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Revival or Disobedience

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

A Revival Digresses to Disobedience

Book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 22

Throughout society today, there is a desperate need for people to commit.

We will never serve the Lord as we should unless we commit to Him.

Without committing to the Lord, nothing of lasting value can be achieved.

If we want rewards when we get to Heaven, we must commit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we want blessings from the Lord while we are still here upon this earth, we must make a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus said it like this: Jhn_15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: “for without me ye can do nothing”.

Unless we are committed to the Lord Jesus, we will never have a personal relationship with Him!

Without commitment, the Lord is not with us, and we are left to ourselves as we walk through this life, and we may not have His help at all.

We saw in our lesson last week that King Ahaziah of Judah had been killed by King Jehu of Israel.

He was the youngest son of King Jehoram, but all his brothers had been killed by Arabian marauders.

He reigned for only one year, as he was killed by King Jehu.

He was the son of Athaliah, who was King Ahab’s daughter and King Omri’s granddaughter, who were kings of the Northern Tribes of Israel.

She was the daughter of Jezebel, wife to King Ahab.

Ahaziah lived an evil life before the Lord.

He went to the kings of Israel for advice on ruling the people of Judah and Benjamin, and not to Jehovah.

He was killed during the time he went to visit King Joram by Jehu, as we learned from last week’s lesson, as God commanded.

2Ch 22:7 And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

It was at this time that his mother, Athaliah, decided that she would rule Judah, and she went on a killing spree, murdering all her grandchildren.

*2Ch 22:10 But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.
2Ch 22:11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.
2Ch 22:12 And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.

We do not have to be rocket scientists to realize that the Devil was trying to break the promise to King David and stop the miracle birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If Satan could cause just one of the promises of God to be wrong, no one would trust the promises of God to be a fact, and none would trust the Word of God to be true.

Ahaziah had a wicked father and a wicked mother, and he followed in their footsteps.

He, like Ahab, his father-in-law, was just a puppet that his mother controlled the strings.

Today, many people, including many so-called Christians, follow the example and the advice of people who are focused on the world and not on the Word of God.

When we start following the world in the passions and the pleasures, which are short-lived, we will influence our family and friends to do the same.

If we seek the advice of the world for our lives, we will likely follow the world in our decisions.

The Lord Jesus teaches us to do this instead: Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

By the providence of God, a one-year-old child was in the right place at the right time in the hands of someone who loved the Lord.

2Ki 11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
2Ki 11:3 And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

The miracle of God’s “Grace” at this time was Joash, who was a baby one year old.

This Jehoshabeath was the wife of Jehoiada, who was one of God’s priests and the Chief Priest of the Temple. Her name means “the Lord is her oath”.

Jehoshabeath was for salvation, Athaliah was out for destruction.

Jehoshabeath served God’s people; Athaliah served herself and the world.

We can also see that this nurse of the baby Joash helped save the life of this baby, and we do not even know her name.

At the age of seven years, Joash became King of Judah.

*2Ch 23:1 And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him.
2Ch 23:2 And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
2Ch 23:3 And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the LORD hath said of the sons of David.

The history of King Joash is actually the history of Jehoiada the priest of God.

In fact, the nation of Judah appreciated him so much that he was buried amongst the good kings of Judah, which we will cover in the next chapter.

We could ask ourselves; how will the other members of the Church remember us once we are in Heaven.

Can it be said that we have done good.

Our first obligation is to the Lord Jesus Christ.

God sees everything we do, and He knows us better than all others can.

Doing good to His House means we behave in His House according to the standards He has given to us.

1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest “know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God”, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
1Ti 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Jehoiada secured the support of the military.
Jehoiada gets the Levites to return to the Temple.

If we know what the Lord has told us in the Word of God, then we can place our faith in what He said because God does not ever change.

Because the Temple is the location of this gathering, we know it is done before God.

Anytime we are doing business in the House of God we are inviting God to be a part of it!

In this seven-year-old boy lies the hope of the future of Israel and the future of the Church.

Did this priest realize what the Scriptures said?

He knew the promises he made to King David and this is where he placed his faith.

Today we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the only hope of our living in the glory world!

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

What had the Prophet Isaiah prophesied? Isa 3:4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Joash became the next King of Judah.

Later, we will see Manasseh made king at twelve years old and Josiah, who was king at eight years old, and Jehoiachin, who was king at eight years old.

What did King Solomon write in: Ecc 10:16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

*2Ch 23:11 Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, “and gave him the testimony”, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.

They followed the Law of God in making Joash King of Judah.

Deu 17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
Deu 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

King Joash would rule for forty years, and he would do what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days that Jehoiada lived.

2Ch 24:2 And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

He repaired the Temple that had been abused by wicked kings and priests.

2Ch 24:7 For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD did they bestow upon Baalim.

This work was financed by tithes called a Temple Tax and offerings that were freely given by the people.

Then Jehoiada reached the end of his days.

*2Ch 24:15 But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.
2Ch 24:16 And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.

Priest Jehoiada had lived for one hundred and thirty years and this would be since the time of King Solomon and lived thru six other kings before he died.

Jehoiada does not die from disease or accident, but he dies of old age.

He had served God and his nation all those years.

No one since Joshua had lived these many years.

The influence of this great priest is shown when he is buried among the kings of Judah.

People ask all the time, “How much can one man do to help a nation”?

This priest, this one man, held back sin and helped his nation return to the Lord all the days of his life.

In many ways, this priest was in type like the Holy Spirit.

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

Once Jehoiada was gone, the evil that was in Judah began to influence Joash and turned him away from the Word of God.

When there should have been revival, the people of influence sway the king to go against the Word of God.

*2Ch 24:17 Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.

This same thing has happened in America. The Church is allowed some freedom because our nation mostly honors the freedom of religion.

The Devil looks upon this thing and insists upon having those same freedoms.

This was not the intent of the founders of our nation, and our whimsy governments allow the worship of the Devil or any other false religion.

I do not consider Christianity to be a religion.

Christianity is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Without this personal relationship, there is no Church!

Those people in the Church who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ serve religion, and religion cannot save you!

This King turned against the teaching of Jehoiada and allowed these people in leadership positions to serve idols.

*2Ch 24:18 And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.
2Ch 24:19 Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.
2Ch 24:20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.
2Ch 24:21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

What did the Lord Jesus say to these leaders of Israel?

Mat 23:31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Mat 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Mat 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

There is a great many who believe that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada is the same man that the Lord Jesus is referring to as written in the Book of Matthew and the Book of Luke, where there is no name given for his father.

Luk 11:47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

The Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, and he pronounced judgment upon these wicked men and the King that had been saved by Jehoiada turned upon God and the Son of Jehoiada and murdered him in the court of the house of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus said between the altar and the Temple.

Judah could not prosper during the reign of Joash.

Jehovah promised justice to Judah.

Zep 1:4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
Zep 1:5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;
Zep 1:6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.

Before we do anything in this life, we need to seek the face of God to see what He says about it!

2Co_6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Amen

God’s Judgment

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

 Judgment on the House of Ahab

 Book of 2 Kings

 There are many disagreements in the many denominations of the Church about the “Judgment of God,” but we are all united in the belief that there will be a final “Judgment”.

 Death is a reality for every member of the human race.

 Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

 We should understand that this Scripture refers to the physical death of the body, but not the soul.

 The soul can be described as the life-principle of a human being, and the life-principle of every human will live on after the death of the body.

 The Lord Jesus says this about the soul: Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

 The soul can be said to be the immaterial nature of every human!

 The soul can only be seen by God, who gave it!

Sometimes, the real me on the inside of this sack of flesh will be looking out, and I will want to do something, but I cannot get this flesh to cooperate. It gets worse as I get older.

 At death, the soul and the body will separate: Jas 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead”, so faith without works is dead also.

 With the body now dead, it is the soul that will face the judgment of God, as our verse in the Book of Hebrews says.

 No one is exempt from this death. Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

 We must be very clear that because Jehovah is holy, He must judge all that is unholy, or He would no longer be holy Himself!

 “Judgment” is an expression of God’s character!

 Today, we will see that many will face God’s “Judgement” as they die because they are evil and wicked, and they have refused to repent of that wickedness.

 We have already spoken some on the judgment of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, but today we will see it as it takes place in the Scriptures.

 It was the Prophet Elijah who first informed King Ahab about how his life would end in judgment.

 We know that God had already judged Lucifer and the fallen angels, and the things written in the Scriptures will take place as they are written.

 We know that God judged the people on this earth with the worldwide flood in the days of Noah.

 God judged the people at the Tower of Babel.

 God judged the people of the Northern Kingdom, as we have been studying.

 God also judged the Southern Kingdom.

 We know that the wrath of God will be revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness!

The Book of Revelation gives us the horrible details of this “Judgement”.

 Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

 As the Son of God, our Lord Jesus has the authority to render judgment when He returns, and He will only do this after He has removed His Church from this earth.

 Joh 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

Joh 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

Joh 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

 It would be Jehu who would be the hand of God’s judgment upon King Ahab and his wife Jezebel.

We will see that Jehu went farther than the Lord intended and in ways that were not intended.

 *****2Ki 9:1 And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramothgilead:

2Ki 9:2 And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber;

2Ki 9:3 Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not.

2Ki 9:4 So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramothgilead.

2Ki 9:5 And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain.

 Once Jehu was known to be the next King of the Northern Tribes of Israel, he had to move fast because he would be charged with high treason.

 Jehu was commanded by Jehovah to put a stop to the House of Ahab and being obedient to God and upon the right principles, he did not have to worry about opposition.

 What did the Lord actually say?

 1Ki 19:17 And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.

1Ki 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

 What had God said to Ahab?

 1Ki 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,

1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.

1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

1Ki 21:24 Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.

 This was Ahab’s last chance to repent. We know that Ahab did repent at least a little and Jehovah allowed him to die in a war with Syria “before his family came to judgment”, but the words of God’s prophet still held.

 1Ki 22:37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

1Ki 22:38 And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake.

 *****2Ki 9:6 And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel.

2Ki 9:7 And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.

2Ki 9:8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:

2Ki 9:9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah:

2Ki 9:10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.

 It was Elijah who had received the order from Jehovah to anoint Jehu as the new King of the Northern Tribes of Israel.

 Elijah anointed Elisha to replace him as a Prophet of God, and it was Elisha who anointed Hazael as King of Syria. Now, Elisha sent another prophet to anoint Jehu as the new king.

 God had allowed King Ahab to reign until his death.

 1Ki 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

1Ki 21:28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

1Ki 21:29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house.

 Once King Ahab had died, Jehovah fulfilled the promise He had made.

 1Ki 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,

1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.

 The person Elisha chose to anoint Jehu as king was to do three things.

 Jehu was one of the captains of the Army of King Ahab and may have been the lead captain.

 1) This prophet was to take Jehu into an inner room and privately anoint him out of sight of everyone else.

2) He was to declare that it was Jehovah who had appointed him king over Israel.

3) He was to flee the scene as quickly as he could.

 For someone to declare themselves to be king would be considered high treason to the existing government.

 This is the thing that the Jews used to have the Lord Jesus crucified.

 Jehu was chosen specifically to execute justice on the house of Ahab.

 This was because Ahab had allowed Jezebel to slaughter the people of God and God’s prophets.

 Jehu was to kill all the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel.

 God had said this same thing would happen to other kings of Israel.

 Jezebel’s ending would be just as God had described.

 2Ki 9:10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.

 The army of King Ahab became the army of King Jehu.

 Jehu was appointed to be a just ruler to execute justice.

There is a big difference between justice and murder!

 It is the same for every ruler that God allows to rule today.

 They are in place to execute justice, and they will be held accountable to God for how they do this!

 Executing justice does not always mean murder, which is a sin!

 However, how any ruler executes justice to their people will determine how Jehovah will execute justice to them!

 Whatever they sow, they will reap!

 The Lord Jesus Christ will execute perfect justice when He returns!

 2Ch 19:6 And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.

2Ch 19:7 Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.

 Mat 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

 Joram, a son of Ahab, was now ruler of Israel, and Ahaziah was King of Judah, and they were both together.

 Because Athaliah was the daughter of Jezebel and the mother of Ahaziah, Joram, King of Israel, was the uncle to Ahaziah, the King of Judah.

 *****2Ki 9:21 And Joram said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

2Ki 9:22 And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

2Ki 9:23 And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.

