A Real Prophet (Part B)

The third captain of the 50 who came and fell on his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him and said to him, Man of God, please, let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Well, they say that insanity is to do the same thing with the same results repeatedly.

Why would you send a third? I mean, it's a suicide mission. Because they're insane with their arrogance.

Arrogance blinds people. It's just going to force his will on him in some way. 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 2 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. Today, Pastor Rick brings us part two of his message called A Real Prophet in 2 Kings chapter 1. By the time we come to the New Testament, it became a solid term by Al-Zebub for Satan's gods.

Satan's created gods, these fake gods. And so, we have a third from Zebul to Zebub to Zebel. Now, when you get to, and which means Lord of the Dunghill.

So, they've moved. He's used to, he's the Lord of the, he's the, the Lord of princes, the ruler. Baal is ruler. And the Jews came along and said, Baal is Lord of the Flies. But by the time Christ had come along, they were saying, Baal is the ruler of a dunghill. And this is biblical sarcasm. So, Matthew chapter 12, verse 24, now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons by Baal-Zebub. But the original, the Chaldean, it's a, it's a, it's a parody.

And it is Beelzebel, the god of the dunghill. And that's how it was understood. And I don't know, I hope I didn't confuse you with all that. The bottom line is, because there's a lot of twists and turns with the language. Even to this day, etymology is tricky stuff. You know, you can come up with, well, where did that word come from? And you can end up with two opposite or contradicting opinions.

And both of them may have some grounds for their opinion. Well, it's the same with this name. But knowing the Jews as we know them, knowing the language that they use concerning these idols, it is certainly right in line with how they treated these demonic gods. And so, bottom line is, the Philistines did not call him Baal-Zebub. They called him Baal-Zebul. But the Jews said, we're not going to call him, he's not lord of anything to us, but flies.

And then later, yeah, he's worse, he's the dunghill. Anyway, verse four, and therefore, thus says Yahweh, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So, Elijah departed. So, God gets to Elijah, he says, I want you to go to this king, and I want you to tell him he's not going to survive. And he's not asking for this, but I'm giving it to him nonetheless.

Death won't be the worst thing that happens to this man. Idolatry was the sole source of the fall of both kingdoms, north and south. They're separated by 100 years or so, but it's serious, very serious business. And I don't know, again, if we make this clear, the Jews, or the Christians in the days of the apostles, they really didn't have to deal with idolatry too much in the Jewish people. That had been kind of beaten out of them through the captivity. And they never really got back into direct idolatry.

They got into other things, though. Corruption was one of the large ones. And so, in the New Testament, you know, in the Gospels, idolatry is really not the issue. It's them recognizing Christ without corruption.

They're trying to cover up their corruption. And Paul, then he goes to the Gentiles, then idolatry becomes an issue again, because they were all over. We will get to, you know, Satan's gifted children. We get to Philippi, and there's the little girl going before Paul and Silas, saying, oh, these are the ones that have come to show us the way of salvation, and just began to irritate Paul. He says, something about this little girl that is really bugging me. And he figures it out.

And he figures it out. It's demonic. God was, you know, Satan, hell has gifts too.

And she was a gifted corruptor, an unauthorized distributor. So, if, you know, if you come out with a product, and everybody loves it, and then people are making counterfeits of your product, and leaving you out, you know, you understand that that's a problem. Well, make it spiritual, and it's a bigger problem. People trying to counterfeit God, use his name, but really, if they get to tell about God, and are received, what are they going to tell about God? Well, because they are Satan enemy, they're going to do damage. So, 1 Corinthians again, chapter 10, verse 20, rather the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You read that today to some people, and they think, oh, demons, come on, you know, we dress up like devils, because there's no, and this is crazy. You want to see the devil's work?

It's in hospitals, it's in prisons, it's in cemeteries, it's all over the place. Every key on the chain tells you that the devil is at work or else you wouldn't have to lock your stuff up. Verse 5, and when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, why have you come back? So remember now, the prophet intercepts the messengers going to Ekron, so they turn around and they go back. Verse 6, so they said to him, a man came to meet us and said to us, go return to the king who sent you, and say to him, thus says Yahweh, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the God of Ekron, therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.

