I'm aware that our time together on Friday nights is a Bible
study format, and it's probably not the typical Bible study
format because we have quite a bit of people here and usually
Bible studies a little bit more interactive, but it seems to be
working for us. So we're continuing in this
format. But if this was a sermon that I
was preaching, if this was the text that I would preach for a
sermon, I would likely title it the following.
Is it peace? Is it peace?
And the reason for that is because that is the recurring
question that appears in the section of Second Kings Chapter
9. Is it peace?
I want you to. See it with me Second Kings
Chapter 917, the second part. And Drem said, take a horseman
and send to meet them, and let him say, is it peace?
Look at the next verse. So a man on horseback went to
meet him and said, Thus says the king, is it peace?
Look at Chapter 9 verse 19, the very next verse.
Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them, and
said, Thus the king has said, Is it peace?
Look at verse 22 and when dreams saw Jehu, he said is it peace
Jehu? Second Kings 931 And as Ju
entered the gate, she said that being Jezebel, is it peace,
usimery, murder of your master? Although this repeated question
is tied to a very specific situation, I am convinced that
there is a deeper, more universal truth attached to it.
Because you see, Joram, who is the son of Ahab, is obviously
hoping that he is able to maintain and achieve this level
of peace for his household and his Kingdom in a time of great
uncertainty. But what Joram failed to
understand is what Isaiah declares in Isaiah 4822.
You don't have to turn there. You know it very well.
There is no peace, declares the Lord.
For who? For the wicked, there is no
peace, declares the Lord. For the wicked, as it says, it's
more than once in his writings. And it essentially means that
the godless are denied elevated, lasting heavenly peace, because
that kind of peace is solely reserved for the righteous.
And Jerem was not righteous, but he thought that he had the right
to expect this kind of peace while living in defiance of the
word of the Lord. And he's about to discover that
this illusion was nothing short of deception.
Living in sin forfeits heavenly peace.
It does always. And we can almost sense that
Jerem is trying to manage this insecurity and the suspicion
that's so suffocating. And whatever fears that he had,
at least at this point of his reign, are going to be realized
because there is another individual in this story named
Jehu. Is one of his top commanders who
is not going to waste any time of fulfilling what he was
anointed to do, and that was to bring complete destruction to
the House of Ahab. And so that's what we're going
to see today, the beginning of a campaign that has been foretold.
Judgement has arrived to the House of Ahab, and I want us to
consider it in greater detail as we read now from verse 14.
We concluded in verse 13 last week, so let's begin in verse 14
together. Thus Jehu the son of
Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram.
Now Jaram, with all Israel, had been on guard at Ramoth Gilead
against Hazael, King of Syria. But King Jaram had returned to
be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had
given him when he fought with Hazael, King of Syria.
So Jehu said, if this is your decision, then let no one slip
out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.
This section begins by reminding us that Jaram.
Who is formerly and commonly known as Jeho Ram, Same
individual. The king of Israel was at war
with Syria and during one of the the scrimmages, he was injured.
And so he retreats to an area called Jezreel.
And while he's there in Jezreel, we learned that Jehu was
anointed to be the next king in Israel.
And when he is anointed, he tells those who accept his
anointing. Let this news go nowhere.
We don't want it to reach Jezreel because we want to catch
this man by surprise. And so this is the goal.
And here's the thing. You have this man Jehu, who's
ready to come. He.
Keeps it a secret and Joran doesn't see it coming.
Unsuspecting, completely unsuspecting.
And he would say, yes, it's because it was concealed.
Sure, it's concealed, but he's so preoccupied with this enemy
called Syria that he forgets that there's another danger just
around the corner. And though we may forgive him
for that, I believe Joram could have been better prepared.
How? How could the king of Israel be
better prepared for this potential threat?
Because God already foretold through the mouth of one of his
prophets that destruction was coming to the House of Ahab.
Let me show you that again in first Kings 21 when Elijah
prophesied to Ahab and look at verse 21 and 1st Kings 21,
Elijah tells Ahab, behold, I will bring disaster upon you.
I will utterly burn you up and we'll.
Cut off from Ahab every male bond or free in Israel, and I
will make your house like the House of Jeroboam, the son of
Nabat, and like the House of Asha, the son of Ahijah.
For the anger to which you have provoked me, because you have
made Israel to sin. No, the judgment wasn't just for
Ahab. It was to his household.
For every male. They were to expect this kind of
discipline. And this is a public prophecy.
This is not something that was privately proclaimed.
We're going to learn that even Jehu himself was in the presence
of Elijah when he said this to Ahab.
We're going to see that later on in Second Kings 9.
So this was made known. So it's highly probable that
Ahab's descendants, at least his close descendants, were aware of
this declaration against their dynasty.
So there's a great chance that even Joram knew of what was.
Going to take place, at least what was predicted to take
place. And if that is true, then what
do we make of Durham that he completely ignored this warning.
He did not take heed. He did not take it seriously.
And it's so obvious here that he resembles the millions even
today who will be caught by surprise when God's promise of
judgment will come to pass. Sinners will not be caught by
surprise because they are merely unaware.
