the works and the miracles that were accomplished by Elijah and then also by Elisha.

You could change this up a little bit. Some people count things differently. But you get the idea here that it was about double. There was a lot more miracles that Elisha performed as he fulfilled his ministry. And so God did answer that request and gave him a great and abundant ministry. And he got to accomplish a lot of things for God. So it's about double the miracles just as he requested.

Alright, we finish it up in chapter 3, verse 24 is the key verse. It says,

Here we have in verses 1 through 3, Jehoram reigning in Israel. So now the next king is on the throne in Israel. Moab rebels against Israel in verses 4 and 5. And so now Jehoram and Jehoshaphat join forces in verses 6 through 12. Again, Jehoshaphat aligns with the northern kingdom and they go into this battle.

But they get thirsty on the way. And they run out of water. And they're like, well, what's going to happen now? We're not going to survive this. And so they call for Elijah or Elisha. In verses 13 through 19, Elisha tells them how to receive or how to get water. But then also declares that they will be victorious. And then in verses 20 through 27, Moab is defeated. And so there's a great victory just as Elisha promised.

Here's what it looks like on the map. They go down around the bottom of the Dead Sea. It says that they go through the land of Edom. And so it's actually Israel and Judah and Edom who join together to fight against Moab. And they are victorious in defeating Moab there at Kir Haraseth. Here's what it looks like just to kind of overview the kings that we've seen.

Continuing on from last week, Jeroboam there in the north, his name's cut off, but the purple bar there, the first one, and then Rehoboam there on the bottom, those are Israel and Judah, and then the kings. And so we've been looking at Ahab there on the top, Ahaziah, and then Jehoram.

And now on the bottom, we've been looking at Jehoshaphat, and we're going to head into Jehoram, the king of Judah. So some of the kings have the same names, and so sometimes we get confused. But going back and forth, we're covering and following both kingdoms, and right now the ministry of Elijah and Elisha as they're ministering to these kings. Well, I wanted to finish this evening with a thought from chapter 3 here of 2 Kings.

And here in 2 Kings, we have this really important principle that carries on not just in that situation, but also for us today. And it's something that I think that God wants to minister to you about. And that is the situation where they're out there in the wilderness. They're on their way to battle, but they're thirsty. They have no water. There's no provision. And so they call Elisha and he seeks the Lord.

And the Lord responds through Elisha and he says, make this land, make this valley full of ditches. And so he tells, he instructs the people, start digging. Now not digging in the sense like you're going to dig down and you're going to find water like a well, but just dig a bunch of ditches there in the dirt in the wilderness. I don't think anybody wants to dig when they're thirsty.

Right? Nobody says, man, I'm really thirsty. I should go start digging. Yeah, let me go spend some time in the dirt and in the dust and digging in the sand. That'll be helpful or enjoyable in the midst of my thirst. Nobody likes to dig while they're thirsty. Right?

But that's the instruction God gave them. They obeyed it and they made the valley full of ditches. And then what ends up happening is God brings water and fills up all of those ditches with water. This is an important principle because much in God's kingdom follows this model. It's something for you to consider. Some people wrestle with Bible reading. It's just so hard. It's not interesting at all.

I don't get it. And so I quit. But reading the Bible is a lot like digging ditches. Especially depending on which portion you're reading at the time. It's a lot like digging ditches. You're thirsty. You want to hear from God. And so you're reading the Bible. But there's not immediate fulfillment. You're like, I got to make this decision. So I'm reading. And this verse doesn't tell me what decision to make. We're thirsty. We want to hear from God. And so we read.

But a lot of times it's the next day or the next season when God will fill those ditches with water. When you're reading and you're not understanding, when you're reading and you're not getting a lot out of it, don't quit. You're digging ditches. God will fill those. It's not useless. It might feel useless because you're like, I'm thirsty and it's dusty and why am I still digging? Why am I still going on? But the point is to persevere. You see, obedience...

will bring reward, will bring God's blessing, but oftentimes you have to keep obeying, keep digging, even when you're not seeing the results. This is the way that God works. Obedience is rewarded as you're persistent to dig, to be faithful, to persevere, even when you don't see those results. It will be rewarded, and those ditches will be filled eventually.

Sometimes we give up on God and His promises because we don't see Him being fulfilled. And so then we kind of take matters into our own hands or we try to seek another answer, another way. But the lesson we see here is persistence, perseverance. Keep on digging. Keep on reading. Keep on walking with God. Keep on seeking the Lord. Keep on walking in uprightness and integrity of heart. Keep on being faithful to God constantly.

Keep on digging. God will fill those ditches with water. He will bring refreshing. He will pour out His Holy Spirit. He will do a great work. Keep on digging. Remember Elijah when he prayed for rain? God wanted to end the drought so He told Elijah to pray for the rain. But he had to keep on praying. He had to keep on digging. So he went back and prayed. Is there rain yet? Nope, no rain. Back to prayer. Is there rain yet? Nope, not rain.

He had to keep on digging. The Lord answered and He brought the rain. He brought the water. He filled the ditches. So many times Christians, they give up. They quit before they get to experience the reward. Before they get to experience the refreshing, the work that God wants to do. And so it's an important lesson here in chapter 3. Don't give up. Persevere. Be faithful. Stay the course. Don't take matters in your own hands. Keep trusting God.

He will fill the ditches with water. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would encourage our hearts. Lord, that you would help us not to walk by sight. Lord, because then we would bail out long before the reward is given. But Lord, help us to walk by faith. Knowing that you are faithful to your word. That you will.

Bring forth your Holy Spirit. You will bring forth power. You will bring forth great blessing and reward as we walk in obedience to you. And so Lord, help us not to waver. Help us not to bail out, to give up, or to quit, but to be faithful and to persevere. Even though we're thirsty, even though the ground is hard or it's dusty, even though it's difficult, help us to persevere.

Lord, that we might walk in obedience to you and experience the abundant blessings of walking with you. And I pray, God, as the fire came down and consumed not just the altar, but the dust on the altar and the trench around the altar. Lord, I pray for your overwhelming, your all-consuming blessing and provision as we walk in obedience to you. Only you can satisfy. So, Lord, help us to live for you faithfully.

and persevere. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.