So the messengers deliver the message. They were deputized. They didn't know it. Even though it seems here they did not know who Elijah was. They sent a man, and yet, Elijah, such a commanding figure, they obey him.

They don't say, who are you? We're in the king's business, out of the way. And we know arrogance flourished amongst these, in this king's court, because when they come to arrest Elijah, they're very rude.

Well, at least two of them, and the operative word there, were very rude. Anyway, verse 7, then he said to them, now this is the king responding to what they told him, a hairy man came out. What kind of a man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words? So he's already suspicious that Elijah is out there, and because Elijah is the one that dealt with his dad, Ahab. Elijah dealt with Jezebel.

This is probably his mother. And Elijah will deal with anybody that he is sent to because he is such a lion prophet. Well, let me rephrase that. He's a lion-like prophet, because lion sounds like lying, and we don't want that confusion. But anyway, he's a stylish prophet with a rugged look, as opposed to the opulence of the king in the robes.

Elijah's wardrobe said, I don't need you, and I am not like you. And he pretty much said it to everybody. The same was with John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist was a priest. Remember, his father was in the temple, ministering to the altar of incense, and an angel visited him there. So John the Baptist had every right to serve in that temple, but we never read of him doing it. Same with Jeremiah.

I know I say this a lot because I get something from it. These men were nonconformist. If you weren't lining up with God, they weren't lining up with you. Now, some men can do God's work and work amongst the enemy. We covered that with Obadiah. The king confided in him, and he used his position to save lives, saved a hundred prophets, at least. But this John the Baptist, who was an Elijah-like character, the same spirit of Elijah as men go, was in John the Baptist. John the Baptist was kind of, you know, wide at the shoulders, broad at the shoulders, and narrow at the hip. And everybody knew he didn't give any lip to big John the Baptist.

He wrote a song about him. Anyway, Luke chapter 7, Jesus. Now, so they come to Christ on John's disciples. John is in jail, and he's wondering why he's in jail.

He knows the charges against him. He just doesn't understand why the Messiah hasn't delivered him. He has no doubt, or he had no doubt, that Christ was Messiah, even though he's a cousin. And so he sends his disciples and asks him, are you the one or do we look for another? And Jesus, you know, ministering and sort of matter of fact, go tell John the things you see in here, the lame see, the blind, or the blame, the blind see, the lame are healed, lepers are clean, the gospel is preached. Go tell John that. He's such a man of the word, he'll know what's going on.

And then after they left, to make sure that the audience did not think lesser of John, Christ says to the audience, Luke chapter 7 verse 24, when the messengers of John departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. He said, what did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who are gorgeously apparelled and live in luxury are in king's courts.

But what did you go to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. A prophet.

Man, he's just like loving on John. And this is Elijah. Elijah, he's not dressed like in the king's robes. Remember the king Jehoshaphat and Ahab, they put on their robes up on the threshing floor? Well, Elijah had nothing to do with that kind of stuff, unless of course Yahweh was exalted. I bet you, when we get to heaven, he'll be pretty well decked out, but no more camel skins, huh?

Yeah, kind of. It doesn't work up here. I just hope there's no need to get haircuts in heaven. I hate haircuts. And, you know, I don't know what I would do if they have to still get haircuts.

It's the biggest waste of time. Anyway, I want G.I. Joe hair.

Some of you don't know who G.I. Joe was. His hair was perfect, man. Anyway, verse 8. I don't want Keith Green hair. Because I'm afraid the birds, you know, they'll, never mind.

Let's come back. Verse 8. So they answered him, a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist, and he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. I knew it.

This is what's happening here. Who else would send my messengers, have the audacity to interfere with the king's messengers but Elijah, the hairy man or a man in hairy garb. The Hebrew allows both. It leaves us wondering, is his, was it like his arms are all hairy, you know, or was he a hairy guy or is it his clothing? And we're kind of left up in the air. We know his clothing was. He's got the, you know, I believe he was hairy too because you can't eat locusts and bugs and stuff and not just get hairy.

