Elisha Series

And if you're at home and you'd like to get your vibles and you can turn to 2 kings chapter 9, you can follow along in print. And for those of us here, if you bought your bible, do turn to 2 kings, chapter 9, and it will appear on the screen as well. If it's your first time here, if you're visiting us or you're joining at home, then welcome to you. You've joined us right at the end of a series that we've been doing in the Profit Elijah and then in the Profit Elijah. And we've been looking at these incredible stories and seeing how in a very dark time God raised these 2 men up as lamps on a stand.

In order to shine the truth about the living God into an apostate idolatrous world, and the stories have been incredible, and what we've learned about God has been incredible, And we're coming to the end of that series now. We're 2 kings chapter 9, and we're gonna be reading verses 1 to 13. And then Ben is gonna come and preach the word of God to us. The prophet Elijah summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of olive oil with you and go to Raymoth Gilead. When you get there, look for jehu, the son of Jehovahhoshaphat, the son of NIMshi, Go to him.

Get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare. This is what the Lord says. I anoint you king over Israel, then open the door and run. Don't delay.

So the young prophet went to Raymond of Gilead. When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. I have a message for you, commander, he said. For which of us asked Jayhu for you, commander. He replied.

Jay who got up and went into the house, and then the prophet poured the oil on Jay who's head and declared, this is what the lords that God of Israel says, I anoint you king over the Lord's people. You are to destroy the House of Ahab your master. And I will avenge the blood of my servants, the prophets, and the blood of all the Lord's servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last mail in Israel, slave or free.

I will make the house of Ahab, like the house of Geroboam, the son of Nibat, and like the house of Beisha, son of a hijjah. As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezriel, and no 1 will bury her. Then he opened the door and ran. When Jay who went out to his fellow officers, 1 of them asked him, is everything alright? Why did this maniac come to you?

You know the man and the sort of things he says, Jayhoo replied. That's not true. They said, tell us. Jay who said, here is what he told me. This is what the Lord says.

I anoint you king over Israel. They quickly took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bear steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted. Jay who is king. Any story with the word maniac in is worth listening to, isn't it?

And Ben's gonna come and open up open up that story for us now. Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everyone from me. My name is Ben. I'm a trainee pastor here at the if you don't know me.

It's good to have you here. It's good to have you in the backhaul and at home as well. Let's just pray before we we get stuck into this. Finally, we thank you that you haven't just taught us with words, but you've acted in history. And when we see your mighty works in the past, you teach us great things about who you are and what you've come to do through Jesus in this world.

So pray that you'd help us now as we open up the story. Give us eyes and ears to see why we need the lord Jesus Christ in his name we pray. Our men. Okay. I know some of you are very excited that tonight is the line of duty season finale.

Perhaps no 1 more so than Catherine. I'm 1 of these latecomers to the show, so I'm I'm seen as I'm ostracized in the line of duty community, definitely by Kerry. Who's been there since season 1 and I haven't. I'm just a latecomer. Anyway, we know, don't we, whether you've seen line of duty or not.

Any good TV show when it approaches the season finale has got episodes that are just unbelievable. That's where the drama happens that's when the car chases start. People start getting killed. It's just the the most sort of extreme. Sort of episodes leading up to the season finale.

Well, as Tom said, we are approaching the season finale of 1 and 2 kings. Our time spent with Elijah and Elijah. And we've been in this now for 7 months. And you believe that? We started in September last year back in 1 Kings chapter 16.

And so next Week is the final sermon, and Peter's really excited to preach that. We'll see Elijah's death and some more strange, wonderful things that God's teaching us through that. But anyway, Today, in this Panultimate episode, we've got all the makings of a fantastic season finale. We've got deception, secret meetings, there's a military coup, there's chariot chases, And I think there are some of the best deaths in the whole bible. So it's a real treat this morning.

You've come out on a you've come to a good Sunday. Anyway, but like any good TV show, in order to understand the finale properly, we have to have a recap. So here we are previously. On 1 and 2 kings. In 1 kings chapter 16, we met this guy, a king Omry.

He's king of Israel, and this is what we're told about him. But Omry did evil in the eyes of the lord and sinned more than all those before him. He followed completely the ways of Gerabome's son of Nevba committing the same sin. Jarabome had caused Israel to commit. So they aroused the anger of the lord.

