A House of Cards

To some, this discussion will be a warning. To all of us, His Word should be a challenge to follow the plans of God. Even when we cannot see a result, even when it doesn't seem to pan out or be of any benefit, we still follow the Word of God. Sometimes He takes years to fulfill it.

Fourteen for this one oracle. There will come a day when He will fulfill His Word and give you your promised place in the kingdom and in heaven. But what of life today?

There's an old saying that goes like this. There are two things that are certain in life, death and taxes. Well, we can safely add a third item to that list, the judgment of God. Most people don't like to talk or think about God's judgment, but it's best we consider it now, before it's too late. People who live as they please and ignore God are building a house of cards.

Sooner or later, in this life or the next, it collapses. This is wisdom for the heart. Today, Stephen Davey concludes his series on Elisha with this message called A House of Cards. In 2 Kings chapters 9 and 10, it's a large passage we're going to, in a large way, overview today as we continue our study through these books. We're given the gory details of Jezebel's death and the death of the dynasty of Ahab. In the middle of chapter 9 and 10 is what we call a hinge verse. It's a summary verse around which all of the narrative is connected, like spokes in a wheel to the hub. I want to show you the hub of this passage, these two chapters. It's in chapter 10 verse 10.

Everything will relate to this. Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what he spoke through his servant Elijah. Now, if you remember our study of 1 Kings, Elijah had pronounced judgment on the house of Ahab and Jezebel.

They had murdered Naboth in cold blood. They had ripped the vineyard from the possession of his family and placed it into the royal family, which was a violation of so many of God's laws. And God, through Elijah, had pronounced that judgment would come upon the house because of it. Now, in chapter 9, we are introduced to the instrument of God's judgment. His name is Jehu, and he's been the butt of some jokes with the way that he drove his chariot.

He drove it furiously, literally like a madman. Well, he is secretly anointed with oil by one of Elisha's younger prophets in training. Rabbinical traditions believe that that younger prophet was none other than Jonah. Let's pick it up at verse 6, the latter part. And he poured the oil on Jehu's head and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel, and you shall strike the house of Ahab your master. Now, notice the purpose clause here, that I may avenge the blood of my servants, the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. I want to stop here and give three truths that you can insert into your notes if you care before we get any further on the subject of God's judgment.

Truth number one, even when God seems slow to act, his people are never forgotten. You may remember that Jezebel had gone on a killing spree. She had taken the lives of prophets. She had murdered those who followed God and refused to bend their knee to bail. At one point in time, the true prophets of God were hiding in a cave.

Their lives had been taken like cheap cattle. The Jezebels of that world and this world still think that God's silence means God is powerless, and nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible refers specifically to the blood of the martyrs. God takes special note.

In fact, there is a special crown known as the martyr's crown. God never forgets. The second truth, even when God's children, or you could insert the word cause, even when God's cause seems overwhelmed, God is at work preparing the instrument of judgment. Jehu was nothing more than a common foot soldier in the army at one point in time. In fact, he was one of Ahab's two bodyguards. When the Oracle of God through Elijah came pronouncing judgment upon Ahab, it's ironic to me that an ordinary bodyguard was being prepared in the mind of God at the very height of Ahab's dynastic rule, the most powerful house on planet earth to that known world at that point in time. He would be the instrument in God's hand against Ahab's house and he would bring it crashing to earth like a house of cards.

Who would have ever thought that it would be this ordinary common soldier? Now I want you to notice what all the other captains of the army do in response to Jehu's secret anointing. Look at verse 13.

Then they hurried and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps. That's an ancient way of implying submission to the right of a person to tread upon your life. So it's a surprising thing that all of these captains, instead of jealously, bitterly opposing him, they throw their coats on the ground. And the latter part of the verse says they blew the trumpet saying, Jehu is king.

Imagine that these military leaders would throw their entire support behind a man who had risen through the ranks, who had started out as a bodyguard to the king. God prepares his instruments of judgment and his timing in unleashing them. It's perfect. Third truth. Even though God's warnings seem distant and hypothetical, judgment eventually come. Now it's been 14 years since God's oracle of judgment came through Elijah against this house. Undoubtedly, in Jezebel's mind, she was off the hook.

God hadn't done anything for 14 years. And of course, she didn't believe him anyhow. And the absence of judgment simply solidified her belief that if he existed, he had forgotten. I don't know what kind of home you were raised in, but I can remember growing up in this kind of home. I can remember on several occasions hearing my mother tell me that as soon as we got home from church, I was going to get a spanking I'd never forget. She'd say it this way, I'm going to wear you out. She had a way with words. I can remember on one occasion, I think even twice, of course, I straightened up and Sunday lunch came and went, nothing happened, no reference to it.

It's a busy household, four kids and usually somebody over and my mom and dad. And I was the politest kid on planet earth, of course, during that period of time. I knew that if she forgot on Sunday, I wouldn't get it on Monday. And she even forgot on occasion.