That's my thinking. Anyway, he wore an untanned skin with the hair on the outside and not up against his body. And this garment became, he set a trend.

He set a trend for everybody. The prophets would emulate Elijah wearing this garb. In fact, the false prophets began to dress like Elijah and the prophet Zechariah calls him out. He says, and it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive.

So they're not going to be dressing up like, oh look, I'm like John the Baptist. You can trust me. You know, I guess the equivalent today is wearing a collar.

Okay, you can automatically trust me. I'm wearing this and that's not true. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. And in that case, the sheepskins were worn. But John the Baptist, again, Matthew 3, John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey.

I didn't need to put the wild honey and locusts in but that's the good part. This part about the leather belt, you could just see John, you know, don't make me take my belt off. Like, you know, your dad used to say that, no? Anyway, don't make me take my belt off, boy. Okay, okay, calm down. Do a little Tai Chi, relax. That would surely get the belt if you talk like that. I don't know. When my dad would look at me, I tried to shrink.

Try to be really small. Anyway, verse 9, then the king sent to him a captain of 50 with his 50 men. So he went up to him and there he was sitting on the top of a hill and he spoke to him. A man of God, the king has said, come down. Okay, so this is a rifle platoon today. I mean, why a whole platoon to arrest one prophet?

You know what he did to the prophets of Baal. There were 400 of them. Maybe they figured, you know, the crowd or maybe they would just show off, you know, it doesn't tell us but it is to me overkill. I mean, 50 guys, they can't even grab one person.

There's not enough space for all the hands. So, but Elijah's not fleeing this time. He's not running. He's sitting up on the hill because he's a real prophet and they're going to get a dose of that. He's learned his lesson. Elijah has with the Lord and he spoke to him. Man of God, the king has said, come down.

He should have said, please. That's not a little thing because when we get to the guy who does it right, you know, this man is, he's rude and this is the king's court. He's arrogant. He thinks he's got the authority and he doesn't have to speak nicely to them and when he says man of God, he is, he's not saying I'm a believer and I am respecting you. He's actually mocking him and there are people who still are this rude in the service of their ruler, Satan, even if they don't know that it's Satan. A descript, temporary title for Satan is the ruler of this world and the whole world is under the sway of this, the filthy sway of this ruler. John chapter 12, Jesus said, now is the judgment of this world and now the ruler of this world will be cast out and that process was beginning there. Incidentally, Satan was in the way of really people getting into heaven before Christ came and when Christ came, he told the outlaw on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise because I've cast that guy out the way.

I mean, I've, you know, your sins are forgiven. He's the one that introduced that to humanity and Christ is the one that blew it away but people still die this way because they are rude in their service of their king and that's what's going to happen to this man and those with him. Manners count. Don't you, you notice it right away if you have any decency. You know, not everybody is raised in a good home. Not everybody has a good mother or a good father but still they can learn decency just by the way they are made to feel. So if you're not raised to be polite and all of a sudden people are treating you politely, you can learn and say, you know what, I like this better and I'm going to emulate this and it is disappointing to see rude Christians.

Many times in ministry, people have just interrupted me speaking to somebody because they thought what they had to say was more important than whatever the other person and I were talking about and you just notice this. Well, these men were on another level of rudeness. I'm not saying if I could, I would have brought fire down on those people. I may have opted for a lesser punishment like make their shoes disappear.

They have to walk out there barefooted on the hot asphalt. All right, I guess you really want to see the fire. I'm trying to be nice.

Okay, coming back to this. So when this captain says man of God as I mentioned, he's not an ally with the prophet and he is mocking the prophet. Elijah, his reply will bypass the captain's rudeness and let's go to verse 10. 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. Fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50 and that is, you know, I've always loved the way he introduces his action or if I'm a man of God and then boom, he did not need a jawbone of a donkey to deal with these guys. This is not the first time lightning has taken out opponents or those on the wrong side of God.

It was Dathan who got together a little committee to challenge Moses and his authority. Incidentally, the rod of Aaron, you know, it wasn't very big. The rod of Aaron was not a staff. Probably about, well, not quite four feet. You say, how do you know that?

I have it in my garage. No, because it was put in the Ark of the Covenant and we know what size the Ark of the Covenant was and I don't think anybody would have said, we got to cut it in half. I don't think anybody would have done that and my point is, so when I was going to preach on this, but now here I am.

I said, you're blowing it. So when he puts the staff down and it swallows up pharaohs, magicians, serpents, you know, you think of Charlton Heston and these giant snakes and they're probably little, you know, the snake doesn't have to be big to kill you, especially if he shoots you, okay? But it's true if he could shoot you. Anyway, so, you know, the rod, these snakes that they're dealing with, they don't have to be big snakes and I think that's important because those kind of things, to me, those are questions that I need to satisfy in my head. Anyway, the challenge of Dathan was against this authority of Moses and that rod spoke of the authority of Moses and the grace of God also. Nadad and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, when they, you know, mingled man-made fire with God's fire, God struck them and that was it.

And so this is yet a third time where God is using fire, well, third and fourth. And Elijah, he's not being a hot-headed prophet intolerant of the innocent people. He was appointed to proclaim the favor or disdain of God and to administer justice and he is doing just that. He has the right to condemn and to punish because he is an enforcer and he was the embodiment of the law of God while he walked in Israel, one of absolute awareness and action of God. In other words, if Elijah saw it, God saw it.

That was the statement being made. He's the embodiment of these things. This is what God did to his prophet and this is what we're looking at. Verse 11, then he sent him to him another captain of 50 with his 50 men and he answered and said to him, man of God, thus says the king, come down quickly.

So this guy's more rude than the first guy. They likely thought, ah, it was a fluke, coincidence, lightning struck and killed, you know, all I had to do was hit close enough and get them all. So this 51, the first 51, they're dead. Some time has to pass. Word has to get back to the king.

Probably somebody's got to collect the 51 bodies, not to think that they just left them there to the scavengers. They could have, but not likely. Anyway, the second officer commands Elijah more forcefully than the first. You would think they would remember Mount Carmel, that Elijah could call fire. There was precedence for this, but they didn't believe these things. And so they came in the name of the wrong king to the wrong prophet. And they were again, rude and arrogant and it was their choice.

And we know it was their choice to be rude and arrogant because the third guy gets it right. So verse 12, so Elijah answered and said, if I'm a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, consume you and your 50 men. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. If I was in your range of this and that platoon and I heard the prophet say that, I would have dove for cover. I'm not with them.

I'm changing teams. Anyway, James and John, the disciples of Jesus, they had been on the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw Moses and they saw Elijah, the law and the prophets embodied right before them, the Mount of Transfiguration. And they wanted to imitate Elijah and call down fire on the enemies of Christ. And Christ, he really educates them. There's a rebuke in it, yes, but there's an education too.

Instead of just saying, no, I'm not like that. He says, you know, you don't know what spirit you are of. And it's in Luke's Gospel, chapter nine, where Christ corrects them. You may say, well, weren't the soldiers just doing their duty and obeying their commander? Yes, but that did give them no right to ridicule the prophet, to be rude and commanding. And it gave them no right to sympathize with a known idolater in the king. And again, that comes out, but we go back to Proverbs 29, 12, where I tried to introduce the spirit of the people surrounding this wicked king. If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked. And the ruler paid attention to spiritual lies and his servants became wicked.

But they didn't have to be that way. And this is what, again, the third one illustrates, verse 13. And he sent a third captain of 50 with his 50 men. And the third captain of the 50 who came and fell on his knees before Elijah and pleaded with him and said to him, man of God, please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight. Well, they say that insanity is to do the same thing with the same results repeatedly.

Why would you send a third? I mean, it's a suicide mission. Because they're insane with their arrogance. Arrogance blinds people.

It is just going to force his will on him in some way. Thanks for joining us for today's edition 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 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you. So make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross-Reference Radio.