 The uncle and his nephew went out to meet Jehu.

 As only God can manage, these men met at the portion of land that had been taken from Naboth.

 If we do not believe in the providence of God, then we will never understand the Word of God.

 In reality, Jehu carried out a bloody slaughter throughout Israel.

 Did Jehovah command this to happen, or did He just warn King Ahab that this was going to happen?

 God will always allow us to repent.

 God will tell us what will happen if we refuse to repent.

 Hos 1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Hos 1:5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

 We can see that the military of King Ahab did not think too highly of Jezebel.

 Joram was just like his mother, and Ahaziah was just like his mother Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel.

 *****2Ki 9:24 And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.

2Ki 9:25 Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him;

2Ki 9:26 Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD.

2Ki 9:27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.

 There are over fifty-two verses of Scripture that describe the slaughter of Jehu, so it must be important that we understand what God is saying here.

 Jehu took out King Joram with one shot of an arrow through his heart, and his body was cast into the field once owned by Naboth where the birds would eat him.

 It is Verse 26 that tells that the sons of Naboth were also slaughtered by King Ahab and Jezebel.

 Now Jehu turns his attention to King Ahaziah of Judah, best described in the Book of 2 Chronicles:

 2Ch 22:7 And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

2Ch 22:8 And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them.

2Ch 22:9 And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.

 The death of Ahaziah and his sons left Judah without a king, and this is when Athaliah took it upon herself to become Queen of Judah by her treachery. She murdered her own children and grandchildren.

 2Ch 22:10 But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.

 Only one son had survived, who was Joash, who continued the promise made to King David.

 2Ch 22:11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.

2Ch 22:12 And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.

 Jehu decided it was time to take care of Jezebel.

 *****2Ki 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.

 A tire was a headdress, an ornament for the head, generally of gold or precious stones, a tiara.

 Jezebel was old by this time, but made herself look like royalty in an attempt to impress Jehu.

 She had been the cause of the death of many prophets of God.

 *****2Ki 9:31 And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?

2Ki 9:32 And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.

2Ki 9:33 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 trode her under foot.

2Ki 9:34 And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.

2Ki 9:35 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.

2Ki 9:36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:

2Ki 9:37 And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

 The end of Jezebel was just as Jehovah had said.

 Her blood had splattered everywhere, she was trampled, and the dogs had eaten her until nothing but her skull, her hands, and her feet were left.

She would be as dung as her remains passed from the dogs in the nearby fields of Jezreel.

 She was buried in an unmarked grave, and no one mourned for this wicked woman.

 It was then that Jehu turned his attention to the seventy sons of King Ahab.

 The Scripture says seventy sons, but it may mean sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons.

 *****2Ki 10:10 Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah.

2Ki 10:11  So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. 

 Jehu may have considered himself to be the arm of God, but in reality, we know that God does not need our help for His Word to be True!

 Zec 1:6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

 Mar 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

 Jehu wrote a letter to the officials of Samaria and Jezreel, telling them to choose the closest relative of King Ahab and make him king of Israel and to prepare for war.

 This only terrified these officials, who were afraid to confront Jehu.

 Since they had switched their allegiance to Jehu, Jehu wrote another letter demanding that they execute justice against the seventy sons of King Ahab for treason.

 They were to bring the heads of these seventy sons to Jezreel the very next day.

 The word of Jehu was honored.

 Jehu made out that he was on a special mission for Jehovah to remove any blame for himself seeking the sympathy of the people.

 Jehu was not a godly man.

 *****2Ki 10:31 But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.

 He was just like Jeroboam.

 King Jehu went beyond the justice that God had intended, and he became a murderer.

 God wanted justice throughout the Northern Tribes of Israel and not just the elimination of one family, though God knew what Jehu would do.

 To murder is a terrible sin because it takes the life of a person out of this world.

 The hearts of many who are left behind also suffer much pain and grief, and in many cases hardship, because it was the male who was the breadwinner on that day, while the wife took care of the children.

 Jehu caused a terrible number of single-parent families.

 God never instructs His children to murder. God still says that they will suffer the consequences of this evil.

 For the wages of sin is death!

 Amen

Obadiah God’s Prophet of Doom

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

God’s Prophet of Doom
 
Book of Obadiah
 
 
The name Obadiah means the servant of Yahweh. Obadiah was a servant of the Lord.
 
We may read a lot of things about Obadiah but in reality all we know is what is written in the book that carries his name.
 
There were several other men who were named Obadiah but we do not know of any of them being the Prophet Obadiah.
 
The Book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament and he is called a Minor Prophet but the message of the Minor Prophets are just as important as the other prophets.
 
This book is still given to us as a message from the Holy Spirit.
 
From start to finish the Book of Obadiah is a prophecy of judgment and doom on the people of Edom.
 
The enmity between Israel and Edom began when these to twin sons of Isaac were still in the womb of their mother.
 
Gen 25:22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 
Gen 25:23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 
 
The hostility of these two brothers continued for years.
 
Remember Jacob bought Esau’s inheritance for the price of a bowl of stew.
 
Edom was a source of pain for israel throughout Old Testament history.
 
When Moses was leading Israel to the promised land Edom refused to allow them to cross their land.
 
Num 20:18  And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. 
Num 20:19  And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet. 
Num 20:20  And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand. 
Num 20:21  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.
 
These things only got worse as time went by.
 
God told Israel to treat the Edomites like brothers: Deu 23:7  Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land. 
Deu 23:8  The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation.

God expects brotherly love from each of us and we are not to hate our enemies.
 
The Edomites did not do the same: Eze 35:5  Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: 
Eze 35:6  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. 
Eze 35:7  Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. 
Eze 35:8  And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. 
Eze 35:9  I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
 
The Edomites were israel’s longest standing enemy and more prophecies are directed against this nation than any other in Scripture.
 
After Jerusalem was defeated by Babylon the Edomites entered Jerusalem to loot whatever valuables and food that had been overlooked by Babylon.
 
Worst of all they murdered survivors trying to flee from the Babylonians and handed over others to be tormented.
 
This did not set well with Jehovah and the Edomites would be destroyed and snuffed our forever from history.
 
The purpose of Obadiah was to warn the Edomites and was their last chance for repentance.
 
We should be able to see that the enemies of God’s people will be severely judged.
 
In the end the message of the Prophet Obadiah will apply to all people and all nations who dare to persecute God’s people.
 
*Oba 1:1  The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. 
 
It is this first verse that we get the name of the author of this great book.
 
A vision, was one of the ways God revealed Himself to His prophets, sometimes by open revelations and other times by dreams.
 
Abraham, Jacob, Isaiah and many others were called with visions.
 
Even in the day of the Apostle Paul visions are mentioned.
 
2Co 12:1  It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 
 
Act 18:9  Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 
Act 18:10  For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. 
 
I know the Lord still uses visions or dreams today.
 
This is the reason these prophets of God were called “Seers”.
 
1Sa 9:9  (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.) 
 
Obadiah says he and other prophets were given this same message.
 
Jeremiah was one.
 
Jer 49:14  I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
 
This word ambassador is the same person as a messenger who goes to the unbeliever with the message of God.
 
As Christians we are all to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
 
2Co 5:20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 
2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
 
Our home is now Heaven so we can be ambassadors to this earth and to every nation upon this earth.
 
We should be clear Jehovah gave Obadiah an actual picture of the destruction of Edom.
 
Not only did Obadiah get a visual picture of the destruction of Edom but Jehovah did speak to His prophet.

God gave Obadiah the words to say to Edom.
 
Oba 1:2  Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. 
Oba 1:3  The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? 
Oba 1:4  Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD. 
 
These are the words of Jehovah.
 
The Edomites would be despised by the nations that were around.
 
No matter what they were into in that day, they would become a small people until they would cease to exist.
 
It was the Edomites who carved Petra and other cities out of sandstone rock.
 
They felt very safe and very secure in these cities.
 
To get to Petra you have to go through a narrow canyon that is only wide enough for one man and one horse to pass through in single file.
 
Any enemy could be stopped from entering into Petra. This where there pride came from as they had stopped many enemies at this narrow point.
 
They had begun to think like the Devil.(who shall bring me down to the ground)
 
Mal 1:3  And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 
Mal 1:4  Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. 
Mal 1:5  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. 
 
God described Lucifer: Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 
Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 
Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 
Isa 14:15  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 
 
No doubt pride is still our enemy even though we should be proud of our heritage with the Lord Jesus Christ we must be careful how we use it.
 
God says that pride in our heart will deceive us and we know that Satan’s middle name is “Deceiver”.
 
Obadiah prophesies against the Edomites because of their attitude of hatred against God’s people Israel.
 
The Edomites felt secure in their rock carve homes in Petra.
 
We know the eagle will make it’s home in high places that cannot be reached by most of its enemies, and the Edomites also felt this way.
 
In fact God said even if their nest was amongst the stars, He would still bring them down to earth.
 
We should understand that God will pour out His “judgment” upon the unbelievers on this earth, especially upon those who persecute God’s people.
 
What was God’s judgment?
 
The nation of Edom would be made a small.
The pride of the people of Edom would be cut down.
 
Their land would no longer protect them. Only the Lord can protect and secure any nation.
 
Our own nation could find this out it continues to persecute the Church!
 
Oba 1:8  Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? 
Oba 1:9  And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. 
Oba 1:10  For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
 
The enemy that God would use against Edom would be one of their trusted allies.
 
Anyone who continues to reject the Lord could see their own friends turn on them.
 
This so-called friend of Edom would take all their wealth and and all their valuable possessions.
 
All the treasures of Edom would be plundered.
 
God’s “judgment” would strip Edom bare of their treasures.
 
All the wise leaders of Edom would leave for other places or be slaughtered.
 
Edom would lose its army and become defenceless.
 
All who oppose the Lord and His people will certainly face the terrifying “judgment” of Jehovah God.
 
2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 
2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 
2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 
2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
 
Oba 1:11  In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. 
Oba 1:12  But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. 
Oba 1:13  Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; 
Oba 1:14  Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. 
 
You want to get on the wrong side of God? Here is how you do it.
 
1) Become an enemy of God’s people.
 
Edom had a hatred for God’s people that had lasted for many years. It is the same for the so-called Palestinians today. They rejoiced at the destruction of Jerusalem. They committed every act of voilence imaginable in order to cause problems for the nation of Israel.
 
2) They were blood relatives of the Israelites but this meant nothing to them. They were filled with a bitter hatred and they would never come to the aid of the Israelites. They would give their support to the enemies of Israel.
 
3) They looked down on the Jews just as their are many in the world who still do this today. They would rejoice everytime they saw the Jews suffering. Remember the two witnesses that are written in the Book of the Revelation.
 
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. 
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 
 
The Edomites rejoiced over every destruction that happened to the Jews.
 
4) The Edomites attacked and plundered the Israelites at ever opportunity. Even when other nations had defeated the Jews. As soon as they left the Edomites would sweep down and take anything that was left. It is an awful thing to steal from helpless people who cannot defend themselves.
 
5) The Edomites were guilty of murder. When Israel was attacked there would be survivors who fled to safety but the Edomites would ambush them and slaughter them.
 
6) The edomites were guilty of betrayal. Sometimes instead murdering those survivors they would hand them over to the enemy to make slaves of them. The Edomites were guilty of the worst sort of treachery.
 
God expects every person upon this earth to have a spirit of brotherly love and especially the Church.
 
Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 
Rom 1:29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 
Rom 1:30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
Rom 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 
Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 
 
2Ti 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 
2Ti 3:2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 
2Ti 3:3  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
2Ti 3:4  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 
2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
 
These were the Edomites in their day and they will face the “judgment of God.
 
What are the laws of Jesus?
 
Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 
 
The Day of the Lord is much closer than we think!
 
Oba 1:15  For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 
Oba 1:16  For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. 
Oba 1:17  But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

We that love the Lord truly believe that we are in the “last days”.

God had made many promises to the Church which He will keep.

God has made many promises to the Jews which He will also keep.

In the “last days” of human history when the lord Jesus Christ returns to set up His Kingdom the prophecies of Obadiah will be fulfilled.

