Heedless Kings (Part B)

God is not overly concerned with those who are going to heaven. They're saved, and that means something with him. Again, he's bigger than death, and he's going to improve not only their life but their lifestyle, and he knows it.

This is the case with Uzzah, who touched the ark when he should not have, Uriah, who David had killed, the Bethlehem innocents who Herod had killed, Antipas, as God said, my faithful servant. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Heedless Kings is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll begin in 2 Kings 5. So she goes to the prophet to get him to heal the child. Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.

So there you have, Gehazi doesn't know what's going on. The man of God knows something is happening, but God has not yet revealed it to him. And then there is the scene after Elijah comes, Elisha, the prophet, when Naaman comes and has healed of his leprosy. He wants to bring the prophet gifts. The prophet turns them down, and then we pick it up in 2 Kings 5. Then he said to him, well, let me back it up before I read this. So Elijah says, Elisha says, I don't want the gifts. Naaman heads home with his entourage.

Gehazi says, those are some really nice things he just turned down, and I'm going to get some. And he goes behind to Naaman and catches up, oh, my master changed his mind. And he takes the garments and whatever else he took, and he hides it, and he comes back to serve the prophet. That's when we pick it up in chapter 5, verse 26. Then he said to him, the prophet speaking to Gehazi, did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves, vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? So he knew that Gehazi had done this because God told him.

And so there are some examples, there are others, but those two should suffice. And here we're seeing it in Ahijah, the gift of knowledge. We don't have to wait to get to the Old Testament to see the gifts in operation. What happens is in the New Testament, they all converge on Jesus Christ directly. In the Old Testament, it was maintaining the kingdom righteous so the Messiah could have a kingdom to come in fulfillment of the prophecies. Those prophecies are critical so that the unbelievers would have less ammunition. That's why Peter said we have more sure word of prophecy.

You can track these things. We get to the New Testament, and God says, okay, we've settled this. Now everything is for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit testifying not on his own authority, but Jesus Christ, exalting the Christ.

If I be lifted up, I would draw all men to me. All right, well, verse six, and so it was when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person, for I have been sent to you with bad news? Well, Jeroboam sends his wife, and he calls her out. He can't see her. That's made clear, and she's kind of, how humiliating, you know. She probably says, no, it's not me.

Oh, no, it's not me or something. She probably doesn't say anything. She's just mortified, and so Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah, but Ahijah says that he was sent to her, for I have been sent to you with bad news at the bottom of verse six. She traveled to him, but he was sent to her without traveling to her, without moving, and that God is just ahead of everything, and so, you know, these small views of God, they ruin the soul. The Christian has a big view of God. God is magnified.

He's not made bigger. He's just seen as being bigger than what the unbeliever sees, with bad news, so he braces her for God's judgment. That's coming, verse seven, and the implications of the story are that she's an idolater, too.

There's nothing in here that puts her in a good light. The way he speaks to her is, well, he's going to say it. He's going to come out and say, there's only one good thing, one good person in your family, and you're not it, sister, and we'll come to that. Verse seven, go tell Jeroboam, thus says Yahweh, God of Israel, because I exalted you from among the people and made you ruler over my people, verse eight, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been as my servant David who kept my commandments, who followed me with all his heart to do only what was right in my eyes.

Again, we've covered this. David had moral struggles as everybody else, but he never had a spirit. He was never confused about God's identity, his spiritual identity as a believer in Yahweh, never even a hiccup there as to who God was. This, where it says in verse seven, go tell Jeroboam, thus says the Lord. The prophet is saying, I want you to be clear about this, this is not my opinion. This is God.

This is what's going to happen. It is prophetic, and God is reminding the wicked king just who put him on the throne. You'd think that would mean something. Even with just an unbeliever, that can register. Yeah, you know what, I do have some allegiance to you for helping me out.

I mean, how, who makes it to the top of anything without a hook, without somebody at the top dropping a hook down and picking them up? I mean, they're mentors. I think most of the, when you hear somebody say I'm a self-made man, you're a self-made fool, because you're missing it, but you're conveniently missing it.

We all benefit from somebody's influence, somebody opening doors for us. Well anyway, like Jeroboam, they have a short memory and a selective one to go with it. God is saying, I gave him the power he cherished, he cherishes, and he did. Jeroboam said, well I can't have them going back to Israel. I got to stay in power, they'll kill me. You know, it's just crazy reasoning that went along with that. But once again, God is gypped.

That's what the Lord is saying to the prophet. I have been cheated out of my investment. I invested in this man. I gave him every opportunity to have a Davidic type dynasty in the north, and this is what I got. Gypped again. So, the righteous person will say, well God is investing in me.

I don't want to gymp him. I want to give a return on his investment. Thus, you know, the parables of the talents. God's investment.

Will you bury it, or do you invest it? It takes courage to invest a talent. And, you know, God says in the book of Revelation, the cowards won't enter in. Someone afraid to make the decision to come to Christ. Well, then you don't get the salvation.

It takes courage. Anyway, God got nothing good in return from this king. Not even a speck of gratitude or obedience. Just a disguised wife, trying to get a blessing. It says here in verse 8, and I gave it to you. What such an honor and opportunity you would think he would have been faithful. And yet you have not been as my servant David.

That was a chop in the face. This is what Samuel said to Saul, when God had rebuked him. He said, you're not going to be king anymore. I'm going to find someone else. So Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, to a neighbor of yours, and here it comes, who is better than you. How? That's got to hurt. Who would want to hear that?

Who's better than you? You would think that Saul would have fallen on his face, groveling before the Lord. Didn't do that. He just got violent. Anyway, verse 9, but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke me to anger and have cast me behind your back. This is, man, this prophet Ahijah, he's serious. God is, when God speaks to these men, he speaks to using their personality. That's why Ezekiel is just such an amazing guy. He's so kind of a weirdo, but his points, when I say weirdo, he's not common because I'm going to meet him one day and I'll say, hey, you know, he might want to beat me up. But anyway, he was odd, no question about it. But the sarcasms, I have a file, you know, all the wicked people of the Bible, I have another file, you know, all of this of the Bible, and I have a bunch of these files on my computer.

The transition from writing them on index cards to the computer is brutal. Anyway, I was talking about broccoli, wasn't I? Completely lost it. Anyway, it was going to be really good. It had come to me.

Just give me a sec. Oh, so, so this other file, you're messing with me. Sarcasm. There's all the sarcasm, not all of it, but sarcasm and there's a lot of it and we're coming up on one in a little bit, but we'll hit verse 9 and then I'll bring it back up. But you have done more evil, verse 9, than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods' molded image.

Okay, I read that, I know. This doesn't move Jeroboam. When she takes the message back and tells the prophet, tells her husband what the prophet said, he's going to be unfazed. He's determined to reject God and still try to get something from him. Apostates make themselves irretrievable. It's not God, it's them. Pharaoh with Moses, he made himself irretrievable.

These guys were already up to no good. That's why the Jews had to be taken out of there. They were killing them and enslaving them. So it's not like, oh, you know, Pharaoh, God just hardened his heart. No, that's the language you use, but the facts speak for themselves. Anyway, the molten images, those golden calves from chapter 12, we have in Psalm 115, Isaiah 44 and Jeremiah 10, God making mockery of the lunacy that accompanies idolatry.

Those are just three of the places. I mean, one of the prophets said, what is this? You chop down a tree and you carve a little bit out for your God and you take another piece, you heat the fire with it and you make another piece of fur.

What is that? You're bowing down to this thing. It's the created being worshiping a created thing. And of course, true worship is the uncreated, self-existent, eternal God. And that is the grand distinction between the lost and the saved, the true and the false. Verse 14, we'll come back to sarcasm still.

We're coming to it right now, as a matter of fact. Therefore, behold, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free. I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. Well, the promises God said, I'll give you a dynasty. Now he's saying that's off.

That deal is done. Here is the sarcasm. As one takes away manure, manure, sorry, manure, until it is all gone. That's the Hebrew word. Actually, the Hebrew is a little bit more graphic. It's a little more, the imagery belongs to it. So this is, there's some serious language here. It's not crass or anything like that. It's just to the point. It's that this is, you're damning souls and this is what you've become like.

Refuse, dung, and waste removal. Beyasha, the king, who will, he will wipe out the family of Jeroboam, the survivors. You get that in chapter 15, next chapter. Anyway, verse 11, the dog shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field for Yahweh has spoken. Man, this prophet, he's just letting it out. This judgment is amongst the curses itemized in Deuteronomy 28 for disobedience.

So it's not like, oh, well, this is kind of harsh. We didn't see this coming. No, it's in the Bible. And as king, you are going to be a happy meal for scavengers. That's what's going to happen. Jehu will come along, who also will have a, God will invest in Jehu and he's going to turn crazy too. Jehu's the one that had Jezebel killed. Any of you eunuchs up there with me?

Yeah, well, throw her down. Okay. And you got to kind of like Jehu a little bit until you get to the religious side and his departure. Anyway, Elijah spoke the same thing to Ahab. So it's not the only place it takes place.

It is a shameful judgment upon the recipient. Verse 12, arise, therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. Well, the king's palace, we get that in verse 17, is evidently on the city wall at the city entrance and as soon as she steps in, the judgment is.

That will happen. Verse 13, and all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave because in him there is found something good toward Yahweh God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Well, that's pretty heavy. He's the only good thing about your house. I'm taking him to heaven.

That's what's going on here. And the people, when he says all Israel will mourn for him, they had a hope for this crown prince and it would be quenched. For he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave. He spared the scavengers. He spared the wrath of God. He spared seeing the wrath of God take place on the house of Jeroboam.

He doesn't have to go through the judgments that the rest of his family members will live through. This will be the same way with King Josiah, that good king. Second Kings chapter 22, verse 20, surely therefore I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. Now I know that's a big question mark because he died on the battlefield, but relative to the context of what's being said, he is not seeing the violence of the kingdom stripped away. Josiah is not.

So we'll get to that when we get to Second Kings. But anyway, he says, in your eyes shall not see all the calamity. See, there's the context, which I will bring on this place. That's the prophecy that was issued to Josiah, that he would be spared seeing the judgments and that's what's really happening to this unnamed crown prince of Jeroboam. He says because in him is found something good toward Yahweh, God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. So he's the exception in the evil house and God is very careful to point this out and preserve it over the centuries, the millennium. We tend to think that premature by our standards, premature death, death of the young, is a great loss and it is to us in this life.

There's no question about that. But God has different views about things because he's got a greater view, of course, of everything and eternity. And here in evil times death is a reward to the righteous, more of an evacuation of the soul than the loss of the soul. Isaiah 57, the righteous perishes and no one takes it to heart.

These are the evil times that he was addressing. Merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. So he kind of just ties it all in together to the eternal because eternity has been put in our hearts. And without that eternal view, you're lost. With the eternal view, there is God ideally.

So if heaven is the most fitting place for anyone, God is simply saying I'm taking him to the most fitting place, child or adult, either way, the world is not worthy of them. God is not intimidated by death. We are because death is our enemy.

It is our last enemy, the Bible says. And it will not be finalized until, of course, the return of Christ. Well, of course, if we go home to heaven, but on earth. And God always has eternity in view, always.

I mean, how else could he allow his son to go to the cross? Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Well, Jesus wasn't just throwing that in to fill up his sermon.

It's one of the biggest parts of the Beatitudes. I like, you know, blessed are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They shall be full.

Yeah, they will, but they're going to take a lot of hits. So you should know that unless you become disillusioned. He says, because in him there is found something good toward Yahweh God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. God is not overly concerned with those who are going to heaven.

They're saved. And that means something with him. Again, he's bigger than death. And he's going to improve not only their life, but their lifestyle.

And he knows it. And this is the case with Uzzah, who touched the ark when he should not have. Uriah, who David had killed. The Bethlehem innocents who Herod had killed.

Antipas, as God said, my faithful servant. They're in heaven. They went right to heaven. Well, the Old Testament ones, they had a carryover, like you do at a flight, a stopover. Anyway, no direct flight for them, but for the New Testament believer, it is a direct flight. One pastor from long ago said this about God, he is never touched with the pity of those who die. It is for those who live. And of course, in its context, that is very accurate. Verse 14, moreover, Yahweh will rise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day.

This is the day. What even now? So this is a little, you've got some personality there. These guys weren't boring, like me. No, wait. No, I said that wrong. Like me, they weren't boring.

The other way sounds like they weren't boring as I am boring. We know that would be. Anyhow, so well, this 14, moreover, Yahweh will rise up for himself a king. Well, there's plenty of choices. Nadab, Jeroboam's son, will reign for two years, but he will be assassinated by Beasheth, and Beasheth is a foul character too.

They all are. All the bloody kings of the north remind us of the bloody seizures of Rome. Verse 15, and Yahweh will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the river because they have made their wooden images provoking Yahweh to anger.

Well, this was big to them for us, you know. How many times have you heard a Christian say, boy, where's America in the prophecies of the Bible? Why is America owed a place in the Bible? Who says, I mean, there are a lot of places. Why should America get one? What about, you know, Mozambique or Tappan Zee, New Jersey?

I mean, it just was New York. Anyway, just, you know, we would like to know things. Well, in those days, they were knowing those things, and they weren't good. So now the prophecy shifts from Jeroboam's house to all the northern in that region, shaken in the reed, a metaphor for destabilization. The prophet sees 200 years in advance.

It would be about that much time before these things happen. They will be scattered in exile as he references here to the Euphrates, east to the Euphrates River, and we'll see this in 2 Kings 17 fulfilled. Verse 16, and he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam who sinned, who made Israel sin. Well, God is saying, you know, they have no intention of obeying him. They keep provoking him, which is an interesting study all by itself. Well, if you have no intention of obeying me, God says, I have no intention of protecting you.

He's still talking to the wife. The sandcastle religion just cannot withstand the tide of truth, and unfortunately, people find out too late. He made Jeroboam Israel sin not by filling the northern kingdom with saloons, but with idols.

That's how he did it. Lies about the only true God. Verse 17, then Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Terzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died and went to heaven. Verse 18, we know that because God said he found good in him. Verse 18, and they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him according to the word of Yahweh, which he had spoken through his servant Ahijah the prophet. So again, God's saying, this was not a random death.

I called it, and there's why I called it. With all this evidence, they're going to just deny the Lord nonetheless. They just have this inability to connect dots. We don't like where number 26 takes us, so we're going to connect number 25 with number 9, and they have this Picasso they end up with that they're boasting about as they go to hell.

That is a picture of what irreverent man does. It just will not connect the dots. You know, a scientist is so true to science, you know, or even math, mathematics. Two plus two is always four.

There is no exception. You can travel to Mars with Hubble, and it's still going to be two plus two is four. And yet, they want to tell you all about evolution as being science when there's no proof. And it just takes your breath away that, man, these guys are really smart in a lot of areas. They even invent stuff we all benefit from.

But when it comes to God, they're morons. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit Cross-Reference Radio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit Cross-Reference Radio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's Cross-Reference Radio. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the Word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings on Cross-Reference Radio.