They got of Israel by their worthless idols. And then he is succeeded by his son, Ahab, and this is what we're told about him. Ahab son of Omry did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Geraboham, sort of Nebb, but he also married Jezebel, daughter of F Bale, king of the Sidomians, began to serve baal and worship him He set up an altar for Baal. The temple of Bale that he built in Sumaria, Ahab also made an Asher a pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, then did all the kings Israel before him.

Right. So you can see there's a rot in the line of kings of Israel, and it's spreading like rot spreads through wood and they're going from bad to worse. They've exchanged yahweh, their god who's brought them out of Egypt and saved them. They exchanged that god for this false god bail and so they've aroused his anger. So God raised up the prophet Elijah, and he declared that there was going to be a drought for 3 years.

And that was a direct challenge to King Ahab because Bale was meant to be the god of life and fertility. But guess what? There's no life and fertility because he's a fake God. Yairway is the 1 who's the real God with power if that wasn't enough, then we have the events, the incredible events of Mount Carmel, if you remember that, where Elijah sets up this science experiment. He's like, okay, you're not gonna listen to me.

Let me show it to you. So there's 2 altars, 2 bulls, and team Bail and team Yairway. And the science experiment is both prophets will call down on the name of their God, and the god who sends fire to light the altar is the real God. Very straightforward, very simple. The profits are bail.

They call all day. They slash themselves. Nothing happens. No 1 answers because bail isn't real. And then to make his point even greater, Elijah pulls water on his altar, and then he prays, and the Lord sends down this fire, which incinerates not just the altar, but the stones and the soil withhold.

So God is just far out and way above saying, I am the real God, there's no 1 else but me, but instead of convincing the king, King Ahab and the prophets, they just get stirred up even more by Jezebel. And they just wanna kill Elijah. They just wanna kill all the prophets. So God was patient with these kings, the rotten kings of Israel. He's demonstrating them again.

I am God, Bail's not God, but the rot had set in, and they continued to do evil. So the only way, and I hope we understand that after we see God patiently working, the only way to purge Israel from their evil was to cut them off completely, cut the rot out from the stump. And so Elijah receives this word in chapter 19 of 1 kings. Lord said to him, go back the way you came, go to the Desert of Damascus, when you get there, anoint Hasio, King over Aram, also Anoint Jay Husson of NIMshi, King over Israel, and an Anoint elisha son of Shafat from Abel Mahhollah to succeed you as profit. And why do those things?

Critically, in verse 17, Jayhu will put to death, ANY, who escaped the sword of Haziel. Elijah will put to death, ANY, who escaped the sword of Jehu. So here's the judgment of God. It's coming. He is going to cut out the rot from this line of kings.

He's gonna institute a new line of kings. And Hazeel, Jehu and Elijah are gonna be the agents of this judgment. Against these kings. Now we know all about Elijah, don't we? Or at least I hope we do, because we spent a lot of time with him.

So we know him quite well. We met Hazil last week, if you were here. Or you were tuning in. We saw and heard the judgments that he was gonna bring. And today, we get the final piece of this puzzle.

This prophet from God. This prophecy from God. The third man, Jayhu. And we're gonna see what Jayhu does. But before we do that, There's 1 final thing to know before we get into the story.

And that is that since the time of this prophecy in 1 King's chapter 19, absolutely nothing has changed. With these kings of Israel. They've continued being rotten. So Ahab was succeeded by his son, Ahaziah, who took the throne. And in 1 kings 22, we read this, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord because he followed the ways of his father.

And then when he died, he had no son, so his brother, another son of Ahab, took the throne, and this is what we read. Guess what? He did evil in the eyes of the lord. But, we'll come back to this at the end, not as his father and his mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of bail.

His father had made nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Gerabouan, which aroused the anger of the Lord, he did not turn for them. So the rot has continued in Israel. We get that. Not only that, the rot of Israel has spread to Judah as well. This other kingdom of God's people.

And the it's interesting what we read here in 2 kings chapter 8. So hope you're keeping up with this. I hope these slides are useful. Cheah, Johoram was King of Judah, and we're told this, oh, go back 1. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel.

So here he is, King of Judah, and he's following the ways of the kings of Israel. As the house of Ahab had done, there's the rot from Ahab's house. He'd married a daughter of Ahab, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, then he was succeeded by his son, who's no better. He followed the ways of the House of Ahab, did evil in the Ice of Lord. So by the time we get to this morning's passage, boom.

This is your season recap. By the time we get to this morning's passage, this is where we're at, Jerome is the Rot and King of Israel. And Eheziah is the rotten king of Jude Judah. This house of Ahab, this sort of rotten line of kings has infected both of these nations. Point number 1 then, the time has come.

So speaking of TV shows, there's normally a good moment in TV shows, isn't there or movies, or any good story, to be honest, when the the protagonist of Hatch to plan, whether it's to get out or something or to get something or to save someone, whatever it is. And all they're waiting for is the opportune moment to act it out, to execute their plan. It's normally good in heist movies, isn't it? Carrie and I love a heist movie. And normally, there's meticulous planning And then all they're waiting for is that window of opportunity to open.

It might be when the guards swap shifts and there's like a 2 minute gap to do something when CCTV is not being watched or it might be when the power grid goes down for maintenance or whatever it is. Well, anyway, here we are, the window of opportunity has opened for Elijah to finally enact God's prophecy and God's plan to anoint Jay who was king over Israel. And we see him pounce on this opportunity in verse 9. The prophet Elijah summoned demand from the company of the prophets and said to him, tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Ramov Gilead, When you get there, look for Jayhu, son of Jehoshaphat, the son of NIMshi, go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare this is what the Lord says.

I anoint you king over Israel, then open the door and run away. Which is just hilarious. So there's clearly a rush here. The window of opportunities opened and it's probably a short window because there's an urgency. So Elisha is is getting on a bit now.

So he selected a younger man, you, younger bloke, run for me. He's told, touch a cloak into your belt, which means get ready to, like, run quickly. This is not a stroll you need to sprint. And he's told to simplify the coronation you know, remove the fuss, take him into an inner room, make sure no 1 else is there to slow you down or ask questions, just pour the oil in his head, And then when you're done, open the door and peg it. That's what he's told to do.

Now, what's the window of opportunity? What's happened to to to get us here. Well, literally just before this, at the end of chapter 8, we get these verses. Sorry, chapter 8. Yeah.

20 first 28. Aziah went with Joram to Son of Ahab to war against Haziel King of Aram at Ramov Gilead. The Aramains wounded Joram, So King Jordan returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds, then Aziah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded. So We're not told this for no reason. This is not just a random by the way.

All the stars are aligning now. This is the window that's opening. The 2 rotten kings of Israel and Judah are in Israel, this capital city of the House of Ahab at the same time. This Israel capital city of the House of Ahab is the source of all the rot in all of these lines of kinks. And Jezebel, who's the great matriarch of the great matriarch of this house is is there as well.

And Ahab's chief chief men, his close friends, and all his priests are there as well. So that's the window. The new this new king who's who's gonna be raised up can take an axe to the to the foot of the tree rather than just swiping at all the branches. He can go to 1 place at 1 time and deal with everyone in 1 go. The time has come, the window has opened.

So in verse 4 of chapter 9, the young prophet went to Ramath Gilead, When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. I have a message for you commander, he said. For which of us asked Jeihu, for you commander, he replied. Jayhu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jayhu's head and declared this is what the Lord the God of Israel says.

I anoint you king over the Lord's people Israel. You are to destroy the House of Ahab, your master. And I will avenge the blood of my servants and the prophets, and the blood of all the lords shed servants shed by Jezebelt, the house. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel.

Slable free. I will make the House of Ahab like the House of Geraboham, son of Nebat, and the House of Beysha son of Ahesha. As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jeezreel, and no 1 will bury her. Then he opened the door and ran. Good lad.

The servant's been faithful to this message. He's delivered it clear as he's been told, even to the point of opening the door and running off afterwards, he probably thought, what am I doing? I'm just following the orders of my master here. But what what was what was that about? Why was he running?

Well, I reckon it must have been a message to Jay Who in itself. In other words, the time is now. I've gotta tell you this, and then I've gotta go. Phew. And then he's like, right.

Okay. He's sprinting. So now, I've got to act now. The window's open. There's no time to waste.

I've to ride now. We've got to do this to this now. I think that was a message to Jayhoo. But to the blokes outside, it looked absolutely mental. Withhold because they said in verse 11.

Is everything alright? Why did this maniac come to you? Here he is, this guy runs up to them, goes, are you, Jay? Yeah, come with me in here. Now, and then he runs outside.

It's like, what is going on? He's a maniac. You know the man and the sorts of things he says, Jay He replied. In other words, you could tell he was a prophet. He was probably dressed like a prophet.

He had a sort of a profitness about him, I guess. So you you you know the man and the sorts of things he says. In other words, he was probably delivering a message from God. But you don't really care about what God has to say, do you? You're not really interested in that.

I think this is a good test for Jay Who. I think he's testing these men that are with him because he's literally about to commit treason and begin a military coup against the kings of Israel and of Judah. So he has to know that these men are loyal to the Word of God. Are these men interested? Are you probably don't want to hear what God has to say?

Verse 12. That's not true, they said. Tell us. We do wanna hear what God has to say. We we are loyal to His word.

Tell us, we wanna know what the prophet said. So Jay who said, here is what he told me. This is what the Lord says. I anoint you king over Israel. They quickly took their cloaks, spread them under him on the best steps, and they blew their trumpet, and shouted Jay Who is king.

So it turns out they were our loyal to Yairwe and his words, because they believe the word of the law. They don't say, I'm gonna arrest you, I'm gonna report you, they bow down, they blow the trumpets, and they lay their cloaks down as a sign of respect. Now, First order of business as king is to destroy the House of Ahab, as God had said in verse 7. You are to destroy the House of Ahab. But notice, actually, he says you are to destroy the House of Ahab, but I will avenge the blood of my servants and prophets.

So God is enacting his judgment, Jay, who is his agent. That's what's going on. And there's no better time to do it as we know, because who's in Israel at the moment? King Joram, king Ahaziah, Jezebel, they're all there. So point number 2, the sword of the lord.

Spurred on by the speedy departure of this profit, who opens the door and pegs it, Jay who wastes no time at all. And over the next few chapters, you have just a catalog of his bounty hunting. It's a thrill to read. I'm not going to read it all now, but we will just sort of very briefly go over it. And we see in the next few chapters where he's now cutting out the rock.

Rotten King, number 1, cut you out. Roton King, number 2, cut you out. So that's what's going on. First of all, And as Jayhu approaches Jezreal, the city where these kings are, we're actually told he rode like a maniac. Is what the scripture says.

And it's the same word as the prophet who ran in and ran out again. He was a maniac. And here's Jezrule now. Right? Sorry.

Here is oh my gosh. All these names. Here is Jeihu riding to Israel, riding like a maniac. And we're probably meant to think, profit was at doing God's work, looked like a maniac, here is Jay Who now. Writing like a maniac.

He's also doing the work of God. But anyway, he's riding up to Israel, riding like a maniac on a mission now to kill these kings and Jouram, who is the ex king of Israel, rides out to meet him. Because he says, I see you have a large army with you. What are your intentions? He says, have you come in peace Jayhu?

Have you come in peace? And then Jayhu replies with this. How can there be peace, Jehu replied, as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound. There is no peace, for God or for his people, as long as there's this idolatry in the land and this persecution against his servants. God is not gonna share his glory with a false God.

He wants his people to live in accordance with his good laws. Not be burdened by the evil laws of a false religion. And so Joran realizes he's in trouble. He goes, okay, you are not here for peace. So he turns around and he screams treachery and and sort of rides back to the city.

But as he's escaping, he gets shot through the chest by Jehu with a bow and arrow and slumps over his chariot and dies. And then Ahaziah, who's the king of Judah, he's faintily wounded as he tries to escape as well. And that basically means that Jay who can just walk through the city gates of Israel. Unchallenged by any kings. So after dealing with the kings, Jezebel leans out of a tower and she shouts, have you come in peace?

You Zimry? You murderer of your master. And now Zimbri wouldn't be sort of an offensive thing if I said that to you, you, Zimbri, Caitlin. Absolute Zimbri. But Zimbri was another captain earlier in Israel's history, who attempted a coup took the throne, but only lasted 7 days.

And then he died 7 days later, he burnt himself to death. And so what she's saying is that's what's gonna be your fate. You're attempting a military coup here, but you're only gonna be on the throne 7 days, you're gonna die. That's what she's saying. You Zimri, you murder of your master.

But then, she's thrown out of the tower by a couple of eunuchs who are with her. And there is this brutal line that describes her death. So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered the wall and the horses they trampled her underfoot. They went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet, and her hand, and that's because the dogs had eaten her, as she had splattered on the ground. So, that was fulfilling the word of the Lord against her.

And funnily enough, 1 of the commentators, as I was reading about this, 1 of the commentators said this, that he read this story to his his kid at bedtime. And they did the bedtime prayer afterwards, and the bedtime prayer went like this, dear Jesus. Thank you that Jezebel died. And he was like, is he allowed to pray that? Is that a legitimate prayer?

Actually, on reflection of who she was, he says, and what she did, what she stood for, the merciless way that she persecuted God's people. She killed them. She poisoned the kings of Israel with this idolatry, there is a sense in which we can celebrate the judgment against God's enemies. And Jezebel was among the worst of them. So thank goodness in a way, Jezebel met this grisly end.

So after dealing with Jezebel and the Kings, next up, On the hit list, it's Ahab's family. And the way Jay who does this is he writes a couple of letters to the provinces of Samaria. Because Ahab had 70 sons. And he instructs the governors in all of the provinces to overthrow these sons and kill them. Because he wants to cut the rot out and make sure that there's no possible way back for the House of Ahab to sit on the throne again.

And then in chapter 10, we get this. When the letters arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all 70 of them. They put their heads in basket and sent them to Jayhu and Jezreal. Then Jayhu ordered, put them in 2 piles at the entrance of the city gate till morning. The next morning Jayhu went out.

He stood before all the people and said, the Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah. So Jayhu killed everyone in in Israel who remained of the House of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends, and his priests, leaving him no survivor. So here's Jayhu. He's been raised up to just cut the rot out of the stump of kings and make sure that there are no survivors. There's no way this House of Ahab can be revived.

But he's not done yet. Next up with the servants of Bail. He was just probably a berserker at this point covered in blood just going nuts Right. What's next? What's next?

But Jeihu wants to purge idolatry from the land. Not just cut out the Ron kings, He wants to purge all idolatry from the land. So he then goes after the servants of Baal who worshiped this false god and who persecuted gods. People. And actually here, what he does here is we see that he's as cunning as he is a good shot with a bow and arrow.

He's as cunning as he is a good shot with a bone out because he basically tricks all the servants and the prophets at bail. He tricks them. He says, I love Bale. I love him. And I wanna have a massive festival for him.

And, you know, Jezebel, She liked Bale, but I love Bale. Way, way, way, way more. So I want every priest, every prophet, everyone who loves Bale, I want to invite them to a big party, and he gets them all into the the Temple of Baal. And as he's there, pretending to do a sacrifice, He surrounds the temple with 80 guards, and then he orders them to march in, and then they're all killed and slaughtered. And they didn't just stop there.

In verse 27, we read this. They demolished the sacred stone of bale and they tore down the temple of bale. And people have used it as for a Lattery to this day. There you go. Little details in the bible.

First 28. So, Jay, who destroyed Bale worship in Israel. So that's that. That's Jehu. He is the captain of Israel's army.

He was made king to cut the rot out, to destroy the House of Ahab, and he's removed baal worshiped from the land, all in accordance with the word that God had spoken to Elijah. There you go. There's all the people that he's killed. However, point number 3. A little while ago, I heard a story regarding the SYMs, if you know the SYMS, you'll enjoy this.

I'd heard that they've been having some issues with mice in their house. And Steve, I imagine is a bit squeamish, didn't want to get 1 of those mousetraps that kills the mice. You didn't wanna have to deal with dead mice. So they got 1 of these humane mice catches that sort of traps the mouse and then you can drive it somewhere and release it into the wild or something, I don't know. Anyway, these things worked really well, but the problem is when a mouse gets trapped, it it freaks out and it starts peeing and pooing everywhere.

And so you've got to really rinse these things out and clean them. And so Emma had this special sponge that she would use to make sure that it didn't get too stinky. Otherwise, the whole house would end up smelling. Anyway, Steve Sims 1 day is doing the washing up. And like a good housekeeper notices that the current 1 he's using is getting a bit grimy.

So he chucks it away. And as he's looking for a new sponge, you notice there's a perfect good 1 out already. 2 to 3 days later, Emma is looking for this sponge to clean out the the mousetrap. And she says, Steve, I haven't seen this sponge anywhere. And then they both turn pale, and then green, as they realize that they've been using a mouse, excrement sponge to clean the dishes that they've been eating off the past few days.

The moral of that story is apart from let's have a laugh at the Sims, which is a good moral. The other moral of that story is that cleaning the dishes with a dirty sponge isn't going to clean them at all, is it? No. You learned that lesson. In the same way back in 2 kings, we find out that God is using a dirty sponge to clean away idolatry.

Verse 28. So Jayhoo destroyed Bale worship in Israel. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jaraboham, son of Nebat, which he had which he had caused Israel to commit. The worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. Jahu was not careful to keep the law of the lord to God of Israel with his whole heart.

So here's a massive face palm moment for Jayhu. He is unbelievable at purging idolatry from Israel. But in the end, he couldn't purge idolatry from his own heart. And ironically, some commentators actually think that he was the great grandson of King Omry who started this whole thing off anyway, if you remember that. And so in the end, the House of Ahab actually lived on.

But ironically, unexpectedly it was preserved in the heart of the very 1 who was meant to cut the rot out from Israel. And so in the end, Jehu is guilty. Of exactly the same thing as King Joram, who he killed for his idolatry. Because remember this is what we read about King Joram, He did evil in the eyes of the lord, but not as his father and mother has done. He got rid of the sacred stone of bail.

So here's a guy who gets rid of bail stuff, but Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jaraboa. And what did Jayhu do? So Jayhu destroyed Bale in Israel, however, he did not turn away from the sins, of Gerra Beaum. It's a famous scene in the Empire strikes back Star Wars film, where Luke as part of his training goes into a cave and he has this kind of vision fight with Darth Vader. And he wins this fight with with Vader.

And he chops Vader's head off and you see the helmet roll on the floor. And then the front bursts open and you see Luke's own head inside the helmet. And the lesson for him was don't become the very thing that you're fighting, that you're trying to kill. That wasn't a lesson that Jay who learned. He became the very thing that he fought so hard to defeat.

And actually, after him, There are 9 more kings, 4 of them that come from his line and then 5 others, and all of them are bad. Not a single 1 of them is good. So this rot that he was meant to rise up and cut off lives through him. That's a lot of story. And if you're still with me, I'm really pleased.

Well done. Because that's a lot of a lot of things going on there. But there are 2 things that I want us to take away from this story. And the first 1 is quite obvious. Don't be like Jay Who.

I think we can all be like Jayhu in a couple of ways, can't we? Maybe you were unbelievably zealous for Jesus in your youth. When you first became a Christian. And actually, since then you've cooled down quite a lot, you become less zealous, you become a bit spiritually flabby maybe. You don't care so much, quite so much about living a Christian life or a righteous life.

They maybe used to be more passionate about getting to church serving in church, making sure you were under the word more than once a week. Constantly dealing with the idols in your heart going, That's an idol. I need to deal with it. Ah, that's an idol. I need to deal with that.

I mean, maybe even in this last year, have we become a bit like Jayhu? Gone into unhelpful habits or ways of thinking. Maybe you're like Jayhu because you've been really super hot on a specific sin in your life. Last week, we heard about pornography. Maybe that's the thing that you've you've absolutely smashed out your life, like, Jay, who's smashing the the the prophets of Baal, the Temple of Bale, get rid of all of it.

But actually then you've done all of that work, but you're partial to a bit of gossip. Well, you've done all of that work, but actually you've quite find it quite easy to lie. Whatever it is, maybe you've done loads of work on 1 area of your life, but actually in other areas, you kind of know you're sinning anyway. Are we like that? Because look, if you looked at Jayhu, there's this 1 bit in chapter 10, which is amazing.

You'd be really super impressed with him. You'd go, whoa. Here's a guy for the lord. There's this 1 bit. He's literally on a chariot.

The the wind's blowing his hair back. And there's another guy, and he reaches out in his hand, and he says, come and see my zeal for the lord. That actually happens in chapter 10. Go read about that. And you go, wow, this guy loves the lord, but actually in the end we read that he's not careful to give his whole heart to the lord.

Can we be like Jay who in our hypocrisy? Can we see idols everywhere in other people's lives? They're completely taken up with that or if only they weren't like that, but actually we can't see the idols in our own hearts. Can we see the splinter in our brothers and sisters eyes without seeing the plank in our own eyes? You know, when we say things like, you're really you really let me down, you're really hurting me.

You're you're such a massive inconvenience. This thing that's going on is I it's really making me feel uncomfortable. And actually, do we realize the issues we've caused other people, the weight perhaps that we've been around other people's shoulders? If any of that is you and I think to some extent we're all like Jehu, then we need this second lesson, which is we need King Jesus to deal with the rot This last week we recorded the latest eighties Z podcast and we're on the letter I incarnation. And we're talking about 1 of the reasons why Jesus had to become a man is because though we, you and I might not be from the line of Omry, and therefore the House of Ahab, we are all descendants of Adam, we're from his line.

And because of that, his blood flows in our veins. So the rot of sin is passed on from generation to generation, person to person, from Adam to today, and there is no earthly king that can rise up and cut that off. I mean, just think about noah. God flooded the entire world. And got rid of all evil people, but sin was still in noah's veins, and so it survived.

Jayhu was raised up and he killed every member of the House of Ahab, cut the rotten kings off, but sin was still in his veins. And so it survived. Jesus doesn't come from Adam. He's not from the House of Ahab. There is no sin in his veins, and so on crosses Jesus died, here is an unblemished, perfect man who is also God who takes the punishment of the world, and who's the 1 who can chop sin off completely.

As he dies on the cross, he severs sin from those who believe in him, and instead a new line of righteousness is born. We read this in Romans chapter 5. For just as through the disobedience of 1 man, the many were made sinners, as Adam, Adam's line, were all made sinners through him. So also through the obedience of the 1 man, the many will be made righteous. Here's Jesus' line.

A righteous line. And so now we who are like Jayhu, we're in need of cleansing. We don't have to wash ourselves with a dirty sponge. The blood of Jesus washes us from every impurity, every idolatry. Here is a king who can deal with our sins forever.

Colossians chapter 2 says this, well, when you were dead in your sins and the utter incision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ, he forgave us all our sins. Love that. Jeihu, he forgave you your sins when you followed Bale, but guess what? He also forgave you your sins when you followed the sins of Gerabome as well. He forgives the sins that you're super hot on, and you're trying to deal with, and he forgives the sins that you're a bit lax on as well.

Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. So that's how you deal with idols. Don't go around smashing things down, come to Jesus on the cross who is the 1 who can save you from them. So I wanna say, if you haven't done that yet, if you're sat here, you're not a Christian, or maybe you've you've you've very much like Jehu and you've called right down. That I wanna say to you come back to the king.

Who can deal with those idols in your heart? Maybe maybe you in your own heart can see, yes, that rock that you've described, that's me. I've tried to deal with it in so many different ways. But I still have that rotten me. Well, Jesus is the 1 who can take it away.

So I wanna say to us, Christians, let's not grow tired of putting to death idols in our hearts. Jesus has paid the price for them. He is the 1 who's cut them out. So let's just chuck them off willingly. Let's keep going.

Let's not grow tired of doing it. And let's not be hypocrites. Let's not point out other people's sins without taking our own sin seriously. And let's honor the lord with our whole hearts. Asking the Lord to forgive us and deal with the sins that are left in us.

So that's quite a lot. But I hope you can see what God's trying to teach us through the story. Jesus is the king who can take away the sin in our hearts. Let's let's finish by praying. Finally, we thank you, like I said at the start, that you teach us through history, through the way that you've acted, and you've shown us here.

That we could never cut sin out of our own hearts ourselves. We thank you that you sent Jesus into this world to take the penalty, the punishment for them by dying on the cross, help us to willingly go to him and give them up let him pay the price for them. And where we see idols and sin in our hearts, please would you be dealing with us by your Holy Spirit, sanctifying us, changing us, Key bus from being like Jay who in his last days didn't turn away from sin. Help us to constantly turn away from sin. And turn to you, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.