You multiply that by a million times. And I wonder if when the first sign or the first signal of God's judgment came that Jezebel didn't clean up her act a little bit. You know, maybe she called off her hit men for a week, told them to lay low. Let's see what occurs. And maybe the death of Ahab was coincidental and maybe he won't come after me.

Over the passage of time, her boldness I'm sure returned as we'll soon see. There is a popular concept today as well that strips God of his judicial character. There isn't anything about him really that's holy or righteous as it pertains to man. And certainly he wouldn't require anything of mankind. And once his righteous holiness is stripped away, he is clothed by our secular society with only one attribute and that is the attribute of love. He is a god, it seems, to our country who is perpetually smiling like some Cheshire cat.

And his most common utterance is something like, oh, that's all right. But the unfailing, unchanging word of God says it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. And there are two categories of people. There are categories who will define their eternal state. There are those who are in Christ as it were. They are in the one, hidden in the one who has already faced the judgment of God on their behalf and they are safe.

And there are those who remain independent of their own pride and belief who are outside of that which would protect them and they will bear the judgment of God on themselves forever. God's word about the future, ladies and gentlemen, is as certain as his word in the past. And we see the fulfillment of his word in the past occurring.

Look at verse 21. Then Joram said, it could be spelled Jehoram, get ready. And they made his chariot ready and Joram king of Israel, that's Ahab's son, by the way, and Ahaziah king of Judah, that's Ahab's son in law, by the way, each in his chariot. And they went out to meet Jehu and they found him, note this, in the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Do you think for a moment that's a coincidence? No, this is the judgment of God being fulfilled to the T. And it came about when Joram saw Jehu, verse 22, that he said, is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, what peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. So Joram rained about and fled and said to Ahaziah, there is treachery, O Ahaziah. And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his arms and the arrow went through his heart and he sank in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his officer, take him up and cast him into the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.

For I remember when you and I were riding together after Ahab his father, that is when we were his bodyguards, you remember that Bidkar? That the Lord laid this oracle against him. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his son, says the Lord, and I will repay you in this property, says the Lord.

Now then, take and cast him into the property according to the word of the Lord. You get the many repeated references to the word of the Lord. This is what God said, this is what God would do, and this is what God indeed did. The key word, I think, is in verse 26 where he says, surely I have seen yesterday. You want to underline that word yesterday, you may think that God has forgotten. God has not forgotten.

He has seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons and now today he will take action in fulfilling his word. There is another principle of scripture that doesn't get much press lately. It's the principle of reaping what you are sowing. I'd like to call it the principle of spiritual agriculture.

I can define it this way. While sin is immediately cleansed upon confession, according to 1 John 1.9, it produces consequences that may last a lifetime. Now, if I were addressing a company of unbelievers, the talk of judgment from God would make those uncomfortable. But I think it's equally true and interesting to my own heart that the talk of consequences, the talk of lifelong reaping makes the believer uncomfortable.

It does. The Bible never says the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from all consequences. It says from all sin.

Certainly the eternal consequences of sin and guilt have been paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. But there is the principle, as Paul declared it, to the believers in Galatia, which he said, be not deceived. You need to remember that's written to Christians.

God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. And then he goes on to exhort the believers in light of that, sow seeds, not to the flesh, but sow seeds to the spirit.

There is this law of sowing and reaping and sowing and reaping that exists in the life of a believer. I have read statistics recently that reveal among college students there is an alarming rise of a virus sexually transmitted called HPV. We don't hear anything about it because of the much more dangerous virus, HIV. The virus is growing at what is called an epidemic rate. It is causing cancer among women.

The statistics I read said that nearly 30 percent of college age girls have it. It will produce barrenness. God will forgive fornication. But you may one day weep over the inability to bear children.

We could fill four Super Bowl sized stadiums with teenagers who are involved in prostitution to pay for their drug habit. God will wonderfully save a person out of that addiction, but there may be lifelong physical and mental consequences. Did you know that the population ten times the size of Carrie will line up for abortions this year among girls unwed who conceive? God will forgive that if they confess it. But we are raising, ladies and gentlemen, a generation that we are now beginning to see engulfed with grief at what our generation has legalized, which is nothing less than sin. There is a principle of sowing and reaping.

I must have heard it a thousand times from my father who would say to his four sons, he'd say it this way, you cannot plant wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. J. Vernon McGee wrote about an evening he spent with Mel Trotter. Mel Trotter was an evangelist who in his earlier days had been an alcoholic. God wonderfully saved this man.

He would eventually preach to thousands of people and have an effective ministry. McGee wrote that one night he spoke, Mel Trotter spoke at McGee's church where he pastored in LA. After the service, they all went out to a restaurant and they were all ordering milkshakes and malts and sundaes and all that stuff. And Mel Trotter ordered a little bitty glass of carbonated water. And they were ribbing him about it, joking with him, oh, you must be on a diet or something. And he just smiled. And finally McGee said, you know, why are you just getting that?