Like Elijah's prophecy, God's Word has been given to us
beforehand. Even the end of all things has
been told in great detail. It's because people chose to
ignore what God's Word had to say, and they chose not to apply
it. They chose not to take it
seriously. They chose, like Johan, to get
more caught up with what's in front of them, failing to
realize what's. Looming over them.
This man, yes, he was caught up in a real battle here with
Syria, but there was something that was foretold that he had to
be prepared for. And the best way to be prepared
for was not to fight against Jehu, but to repent and get
right with. God, but he doesn't do that,
does He? Well, let's read on in verse 16
of Second Kings 9. Then Jehu mounted his chariot
and went to Jezreel, for Jaram lay there, and Isaiah, king of
Judah, had come down to visit Joram.
How tempting is it to read past this verse and just continue
with this story? What questions should you have
in reading verse 16 alone? Here's my question.
What is the king of Judah doing visiting the king of Israel?
That's a legitimate inquiry. What is a Haziah doing making a
friendly visitation to this rebellious king Joram?
You don't have to guess, but you do have to turn somewhere else.
It's in Second Kings chapter 8. Just one chapter before this we
learn of the relations between Haziah and Joram.
Second Kings, 8/26. Isaiah was 22 years old when he
began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Athalia. She was a granddaughter of Omri,
king of Israel. He also walked in the way of the
House of Ahab, and did what was evil in the side of the Lord, as
the House of Ahab had done, for he was the son-in-law to the
House of Ahab. There it is.
He's related by marriage, and so there is.
Friendly relations here and ASI is making his way to make a
friendly visit to this king. He's injured, he's sick, he's
not doing well, and Asiah's destiny here is going to take a
different route because of his association.
The tragedy of this is not just that he was married into this
family is that he imitated this family.
Did you catch how long he reigned in Judah for?
How long was it? One year.
Is that a long time? Not at all.
Do you know why he's only going to reign for one year?
Because he's going to be killed alongside Duran.
And there's a very important lesson here concerning the
caution of who we yoke ourselves to.
Pay very close attention to this.
The associations you form with people can determine the destiny
that you have and really shape the future that you will not
foresee. As as premature death is not
because he was at the wrong place in the wrong time, it was
the consequence of a personal choice that he made to entertain
a relationship that he should not have entertained.
That's what's going to happen here.
It's the outcome of a former decision.
And if we are not careful, you and I also can sabotage areas of
our lives, even our life altogether due to being
unequally yoked. And when you hear unequally
yoked, we tend to limit that. To what?
Marriage. That's not even the context of
which Paul gave that instruction.
It was towards all believers, ungodly.
Business relationships includes that.
Partnerships in terms of just friendships, colleagues and of
course wrong romantic ties. It includes all of that.
And from the very beginning of this.
Book. You'll see over and over God
providing warning and instruction of this truth in our
lives, even in the most subtle, obscure ways.
In fact, I'm going to ask you to turn to a passage that is
frequently quoted by skeptics to try to pin you as a Christian in
a corner for being inconsistent in your walk with God.
Right? So if you're a Christian here
who doesn't believe that a man should be in a relationship with
a man in terms of romance or marriage or sexual relations,
what tends to be the comeback? Back from those who know very
little, the Bible. So do you wear different
material clothings? Do you eat shellfish?
Have you heard those? OK, let's turn to that passage
and see what God really meant for them.
For that, look at Deuteronomy 22, verse 9.
Here are a few instructions for the people of Israel.
And these are daily practices served as object lessons with
spiritual significance for this nation.
Look at Deuteronomy 22, verse 9. You shall not sow your vineyard
with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited.
The crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard.
You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.
So these are daily things that the Israelites would engage in.
Everything from putting clothes on your back, to working out in
the field, to putting together your instruments to accomplish
certain tasks. And over and over we see this
repeated theme in different spheres of life.
What God is trying to teach His people through these objects
lessons is a necessity of His people being separate, being
consecrated, not mingling with that which is unholy.
Now that's the moral lesson of these verses, but there are also
practical lessons in them. So you see here the instructions
for not sowing your vineyard with two kinds of seed.
And that might. Seem helpful, that might seem
beneficial, effective, but there can be problems when you have
different kinds of plantation now that grow at different
speeds that demand different nutrients that might even rob
one another of those nutrients. You get a hint of that in one of
Jesus parables, right, where you have the wheat and the tares
growing together and how that made far farming much more
difficult. So the the practical instruction
here in many cases is that if you don't do this right, you can
actually be inefficient. And this can be even more
frustrating for you than it needs to be.
Farming itself is difficult. Don't make it more challenging.
That practical wisdom continues with the next command.
Don't put an ox with a donkey under one yoke.
Why? Those are two different beasts
that that function differently, right?
Different strengths, different capacities, different abilities.
You put them together, they're going to get frustrated and
that's going to make your work inefficient and more
frustrating. OK, what about the last one?
Don't mix wool with linen. Again, We got to think deeply
about this year, or else we're just going to feel intimidated
when people bring this up to us and say, I don't know what it
means for me as a Christian. No, no, no, you have to look
deeper into this. Would you wear wool when it's
harder? When it's cold?
Usually when it's cold, you're wool.
Wool, right? What do you usually wear when
it's hot outside? Would it be linen or wool?
OK, so to mix wool and linen would do what?
You would cause these materials to essentially work against each
other. Wool is meant for one thing,
linen is meant for another. That to put.
These things together would work against the purposes that they
were designed for. So you have these bullet point
form kind of illustrations, real instructions, but deeper truths
behind them and telling us don't make life more frustrating for
yourself as a Christian. Don't don't do anything.
Don't mingle with individuals that make you fruitless, less
effective, stronger. You want to be able to give all
that you can, and that includes being very wise in who you yoke
yourself to, who you mingle your life with.
And so you have Joram here who has no problem yoking himself to
his eye, but is eye from the line of David should have been
much more cautious. Maybe it wasn't his choice to be
mingled with his family, but he did have a choice of setting up
the boundaries and not making his part work against him by
participating actively with this dynasty.
And So what you're going to discover here is that this man
is going to get. Himself in trouble.
He's going to lose out so much. He only reigned one year.
But here's the positive thing. In choosing to trust God's
wisdom, the opposite will be true, that you can position
yourself for a more prosperous and protective flourishing of an
abundant life. And that's actually what you see
in a subtle way in the next few verses of this story.
So you have Ahaziah who chooses to link himself with Joram.
But notice what happens here in verse 17 in Second Kings 9.
Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw
the company of Jehu as he came and said, I see a company, and
Joram said take a horseman and send to meet.
Them and let him say, Is it peace?
So a man on horseback went to meet him and said, Thus says the
king, is it peace? And Jehu said, What do you have
to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.
And the watchman reported saying the messenger reached them but
he's not coming back. Then he sent out a second
horseman who came to them and said thus says or thus the king
has said is it peace? And Jay who answered What do you
have to do with peace? Turn around and ride behind me.
So 2 horsemen are sent from Joran to inquire of the
suspicious arrival. You have Jay who coming with a
band of soldiers. Joe, I'm a little nervous, maybe
confused. Remember, this is one of his
commanders. Is he here to bring good news
about the war with Syria? But he is more suspicious than
that. He wants to know, hey, are you
coming with peaceful intent? And both times, Jehu answers the
same way. He asked the rhetorical
question, what do you have to do with peace?
Now, this can be understood in two ways.
The first way is that he is simply confirming that he is not
coming with peace. He's not coming for peace, he's
coming with justified violent uprising.
But the second meaning here I believe it's that is that it's a
personal question to challenge these individual horsemen.
In other words, you can almost translate it in the following
way. Why do you want to be a part of
this Kingdom that is superficial and sinful?
Why do you want to be at peace with this kind of a system?
If that's hard for you to understand that this is a
personal challenge, notice that he follows it with an invitation
to do what right behind me. Join this side.
What do you have to do with this?
And these horsemen, they chose wisely.
So again you see this contrast. You have this king in Judah who
chooses unwisely, and you have these subordinate men who choose
wisely and they choose to side on God's anointed one.
But what's interesting here is when we consider it more for our
own lives and in the context of the church, Jehu's question is a
valid one for every Sinner to ask themselves.
Every person who knows, they might know about the Lord, they
know they might know about Christ, but they themselves know
I am not aligned with this King, with his Kingdom.
I'm a part of the worldly system, a way of life and
unbelief. Ask yourself this, if that's
you, that's you listening, why? Why?
Are you there? Why do you choose to be a part
of that? Why not come to the side of
truth? Why not give your life to
Christ? Sincerely ask yourself that
question. Why?
Why are you at peace with that which is against God, in enmity
with God, in defiance of God? Why?
Now this is not just a question that we should ask sinners.
This is a question that from time to time believers should
ask themselves, especially when they find themselves tempted
with sin. I want to show you one of my
favorite verses to wield in times of temptation.
It's another question in the New Testament that Paul asked
believers. So Jehu asked these horsemen
questions. Paul asked the Corinthian church
another question that if you answer honestly.
Will. Give you the strength to know
great strides in your sanctification, especially when
you're facing any kind of seduction.
The book of Romans, chapter 6, verse 21.
Oh, memorize this one. What does Paul ask the believers
then and now? But what fruit were you getting
at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
Do you understand the question? He's speaking about how
believers go from death to life and how they should die to sin.
But I think it's totally appropriate to take this verse
and make it a perpetual question for your own life.
Whenever you are being seduced by sin.
Ask yourself this. Because, listen, one of the
reasons many fall into temptation is that they only
think of the moment. Is that not true?
You're only thinking about now what this going to offer you in
the short term. How often do people in the midst
of temptation ask what what is the end of this thing?
Because that's what Paul says for the end of those things is
death. Death.
Think beyond the moment. Think beyond a month from now.
Think beyond a year from now. Think long term.
What is this leading to? Where is this taking me?
And if you can answer that with sincerity, you will be a lot
more sober and how you are engaging with temptation.
There are clues throughout the Bible that indicate.
This There's so many clues to tell us.
One of the most famous ones is Hebrews 11, where we're told
that sin is pleasurable. If it wasn't pleasurable, you
wouldn't be tempted, right? Let's be honest, sin does have a
level of pleasure attached to it.
But what does he say in Hebrews but a season it's but for a
season and that's that's an obvious first.
But here all these. Different ideas connected to it.
One of the greatest things about the book of Proverbs is how
practical it is, but I think sometimes people miss great
themes in it. One of the greatest themes in
the book of Proverbs connected to Wisdom is adultery.
And he says something quite interesting in Proverbs Chapter
7, verse 17, where he quotes in great detail the seduction of
the adulterous woman. And one part you read something
that is insightful not just about adultery, but about sin at
large. Listen to these words from
Proverbs 717. The woman says to the naive man,
I've perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.
Let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home. He is gone on a long journey.
She continues, and there's more even before that.
So she is seducing this young man, right?
And she does so successfully. But in it you see that she
exposes the nature of this lust. In what way?
Look at verse 18 again. Come.
Let us take our fill of love until when it only lasts till
the morning. It's not true love.
It doesn't really satisfy, It's not constant, it's not God's
will. It doesn't offer the pleasure
you think it offers. So even in this where she seems
to be painting this wonderful picture that we're going to have
this intense moment of ecstasy all night long, what she's
really saying is it has an expiration date and it's it's a
lot sooner than you imagine. Doesn't go beyond the morning
sin is short lived with its satisfaction.
And see, you have to see this in the Bible and you have to from
time to time, if not every day, ask yourself not what does it
give me now? What does it give me for these
next few hours or until the next day?
What's the end of it? What will it produce?
What will it unleash? And here's what you'll discover
that the consequences of sin always outlive the pleasure it
offers always. No matter what the sin is,
whether it's cheating on your finances, whether it's being a
vile person, whether it's being a bully in the workplace, no
matter what it is, it will always the consequences outlive
the pleasure or the prosperity may promise always.
And the Holy Spirit helps us overcome sin by encouraging us
to reflect what this is actually produce.
What's the ultimate outcome? And it didn't take very long for
these two horsemen to get it. We're on the losing side, so
let's switch over here to Jehu, who is the Lord's anointed.
And they do that. So let's come back now to Second
Kings 9 and discover what happens next.
Verse 20 of Second Kings 9. Again, the watchman reported he
reached them, but he is not coming back.
And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of
Nimshi, for he drives furiously. Wow, this guy had a reputation
the way he's driving that speed that looks like it's Jehu's car.
Good Watchmen verse 21 Jerem said make ready and they made
ready his chariot. Then Jerem king of Israel and as
I king of Judah set out each and his chariot and went to meet
Jehu and met him at the property of Nabeth the Jezreelite.
Wow, poetic justice, providential justice, the very
area, the very plot of land where Elijah prophesied.
The downfall of this house is where 1 of Ahab's descendants is
going to lose his life and it's going to trigger the downfall of
this household all together. Verse 22 And when Jeram saw
Jehu, he said is it peace Jehu? He answered, what peace can
there be, so long as the whorings and the sources of your
mother Jezebel are so many? Notice that he doesn't
necessarily accuse Ahab, at least upfront.
Primarily, this was Jezebel's doing.
Then Jerem reigned about and fled, saying to Eziah.
Treachery. Oh, Eziah and Jay, who drew his
bow with his full strength and shot Jerem between the
shoulders. So the arrow pierced his heart,
and he sank in his chariot. Jay, who said to bid car his
aid, Take him up and throw him on the plot of the ground
belonging to Nabeth the Jezreelite.
For remember when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his
father, how the Lord made this pronouncement against him?
As surely as I saw yesterday, the blood of Nabeth and the
blood of his sons declares the Lord, I will repay you on this
plot of ground. Now therefore, take him up and
throw him on the plot of ground in accordance with the word of
the Lord. So based on this text, what we
learned is that in First Kings 21, when Elijah confronted Ahab,
Jehu and his assistant bid car were there.
They heard it with their own ears.
And as they are fulfilling what God had told Jehu to do,
they're, they're making the connection of how God is
fulfilling his word every, every detail of it.
And he's going to continue to discover that in the rest of
this chapter. But what I want you to see is
the last part. Now, therefore take him up and
throw him on the plot of ground in accordance with the word of
the Lord. JU had an intense zeal to
fulfill the word of the Lord. He heard it, but he's like, I
want to do it. I want, I want to fulfill every
part of it. And this zeal is admirable.
It's it's wonderful to see, but I want to give you a heads up
because Jehu's story is going to continue in the next chapter.
And what you're going to discover in Second Kings 10 is
that this man's zeal waned over time.
As incredible as his obedience is, I mean, this is a gruesome
thing to accomplish, to slaughter an entire family as an
act of justice. That's not easy.
He does it, but then you get this strange commentary when you
read the review of this man's life, and it's just in the next
chapter. I want you to see it just to be
prepared, and it teaches a wonderful thing about finishing
well. Look at Second Kings 10 briefly
at verse 31, and consider this commentary about this king,
Second Kings 1031. But Jehu was not careful to walk
in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart.
That's the key. He did not turn from the sins of
Jeroboam, which he made Israel, to sin.
It's almost unthinkable. He was raised up by God to
destroy the House of Ahab for it to become like the House of
Jeroboam and the House of Basha that promoted idolatry in the
land. And yet we're told about this
very one that He did not separate himself from those very
sins. The Bible is very honest, very
honest, and this is meant to sober us.
He started with incredible, precise passion, but He didn't
finish strong, finish well, finish for His glory.
Ask Him day by day to supply the grace to end with a greater zeal
that you had before. He's faithful to provide that.
Verse 27 and 2nd Kings 9. When as I, the king of Judah,
saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth Hagen.
And Jehu pursued him, and said, Shoot him also.
And they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is
by Iblyam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died
there. His servants carried him in a
chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his
father's in the city of David. In the 11th year of Joram, the
son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
So Ahaziah dies and you read these details associated with
him and you might be wondering why are why are we told about
his lineage? It's not accidental.
It's not just practice for historians.
I believe it's also to remind us something about Ahaziah's
heritage and how that did not shield him from God's wrath.
Does that make sense? He had a rich spiritual lineage,
but that did not protect him from God's discipline.
Why? Because God will evaluate your
life on a personal level, on an individual basis.
So you and I cannot claim the faith of our parents.
We cannot claim the faith of our spouses.
We cannot claim the faith of our siblings who are spiritual and
mighty examples. You, you cannot hide behind the
recommendation of your pastor or any other spiritual leader.
The Lord will look at your life and mine and evaluate our
decisions with whatever knowledge we had concerning His
will. It's as simple as that.
So he was a descendant of David, but he only reigned one year.
Was that God's will for him? It wasn't God's will for him.
In fact, when you read the parallel account, we don't have
to turn there in Second Chronicles.
What you'll learn is that for those who might think, and there
are those who might think, I think Jehu went a little too far
because he was instructed to kill the household of Ahab.
So why is he, why is he assassinating Ahaziah, who's the
king of Judah? And that debate is settled when
you go to Second Chronicles and realize that the Holy Spirit
says this was approved by God. In other words, God ordained for
a his eye to die in this way. But we're going to spend most of
our time the last portions of Second Kings 9.
That's why I'm reading through these verses.
Verse 30, When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it.
Pause. So we have Joram, who's been put
to death. You have Isaiah, who's been
killed. But we realize that Jezreel is
not emptied yet. Jezebel is in town.
She didn't go away completely, did she?
No, no, no, she's here. And that's no surprise to us.
Why? Because Jezreel was where the
palace of the royal family was. So Jezebel is here, the main
troublemaker. And what do we learn about
Jezebel? How she responds to the news of
Jehu coming into town as God's judgement.
She painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the
window. She put on makeup.
I'm not against makeup. I just don't think this is the
most appropriate time to put on eyeliner and concealer and
whatever other things people put on their faces.
She's putting on makeup. For what?
I'll tell you for what. This is a symbolic gesture of
her defiance of God's word. For her to do this, for her to
adorn herself and to put on all of this is meant to communicate
that she is upholding her perceived dignity.
And that even though she heard that Jehu is coming, even though
she likely heard that Jaram was put to death and Isaiah was
killed, she wants to show that she is somehow still in control.
You can even say she's trying to seduce him, but I don't think
that's the case because of what she says.
But more than anything else, this is her making a statement.
I'm still the queen here, and it doesn't matter what God wants.
I'm going to just treat this like any other day.
So let me put on my makeup, let me put on my crown, and let me
look out the window as I would any other day.
And what happens? She's going to have a
confrontation with Jehu. But we're meant to see something
about this woman's heart that the extent of her calloused
heart, because this is not the only time where she received a
visitation in Jezreel. So Mount Carmel, where there's
that awesome showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
God unmistakably shows up with superior power.
Baal ISM is destroyed, at least to an extent, and the people bow
their knee and they. Say the Lord, he is God, and now
Elijah is going to make his way to Jezreel.
And to announce this to Jezebel himself, or at least.
To go to Jezreel to anticipate repentance.
So go to 1st Kings 19 and just in case you need to see it, look
at the last verse of First Kings 18 right before First Kings 19.
First Kings 1846 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he
gathered up his garment, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of
Jezreel. So Elijah made his way to
Jezreel and what happens in verse one of the next chapter,
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had
killed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So may the gods
do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as the life
of one of them by this time tomorrow.
So from the days of Elijah when he came to Jezreel, to her last
day on earth, this woman is determined to die before she
submits to the truth. She didn't submit to it when
Elijah came with grace, was it not?
Grace for God to come in the way that He came, without destroying
her and her husband. Yes, it was grace.
It was a mighty move of God. It did bring about some
judgement on the prophets of Baal, but not on the instigator.
And so she had a chance to see this display of majesty and for
it to melt her heart and say, yes, the Lord, he is a true God.
What did she do? She says you're a dead man and
I'm quick and I'm ready to die before I give in to you and your
cause. And then when God sends another
man to Jezreel Jehu, not with grace but with what judgement,
it doesn't move her either. So no matter what you gave this
woman, she would not budget. And there are people like that.
There are people like that. Doesn't matter what kind of
miracle of mercy, it doesn't matter what kind of thunderous
warning, they will not give themselves over to the gospel.
And that's just a tragic reality, a tragic truth that the
Bible tells us of. So the Lord spares this woman
before she doesn't give in. And time goes on, She doesn't
repent. And now even on her final day,
instead of preparing her heart, you know what she does?
She prepares her face. To look at this man and to say,
what do you got for me now Interestingly, she doesn't just
do something with her eyes. If you're not convinced that
this woman is diamond hard against the truth, look at her
words in verse 31. And as Jehu entered the gate,
she said, is it peace you Zimri, murder of your master?
You can't. You feel the vitriol in that one
sentence. It just feels mean and ugly and
vicious because she is vicious. But I was curious when I read
this, it sounds mean, but I don't want to just go with how
it sounds. I want to know what it means.
Out of all the things that she could have called Jehu, she
calls him a Zimri. Any idea what a Zimri is?
Well, it's not a thing. He's a person.
Have we ever read about Zimri before?
If you've been with us in Kings, yes, you'll remember.
If you don't remember, go back to the account of Zimri and
we'll make sense of why she calls him this.
So in First Kings 16, look at verse 8.
This is a chapter where you see the sequence of Kings,
predecessors and those who succeed the former.
And we learned of this man Zimri, how he came to the throne
in Israel. Look at First Kings 16/8.
It says here in the 26th year of ASA, king of Judah, Ilah the son
of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirza and he reigned 2
years. But his servant Zimri, commander
of half his Chariots, conspired against him.
Then he was at Tirza drinking himself drunk in the House of
Arza who was over the household in Tirza.
Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him in the 27th
year of ASA, king of Judah, and reigned in his place.
So you can actually answer this, What commonalities do you see
between Zimri and Jehu? He killed the predecessor,
right? He killed the king that was
occupying the throne. Yes, true.
What else? What was Jehu's occupation?
He was one of the commanders of the army.
And what was Zimri's occupation also?
He was also a commander of half his Chariots.
So both were commanders. Both murdered their way or
killed their way to the throne. So it makes some sense at least
to why she's calling out of all the things she could have called
Jehu Zimri, you are a Zimri. But it's deeper than that
because we learn more about Zimri in verse 15.
Look at First King 1615 and the 27th year of ASA, king of Judah.
Zimri reigned 7 days in Tirza. Now the troops were in camp
against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines and the
troops were encamped. Heard it said Zimri has
conspired and he has killed the king.
Therefore, all Israel made Omri. The commander of the army king
over Israel that day in the camp.
So Omri went up to Gibbeth on, and all Israel with him, and
they besieged Tirza. And when Zimri saw that the city
was taken, he went into the citadel of the King's house and
burned the King's house over him.
With fire and died. He commits suicide.
So Zimri was a self appointed king.
The people learned that he conspired and they're like, we
don't want Zimri, we want Omri. So they make Omri the king.
Omri is ready now to remove Zimri from the throne.
And as he makes his way to Zimri, Zimri learns of this.
He goes, this is a lost cause, there's no way I have a chance.
The nation's behind Omri. So he burns the house over him.
And he dies. Who's Omri?
Who's he related to? Ahab is his son.
Omri's the father of Ahab. So now there's a deeper sting to
Jezebel's words. When she calls Jehu Zimri, she's
not just saying you're doing what Zimri did, she's also
saying your fate is going to be like Zimri's fate.
Why? How long did Zimri last for on
the throne? Not a year, a week.
So essentially, I believe what Jezebel saying is, yeah, yeah,
yeah. OK.
I see you're conspiring, but you're not going to last very
long. And the House of Ahab is going
to make a comeback. A very vicious woman.
Clever, but vicious. You're a Zimmery.
And this woman was not just angry, not just offensive.
By saying that, she's also defying God's word concerning
the fate of the House of Ahab. God said it's going to be
destroyed and she thinks it's not going to last very long.
And this reveals just how vile and rebellious she was.
And there's so much application that we can draw from this, but
I want to look at it from Jehu's perspective.
Why? Because Jehu is doing what God
told him to do. He's not on a personal vendetta
here. He's he's not doing things on
his own. God told him to do what he's
doing here. And as he seeks to obey the
Lord, and as he's making ground and as he's advancing, he is
confronted with the threats of a woman who wants to make him
fearful, one to doubt God's word for himself by calling him as
Zimmer was saying it, she's saying, is your fate is going to
be like that man. There's going to be no success
to your campaign, at least long term.
And so Jehu is hearing this, and I think Satan's strategy is no
different. Does you and I seek to obey the
Lord with that zeal that we see in this man?
You should expect also the amplifying lies of Satan to
cause you to fear for yourself and to doubt God's word.
Is that not a satanic strategy that we see here?
Many people are fearful in their obedience.
And many people, even as they obey, especially when they're
the threshold of obeying, they might be visited by doubts.
Is this really what the Lord wants me to do?
Is this really the best option? Is this really, really what God
asks of me? Even though it's clear?
So Jezebel here is imitating the evil 1 where she has no issue,
just like Satan, right? When you're about to do
something for the Lord to whisper in your ear and to
convince you otherwise. And where you're supposed to
find inspiration is in this man. Yes, even though we learn in the
next chapter that he he's not the greatest inspiration, we see
at this point that he hears us and what, he's completely
unfazed. How do we know that?
Look at verse 32. And he lifted up his face to the
window and said, who is on my side?
Who? Two or three eunuchs looked out
at him. He doesn't even pay attention to
her, doesn't pay attention to her face, doesn't pay attention
to her words. He is completely consumed with
his mission, unmoved, and this is something that you and I
should strive for. That we should be rock solid in
our confidence as we obey the Lord.
Nothing should make you afraid, nothing should make you doubt.
And so he just continues on. I wonder what she did pulling
her hair because it didn't do anything to the man.
Says who's on my side? Up there, two or three eunuchs
pop up their heads, you know, obviously unsatisfied with her
reign, and they're ready to betray her.
So notice what he says in verse 33.
He said, throw her down. So they threw her down, and some
of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they
trampled on her. Now pause here for a moment.
I'm about to read the next few verses, the concluding verses of
this chapter. Very graphic, very graphic.
But the purpose of the nature of this is to show us the extent of
God's displeasure with this woman, with the House of Ahab,
and just how severe His judgement is on those who not
just have sinned against God without repentance, but have
refused to repent, though God has revealed Himself in so many
gracious ways. So let me read this and then
expound on it. Verse 34.
Then he went in and ate and drank, and he said, see now to
this cursed woman, and bury her, for she is a King's daughter.
But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than
the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
And when they came back and told him, he said, This is the word
of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite
in the territory of Jezreel. The dog shall eat the flesh of
Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the
face of the field in the torture territory of Jezreel, so that no
one can say this is Jezebel. So a lot of success.
In one day for Jehu in fulfilling his mission.
He asked the eunuchs to push the woman off.
She's thrown out of the window. She falls and her blood
splatters everywhere. And to ensure that she's dead,
JU has the horses trample on her body.
He takes a time to refresh himself and to symbolize his
achievement, he goes into the palace that was once occupied by
these evil people and he has a meal and while he's.
Eating inside the palace. The dogs are eating Jezebel
outside the palace. And it dawns on him, you know,
she's technically still royalty. And so by way of tradition, our
culture would ask of this, let's bury her.
Let's give her some kind of a proper burial.
Send servants out. They go out, and they recognize
that she's virtually gone. Why?
The dogs ate her flesh. And the only thing that's left
is her cranium, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
Why? I wouldn't allegorize it, but I
think the best explanation is that God, in allowing this to
happen, wanted to show that even these dangerous ravenous dogs
that would eat anything to survive survive found Jezebel
displeasurable. Even these beasts of the streets
could not stomach her. And so he learns this, and it
dawns on me again. This is what the Lord said in
the territory of Jezreel, the dog shall eat the flesh of
Jezebel until she's not recognized.
She would not have an honorable end.
And so he realizes that God keeps His word.
And there's much to say about this, but here's how I want to
end when we realize that Jezebel is no more.
Is this the last that we read of Jezebel?
And you know the answer very well.
No, it's not. We don't find her again in the
Old Testament that we find her in the very last book of the New
Testament library where she by name is brought up by the Lord
and one of the churches for being a false prophetess and
seducing the people of God to sexual immorality and idolatry.
And it's not that Jezebel was there in the Church of Thyatira.
It's not like she reincarnated, but there was something so
similar about this particular woman in that church that she
was crowned with this name, and it wasn't an honorable crowning.
She imitated this woman. She had the same spirit of this
woman, and she was producing the same vile outcomes as Jezebel
did when ruling in the Kingdom of Israel.
Here's what this tells me in our study of Second Kings.
Jezebel was not just a threat to the Kingdom of Israel.
She's still a threat to the church.
She is still a threat to the Church of Jesus Christ.
See, what are you talking about? I'm talking about what the Book
of Revelation tells us. You can conclude in Revelation
chapter 2 that she remains an ever present danger to
believers. And you might be wondering how
that's possible. I'm here to explain it.
Let's turn there as we close this Bible study together in
Revelation chapter 2. And look there in verse 20.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and
seducing my servants to practice sexual morality and to eat.
Food sacrificed idols. I gave her time to repent.
God even gives false prophetesses time to repent, but
she refuses to repent of her sexual morality.
Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed.
And those who commit adultery with her, I don't think this is
necessarily speaking about physical adultery, but spiritual
adultery. And those who commit adultery
with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent
of her works. And I will strike her children
dead. So here's the danger.
There are individuals, particularly woman, who will
rise to positions of leadership in local churches, and because
of their authority, they will seek to seduce God's servant
through distorted teachings, leading them to violate God's
Word as a result. Don't think that Jezebel is just
in the Church of Thyatira. The fact that she's mentioned in
one of the churches after the resurrection, essentially of
Jesus, means that you can expect her to pop up in different
churches even in 2025. And there are some people who
are tolerating Jezebel's. They're not honoring God's
structure of leadership in the church, and they're willing to
receive words from someone who is charismatic enough, spiritual
supposedly enough, where they are submitting to something that
is ultimately satanic. And So what we learned of Second
Kings is that this is not just a study of ancient times.
This is also a study of what you and I should be mindful of even
today, that there are people like Jezebel, not just men.
There are women who are rebellious and hateful and long
for authority where God told them that they don't have
authority so that they can implement things that God told
them not to implement. And we should be aware of that.
So let's end it this way. If God is so willing to be
patient with such a woman as this, how much more is He
willing to be patient towards us?
He is so kind and He is so loving, and He is so patient and
He calls us. So.
If you're here today, even at this Bible study, and you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ, can I ask you something?
Why? Why?
Why are you at peace with that which is at war with God?
Why do you stand on your feet? Before the cross and not bow
your knee before the cross. Why have you not received
forgiveness for your sins? Why have you not allowed the
free gift of God in Christ Jesus to wash over you?
Why do you still hold on to that which will condemn you?
Why? Ask yourself and think beyond
the moment, Think for eternity, Think about why you were
created. Think about God's purpose for
your life and think is it worth forfeiting it for me being God
of my life? And me giving in to the things
that have never truly satisfied me, this will ultimately condemn
me. Think, think and ask yourself
why You will never know true peace until you submit to the
Prince of Peace. And he's waiting for you to do
that. Let's seek him together.
Lord, we thank you. We thank you for this Bible
study. We thank you that even in a
historical account, you speak to us presently.
We ask you from the bottom of our hearts that our zeal for
your command would live with us and in US.
It would not dissipate. It would not weaken.
Lord, help us to do everything that's in accordance with Your
word. Lord, we love you, we honor you.
We want to just throw our hearts afresh before you say have every
part of it, our will, our minds, our thoughts.
We give it all to you. We say please Lord, have it all.
Take it all. Lord, we thank you again for you
have spoken to our hearts. In Jesus name we pray, Amen and
Amen. Let's stand and worship the
Lord. So in 2011, 2011, I remember,
you know, sometimes people when they share their testimony,
there's like one major turning point and that's completely
valid. And I think most of us can
identify that. Some can't.
Some are like, I don't know if I have a testimony.
I was born in the Christian faith almost, but I remember
that in my story there were many turning points.
One of them was when the guilt of sin began to mount in my own
conscience and was piling up in my heart.
I try to manage it. I try to medicate it in so many
different ways. And there's one particular time
where it was so overwhelming. It was my conscience was so loud
that I was almost talking to myself.
It was that intense. And one particular moment I
remember I was somewhere I shouldn't have been with people
I shouldn't have been with. And in the middle of the night,
I go into the bathroom and I close the door and I look in the
mirror. I'm like, what are you doing?
What are you doing? And I remember that question.
That honest question was one of the major turning points for me.
They didn't get me saved in that moment.
I wish I could say that on that bathroom floor, I gave my life
to Christ. I didn't.
It just started with an honest question.
What are you doing man? You know, you know the truth,
you know it. Why are you fighting against it?
Why are you living like this? Why are you indulging in this?
I just stared at myself for a while.
My heart was racing. I just knew it.
I was, I was drowning in sin. Sometimes, often times a good
honest look at yourself and asking why am I here?
What am I? Why am I doing this?
How much longer can do some good?
I can do some good. You know there's talk about this
ban for TikTok, right? I've met enough people to know
that God can even use TikTok to bring them to Christ.
So as much as I have my issues with TikTok, God can redeem
anything. But if they do ban it, I I won't
be too upset about it. I'll tell you why.
Because I think Satan has done a wonderful job.
Of distracting a generation so much that they don't even ask
these questions anymore. They're just numbing their minds
with entertainment. You know, like it's becoming
more of a rarity for a message to be 40 minutes, 45 minutes.
And these gurus and evangelicalism will say you
can't teach 45 minutes, people won't listen to you.
Got to bite. Size it, man. 20 minutes. 25
minutes tops. Now, if gods get to you to
preach 25 minutes, that's great. I just can't do it.
I can't. I'm sorry, I can't.
So I fail in that area. But don't get so distracted to
the point where you don't ask the questions that matter most.
And that's true for you if you're in here and you don't
know Christ Jesus as your Lord. And that's true for us as
believers, where we should continually ask questions, talk
to the Lord, examine our hearts, not in a way that kills you with
introspection, but in a way that positions you to be where God
wants you to be. Well, we thank you for this
time, Lord, I thank you for this church.
I thank you for my brothers and sisters in this place.
I thank you that Lord, even through difficult passages, we
can rejoice together because it's your truth, it's your will,
it's your mind, it's, it's your word.
Lord, we pray that you protect the the purity of this Bible
study, Lord, the intimacy of it, the the hunger that we have,
Lord, made only intensify. Lord, help us, help us ask the
right questions at the right time, using your word as the
litmus test at all points. Lord, if there's even one person
here who doesn't know you, may tonight be the night.
And for us who know you, but we're not supposed to be where
we are. Show us the answers, oh God, to
bring us to the fullness of your purpose.
We love you, we honor you. Thank you for who you are.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen and Amen.
Amen.