1) All nations will face the ‘Day of the Lord”! vs 16
2) Mount Zion, Jerusalem will be delivered from the hands of the enemies and Jerusalem will be made holy. It maybe called the Holy City today but it is not holy. Vs 17
3) God promised the tribes of Israel will inherit the land promised to Abraham and his descendants, those who truly love the Lord and are faithful to Him.
Gen 17:5  Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 
Gen 17:6  And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 
Gen 17:7  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 
Gen 17:8  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 

4) The divided nation of Israel will be reunited and Edom will be destroyed with no survivors. Vs 18.
There will be no one upon the earth that will oppose King Jesus.

5) Israel will reoccupy all the lands lost to other nations through the centuries. Vs 19-20

Godly leaders will govern Edom as well as all the nations that remain. Vs 21

*Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S. 

Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to send His Kingdom to this earth.

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

In the not too distant future that prayer will be answered!

Jesus Christ will return to this earth and every knee will bow to our Savior and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Obadiah is known as the prophet of doom but he is also the prophet of the coming Kingdom of God.

Amen

The Prophet Elisha

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

God’s Prophet of Miracles

2 Kings 2:9-14, 4:1-7, 6:1-7

What is making a commitment?

The act of pledging yourself to God and entrusting yourself to God.

Before Elisha became the powerful prophet that he was, he spent some time with the Prophet Elijah.

Elijah was somewhat like a father to Elisha, and Elisha was a devoted servant to Elijah.

We must have this relationship with our Heavenly Father, and we do this while trying to be more like the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Elisha made a commitment to Jehovah and Elijah.

2Ki 2:5 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
2Ki 2:6 And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on.

The Prophet Elisha refused to leave the side of Elijah.

Now it was not Elijah who called Elisha to be a prophet of Jehovah, it was Jehovah who had called him through Elijah.

1Ki 19:16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.

We can all love and cherish our pastor, but this will not make us preachers.

We must be called of God!

Elijah knew his time had come to leave this earth, and God did this in a special way.

Elijah had used many ways to test the commitment of Elisha, and Elisha had passed every test.

It was Elisha who would spend the final moments alone with his beloved prophet.

For more than twenty years, the Prophet Elijah had witnessed to the nation of Israel.

Elijah had the power of God upon him.

*2Ki 2:8 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
2Ki 2:9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
2Ki 2:10 And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

Somewhat like Moses at the Red Sea, Jehovah parted the waters of the River Jordan so his two prophets could cross on dry ground.

On this very day, Elijah would be raptured out of this world in full view of Elisha.

I say raptured because what does the word rapture mean?

The word rapture means to be “caught up”.

1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Before the Tribulation, Jesus Christ will descend from Heaven, catching up the Church to be with Himself while the tribulation is unleashed on a world that refuses to repent and is full of unbelievers once the Church is gone.

The seventh week of the prophet Daniel is an outpouring of the wrath of God!

Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The Tribulation is described in the Book of Revelation from Chapter 6 through Chapter 16.

Rev 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

That word “whore” means the false Church and those who reject our Creator, especially those who know the truth of God but have rejected Him.

Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of the Holy Spirit that powered Elijah.

He knew he could not replace Elijah.

Elijah did not have the power to grant such a request because his power came from the Spirit of Jehovah.

In those days, the firstborn son in a Hebrew family was granted a double portion of any inheritance if they were found worthy.

Then, without any warning, Jehovah claimed His servant, Elijah.

*2Ki 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

We must know that our lives are in the hands of the Lord to do as He pleases!

1) God knows when our work is done.
2) Death seems so low, but in fact, we are elevated to a higher service.
3) We are elevated, dignified, and glorified.
4) We do not enter into soul sleep or an intermediate state; we go to another world we call Heaven.

Elijah was carried up by the power of God.

When our Lord Jesus went back to Heaven, He went under His own power.

Elijah was taken up as in the rapture.

Jesus Christ just went back to Heaven, where He came from, to sit at the right hand of God.

The Lord Jesus is coming again first to Rapture the Church into the clouds and then to this earth at the end of the tribulation period of seven years.

Elisha saw with his own eyes that God’s people are all surrounded by angels.

2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

*2Ki 2:12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
2Ki 2:13 He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
2Ki 2:14 And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.

Jehovah had used the Prophet Elijah to demonstrate to Israel that it was Jehovah who had the true power over Israel.

He will do the same with the Prophet Elisha, and it is these things that we must learn from the Old Testament.

If we cannot commit ourselves to our God, how can we ever overcome the obstacles that Satan will put in our path of righteousness?

1Co 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1Co 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Faithful is another word for commitment!

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Elisha’s first call was to pick up the fallen cloak of Elijah.

Elisha was to replace the great Prophet Elijah.

The next proof to Elisha was the parting of the River Jordan.

This was an act of faith that he had received the power of God as he had desired.

Elijah had promised the fulfillment of this request, and God had allowed it to take place.

There were some eyewitnesses to this event, and they needed to see if Elisha truly had the power of God upon him.

Elisha began his ministry, and we will see more miracles from this man of God than from any other prophet of God.

*2Ki 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
2Ki 4:2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

Just as it is today, women who have lost their husbands or never had one to begin with will struggle to raise a family.

Many of them are like this woman who was married to a preacher, and all of a sudden, he had died, and he died owing money to a ruthless man.

We also see that these sons of the prophets did not separate themselves from society but had families and had family life.

So, this was something that God did not require. In fact, the Church is to be a close-knit family, just as all families should be,

This woman was left with a son and a small pot of olive oil and no money to pay the creditor.

The Jewish law of that time demanded that debts be paid, but God had His demands.

Lev 25:38 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
Lev 25:39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
Lev 25:40 But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
Lev 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

No Jew could be made a slave by another Jew according to the Word of God because they all had been slaves in Egypt.

We also know that the Word of God was abused then as it is today.

The Prophet Elisha knew what was going on here, and so did Jehovah, who watches over us all.

*2Ki 4:3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
2Ki 4:4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
2Ki 4:5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

There are times when we will have a heavy need, and the Lord Jesus reminds us of what to do.

Joh 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Joh 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Elijah was now gone to Heaven, so this woman turned to Elisha and Elisha said: “Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few”.

God said: Go to your neighbors and get all the containers that they will let you have.

This woman took her small vessel of olive oil and began pouring it into the borrowed buckets, pitchers, and any other containers until they were all full, and she still had her vessel of olive oil.

When God offers His gifts, we must never be the reason that His gift falls short.

As this oil is a type of the Holy Spirit, we must understand that it is never a question of the amount of oil; it is always a question of the empty vessels that need to be filled.

God has enough of His Spirit to fill every human being upon this earth and keep them full!

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2Co 4:11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

God’s oil can never run out!

We must take advantage of His offer to help us.

If this woman had a lack of faith and just gotten a few containers, her sons would have still had to serve the creditor, and she might not have ever seen them again.

Notice also that this thing was to be done behind closed doors.

This was a woman with a lot of faith.

*2Ki 4:6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
2Ki 4:7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

We must understand that being poor is not necessarily a disgrace.

Being poor, we can sometimes better understand the gifts of God.

We could say that the Bible is the poor man’s book because God certainly remembers the poor.

A poor woman with a devout heart can be the greatest prayer warrior in the Church and many are.

Psa 68:5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

Psa 10:14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

God’s heart is full of compassion for those who cannot help themselves and who depend on Him to meet their needs.

What did this poor woman do?

1) She informed a true man of God of her situation and sought his counsel.
2) She sought the help of her neighbors, humbly asking for assistance.
3) She sought privacy, giving God all the glory.
4) She got involved in the remedy, pouring the oil herself.
5) She had faith that God would meet her need.

Jesus said: Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

We should understand that every circumstance we face in life could be a test and a means of Christian growth, whether they are good or bad.

To be honest, we can grow more during our bad times than our good times if our faith stays rock solid.

Indeed, we cannot have a testimony until we are tested.

The Bible is a lot of things to a lot of people, but it is surely a testimony of God’s power to help and to defend His people.

The Old Testament is full of things that God did for His people, and we know we serve this same God today.

*2Ki 6:1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.
2Ki 6:2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.
2Ki 6:3 And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

The place where these sons of the prophets gathered to study the Word of God had grown too small, and they wanted to build a bigger place on the shores of the River Jordan.

Notice that every man was to join in the construction of this new building.

Even Elisha would be with them.

By building this new place to worship near the place where they gathered the lumber, they would not have to transport these materials to the other place.

We can see that the Word of God was still working in the places of the Northern Tribes of Israel.

*2Ki 6:4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.
2Ki 6:5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.
2Ki 6:6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.
2Ki 6:7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

We may wonder why this story is in the Bible, but God has His reason for every word He gives to us.

We can understand Church growth.
We can understand the members of the Church helping with the construction.
We can understand the head prophet or the Pastor joining in with the work.
A united Church can accomplish so much more than a divided Church!

What is the purpose of a miracle of God?

We know that miracles did not happen at random throughout Scripture but occurred mainly in the days of Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

There are a select few that happened outside this time, but not many.

Miracles were given to authenticate God’s message.

God enabled His messengers to perform miracles to substantiate the new message they were given.

The word “miracle” means “power” or “work of power”.

Today, God does not work through a person for miracles to happen.

God may answer a prayer of a believer that requires a miracle, or He may perform a miracle in the life of a believer again as an answer to prayer.

So, a believer’s prayer is the most powerful gift we have today.

Here in our passage, we see that an axe-head called “the iron” came off the ax handle and fell into the River Jordan.

This man had borrowed this ax from his neighbor, and by Jewish Law, he was responsible for it.

Iron tools were precious and scarce on that day.

This happened often with the axes of that day.

Deu 19:5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:

Elisha asked him in what part of the river it fell, and he showed him.

The River Jordan is not a clear river.

In this miracle, Elisha threw a stick down into the river and the axe-head did swim to that stick and that man reached down a picked up the axe-head.

For that man, this was quite a miracle.

Joh 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

This man had lost this axe-head while he was faithfully serving the Lord.

As servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must walk carefully before the Lord and take inventory of our tools lest we lose something that we need.

Without this axe-head, this man could only watch others’ work, and there are far too many of these types in the Church already.

If we honestly lose something and own up to it while doing the work the Lord has given to us to do, then God can recover what we lost and get us back into the race, as the Apostle Paul would say.

Amen

God Dealing With Wicked Rulers

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Dealing With Wicked Rulers
 
Book of 1 Kings Chapter 21
 
 
A ruler is someone who is in authority over other people. Here in our church our Pastor is the ruler because he is the man God called to lead us.
 
Can someone be so evil that Jehovah will condemn that person to hell?
 
We had better be clear on this question.
 
Jhn_3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
 
Many people do not believe this because they do not believe in a Divine Creator. They deny the existence of a Holy God.
 
Many people say they believe in a God, but they do not believe He will hold people accountable in a day of justice.
 
Many people believe that if there is such a day that they have done enough good to overcome the bad things they have done.
 
If we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, then we need to believe what He says about these things.
 
Sixteen times in the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ says the word Hell as in a place that exists.
 
This is more than any other person.
 
There is a coming judgment for everyone who has ever lived!
 
One of the major teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ is that there is a place called Hell, and we are condemned to this place called Hell already unless we repent and turn towards Him and His ways.
 
Today we will meet two of the most wicked people in the Old Testament. In fact, Jezebel may have been the most wicked woman to have ever lived.
 
In fact, the Word of God lists his marriage to Jezebel as the worst sin of King Ahab.
 
Jezebel is the first of the persecutors of the people of God.
 
This woman had four hundred and fifty false prophets who ministered under her care beside four hundred more false prophets who maintained her groves.
 
A grove was a wooden image or large idol of the goddess Ashtoreth.
 
She had other names which included Ishtar, Astarte, Alytta, Diana, the goddess of love to many people.
 
This Jezebel felt that she was the Living Goddess in her day.
 
The Lord Jesus Christ mentions this wickedness in the last of the Church Age.
 
Rev_2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
 
In our world today we see far too many people trying to tolerate what God hates, and they say it is because of His great love for all people.
 
We are never to tolerate what God say He hates!
 
We are to never allow this false teaching into the Church.
 
We are never to allow the teaching of this seductress into our Church.
 
What does the Lord Jesus promise about the teaching of Jezebel?
 
Rev 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
 
1Ki 21:1 And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
1Ki 21:2 And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.
1Ki 21:3 And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.
 
King Ahab was a wicked and evil man and the seventh king of the Northern Tribes of Israel.
 
His wife Jezebel had a very evil influence over him.
 
We first met the prophet Elijah in his dealings with King Ahab.
 
It seems that every king who heard from Elijah then wanted to kill him.
 
You cannot kill the Word of God!
 
He had warred with Ben-Hadad of Syria and in the end, defeated him with the help of Jehovah.
 
It was a time of peace that King Ahab had gone to his palace in Jezreel that he looked out his window which was upon the city wall, and he could see a vineyard that belonged to Naboth.
 
King Ahab had a love for herbs, and he wanted to turn the vineyard of Naboth into a garden for herbs and so he approached Naboth and attempted to buy or trade for this piece of land under his window.
 
Naboth responded to this king with an absolute no, but he explained himself.
 
Naboth still clung to the Word of God and God had told the Hebrews when they entered into the promised land that they were to keep that land in their families.
 
Num 36:7 So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
Num 36:8 And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.
Num 36:9 Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.
 
If we are deep enough in our convictions we will not give in to the ways of the world.
 
It may be that this thing might have ended at this point if not for the interference of Jezebel.
 
1Ki 21:4 And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.
 
King Ahab had done nothing wrong in trying to buy the vineyard of Naboth.
King Ahab had done nothing wrong in trying to trade a better vineyard for the land of Naboth.
 
His sin was covetousness.
 
Greed and covetousness are forbidden sin!
 
Covetousness is an inordinate desire for worldly possessions. It is the desire to increase the things you have by taking what others have.
 
It is a disorder of the heart and is associated with selfishness.
 
It is an irresistible desire to have what others own!
 
King Ahab showed childlike behavior when Naboth refused his offers.
 
Covetousness comes from the heart where all lustful and sinful desires are located!
 
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Jas 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
 
The Lord Jesus said it like this: Luk 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
 
1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Ti 6:7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
1Ti 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
1Ti 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
 
Here comes Jezebel to save the day for Ahab.
 
1Ki 21:5 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?
1Ki 21:6 And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard.
1Ki 21:7 And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
 
King Ahab is one of those people in this world who always have to have their way.
 
He is a weak man who acts like a spoiled child.
 
Jezebel is a wicked tyrant who does not allow anyone to question her authority.
 
She promises her husband that she will get him the land of Naboth.
 
King Ahab could have had almost any piece of land in all his kingdom but not that one small piece of land that belonged to Naboth.
 
He was miserable because he could not get that one piece of land.
 
It should be obvious that it was Jezebel who had the true authority in the kingdom of Ahab.
 
Jezebel’s sin was the sin of Ahab. Ahab did not try to stop Jezebel even though he knew she would have an evil plan.
 
We know that Adam did not pluck the fruit from the forbidden tree, but he was still guilty when he took a bite from it in the hand of Eve.
 
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
 
We are trying to be like God when we make up our own rules and ignore the Word of God.
 
Jezebel devised a plan for the neighbors of Naboth to end his life making herself and King Ahab free from guilt.
 
It did not bother her to take a man’s life!
 
She paid for two false witnesses according to the Word of God.
 
Num_35:30 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.
 
She sent letters to the elders and nobles of the city in King Ahab’s name using his signet ring to seal them.
 
They proclaimed a fast.
 
1Ki 21:12 They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.
 
In ancient times a day of fasting was sometimes set aside in order to show concern that a criminal or some evil threatened the city, but this did not come from Jehovah.
 
Fasting is for one purpose only and that purpose is to open the ear of God to a special need.
 
Isa 58:4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
 
It is a sad thing but wicked and corrupt leaders can always find someone to do their bidding.
 
Today we see godlessness and corruption in our courts are like poison to our nation and I hope it is finally put aside for the truth.
 
Some high officials ask certain people to do things, and they just do them without asking for what reason.
 
What is going on in America today should not be happening, yet it is going on in the Church also.
 
There is coming a day soon where God says He has had enough!
 
It is the innocent who suffer just as Naboth.
 
Naboth was murdered under the cover of religion instead of covetousness.
 
Religion has been used and continues to be used today to cover up wickedness and terrible sin!
 
It was not just Naboth in this instance but his entire family.
 
Today innocence will not always be our security, but we have assurance that there is a judgment coming to the wicked.
 
1Ki 21:13 And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
1Ki 21:14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.
 
Naboth was accused of treason against the kingdom and blasphemy against the gods of Israel, which we know were golden bulls.
 
Naboth was innocent of both charges.
 
Naboth was stoned to death for being innocent.
 
We see a type of Christ in Naboth in this passage.
 
Naboth is a type of Christ, which means he is a foreshadowing and representation of Jesus Christ.
 
Naboth’s vineyard is seen as a representation of salvation.
 
Naboth’s story is an example where we can see Jesus Christ. Both Naboth and Jesus owned a vineyard.
 
God saw what happened to Naboth.
 
Naboth was killed simply because wicked people wanted what belonged to him — and not just any people, but the king and queen of Israel.
 
This thing, of course, displeased the Lord very badly.
 
God Himself would condemn Ahab for what he had done.
 
God condemned Ahab’s wickedness, in that he coveted, killed, and took possession of his victim’s land.
 
“So, [Ahab] died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. Then someone washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken.”
 
God knew what happened and God did not let such injustice slip away.
 
What does Naboth teach us? Here are two things we can learn from him:
 
1) We must stand up for what is ours in Christ
 
Of course, this does not mean we should be stingy hoarders. What this means is that we must never let go of our inheritance in the Lord.
 
Many of us Christians today easily let go of our inheritance, trading it for some temporal pleasure and comfort. We do not stand up and rise as God’s children, we don’t fight for the salvation of our families, we stop praying for the will of God to happen in our nation and wherever we are.
 
We must take hold of our inheritance in Christ and never let it go.
 
2) Injustice may happen to us, but God sees it all
 
God saw the injustice done to Naboth and didn’t let it slip. No injustice can ever be hidden from God’s eyes, and we can rest our hopes on that.
 
We might feel angry at God for allowing bad people to do bad things to us, but the truth is that God is good and that He’s not our enemy. He’s watching us closely and is taking note of all that happens to us.
 
He will always ensure that justice will be served according to His way.
 
1Ki 21:15 And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead.
1Ki 21:16 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
 
There are three villains in this passage.
 
1) Ahab who is a wicked and weak man.
2) Jezebel who is a wicked and strong woman.
3) The elders of Israel who were wicked and useful to promote wickedness in the government of Ahab.

This shows us that if our leades are wicked and corrupt then these things will spread throughout our nation.
 
We should be clear, just because Naboth had been murdered, that land did not belong to King Ahab.
 
It still belonged to the family of Naboth.
 
Ahab probably claimed the land because the crown at that time, could seize the land of an executed criminal.
 
None of these things were hidden from the Almighty Living God.
 
1Ki 21:17 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:18 Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.
1Ki 21:19 And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
 
You could substitute the word “wickedness” with the name “Jezebel”.
 
Ahab may not have known what happened to Naboth, but he certainly knew that Jezebel said she would take care of this matter.
 
This made Ahab just as guilty of the death of Naboth as was his wife and those elders.
 
God has this saying: Num_32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: “and be sure your sin will find you out”.
 
No sinner can escape the judgment of God!
No sinner can escape the consequences of sin.
 
Sin will search and find us no matter where we are at.
 
What did God tell Cain after he had killed his brother Abel? Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? “and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door”. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
 
Every sin brings its own punishment and there has never been any deviation of it!
 
It is only a question of time!
 
There is no getting away from these words of the Holy Spirit!
 
Jehovah called upon Elijah to deliver another message to King Ahab.
 
Ahab did not think of himself as some murderer or guilty of anything other than being king and able to do as he pleased.
 
Ahab hated Elijah even though he had no real reason to do so.
 
What was God’s message to Ahab? “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine”.
 
Why was Elijah so hated? Elijah only spoke the truth of God.
 
1Ki 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
 
Ahab was standing right in the middle of Naboth’s vineyard, a place Ahab had wanted so much.
 
Ahab even though he wqas King of Israel had no power over the man of God and he knew it.
 
Elijah possessed the power of a righteous man.
 
Ahab was a weak and wicked man.
 
Ahab was guilty of murder and stealing an innocent man’s property.
 
Jezebel and the elders of Samaria were all guilty of the same crime.
 
Not many would have stood alone against such wickedness, but the man of God was just being obedient to the Lord.
 
What did Jehovah have to say?
 
1Ki 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
1Ki 21:24 Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
 
This prophecy of Jehovah took place in the time of Jehu.
 
Jehu was made King of Israel by Jehovah and God used Jehu to punish the house of Ahab.
 
2Ki 9:23 And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.
2Ki 9:24 And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
2Ki 9:25 Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him;
2Ki 9:26 Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD.
 
There is no escaping the “judgment of God”!
 
Ahab and Jezebel are suffering the “judgment of God” today and they will throughout eternity.
 
They are joined by all such people today.
 
Once we are born into this world we never cease to exist.
 
First, we exist upon this earth then at our death we continue to live in God’s presence, or we will live in a place that the Lord Jesus Christ called Hell.
 
Mat_10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
 
Where we spend eternity depends upon how we live our lives upon this earth!
 
Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Mat 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
 
1Ki 21:25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
 
There was not a more godless king than King Ahab. He allowed his wife Jezebel to lead him straight to Hell.
 
In fact, his wickedness reached its lowest point because he listened to his even more wicked wife.
 
Jezebel did all she could to stamp out the truth of Jehovah and Ahab knew this was wrong.
 
King Ahab should have recognized Elijah as his best friend and Jezebel as his worst foe.
 
We cannot ever be on the side of the world and think we are on the side of God!
 
Amen

My God is Jehovah

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Elijah-The Courageous Prophet

Book of 2 Kings Chapter 1

God’s Prophet Elijah.

The Hebrew name Elijah means “My God is Jehovah.”

We are all called to be Elijah’s today.

Elijah was a sight to behold. His hair hung down his back, and he wore a girdle of skin around his loins; sometimes, he placed a mantle over it.

A mantle would normally be a sheepskin worn like a cape.

We first meet Elijah when he confronts King Ahab of the Northern Tribes of Israel.

We know that Elijah had gone to King Ahab with a message from Jehovah.

1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

Elijah then escaped the vengeance of Jezebel.

1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.

God provided the needs of Elijah with this small brook while ravens brought him meat to eat.

Next, God sent Elijah to Zarephath to the house of a widow woman where God prolonged her oil and meal until the drought was over and where Elijah restored the life of her son.

God used Elijah on other occasions

This is the Ahab who had as his wife Jezebel. Jezebel was the daughter of the king of the Zidonians whose name was Ethbaal.

The name Ehtbaal means enjoying the favor and protection of Baal.

Jezebel did everything she could to stamp out the worship of Jehovah.

She was a wicked woman.

She also had a daughter named Athaliah who married the King of Judah named Jehoram who was also the only woman who occupied the throne of Judah.

We will see the great influence these two wicked women had on the children of Israel.

Elijah was one of those people that if you ever met him, you would certainly never forget him.

Elijah may be the weirdest figure among the prophets of Israel.

One moment Elijah was a powerhouse for God and the next he was running for his life afraid of Jezebel because he had caused the death of her false priests who could not get their false god to cooperate with them.

Jehovah had special patience with Elijah and now he was serving the Lord with passion again.

It is probably three or four years or more before we see Elijah in our lesson today.

*2Ki 1:1 Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

As the tribes of Israel divided the Moabites came under the control of Jeroboam but they had revolted as they saw the weakness of Israel.

King Omri of Israel regained control over them, and they were tributaries to King Ahab.

They now saw weakness in King Ahaziah and revolted again against Israel.

Ahaziah was another King of Israel who rebelled against the Lord God Jehovah.

Jehovah then sends a rejuvenated Elijah.

*2Ki 1:2 And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.
2Ki 1:3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?

For some reason, King Ahaziah had fallen through latticework or a trellis work on a window or balcony in his upper chamber.

This means it was probably not the flat roof of the house, but it was high enough to cause him serious trouble.

His sickness was caused by the wounds he had received from the fall. Probably infection.

We know that this is the son of Jezebel, and he follows his mother in requesting help from her false gods which of course could not help him.

There was a noted chamber for Baal-zebub, the Lord of the Flies, at Ekron.

In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ was accused of serving Baal-zebub by the Pharisees.

Mat 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mat 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

Who in the world would go to the Prince of Dung, or the Lord of the Flies to seek medical help?

This is why Jehovah said they became fools for turning away from the true God.

This still applies today!

We know that Elisha was often found on Mount Carmel where there was most likely a school of the prophets.

It seems that Elijah may have also resided at this location.

The city of Samaria had been built and made the royal residence of the King of Israel.

We will even see that Samaria may be substituted and used as Israel for the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel.

Elijah met these messengers from King Ahaziah, and he asked them “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go and enquire of Baalzebub?

This is a good place for us to learn about our Savior.

If we consult with someone besides the Lord on important matters such as our health, we will never get the answer we seek.

We will consult with doctors, but we should not consult with anyone until we have talked it over with the Lord.

Elijah gave these men the answer that Baalzebub would give, there would be no healing of the King.

Jehovah would certainly not heal him.

*2Ki 1:4 Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.
2Ki 1:5 And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back?

No matter who you are, when you are sick or have been in an accident, causing bodily harm, you will want some help.

Ahaziah was a man whose health was leaving him, and he knew it.

He did not have a personal relationship with Jehovah, so he sent for help from a false god.

Who in the world would go to someone called the “lord of the Flies” or the “prince of dung” and expect to be healed?

Baalzebub seemed to be his only help which meant he had no one to help him.

Deu_4:28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

When we ignore Doctor Jesus, we deserve whatever calamity we are suffering because we dishonor Jehovah who only has the power to heal.

He made us and He knows what makes us tick!

God will vindicate Himself, in His own time before all unbelievers!

Notice also that almost every human will seek some higher power when they are too weak to help themselves.

Even atheism is a religion whether they agree or not. Even they believe in something!

Like almost everyone on a sickbed, this king wanted to know how this thing would turn out. I know I did, and I know where I am going when I die.

Jehovah is so much more than some fortune teller!

Ahaziah may not have ever met Elijah, but he had heard of him through his father, and he knew that the things he said would come to be true.

*2Ki 1:6 And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
2Ki 1:7 And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words?
2Ki 1:8 And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

It seemed to Ahaziah that the only way to stop the truth of Elijah was to kill him.

It should be clear to us that anyone who rejects the LORD and turns to a false god is foolish.

This is the biggest mistake that any person can make. All the world knows of the GRACE of the LORD even though they may not believe Him.

All the leaders of false religion know they serve false gods all tied to Satan, the Devil.

Those false gods have no life, no consciousness or power to help anyone so they are trusting fate.

Jehovah has a love that no one understands for all the people on this earth, but He also has His requirements.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

God loves us all enough that He would never leave us in the dark, grasping and groping around to find our way in the dark.

Jehovah tells us only the truth in a world that is full of lies.

As time goes by, we see more and more of the truth of God come out into the open.

He is the only God who can help us and meet our needs!

In fact, Jehovah promises to meet all our needs!

King Ahaziah had been duped by his mother and his father was a weak man who was controlled by Jezebel.

Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

Where Jezebel, his mother had failed Ahaziah hoped to succeed. He sent a captain of his army with fifty soldiers to hunt down Elijah.

*2Ki 1:9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
2Ki 1:10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

We should know that when Jehovah tells us something then we can rest that it is fact and unchangeable.

If Ahaziah had repented, then Jehovah may have helped him, but to react with more stubbornness could not help him at all.

Fifty soldiers seemed like an awful lot of men just to kill one man, but Jehovah would not have allowed a thousand soldiers to take Elijah on this day.

It did not take long to find Elijah because he was not hiding.

He may have hidden from Jezebel, but his confidence had been restored.

We are only humans so, we can go through periods of weakness, but our strength is in the Lord!

No one was going to force this man of God to be arrested unless he chose to do so.

Fire came down from Heaven and destroyed this group of men.

The king would try this again.

*2Ki 1:10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
2Ki 1:11 Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
2Ki 1:12 And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

It should be very clear God allows us to come boldly to the Throne of Grace, but we had better not make demands when we get there.

It should have been very clear to King Ahaziah that Jehovah was not going to help him. He had been offered Ahaziah a path to repentance and he rejected it,

We should remember what God had said before He sent a worldwide flood.

Gen_6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man

We may not know how many times we can reject the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit knows when He is wasting His time on us.

Today we must understand that God’s help will come from the places where He says we can find it!

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

When God has spoken, He cannot then change His Word unless the sinner changes his ways!

The only strength we have to change Heaven lies in our direct contact with Heaven through our prayers.

This will not work if we have sin in our lives.

Psa 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Another thing we must consider is that when God has told us to do one thing then we have no obligation to give in to the world.

Elijah knew he did not have to come down off that mountain under the threat of some king.

God will not do for one what He will not He will not do for another, and He will protect us in the same way as He did Elijah under the right circumstances.

Elijah was a powerful prophet who had the ear of God!

2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Elijah called down fire from Heaven and fifty more soldiers and their captain perished.

There is a proper way to approach the man of God!

*2Ki 1:13 And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
2Ki 1:14 Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.

Does God care about life?

Isa 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

We can be sure that Jehovah holds our life in His hands!

We already know that God loves all His creations, especially those made in His image, but God still insists that we believe what He has to say.

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

We seem to dwell upon all those who died in the Old Testament when we should concentrate on those who were spared.

God loved us enough to send His only begotten Son to die in our place just so we can live with Him throughout eternity. How can the world say God has no love for life?

The blood of Jesus was the full price for our salvation!

Psa 49:8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

There should be no doubt in our minds that God will receive each of us if we just believe what He says!

There should also be no doubt that God will reject us if we refuse to be like Jesus Christ in valuing the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus came to save life and not to destroy life! Life is precious to our Heavenly Father!

Now we may not know what Elijah would have said but we do know what this angel from Heaven said.

*2Ki 1:15 And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.

What is one of the jobs of angels? To comfort and assure God’s people.

Act 27:23 For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
Act 27:24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
Act 27:25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.

Angels will also watch over our children.

Mat 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

When we are in the will of God, He will protect us even from corrupt governments.

It works best for us when we go boldly to the Lord at any sign of trouble.

We can ask great things of God if we do it properly.

God loves us so whatever happens to us is the concern of our Heavenly Father!

No matter the trial or the temptation, the hardship or the misfortune He will not allow us to go through these things alone.

Elijah did not need to fear this armed guard or King Ahaziah.

What was God’s message to this king?

*2Ki 1:16 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

There is only one escape from the “judgment” of God, and it is through the blood of Jesus Christ!

Sin causes death!

The things we get the most from the Old Testament are God’s holiness, God’s justice, God’s righteousness, and God’s severity against sin stands out.

Elijah was God’s messenger to King Ahaziah, and he had no malice against this king, he simply gave him God’s message and the reason why.

We can be sure that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will never change just because people do not want to hear it!

Psa 1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psa 1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

King Ahaziah died just as the Lord had said. He never came off his sickbed.

Amen

Idolatry

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

A Contrast of Worship
 
Book of 1 Kings Chapters 12, 14, 15
 
 
What is worship? Worship is homage rendered to Jehovah which is idolatry to render to any created being.
 
Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
 
Isa 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; “they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made”:
 
It is sin to worship any created being!
 
It is sin to worship an angel, who is also created beings!
 
We are to worship only the Living God!
 
Jer_10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
 
We know that Israel was now a divided nation. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king of Judah, which included the tribe of Benjamin.
 
Jeroboam was now the King of Israel which included only the ten tribes now called Ephraim.
 
From this point forward the Books of 1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles will record the histories of the different kings of the divided nation of Israel.
 
What is idolatry?
 
Idolatry is image worship or divine honor paid to a created object, including mankind and angels.
 
Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
 
How can we best describe those who are lost, keeping in mind that we were once lost?
 
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Rom 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Rom 1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Rom 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
 
The forms of idolatry are,
(1.) Fetishism, or the worship of trees, rivers, hills, stones, etc.(created objects on earth)
(2.) Nature worship, the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as the supposed powers of nature.(created objects in the heavens)
(3.) Hero worship, the worship of deceased ancestors, or heroes.(all created objects)
 
Idolatry in Christian doctrine is anything that interferes between the soul and our Creator is idolatrous and is to be shunned!
 
1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
1Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
 
Jeroboam turned the northern tribes to idolatry.
 
Idolatry is the religion of Satan! Remember Lucifer was just an angel created by Jehovah.
 
1Ki 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
1Ki 12:27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
1Ki 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
 
Jeroboam was face to face with the greatest opportunity of his life.
 
Should he have determined to serve the Lord he might have easily been the mightiest monarch in the history of Israel.
 
God would have certainly been with him.
 
But if he disregarded the Word of God his kingdom would have come to nothing which it did.
 
It was a Prophet of God Ahijah that had told him of these things.
 
The only safe path of any ruler is the right path!
 
We could ask ourselves does God truly have any rulers on His side?
 
We know that the heart is the center of mankind’s personal activities.
 
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
 
The world created by God before the flood was destroyed because of idolatry which led to wickedness!
 
Gen 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
 
We get a firsthand look at how false religions get started. They are conceived in the mind of some man or some woman!
 
Jehovah had already told Jeroboam how to get His blessings.
 
Jehovah has told us all how to get His blessings!
 
1Ki 11:38 And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.
 
Jeroboam made Shechem his capital city and then Jeroboam does something very foolish.
 
The apostasy of Jeroboam was willful, it was designed, and it was done deliberately!
 
He consulted with himself instead of consulting with Jehovah who had made him King of Israel.
 
The Lord Jesus Christ makes this thing simple to understand.
 
Luk 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
 
Our hearts must be fixed upon the Lord!
 
Psa 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
 
The fact of the divided kingdom did not mean that the Northern Tribes were exempt from their covenant obligations to Jehovah!
 
They were still to observe the Books of Moses as much as the Southern Tribes.
 
All the tribes of Israel had the same Book of Moses!
 
These things caused stress upon Jeroboam, and he even became afraid for his life.
 
Jeroboam forgot the promises of God!
 
We tend to look at the world and forget the promises of God when we know that God has proven to us that He will never break a promise.
 
We do not need advice on how to do evil, we are born that way!
 
Jeroboam wanted advice on how to do a bad thing in the best way. He did not consult with God and God would not have answered such a request!
 
So many churchgoers today go to a place of worship that is convenient rather than seek a “Bible Believing” House of worship.
 
It is a fact that we will take the easy way out when it is available!
 
Just as a certain political party did in the days of Covid 19 when it made it a law to abandon the Church for fear of catching the disease forgetting the power of God.
 
Jeroboam shaped a new religion for his own purpose.
 
This is the way of radical Islam and other such religions. They rewrite their literature to adapt to changes they see in the world.
 
The Holy Scriptures never have to change because they were written by Jehovah and are perfect in any age!
 
Jeroboam even framed his words by the Word of God during the Exodus.
 
Exo 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
Exo 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
 
Jeroboam proposed a perversion of the proper worship of Jehovah God.
 
“Calf is not a good translation of the Hebrew egel. A young bull in his first strength is meant: for instance, the word can describe a three-year-old animal.
 
Gen 15:9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer “of three years old”, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
 
A three-year-old bull would be a bull closer to his prime than a calf.
 
Jeroboam placed these idols of Baal in two separate locations.
 
(get pictures)
 
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
 
The name Bethel means “house of God” and this city was ten miles from Jerusalem.
 
This is the same place where Jacob had his vision of the angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder whose top reached into Heaven.
 
Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Gen 28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
Gen 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
 
Gen 28:20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
Gen 28:21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
 
Dan, which means (a judge) on the other hand is located at the foot of Mount Hermon.
 
This is the same place where the Danites stole the shrine of Micah and set up false worship.
 
Jdg 18:29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
Jdg 18:30 And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
Jdg 18:31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
 
Jeroboam took advantage of this situation as he felt they would have no problem accepting his idols of Baal.
 
Jeroboam then installed false priests and false worship.
 
1Ki 12:31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
1Ki 12:32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
1Ki 12:33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
 
We should be very clear. Once we are aware of our Creator, we then must worship Him!
 
This is why the bible begins with the Book of Genesis.
 
This is why the world clings to the lies of evolution.
 
Evolution has proven to be wrong so many times it is pathetic that the world clings to it because they have no other theory except now where they use the word aliens so often.
 
We have only one duty as created beings!
 
Ecc_12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
 
Jeroboam decided that his idols would also need temples as a place to worship and priests.
 
He was not about to use priests from the tribe of Levi because they might teach the truth of God.
 
Deu_10:8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.
 
Jeroboam chose priests from every tribe but the Levites, going against the Word of God in any way that he could think of.
 
This is the way of almost all false man-made religions. They always will change the rules if people start leaving for the truth.
 
There are a few false religions that have some truth in them, but Christianity is all or nothing and based upon the truth of Jesus Christ and the true Word of God.
 
Jeroboam chose the eighth month and the fifteenth day to be as close to The Feast of the Tabernacles as he thought would work.
 
The Feast of the Tabernacles was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
 
Jeroboam did not consult with anyone else to create this false religion!
 
The people already understood that Jeroboam was chosen by God to lead this new nation, and Jeroboam kept it that way.
 
The Prophet Amos had confronted one of Jeroboam’s false priests with the truth:
 
Amo 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
Amo 7:11 For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
Amo 7:12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
Amo 7:13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
Amo 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
Amo 7:15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
 
It may have been the king’s chapel and the king’s court but he was the wrong king.
 
Our Lord Jesus had some things to say about man-made religion:
 
Mat 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
 
The Holy Spirit says: Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
 
Those who serve false religion have to understand the judgment of God will come upon them.
 
1Ki 14:15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.
1Ki 14:16 And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.
 
Jehovah had placed Jeroboam on the throne of Ephraim, but it was Jeroboam who had turned against Him.
 
Jeroboam could have been a mighty king of Israel, but he rebelled against the truth of God.
 
Jeroboam is still suffering the judgment of God today and he will throughout eternity!
 
Now comes judgment upon the people who knew better.
 
Moses had warned these people:
 
Deu 4:27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
Deu 4:28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Deu 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
 
Now judgment would come to Israel, and they would be scattered on the other side of the Euphrates River.
 
Politics had caused the people of God to sin!
 
During Covid 19 many of God’s people were directed to sin by our government and many of those who left the Church have never returned.
 
The Holy Spirit has also warned the Church of the coming judgment of God:
 
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
 
There will be no more warnings and judgment could come at any time because the “Rapture of the Church is the next thing on God’s timetable.
 
Once the Church is removed this world will rely on wickedness and idolatry just as those before the flood.
 
King Rehoboam and his son had also turned against Jehovah and God began his judgment upon Judah beginning with the King of Egypt.
 
1Ki 14:23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
1Ki 14:24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
1Ki 14:25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
 
No doubt that Jeroboam had stirred up this king against Judah, and Shishak broke his peace agreement with King Solomon.
 
1Ki 14:26 And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
 
We know that King David had placed all his treasures in the Temple and so had many others.
 
We know that those golden shields would be valued at over thirty-three million dollars today.
 
There is a record of these events in Egypt.
 
With Judah humbled at the hand of this Egyptian King, Jeroboam had free reign to attack Judah at any time and he did so.
 
It was in the time of King Asa that change came to Judah.
 
*1Ki 15:9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.
1Ki 15:10 And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
1Ki 15:11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.
1Ki 15:12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
1Ki 15:13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.
 
Finally, a king who was faithful to the Lord.
 
We should notice that Jehovah is still keeping his promises to King David and He will continue because the prophecy of Kings of Judah will last until King Jesus sits upon the throne of David.
 
King Asa reigned for forty-one years, and we can see that he had not been influenced by his grandmother Maacah’s false worship.
 
This Maacah was the daughter of Tamar the daughter of Absolom.
 
Asa removed his father’s idols.
Asa removed his wicked mother as Queen and her idols burning them in the Brook Kidron.
Asa removed the Sodomites from the land of Judah.
Asa did not remove all the high places of worship, and we do not have an explanation, but we can imagine politics were still involved.
 
Asa gave his treasures to the House of the Lord.
 
Amen

Arrogance

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Bad Counsel Caused Division

Book of 1 Kings Chapter 12

We have a new president, and we hope those he chooses as councilors will help lead him to make our nation great again.

The best advice that any should give him is to return our nation to the Lord our God.

We can be assured that he was chosen to lead the United States of America by God Himself and God has His reasons, and it is His will.

Our lesson today covers one of the most important times in the history of Israel.

The division of the tribes of Israel caused many bad feelings that have not been overcome even in our day.

These were also important times for the Church because as Christians we need to understand the history of Israel to understand the prophets and prophecy.

Israel will divide into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom.

We will also see that God loves the Gentiles who the people of Israel considered to be heathen.

These things were not done in secret. God had warned Solomon just as He warns us all today.

Now, God does not cause these things to happen, He allows them to happen.

God has given us free will to choose between right and wrong and He guides us to show us the right way.

God cannot be blamed for the wrong that is done in our world because He will not force us to do right nor will He force us to do wrong. He just tells us the truth!

As King Solomon died at the young age of around sixty the turmoil began with his son Rehoboam.

*1Ki 12:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.

We know that King David had ruled as a conqueror.

King Solomon ruled as a man of peace but high taxation.

The people of Israel had no benefits from the rule of King Solomon except they lived in peace.

After King Solomon, the people wanted to modify the character of the next government.

Arrogance is a terrible evil. Arrogance puts people down and then pushes them away, treating them as inferior.

Here in America, we understand this very well.

We have seen this in our last few Democratic governments so we can relate to the people of Israel during the time of King Solomon.

This arrogance was passed down to Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

Rehoboam possessed none of the traits of his father other than arrogance.

Rehoboam possessed none of the traits of his grandfather David.

Rehoboam was recognized as heir to the throne of his father.

The coronation of Rehoboam was to take place at Shechem.

It was at Shechem that Abraham built his first altar in the Promised Land and received the promise of Jehovah.

It was at Shechem where Jacob bought a parcel of land from the children Hamor and settled with his household and where he buried the idols of his wives under a tree named “the oak of the sorcerer”.

It was at Shechem where Jacob dug a well where the Lord Jesus would meet a Samaritan woman.

It was at Shechem where Joshua gave his parting address and made a covenant with the people.

Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Shechem was a special place of the promises of God!

It will be at Shechem where Rehoboam will show his arrogance and cause Israel to become a divided nation.

It was at Shechem where Jeroboam took up his residence for a while.

It is Shechem that is said to be the most beautiful place in all of Palestine.

*1Ki 12:2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;)
1Ki 12:3 That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,
1Ki 12:4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.

Jeroboam, who King Solomon had run out of town was now back and was taking the lead voice of the opposition to the kingdom under Solomon.

1Ki 11:40 Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

We could ask ourselves why.

1Ki 11:28 And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
1Ki 11:29 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:
1Ki 11:30 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:
1Ki 11:32 (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
1Ki 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.

The name Joseph denotes the two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh and Ephraim denotes the Kingdom of Israel and then the whole covenant people of Israel.

From Ezekiel, we see this thing:

Eze 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:
Eze 37:17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
Eze 37:18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
Eze 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

We can now see the other side of the rule of King Solomon.

There were heavy taxes under Solomon.
Tyrants oppressed their subjects with grievous impositions.

This tax and impositions were not only for the people which would have been ok, but for the expenses of Solomon’s court.

This tax supported all the wives and concubines of King Solomon and any whim he took part in which did not set well with the people.

This tax-supported all the festivities of Solomon’s lavish lifestyle.

We should keep in mind that King Solomon was the richest person to have ever lived, but he kept those riches to himself when he could have paid all the taxes and still been rich.

When Solomon forsakes the Lord and worshipped idols then the people surely had enough of him and were glad to see him go.

To the average Israelite, being under the burden of such high taxes was like a yoke laid upon beasts of burden and seemed more like servant work rather than living in peace.

As long as King Solomon walked with the Lord, he was important as the Holy Spirit guided this author, but as soon as he forsake the Lord God Jehovah he became insignificant, not just to the people but also to Jehovah.

In a sense Solomon destroyed himself and it was not helping his son Rehoboam.

Millo was a new fortification that protected Jerusalem from an attack from the north. It is also called the Citadel.

Solomon also repaired any weak places in the walls of Jerusalem.

Solomon began to fear the loss of his kingdom which was impossible because of God’s promise to King David.

All King Solomon had to do was to remain faithful to Jehovah.

Solomon took his eyes off the Lord and fell into the trap of lust.

1Jn_2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Let us see this history of Israel develop.

*1Ki 12:5 And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed.
1Ki 12:6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
1Ki 12:7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.

Now the Son of Solomon, Rehoboam was facing some angry people, especially those of Ephraim who were being led by an angry Jeroboam.

We already know that Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor.

1Ki 11:28 And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.

Solomon had determined to kill Jeroboam for what God’s prophet had said to him.

We all know that we cannot change what God has said will take place!

Rehoboam was at least wise enough to seek counsel before responding to the people of Ephraim.

Shechem was a twelve hour walk from Jerusalem, and it would take some time for the councilors of Rehoboam to reach Shechem and to meet with Rehoboam.

Rehoboam had sent for the councilors of his father Solomon and his friends who he had been raised with.

These were a bunch of rich spoiled kids who had no worries growing up and knew nothing of ruling government.

Solomon had caused every Israelite to serve one month in government service and then two months at home until all his building project had been completed and many more of them were drafted into the military, but not these young men who had rich parents.

Solomon required heavy taxes upon the people and the rich just got richer and the poor got poorer, and the poor were seeking some much-needed relief.

All the building projects were complete and such taxes were certainly no longer needed.

Rehoboam had inherited the riches of his father, and he certainly did not need more riches.

For years the people had been complaining about the harshness of King Solomon, but nothing changed.

Rehoboam first consulted with the elders who had counselled his father, Solomon.

There was wisdom in the council of the elders, good for every government.

A government that serves the people will be a lasting government.

A government that listens to its people and takes action to help them will be a lasting government.

The government that does these things will find people who will willingly serve the government.

This is the principle behind the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus came to serve!

Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Jesus taught us that whoever would be great must begin by being a servant.

The proud and lofty in this world are served enough without taking the needs of the poor.

Rehoboam was already forty-one years of age, he should have known better, but his mother was a pagan, and he had witnessed his father worship a pagan god.

1Ki 14:21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

Rehoboam next turned to his friends who were not so young being his age but certainly younger than those elders.

Rehoboam forsook the council of the elders and turned to his rich friends.

*1Ki 12:8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
1Ki 12:9 And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter?
1Ki 12:10 And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
1Ki 12:11 And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

Now we should not think of these young men as in their twenties or their thirties.

Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he succeeded his father on the throne, and we should expect those men that he grew up with to be about his age but they were still spoiled rich kids.

Rehoboam was even more arrogant and prideful than his father Solomon.

He would tax these tribes even more than his father and increase their workload.

He even mentioned scourging.

If we do nothing else in our lifetime we need to guard against arrogance and pride!

These things do not suit the Christian who is following in the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave us the example of humility.

These younger men had grown up living in luxury and wealth and they knew nothing of an honest day’s work.

They knew nothing of responsibility!

These were pampered men with childish ways.

They had no respect for the people of Israel!

Sounds a whole lot like the America we have been living in where our government had no respect for the taxpayer, and we hope these things change with our new government.

We as the children of God are not better than anyone else in this world though we may be better off because our names are written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

None of us are to be slaves to arrogant governments or anyone else!

In many places, God speaks against these things.

Psa_10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psa_10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

Pro_8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Pro_16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Rehoboam claimed that his power would far exceed that of his Father King Solomon.

Pro 10:14 Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
Pro 10:15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

What happens eventually in such cases? People rebel.

Jeroboam knew exactly how the people of Israel had suffered under King Solomon, and he now had the respect of ten of the tribes of Israel.

Jeroboam now clearly understood what the Prophet Ahijah had told him.

1Ki 11:29 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:
1Ki 11:30 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:

God keeps His reason for doing this very simple.

1Ki 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.

We talk many times about God keeping His promises and we can be sure He will also keep those promises of forsaking Him.

In the end, Jeroboam was not so much different from Rehoboam, but he would still rule Ephraim which included ten of the tribes of Israel for twenty-two years.

*1Ki 12:16 So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
1Ki 12:17 But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

The United Kingdom of Israel was dissolved before Rehoboam was crowned as King of Judah.

Rehoboam was a weak and wicked man!

There is an old saying that says “he who would rule others must first rule himself”.

We should understand by now that God gives opportunities to individuals and nations even though they will not improve them.

It was the divine plan of God to give Jeroboam control of the ten tribes of Israel even though God knew that Jeroboam would also forsake Him.

We may not understand this, but Jehovah has a much greater plan in motion.

Now this does not mean that Jehovah caused Jeroboam to act the way he did because he was allowed to do good and he failed to do so as he too became arrogant and prideful.

We must also understand that Jehovah is not sitting in Heaven waiting to see what rulers will do and he is not ever caught off guard.

God gives everyone a chance to do good when opportunities are given to them.

It is that sinful nature that gets us in so much trouble.

Rehoboam would rule Judah and Benjamin.

Rehoboam tried one more thing to insert his authority over those who rebelled.

*1Ki 12:18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

Adoram (or Adoniram) was the man over the taxes or tribute for King Solomon and now for King Rehoboam to either collect the taxes or make a compromise with the tribes of the north, but he was stoned to death and Rehoboam left for the safety of Jerusalem.

Adoram was the wrong man to send for he was famous for his harsh policies of forced labor.

From this point in the history of Israel, the name Israel referred to the ten Northern Tribes and the name Judah referred to the Southern Tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

*1Ki 12:19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
1Ki 12:20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

Jeroboam becomes the king of the Northern Tribes of Israel.

We should understand that Ephraim had always felt the most important since the time of Joseph, but Jehovah does not see it that way and God made sure promises to the House of David still recognized as Israel’s greatest king.

Again, we must understand that Jehovah has guided the nation of Israel with a special purpose, but He guides the history of all the world in the same way.

God gave mankind free will to follow Him or not to follow Him.

We must also understand that nothing in this universe is outside the scope of Jehovah’s sovereign rule!

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

The will of God is made known in real-time.

It is each believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that is chosen by Jehovah and He made this decision before He created any part of this world.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

There is no one alive today, no one who lived in the past or who will live in the future that Jehovah will not offer an opportunity to be adopted into the family of God, and it all centers around the Lord Jesus Christ.

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
2Ti 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

Our purpose is not here on this earth even though we will be given opportunities while we are alive.

Even the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was determined before the foundation of the world was laid.

1Pe 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
1Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Our God has this amazing plan for every believer, and we could look at our world as the place God has chosen to separate the believer from those who reject Him.

Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

We simply cannot comprehend the wisdom and the knowledge of our Divine Savior.

He does not have to consult with anyone, and no one has advised Him.

It is because God knows all things before, they happen, and He controls and guides all events for His Own Glory and For Our own Good.

Psa 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Pro 3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

God does not ever have to adjust His plan according to the things that happen here on earth, He simply knows all things!

Amen

Shame on Him

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Solomon’s Fame Was Reduced to Shame

Book 1 Kings 10:1-7, 24-27, 11: 4-13

What is fame? Fame is a favorable report of good or great actions that exalt character.

News of the knowledge of Solomon and his wisdom was spreading around the known world of that day.

What is shame? Those things that bring reproach and degrade a person in the estimation of others. Dishonor, disgrace.

Solomon was living on the achievements and the reputation of his father who caused security and peace to come to Israel.

Under Solomon, Israel became a great power ranking almost as great as Egypt which is why Egypt made a bond with Solomon and Pharoh’s daughter became the wife of Solomon.

Israel ranked even as great as Assyria at that time.

After Solomon Israel has never reached those same boundaries.

These things were credited to Solomon’s wisdom.

Solomon turned Israel from a military people to a people of commerce.

In reality, Solomon turned a people made free by King David into slaves and concentrated the wealth of the whole nation in the capital Jerusalem and most of Israel suffered.

As God would say, Israel did not reap the fruits of its government.

The downfall of Solomon began when he listened to his pagan wives and his wisdom left him.

Solomon was by nature a man of peace, yet he maintained a large military scattered in various places to help bring peace.

No nation had defeated his father David, but Solomon had no desire to extend the boundaries of Isreal, and it was possible for him to do so.

Solomon’s chief ally was Hiram, the king of Tyre which is Phoenicia.

The Temple of Solomon was built in seven years, but Solomon spent thirteen years building his own palace which was called the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

It is these things that made Solomon famous throughout the world.

Solomon had many foreign visitors seeking his wisdom.

One of those was the Queen of Sheba.

*1Ki 10:1 And when the queen of Sheba, heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.

Sheba was a land in Arabia, which is modern Yemen today, rather than Ethiopia.

Yemen was the chief spice country in that area at that time.

Sheba was about fifteen hundred miles from Jerusalem so this Queen had traveled a great distance requiring a lot of time.

The Temple had been built in the name of the Lord God of Israel.

We can be sure when questions arose about the temple there would be questions about the God of that Temple.

No one else has such a God who is alive!

Much of the world believed that the wisdom of Solomon had come from his God, and they would be correct.

This Queen of Sheba did not make this connection, she came to prove him with hard questions.

Some say these were questions she could not trust anyone else to answer.

Many of the questions could have been hard riddles as some believe.

It does not seem to me that this Queen showed much interest in Jehovah God to her downfall.

Mat 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Could Solomon have answered, what is the purpose of life? We have all asked this question in our lifetime.

Could he have said, “Where do we truly come from?”

There are billions of people out there today who would like to know, “what is the purpose of it all”?

The truth is in Jehovah God!

*1Ki 10:2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

We can believe that this Queen was also seeking a trade agreement.

She brought a large quantity of spices, gold, and precious jewels.

We can be sure that she traveled with military protection, but it is not mentioned, and they would have been stopped and not allowed to enter Jerusalem maybe even the border of Israel.

To travel for fifteen hundred miles meant she was serious about meeting King Solomon.

It seems that this Queen was not the wife of a King but the actual ruler of these people.

She was serious about seeking the answers to great questions of life so she could be a better ruler.

King Solomon answered all her questions!

*1Ki 10:3 And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
1Ki 10:4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built,
1Ki 10:5 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.

Solomon’s kingdom was famous not only for its material prosperity but also for his great wisdom.

King Solomon got so caught up in his wisdom that today we would use the phrase, “he got the big head” and we will soon see how these things affected him.

King Solomon had spent seven years building the Temple, but he spent thirteen years building his own mansion. After this, he rebuilt many cities most of which belonged to Israel, but he rebuilt some cities that did not belong to Israel.

This Queen of Sheba was more impressed with Solomon’s house than she was with the Temple of God.

She was another pagan who had her own false gods.

Solomon answered all of her questions, and this Queen was overwhelmed with the wisdom of Solomon. I do not read anywhere where Solomon gave the credit for his wisdom to His God and our God Jehovah.

No doubt this Queen had all types of questions with some riddles but also diplomatic and ethical questions.

This truth would make Solomon a trustworthy business partner and a possible ally, though her nation was fifteen hundred miles away from Israel.

Today Yemen can fire rockets and drones fifteen hundred miles into Israel and are mortal enemies of Israel.

Of course, Israel can do the same and are still under the power of God.

These servants were the officers and distinguished people who were privileged to sit at the king’s table and were arranged according to rank and were in large numbers at royal banquets.

These ministers were those who stood to serve the guests doubt they were dressed in a way to distinguish them from the guests but were fit to serve royalty.

2Ch 9:4 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.

The wisdom and prosperity of King Solomon and his achievements had reached the uttermost parts of the world, and this Queen admitted that these reports had been true.

It does not matter so much what this Queen thought of these things, it matters more of what God thought of these things.

Luk 12:27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Luk 12:28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Luk 12:29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
Luk 12:30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
Luk 12:31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

As a pagan Gentile, this Queen could not go into the Temple though she may have seen a secret way that the king could get into the Temple.

*1Ki 10:6 And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
1Ki 10:7 Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.

We must understand the mission of Israel in the time of Solomon and now the mission of the Church is to point all nations to God.

Israel has failed so far, will the Church also fail?

Israel was not to compete with our nations for riches or even military power. Jehovah God is the power of Israel!

Jehovah is the power of the Church.

We are not in some competition with religions!

We have the truth of Christianity!

The Church is to be a bright and shining light in this world.

It was the same for Israel in the days of King Solomon.

The Queen came to Solomon tortured by questions, and it does not seem she got all the answers she needed.

Certainly, the things she said about Solomon were true.

He was the wisest man upon the earth but not as wise as Jesus Christ,

He was the richest man on the earth, but no earthy riches can compare to the Glory of Heaven!

*1Ki 10:8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.
1Ki 10:9 Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.
1Ki 10:10 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon

This queen brought the best spices of Yemen, many of them used in perfumes of that day.
She brought a lot of gold and precious stones.
She brought sweet, scented wood.

This wood Solomon was used in his palace.

2Ch 9:11 And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the LORD, and to the king’s palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.
2Ch 9:12 And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went away to her own land, she and her servants.

As the Queen was about to leave she made a great speech to those servants of Solomon.

She said from what her eyes had seen and now had heard not even half of the truth of King Solomon was told.

She also took a moment to praise Jehovah that out of His eternal love to His people Israel, he had given them a king to do justice and righteousness.

Some say this Queen was converted to Judaism, but this is not true.

Like many who praised the God of Israel, they observed Him as just another god in the world of many gods just as many think today.

God had His reasons for putting Solomon on the throne of Israel.

1) It fulfilled a promise to David who was a man after God’s own heart.
2) Solomon who was chosen to build the Temple of God.

After this Solomon transgressed against the Lord.

God had written the qualifications for the kings of Israel.

Deu 17:14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
Deu 17:15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
Deu 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
Deu 17:18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
Deu 17:20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

King Solomon disobeyed in every area!

1) He had too much gold.
2) He owned thousands of horses.
3) He gathered hundreds of wives and concubines.

All the earth sought the wisdom of Solomon.

*1Ki 10:24 And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
1Ki 10:25 And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.
1Ki 10:26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.
1Ki 10:27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.

Solomon was not greater than anyone else and neither was this God’s intent.

Solomon became greater because all the world sought him out for his wisdom.

They brought him gold that he wasted on shields and other foolish things when he could have helped the cause of God, and he could have removed the strain of taxation upon his own people, but he did not.

Solomon made two hundred large shields and three hundred shields of gold that made beautiful displays but were useless in battle.
They were too heavy and too soft to make effective shields.

Each of those shields would be valued at over a quarter million dollars today and the smaller shields at over sixty thousand dollars or about thirty-three million dollars.

They were eventually taken by a foreign king.

Solomon made silver to be worthless which did not help the economies of the world of that day.

In the end, it was women who truly brought King Solomon down to shame.

*1Ki 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
1Ki 11:2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Over half of Solomon’s reign was over by the time the Temple, his own palace, and other buildings were completed.

These things took up much of his personal time.

We could add that during this time Solomon had negotiated peace agreements between Israel and many nations, and those agreements were sealed by the marriage of that ruler’s daughter.

As Solomon began to spend more time with the many wives he had, he was influenced by them.

One man wrote that the home of Solomon was afflicted with the curse of his polygamy and his kingdom with the curse of his despotism, which means he had absolute power, authority unlimited, and uncontrolled power over the people.

Most all alliances Israel had with other rulers ended with the death of Solomon even the long relationship of Solomon with Hiram.

As we looked at last week, no one knew where the Book of Moses(the Pentateuch) was located. Solomon certainly was not obedient to the Word of God concerning the kings of Israel.

Many believe that the prophet Jeremiah wrote this book of First Kings, and he simply says that Solomon loved many strange women.

it is these women who caused the decline of King Solomon!

These things describe a heart that is wandering away from God!

Solomon had seven hundred women who were considered to be his wives.
Solomon had three hundred women with the title concubines.

These were the women who were in Solomon’s harem while he was King of Israel.

Son 6:8 There are threescore queens, fourscore concubines, and virgins without number.

This verse tells us of those women who were in Solomon’s court at one time.

This would be sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

King Solomon like his father went against the institution of Jehovah.

What is the marriage institution of Jehovah God?

Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

When God gave Adam his wife. God did not do this by forming Eve out of the dust of the earth just like Adam. Then she would be independent of Adam.
God formed Eve from Adam. He does not do this out of his head, for she is not his superior. Nor does he make her out of his feet, for she is not his slave. He forms her from his side.
She is therefore someone of equal value, standing beside him.

Solomon took wives from many nations, also going against the Word of God about strange wives.

Deu 7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
Deu 7:4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

Solomon not only took these many women into his house, but he also took their gods.

We should understand that someone who knows the Word of God and deviates from it often makes it worse than someone who has never known Jehovah.

When a child of God falls into corruption it is the worst corruption!

The lesson for us who are up in years is, that we may think the dangers of life no longer threaten us but we are wrong.

Satan will do his best to ruin our testimony at any age!

*1Ki 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
1Ki 11:6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.
1Ki 11:7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
1Ki 11:8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

Ashtoreth(Ishtar, Astarte, queen of heaven)) was the Moon goddess of the Zidonians usually associated with Baal(Baalim, Baalism) the Sun god.

Throughout the world, we see temples and pyramids built to honor the Sun god and the Moon god

Milcom(Molech, Chemosh) is the national god of Ammon, God said he was an abomination!

It is this god to whom children were sacrificed. This is the god of the abortionists in my opinion.

Solomon was not seeking God’s own heart as did his father David.

Solomon had temples built for the worship of these false goods and he joined them in their worship of them.

He did the same for all his strange wives!

The word strange means all his wives who were not of Israel, we could say wives from foreign nations.

Certainly, Jehovah was angry with Solomon.

*1Ki 11:9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
1Ki 11:10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.
1Ki 11:11 Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.

Do you want to make Jehovah angry? Go against His Word.

Do you want to really get Jehovah riled up? Go against Him after He has warned you!

This is why we have the Holy Spirit living inside us!

Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

What had God told Solomon?

1Ki 9:3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
1Ki 9:4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:
1Ki 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
1Ki 9:6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
1Ki 9:7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
1Ki 9:8 And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

Today we have the Word of if we have a proper translation and we are to do our best to be obedient to it.

As for King Solomon he met with God face to face and he was told the consequences of failing to acknowledge the Word of God.

We know that God will do exactly what he says he will do.

1Ki 11:26 And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, “Solomon’s servant”, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king.
1Ki 11:27 And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father.
1Ki 11:28 And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
1Ki 11:29 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:
1Ki 11:30 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:
1Ki 11:32 (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
1Ki 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.

But God will never break a promise he has made!

*1Ki 11:12  Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.

1Ki 11:13 Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.
1Ki 11:14 And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king’s seed in Edom.

Solomon had forfeited the promise made to him from Jehovah.

God would allow the line of David to continue through a son of Solomon because David had chosen Jerusalem and not some other city.

This is a sign of God’s “grace”!

2Sa 7:15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
2Sa 7:16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.
2Sa 7:17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

This promise from God will ultimately be fulfilled through the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see the Lord Jesus Christ did appear Himself to begin the New Testament and the Law of Grace and through His disciples, this word had spread around the world and only those who accept the Work of Jesus Christ, the “Gospel” will be allowed into God’s New Jerusalem and God’s New Heaven where King Jesus will rule forever.

Amen

God Will Show Up

/ Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

The Temple the Ark the Glory of God
 
Book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 5
 
 
After seven long years, the Temple and all its furnishings were completed.
 
1Ki 6:38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
 
Solomon gathered the entire nation and its leaders and its priests to the dedication of the Temple.
 
This gathering was no longer to Gibeon the site of the Tabernacle, but to Jerusalem the place God had chosen Himself.
 
Even today the Jews are looking forward to the day they can reestablish their worship of the Lord God Jehovah in a Temple dedicated to Him.
 
We certainly need a place to worship to honor God.
 
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
 
God Himself says it is more important to gather together today than it was back in the day of the dedication of Solomon’s Temple.
 
If we do not dedicate our places of worship to be used for the worship of the Lord, then they will be used for anything other than that.
 
Dedicate means to set apart for sacred use.
 
Sacred means consecrated; dedicated; or devoted to.
 
We also need to dedicate ourselves to the Lord for His use!
 
Most every nation at this time had a temple dedicated to some false god, and some had many.
 
This was the drive that moved King David. He wanted a magnificent temple dedicated to Jehovah the One True God.
 
Most people do not realize that God is about worship, and not about buildings!
 
Pagans built temples for gods who could not see, who could hear, and who could not speak to them.
 
2Co_6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the “temple of the living God”; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
 
There is only one “Living God”!
 
Jhn_6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, “the Son of the living God”.
 
Psa_84:2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the “living God”.
 
How can anyone serve a dead god or a god that does not exist?
 
The Living God is the God we need to have reverent fear of, and even actual fear.
 
Heb_10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
 
2 Chronicles Chapter 5 verse 1
 
2Ch 5:1 Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the LORD was finished: and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments, put he among the treasures of the house of God.
 
The Temple was King Solomon’s greatest work.
 
It was the Temple of Solomon that made the greatest impression on the known world at that time.
 
People would come far and wide to see this Temple of God.
 
The importance of the Temple was to ensure a central place of worship and more important a central place to offer sacrifices for sin.
 
The object of the Temple was to bring about a unity of faith and national unity among the people of Israel.
 
The object of the Temple was to fulfill the commandment of God to Moses.
 
Moses said, when you shall obtain possession of the land and have become established, then you shall have one place in which to appear before the Lord.
 
Deu_16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God “in the place which he shall choose”; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
 
The Temple did provide a fixed habitation for Jehovah.
 
The Temple did provide a central place of worship where all the tribes of Israel might assemble at the three annual feasts.
 
It is these things that would preserve the unity of Israel.
 
According to the Book of Leviticus, there must be:
 
1) A place to meet Jehovah on the throne of “Grace”.
2) Sacrifices made for sin.
3) Priests as intermediaries between Jehovah and the people.
4) Times in which they could approach Jehovah with daily, weekly, monthly, and annual offerings.
5) A ritual telling how to approach God.
 
The Temple was in fact, a type of the most glorious building which is the individual believer!
 
1Co_3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
 
King David had not only provided the plunder he had taken for his conquest for the building of the Temple, but he also provided his riches to be dedicated to the upkeep of this Temple and to pay the priests.
 
David had also dedicated all the musical instruments he had to the Temple. Some he had made himself.
 
These instruments are listed in First Chronicles chapter 15.
 
1Ch 15:16 And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.
 
1Ch 15:24 And Shebaniah, and Jehoshaphat, and Nethaneel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God: and Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.
 
1Ch 15:28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.
 
So, we know of psalteries, harps, and cymbals, trumpets, and cornets.
 
A psaltery is a lyre or another type of harp just as a cornet is another type of trumpet.
 
Solomon next brought the Ark of the Covenant into the Temple according to the instructions of God.
 
The Ark was placed in the new Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place in the Temple.
 
2Ch 5:2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
2Ch 5:3 Wherefore all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king in the feast which was in the seventh month.
2Ch 5:4 And all the elders of Israel came; and the Levites took up the ark.
2Ch 5:5 And they brought up the ark, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, these did the priests and the Levites bring up.
 
Many of these things from the time of Moses and those remade after the destruction of the Tabernacle by the Philistines were no longer usable for the new Temple and were stored at the Temple and preserved as relics.
 
Things such as the tent and a great many of the old-time utensils, including the Brazen Serpent.
 
The Feast of the Seventh month is the Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes called Booths, and also known as the Feast of the Ingathering.
 
It was to last seven days but for the dedication of the Temple, it lasted fourteen days.
 
1Ki 8:65 And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
1Ki 8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.
 
This is the feast that commemorates the forty-year wilderness journey.
 
It is also called Sukkot.
 
It is a celebration of the fall harvest and a time to build booths which are temporary shelters of branches to remember how the Hebrew people lived under God’s care during those forty years in the wilderness.
 
These things were repeated when the Hebrews returned from Babylon.
 
Neh 8:14 And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:
Neh 8:15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
Neh 8:16 So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
Neh 8:17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua (which is Joshua) the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
Neh 8:18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
 
This celebration is a reminder of God’s faithfulness and protection.
 
All Jewish males were required to go to Jerusalem to appear before the Lord and their families usually went with them.
 
Many Jewish people still celebrate Sukkot today, by building and dwelling in temporary booths for eight days.
 
There are four special plants used to cover the booths, and they are the citron, the myrtle, the palm, and the willow.
 
Lev 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
Lev 23:40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
 
Then, the elders came and took up the Ark out of the Tabernacle of David.
 
It was necessary to put a new lid on the Ark. It was about five hundred years old and when opened, nothing remained but the two tablets of stone from the time of Moses.
 
It originally contained two tablets that contained the Ten Commandments and Aaron’s rod that budded and a pot of manna.
 
Blame was put on the Philistines for the missing items.
 
So, the steps to the dedication included:
 
1) Placing in the treasury all the things dedicated by David. Solomon could have kept these riches of his father, and no one would have known but God, but Solomon honored the wishes of His father David.
 
2) Placing all the sacred vessels and furniture in their proper position.
 
3) The offering of the many sacrifices.
 
4) The priests carrying into the Most Holy Place the Ark of the Covenant.
 
5) As the priests came from the Most Holy Place and one hundred and twenty other priests standing east of the Altar blew their trumpets, the Levite choir burst into a song of praise and thanksgiving with cymbals and other musical instruments saying “For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.
 
6) Then the cloud, a symbol of the Divine Presence and the Glory of God filled the house.
 
Let’s read the Scriptures.
 
2Ch 5:6 Also king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude.
2Ch 5:7 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims:
2Ch 5:8 For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above.
2Ch 5:9 And they drew out the staves of the ark, that the ends of the staves were seen from the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without. And there it is unto this day.
2Ch 5:10 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
 
We now know what happened in the dedication of the Temple so, let’s look at some other things.
 
Many today are concerned about the location of the Ark of the Covenant today.
 
We do not know for sure if the Ark remained at the Temple when Nebuchadnezzar plundered the Temple but what we do know when the vessels were brought back from Babylonian captivity the Ark of the Covenant was not mentioned.
 
Ezr 1:9 And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives,
Ezr 1:10 Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.
Ezr 1:11 All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.
 
The staves of the Ark were at least fifteen feet long, which was about the size of the Most Holy Place.
 
The staves were that long to give room for those men who carried the Ark leaving room to stay clear of the Ark.
 
The staves were withdrawn as far as they could to the back wall so they would not protrude in sight at the front.
 
The Ark had only the tablets of stone written by the finger of God at this time.
 
Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
 
Remember it was Moses who had broken these two tablets.
 
Exo 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
 
Deu_10:2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.
 
There was something else that was with or in the Ark.
 
Deu_31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
 
Probably the very same book, which (after having been some way misplaced) was found in the house of the Lord, in the days of Josiah, and publicly read by the king himself, for a witness against a people, who were then almost ripe for ruin.
 
On the side or On the inside, Some say there was a little chest fixed to the Ark for such things but it is not mentioned. Some say that this book was just placed inside the Ark. There was nothing but the stone tablets that were contained in the Ark.
 
This book was found later.
 
2Ch 34:14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.
2Ch 34:15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
2Ch 34:16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it.
 
The Shekinah Glory of the Lord
 
2Ch 5:11 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:
2Ch 5:12 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)
2Ch 5:13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, “For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever”: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD;
 
Once the Ark was in place God gave His stamp of approval!
 
So, it had been when Moses finished the Tabernacle, and so it was at Pentecost after the Lord Jesus began His Church, that the Holy Spirit came down in His mighty power.
 
God’s glory has to be the most wonderful sight we will ever see!
 
Notice all the priests were in white linen robes. Does this not make us think about the white robes in Heaven?
 
Rev_7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
 
King Solomon now had all things in place and a platform had been erected about seven feet squared somewhat like a pulpit, so he was lifted up above the people to be seen as well as heard and it seems King Solomon acted as King and High Priest.
 
We see some typology here.
 
In reality, only King Jesus can be the true King and High priest when He returns to take us home and then sits upon His throne in Jerusalem.
 
Immediately after the priests had performed and withdrawn and the doors of the Temple were closed, the cloud of God’s Holy Presence and God’s Majestic Glory filled the Temple just as He had done when the Tabernacle of Moses was completed.
 
King Solomon was stunned:
 
1Ki 8:10 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
1Ki 8:11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
1Ki 8:12 Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
 
Our true Holy God manifested His presence showing the public that he had accepted their labor of love in building this Temple.
 
*2Ch 5:14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.
 
A man of God said this beautified this Temple much more than all the gold which it was overlaid and all the precious stones that adorned it. Yet even that glory in comparison does not match the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
God had not allowed King David to build this Temple but told him that his son Solomon would have the honor of building this Temple.
 
Then King Solomon began to pray.

2Ch 6:12  And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: 
2Ch 6:13  For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven, 
2Ch 6:14  And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts: 
2Ch 6:15  Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.

And he continued therefore:
 
Amen