And McGee wrote, he said, I never forgot Mel Trotter's answer. He said this, when the Lord gave me a new heart at conversion, he did not give me a new stomach. I'm paying for my years of drink. See, this truth makes us as believers uncomfortable, but it is the truth. There is the law of spiritual agriculture. It is a strong reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that all of us in this auditorium are in deep need of the grace of God. We lean on it. We abandon ourselves to it.

None of us are exempt. But it is also a challenge to a believer. If you are even thinking of walking away from your marriage, beware for the rest of your life, you will reap those bitter seeds. If you are even thinking of immorality or promiscuity, beware, watch out, you will bear the harvest of guilt and broken trust. If you are even thinking of stealing or lying or whatever else it might be, God is not blind, He's not deaf, and He has told us in His Word, if you plant that seed, you will reap it in some way or another.

Maybe that's why John Wesley wrote as one of his resolutions for life a century ago, resolved, never to do anything I would be afraid of doing were it the last hour of my life. Well, there is judgment that will occur on this day in the life of Ahab's house. Look at verse 30, when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head. She isn't trying to entice Jehu. She's an old woman here, but she is, she's literally preparing herself to die. She will look like the queen that she is. And there is an icy stubbornness that comes from the way she acts and what she says.

There is no remorse, there isn't a guilty conscience. Notice what she says to Jehu in verse 31, as Jehu entered the gate, she said, is it well, Zimri, your master's murderer? She called him Zimri. Takes us back to 1 Kings, where Zimri usurped the throne, and he only lived for seven days, and he died in the flames of the palace.

She's taunting him. She's saying, oh, you're no better than Zimri. You steal the throne, but you won't live to enjoy it. You won't live no longer than Zimri. Seven days, that's what I'll bet.

Seven days and you'll be finished. There isn't any doubt in my mind that she knows of the anointing. It has spread through the kingdom that the prophet of God has said he will bring judgment to the house of Ahab.

So you see, you're lying this. Here's a woman, his name means bales, princess. She's refusing, even near death, to repent. Verse 32, then he lifted up his face to the window and said, who is on my side? And two or three officials looked down at him and he said, throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trampled her underfoot. When he came in, he ate and drank and said, see now to this cursed woman and bury her for she is a king's daughter.

And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Therefore they returned and told him. And he said, this is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite saying, in the property of Jezreel, the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel. So they cannot recognize or say, this is Jezebel. The word of God with all its horror was fulfilled. Now I studied this week on this passage and discovered early on in the week. This is one of the reasons why preachers don't preach versus second Kings.

It seems so remote and distant, gory, but I want to give you what I believe to be at least three principles of application for us today. Number one, when God's word is rejected, the wickedness in a person's life can be unbelievable. Who would have ever thought that Israel would follow a woman like this, sacrifice their children to the idols as we've studied, be involved in religious promiscuity. Yet whenever you reject the word of God, then by the word of a prophet or today, as you read it, as you hold it in your hands, you are opening the door to unbelievable wickedness that you and I will be able in our minds to justify, to rationalize, to defend. There are people who treat this book like a bus.

They will get on it and take it for a ride as long as it's going where they want it to go. The trouble is the way is downward apart from this word. They are heading for a tragic life of self centered evil. Second truth. When God's authority is denied, the wasting of a person's life is inevitable.

One of the most wonderful things about Christianity is it rescued you and me from wasting our lives on ourselves. I think of Ernest Hemingway, who was a brilliant genius with his pen, but a man who denied God's authority and he even at one occasion rewrote, as I'm sure you know, the Lord's prayer to say, our nada. Nada is Spanish for nothing. Our nada who art in nada. Can you imagine?

His life ended when he put a bullet in his own head. I want to ask you a question, my friend. Are you building a house of cards today? Is the mortar mixed with pride and independence? Are the bricks colored with cherished, unconfessed sin? You are sowing seeds to the flesh. The word tells us we will reap a harvest of bitterness.

Third truth. When God's plans are obeyed, the difference in a person's life is unmistakable. To some, this discussion will be a warning, maybe a wake up call. To all of us, his word should be a challenge to follow the plans of God. Even when we cannot see a result, even when it doesn't seem to pan out or be of any benefit, we still follow the word of God. Sometimes he takes years to fulfill it.

Fourteen for this one oracle. There will come a day when he will fulfill his word and give you your promised place in the kingdom and in heaven. But what of life today? I recall he said on a number of occasions to us, he said, you know, if Christianity was not true, if there really wasn't a God in heaven, if there wasn't a future heaven for us who believe, he said, I'd still live the kind of life this book describes as the right way to live.

I still want to do that because it is the only life worth living. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. With this lesson, Steven concludes a nine-part series called Elisha, Living the Impossible Life. If you missed any of the lessons in this series along the way, the full-length version of these messages and the printed manuscripts are available to you free of charge, anytime. Visit wisdomonline.org for information or call us today at 866-48-bible or 866-482-4253. When we return next time, Steven begins a series through Jonah. Make plans to join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart.