Life in The Land of False Idols

Okay. We're going to have our reading now and we're continuing with following the word of the Lord through the prophet Elijah. And we've got 2 kings now, chapter 1, and we're going to be reading the whole chapter, which is verses 1 to 18. After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel, now a Haziah fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers saying to them, go and consult Bales above the God of Ekron to see if I will recover from this injury.

But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go up and meet the messengers of the King of Samaria and ask them. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going off to consult Bales above the God of Ekron? Therefore, this is what the Lord says. You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die, so Elijah went.

When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, why have you come back? A man came to meet us, they replied, and he said to us, Go back to the king who sent you and tell him. This is what the Lord says. It is because there is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Bale, the god of ekron. Therefore, you will not leave the bed you are lying on.

You will certainly die. The king asked them, What kind of man was it who came to to meet you and told you this? They replied, he had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist. The king said, that was Elijah, the Tishbite. Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of 50 men.

The captain went up to Elijah who was sitting on the top of a hill and said to him, man of God, the king says, come down. Elijah answered the captain. If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. Then the fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men. At this, the king sent to Elijah another captain and with his 50 men, The captain said to him, man of God, this is what the king says, come down at once.

If I am a man of God, Elijah replied, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his 50 men. So the king sent a third captain with his 50 men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. Man of God, he begged.

Please have respect for my life and the lives of these 50 men, your servants. See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first 2 and all their men, but now have respect for my life. The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him. Do not be afraid of him. So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

He told the king, this is what the Lord says. Is it because there is no god in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Bales above the God of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die. So he died according to the word of the lord that Elijah had spoken.

Because Aziah had no sons, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Juhoram, son of jehoshaphat king of Judah. As for all the other events of as a as a Kai's reign and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Thanks, Ben. Good morning. My name is Tom Sweetman.

I'm the assistant pastor here at the church. And you're very welcome whether you're a member or you're joining in for the first time. The verses that we've just had read from the bible will appear on the screen at home as we're going along, but the best thing would be to have a bible open in front of you yourself so that you can follow this story along. Just a quick notice for those who are members just to kind of tag on to something Ben said. We've got the prayer meeting coming up this Wednesday.

But it is going to be a slightly shorter prayer meeting than usual. So it will probably be in the kind of half an hour 40 minutes area. And then after that, we've got a members meeting. So we're going to send a separate link around to church members which will be the meeting that will take place after the prayer meeting. And that will be an opportunity for us as church members to come together to share some church family news.

And to encourage 1 another and to pray. If you've joined the church in the last year and you're wondering what the member thing is all about, Well, we we would normally have a membership course, and we hope to do that in the new year. And so we'll let you know when when that next 1 is coming up. But just look out for both those links, prayer meeting and members meeting, if you are a member. Let's pray and ask for the little to help together.

Heavenly father, we do thank you for this amazing series, and we thank you that you are the God who speaks. We thank you that when you say things, they happen. We thank you that when you pronounce judgments, they come to pass. That when you make promises of salvation, they come good. Nothing that you say ever fails.

And we thank you for how you've been teaching us in this series that you are the God who is, and your word is true. And we pray that as we look now at another 1 of these kings in Israel's past, and as we see another encounter, between your words and these rebellious kings that you would show us fresh things this morning that you would teach us, that you would humble us, and that you would cause us to seek you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen. Most of us I think who who drive will be familiar with with signs with signs like this. Let me turn it on. And there it is.

I'm sure you've all seen those signs. And I I can't be the only 1 who routinely ignores them. You know, who sees 1 of those signs and drives down the road anyway and thinks, well, you know, I'll just I'll just check. Because sometimes they are wrong, aren't they? You know, the road reopens.

They forget to move the signs, and you go down, and sometimes you're surprised, and and in fact, the road is open. And then you might carry on down the road and then see another sign. You know, the road ahead is closed or you might see a a term this way for a diversion. And you think, well, maybe or maybe I'll carry on and just check for myself because it might be the case that the road that I want is open, But these signs are referring to another road, and so I'll carry on and I'll I'll just check. And then you might go a bit further down and even see cars that were in front of you coming back past you.

And then again, you think, well, you know, they might have wanted a different road. Perhaps I could carry on and have a look and just make sure And then eventually, after all that ignoring, you come to the road you wanted to take and it's closed. And on the way back, I would tend to think to myself, why wasn't it clearer? You know, that my road was closed? You know, why didn't they advertise it or signpost it a bit more obviously?

Or I might think, what are they actually doing down there anyway? We know why is the road closed? Why haven't they finished by that? What is so important that would require my road to be closed. Or occasionally, I might think to myself, why didn't I listen?

And as a way of summarizing our time so far in this elijah series, I want you to imagine the House of Ahab as that car and Elijah as those signs. For years, the king has been driving down this road towards bail, heading for a dead end. But the Lord in His kindness has continued to put the signs up for him. Stop. Road ahead closed.

Turn around. Take the diversion. Get back on the right road. Stop. But Ahab has just put his foot down and kept driving.

And so eventually, in 1 kings 22, He reaches the end of the road. Ahab is is no more. And so now we come to his son, Aziah, and the question is, how's his driving? How's his driving? Will he learn from history?

Will he be able to read the signs that the Lord is gonna put up for him? Or will he be a chip off the old block? Head down, foot down. Ignoring the signs. And sadly, before we even get to know him, we're told the answer.

Have a look at this summary from the very last verses of the book of 1 kings. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Because he followed the ways of his father and mother and of Geriboa, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He served and worshiped Baal and aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel. Just as his father had done.

His life like Ahabbs will be a car crash. But what was the journey like? That's the question. And how did he end up on the same road? What opportunities did he have?

What signs did he see? What signs did he ignore on his way to this car crash of an end? And that brings us to 2 kings, chapter 1, and to the end of his reign. And although, there is obviously a book break here between 1 kings and 2 kings. Really, this is all just 1 big book.

And probably for the sake of getting it on the scroll, they had to make a division somewhere. But really, we're still in the exact same story. We've just flowed on to the next bit. And what we're gonna do now to get into this chapter is come together into the car with ahaziah the new king. And to go as his passengers and to go down the road with him and to try and see the signs he saw and work out why he made the decision to keep going.

And the first sign for us this morning is this. The first sign, the kingdom is shaking. 2 kings 1 verse 1, after Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now, since the days of Omry, Moab had been under Israel's control, and that was a a sign of their dominance and their strength. But now that ahazaya has come to throne, the kingdom is starting to fracture.

Could be a coincidence. Could have happened any time. But more likely, it's the first sign to Azaziah that his little empire is coming down and he needs to wake up. He needs to wake up and realize what a life without Yairway is gonna cost him. That's the first sign.

The second sign, still in the car, he's ignored that 1. The second sign, a freak accident. 2 Kings 1 verse 2. Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Sumaria and injured himself. And without a knowledge of ancient near east architecture, it's quite hard to know what the details of this accident were.

I don't know what a lattice like that would have looked like or how he actually managed to plumb it through it. But it's it's obviously a pretty serious accident. He's bed bound, his life, he's hanging in the balance, and he needs to find out what's gonna happen to him. He's not likely just to recover in ordinary circumstances. Now again, that could just be a coincidence.

It may have happened before, and it could have happened at any time. But in the context of this chapter, it looks like another sign, doesn't it? A Haziah, wake up, stop. Your kingdom is fracturing, your life is on the edge. Let this situation humble you.

It's time now to turn around. Sign 1, Sign 2, sign 3, an interrupted mission. Verse 2, Aziah sent messengers saying to them, Go and consult Beelzebub, the God of Ekron to see if I will recover from this injury. Now, by the time of the New Testament, Beelzebub had become shorthand for Satan himself. You might remember that that astonishing moment when the teachers of the law come to Jesus, and they claim that his soul saving life giving work is actually powered by evil itself.

They claim that he is working by the authority of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. But we first encounter the name here, and it literally means the lord of flies. Now, some people think that originally, this name was Bale of princes or the Lord of princes. Which is actually a very similar word, and only 1 extra change would make lord of princes into lord of flies. And so some people think the author actually made that change as a way of mocking BLs above for future generations, lord of flies, lord of princes, more like lord of flies.

But others say that this was actually his real name, the lord of the flies, which is strange to us. And hard to imagine why anyone would want such a deity. But if you think about living in a climate where plagues of gnats and plagues of flies could have posed real problems to you in your community, then having a God who could take those flies away might actually be quite good for the health and the economy of the nation. So it's hard to know the origins of this God and what he was all about But either way, according to Ahaziah, that's where his hope lies. Not in the God of Israel, 45 miles away in the land of the Philistines, with the lord of the flies.

But first 3, The angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, go up and meet the messengers of the King of Samaria and ask him. Is it because there is no God in Israel? That you are going off to consult Beelzebub, the God of Chrom. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. You will not leave the bed you are lying on you will certainly die.

Literally dying, you will die. And so here's the next sign. Messages, go back to your king with a question. Think about what you're doing. Why are you going to consult Beelzebub?

Did your father not tell you What happened on Mount Carmel? Did he not pass on to you the stories of the famine and the drought? And the reign. Did he not tell you about the prophets of Baal and how they were slaughtered? Did he not let you know about Naboth and the judgement that followed.

Have you not heard of the living God who is in Israel? There's a question for him. But there's also a judgment. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. You will not leave the bed you are lying on.

You will certainly die. And you see when The king sent those messengers off to Ekron. The reality is, he was not wondering whether there was a God in Israel. He was saying that there is no God in Israel. Or if there is, He's certainly not worth consulting.

And for that, judgment. So sign 3, and already you're seeing the the graciousness of Yay here, that he would actually cut off this idolatrous mission, mid flow, that he would not actually let them get to Ekron to consult Bales above. So gracious is he that he cuts it off mid mission in order to bring the word to him. So gracious is he that even though the king is not wanting speak to Yahweh Yahweh is wanting to speak to him. The sign has gone up.

Will he listen? Sign 4. The fire from heaven or the falling fire. Verse 5, when the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, why have you come back? And then verse 7, what kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?

In other words, what sort of person has overruled me? Why have you stopped? Why have you turned back? Whose authority is greater than mine that you would turn back like this? They replied, he had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.

The king said, that was Elijah, the tishbite. That was the troubler of Israel as my father would have said. That was the profit of doom, who dresses all gloomy and preaches gloom. That was the ghost of my house who has been haunting me for these many years. He knows who Elijah is, and therefore, as we see again, he is not ignorant of Elijah's God.

He knows about Elijah, he knows about Yairway to go to Ekron was a willful act of disobedience. He chose He chose Beelzebub over Yahweh. And at this point, the king has simply had enough of Elijah interfering with his plans. So, you see what he does. In verse 9, he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of 50 men.

And you notice these are not like the messengers in verse 5. This is this is now a captain and a group of men who were probably military men. So they're not going to reason with Elijah, or to consult him, they want him down off that hill in chains or preferably worse. They're going to get him. And so the captain went up to Elijah who was sitting at the top of the hill and said to him, man of God, the king says come down.

As if he's in control of the situation. This is the this is the insanity of sin, isn't it? That his kingdom would be collapsing, that he would be bed bound and on death's door, and still believe that he has the authority to command Elijah and Elijah's God. Like his father, he has lost all grip on reality. He thinks he can order elijah around.

But, Elijah answered the captain. If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you in your 50 men? Then fire fell from heaven, and consumed the captain and his men. I've already referenced it, but earlier in our series, on the top of Mount Carmel, we learned that the God who answers by fire, he is God. It is 1 of the most dramatic moments in the bible, and it was a huge sign to Ahab.

You couldn't get a bigger road sign than that. Bale is a powerless, lifeless, death, mute nothing. And here we have round 2, except this time instead of a sacrifice, it's all the king's men. 51 men turned to ash in a heartbeat. Because the god who answers by fire, he is God.

What would you do now? If you were in our desires Position. Would that be enough for you? Would that be enough to produce the u-turn? Go back the other way and start listening.

If not, what's it gonna take? Sign for the falling fire, sign 5, the falling fire. Verse 11, at this, the king sent to Elijah another captain with his 50 men. He still thinks he's in control. And therefore, you're starting to see that like all sin, it is starting to cost him more and more and more.

This is what happens, isn't it with sin? When we don't repent and we keep going and we keep our foot down on the pedal. It starts to cost us more and more and more the further that we go. And so now, By the end of verse 12, when the whole thing has been repeated again, there are a hundred and 2 dead men on his conscience. There is no price he's not willing to pay to suppress Elijah's God.

The God who answers by fire. He is God. And before we think about the nature of those judgments, I still believe the most surprising thing here is God's willingness to keep putting up the signs. I mean, frankly, at this point, he could have just handed over the king, pulled out Elijah, and withdrawn all opportunity. But he doesn't.

He pursues these rebellious kings relentlessly, doesn't he? Sign after sign. He he interrupts their missions. He stops them. He shows them.

He speaks to them. It's almost as if the Lord is saying, if you if you want to drive off this cliff, you are going to have to literally plow over every 1 of these signs to your own destruction. And even now, staggering that even now Yahweh is gonna put up another sign for him. 1 more sign. And it's this, the last word.

Chapter 1 verse 30. Chapter 1 verse 13, So the king sent a first captain with his 50 men. Keep driving. The third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. Man of God, he begged.

Please have respect for my life, and the lives of these 50 men your servants. So here is a man who knows how to read the signs. Yep. This guy has realized that Elijah actually is a man of God. That's not a title we're gonna use to mock him.

He actually is a man of God. And therefore, for the sake of his life, he knows not to mess around. He doesn't go there barking orders at Elijah. He goes up to him falls on his face and says count our lives precious. And in the face of that humility, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah verse 15.

Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him. So, Elijah got up and went down with him to the king. And when he gets there face to face with ahaziah just as his father had been, The message is exactly the same. Here is the last sign And just like the first sign, it says road ahead closed.

The message hasn't changed verse 16. Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult? That you have sent messengers to consult BL's above the God of Ekron. Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. But 17, so he died.

According to the word of the lord that Elijah had spoken and then look, because ahaziah had no son. Joram succeeded him as king. You remember back in 1 kings when Elijah promised, that the judgment of God would come upon Ahab and his household. It would come on his descendants after him. Or what do we learn about our Haziah here?

He had no son. The house is coming down. And so there we are. Just like his dad, every roadblock and every sign has been ignored, and now it's all over. He has plunged off the edge of the cliff.

Just like his fathers before him. And before we step away from this story, the question that we need to ask ourselves Now that we've seen that Ahab and Azaziah were not good drivers, is how's our driving? How's our driving? You see the key message here, which is repeated 3 times in this short chat is this 1 in verse 3. Is it because there is no God in Israel?

That you are going off to consult Beel Zibb, the God of Ekron. And that word, consult really just means to inquire or to seek or to look to or to trust in. It's the kind of place that you would go when life gets tough. And as we've seen for Azaziah, when the kingdom was collapsing and when his own health was failing, He turned to an idol. And very often, even as believers We can fall into that same sin, can't we?

When problems with health or with our finances or with our job or with our relationship, come our way. We will all turn somewhere. Very often for me, I just turn inwards. I forget God or ignore what God wants to say, and I just look inside my own sinful selfish heart. And I just think, what do I wanna do?

My knee jerk reaction when faced with difficulties is just to go in, what do what do I wanna do? Or if not that, we might we might incline our ears out to the world. And listen for the sort of advice that we want to hear from the voices around us. We might try to find the voice that will already tell me what I think, that will tell me to do what I already want to do anyway. It might tell me to give up if things get tough or to run away when things get hard.

Who we turn to particularly in difficult times reveals what we really believe about God. Do we believe that there is a God in Israel, or do we wanna run off miles and miles to find another voice to tell us what we want. I think we've all done that. And wonderfully, the Lord is holding up a sign for us today saying child of God. There is a God in Israel.

There is a father in heaven who loves you. There is a son on the throne who died for you. There is a church on the ground that you can belong to? Let us not grieve this God by running to Ekron. Let us seek the lord while he may be found, and let us call on him while he is near.

It's worth thinking through, isn't it? Where where do you turn? What's that knee jerk reaction. Where do you turn when life gets tough? And what does that reveal about our faith in Yahweh?

But with that, we need to remember what sort of God is in Israel. And very clearly, he is a terrifying judge, isn't he? You see, the thing is If if Elijah's words about the fire were wrong or if Elijah was being immoral, in saying that fire is gonna come and consume you, that you lord would not have answered. If it was a wrong request, or if it would have said something untrue about your way, he wouldn't have responded. But he does.

This is not Elijah's judgment. This is the Lord's judgment. And this is something that we see throughout the Bible. Whether we acknowledge yahweh to be the 1 and true living God is a life or death business. And that is really tough for us because in some ways, the age in which we live is not so different from the ancient near east.

They had many gods who didn't demand loyalty. You know, these these gods these gods were happy with kind of casual, non committal relationships. You could use and abuse and reuse them as you wanted. They didn't demand loyalty. They weren't so intolerant when it came to their own glory.

But yahweh's not like them. He is the 1, true, and living God. In him alone is life and truth. He is the only 1 and therefore the only 1 worthy of our praise and trust. And that's why when it comes to his own glory, He is intolerant, righteously, wonderfully intolerant.

Because to him alone belongs all the praise and when we recognize that we are most happy ourselves. If, like our desire, we ignore the signs and we trample over his mercy. The bible says there is only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. The God who is in heaven is a consuming fire, and it is a dreadful thing to fall into his hands. And yet with that, he is also a patient and merciful savior.

Let me take you very lastly just as we finish. To 1 passage in the New Testament and to a to a to a pair of people who clearly knew and loved this story. This is from Loop 9. As the time approached for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, He resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him.

But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked Lord, Do you want us to cool fire down from heaven to destroy them? And in some manuscripts, it actually adds as Elijah did. But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So, here are James and John, and they know the story, and they obviously like the story, and maybe they've been waiting for their opportunity to do what Elijah did.

Waiting for a group of people foul enough to warrant the fire that they themselves could call. And it's just they're all over the place, aren't they? Firstly, unlike Elijah, they believe that judgment belongs to them. Secondly, they believe they've actually got the authority to pull this off. And thirdly, they have completely misunderstood Christ.

At this point, He had not come to judge the world, but to save the world. At this point, the fire of judgment was not going to come on the world around. It was going to come on him. As he would take our sins and open up the way to life. It's easy sometimes for us to be like James and John, isn't it?

And to forget the age we live in. You know, we might sometimes wonder, well, wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't it actually be a better witness than the cross, calling fire down from heaven? Wouldn wouldn't more people turn to God if Londoners and Samaritans could be consumed with fire. Why why haven't we been given that power to call it down? Because the ultimate demonstration that Yahweh is God and that Jesus' Lord is the cross.

God turns people from idols. As we proclaim a crucified lord. That is the ultimate demonstration. That Yahweh is God and that Jesus is lord. The day of fire is coming, but it's not yet.

And as we see here, This is something that is eternally true of God. He is so patient with us, and he is so patient with the world. Sign after sign. Day after day, moment after moment, he wants us to turn before we get to the end of the road, his patience means salvation. And so that's why like this third captain.

We must run to the greater Elijah, fall on our knees. And say, Lord spare my soul. And spare my life. I'm not gonna command you around, Lord Jesus. I'm not gonna order you to do my will.

I'm gonna fall on my face and say, may my life be precious in your side. Save my soul. For believers and for unbelievers, seek the lord while he may be found. Let's pray together. Father the God, we thank you that you are the 1 true and living God.

That you are the ancient of days, that you are magnificent in your holiness, that you are the rock of ages, that you are trustworthy that we can depend upon you. We thank you that you are the the Holy God and that you will not tolerate rivals to your glory. We thank you that you are just and righteous and that all your punishments are true. And yet, lord, we thank you that you are a patient and merciful God and you hold out your hands to this world every day. And say, turn and live.

Why would you die? Turn and live. We thank you for Jesus who came to take the fire of your wrath upon himself. And that as we now proclaim this lord who is crucified and risen, we demonstrate to the world that there is a god in Israel and that people can turn from their idols, turn from the bales of buds of the day, and find life in Christ. We pray, lord, that you would help us to keep holding out this message.

And we pray that you would help us to follow after this third captain who just simply went up and fell before you and asked for mercy. We thank you lord for all that you've shown us about yourself today, and we pray that you would help us not to be bad drivers, but to be good drivers. Who read and obey the signs. We pray that you would help us when life gets difficult, and there will there will be many people going through difficult times. And in hard circumstances, Lord, we pray that we would not run off to false gods when life gets tough.

But that we would turn to you knowing that there is a God in heaven. There is a word that we can read. There is truth that we can stand on. If only we would not ignore you. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name, amen.