Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day 170 where we are going to close out the book of First Kings. I'm really, really excited. We're gonna cover First Kings chapters 20, 21 and 22. If you've done the reading, good work. These are not as well known stories as some others. We've encountered some really, really, really popular stories so far in the Book of First Kings. Maybe these are stories you're not as familiar with. Maybe you are, but if you've done the reading, good job. Everything that I'm going to talk about today is going to make complete sense. If you've done the reading. If you haven't done the reading, stop the video, stop the audio. Go do the reading. These episodes are not designed to be intelligible if you haven't done the reading. So make sure you go do that with no further ado. Let's dive in. The first thing I'm going to do is give context clues. And the context for everything that's going to happen in chapters 20, 20, 21 and 22 are gonna be found in 1 Kings, chapter 19. So 1 Kings, chapter 19, pivotal chapter, and the main character here is Elijah. Now, Elijah has won an incredible victory over the prophets of baal. The law of Moses says that false prophets should get the death penalty. And so Elijah's gonna make sure that all 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah are going to die. I could totally see how this is a physically draining, emotionally draining experience. And we're gonna start reading in chapter 19. This is quite literally a mountaintop moment for our character Elijah. And this mountaintop moment is going to be followed by failure. Okay? Now, up until this point, everything that God has told Elijah to do, Elijah's done it. Okay? Hey, go to this brook. I'm gonna command ravens to feed you. He's done it. Go. There's a widow up in Zarephath. I've commanded her to take care of you. Elijah's done it. Okay? Everything that God told Elijah to do, he's done it. And so Elijah has been insanely faithful until chapter 19. Okay, so chapter 19. I'll just start reading in verse one. Now, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sw. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. So, massive threat. And Elijah's afraid and ran for his life, and he came to Beersheba in Judah. So now this. He's in Judah, okay? He's run all the way south. I need you to have some geography. And at this point, Judah is a different country than Israel. So he has now crossed state lines, okay? He has crossed an international boundary or an international border. And so he has an angelic visitation. Angel of the Lord tells him to eat. Okay? He got up and ate, and he drank. He. Strengthened by the food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. Now, we haven't really seen Horeb a lot since Moses was the main character. And there's a lot of stuff here that would actually make Elijah a new Moses. Ahab is a Pharaoh figure, okay? And Elijah's a new Moses. So let's think miraculous food at the brook and ravens are giving him meat. This is new manna and quail, okay? There's all kinds of parallels between the life of Moses and the life of Elijah, and they seem to be parallels. And at this point, Elijah's trying to create another parallel between him and Moses, but God's the one that controls the narrative, not Elijah. Okay? Elijah, you can finally see it here in chapter 19. He is wanting to force the narrative. So we see it in verse nine. Elijah is at a mountain that Moses has met God at, and God has a question for Elijah. It says this in verse nine, second half of verse nine. Sorry, we can just start at the top of verse nine. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, turned down your altars, and put down your prophets to the death of the sword. I'm the only one left. He's already talked to Obadiah, by the way, and Obadiah told him that there's 50 prophets in two caves, so 100 prophets total. And now they're trying to kill me, too. The Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is going to pass by now, Elijah didn't answer the question. God is saying, what are you doing here? I haven't commanded you to come to Mount Horeb. There's no place where. I said go to Mount Horeb. You just decided upon yourself that you're going to just go to Mount Horeb. Okay, dude, you don't call the shots. I call the shots. And then Moses has experienced God through wind. Moses has experienced God through earthquake. Moses has experienced God through fire. Moses has had all those experiences with God. All of these things happen. But the Lord was not in the fire. And now he gets a gentle whisper. If you're not reading really, really perceptively, you're just kind of like, oh, this is a cool story. But really what's happening is that Elijah's functioning in disobedience. And now again, verse 13. What are you doing here, Elijah? Why are you here? First of all, I've called you to go. You've already had victory with Ahab and Jezebel. You're hot off the heels of victory. Go continue what I told you to do. Okay, why are you here? And he's just going to continue to say the same thing. Okay? He's going to say the exact same thing again. I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. The Lord said to him, go back the way you came. Get out of here, dude. Like, no one asked you to come to Mount Horeb. Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai, by the way. It's a nerdy nugget for anyone who doesn't know. And then he gets three instructions. Verse 15, Anoint Hazael King over Aram, Anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Maholah to succeed you as prophet. Okay, three things. Go anoint Haziel, go anoint Jehu, and go anoint Elisha. Since you want to quit on me, go ahead and anoint your successor. Now, again, here's the Moses themes are going to come into play. Ok, since you want to quit. And so Elisha is going to become a new Joshua. But Elijah is nowhere near, like, the end of his ministry. My man's just quitting. He's just like, yeah, nah, this is tiring. Now, is ministry tiring? Absolutely. Like, is the stuff that Elijah's having to deal with draining? Absolutely. But my man's tapping out. Not only is my man tapping out, God said three things. Go anoint Hazael king over Aram. Go anoint Jehu king over Israel, obviously in to replace Ahab. And then go anoint Elisha to succeed you as prophet. What's the next thing that happens? Verse 19. So Elijah went from there and found Elisha. While he was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen and he himself was driving the 12th pair, Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left the oxen and ran after Elijah. And so all Elijah does is do the third thing that God said, not the first two. Talk about rebellion. This is not good. Now also, I've been in church for a long time. I've never heard Elijah's failure preached. But chapter 19 is a whole failure. Hazio king over Aram. No, he does not. Does he go to anoint Jehu king over Israel? No, he does not. The only thing he does is he goes to find his successor. That's what he does. Why? Because he's tired of being a prophet of Yahweh. And this is the context for everything that's about to follow. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. So chapter 20, chapter 21, chapter 22 are all stories that are birthed out of Elijah's failure. So in chapter 20, chapter 21, chapter 22, we are going to see the king of Aram and the king of Israel create, wreak a ton of havoc, create havoc, multiply havoc. And all that drama could have been avoided had Elijah actually continued his confrontation with Ahab and Jezebel. And had he actually went and anointed the next king to replace Ahab. And had he went and anointed the king over Aram, whose name is Hazael. But he doesn't do any of that. He does absolutely none of that. And so what happens? The only thing he does is he finds Elisha. And he doesn't even make it clear what he's doing. All he says when he finds Elisha is he throws his cloak around him. Clearly, Elisha knows what this means. And he leaves his oxen and he runs after Elisha and Elijah. Let's make this also very clear. Elisha, this is a nerdy nugget, will transition into all of our nerdy nuggets. Elisha is loaded, okay? 12 yoke of oxen is an absorbent amount of wealth. So Elisha is a very, very, very wealthy and established and affluent and individual, okay? With a lot of influence. Not only does he have great wealth, but then he burns it all. He burns the plowing equipment, he cooks the meat and gives it to the people, and they eat. And they set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. Now, immediately, what follows in chapter 20 now, Ben Hadad. You mean Haziel, who Elijah anointed. Oh, yeah. Elijah failed to anoint Haziel. So now we get Ben Haddad wreaking havoc and legit. The only thing you need to know for chapter 20 is that Ben Hadad is going to reach a bunch of havoc. And who is the only person that is going to be able to do anything? Ahab. You mean. You mean Jehu, who Elijah anoints? No, not Jehu. Ahab. Because Elijah failed to do what God told him to do. Elijah failed to do what God commanded him to do. Now I'm going to give you a nerdy nugget. The taxi was relevant for yesterday. Sorry, I didn't give it to you. Then there's this moment where Elijah is like, hey, it's about to rain, okay? And he says to Ahab, but get in your chariot and get out of here because it's going to rain. Now, why in the world does the rain matter? Like, what's the correlation? Remember I told you Elijah is a new Moses. So if Elijah's a new Moses, Ahab is the new Pharaoh. And here's the deal. The. The. The. The valley that they're in, Mount Carmel, is a lush, lush, lush area. And so when he sees a cloud the size of a man's hand, that doesn't mean it's a small cloud. That's. I've heard this preached incorrectly so many times. I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. No, it Just means it's far away. It doesn't mean it's small. It means it's far away. Airplanes are huge, but when airplanes are far away, they look small. So the reason the cloud is the size of a man's hand is because it's far away. It's a massive cloud. It's a huge cloud. Okay. And the amount of the rain would actually conclude it's a huge cloud. So what's the link between the chariot and the rain? Well, what happens with Pharaoh's chariots when they go through the Red Sea? Ah, chariots don't do good in water. They don't do good in mud. They don't do good in water. And remember, they are in this valley that is actually. It's. It's actually known to be lush because it's such a fertile area of the country. And so Elijah is saying. Is actually saying to Ahab, if you don't hurry up and get out of here, it's easy to ride your chariot in here when it's dry. And, sir, you're not even supposed to have chariots. And God. The way that God will judge you for having all your trust in his chariots is by sending the rain that you so desperately need. But if God does the miracle of sending rain. It will. Then your chariot will become your downfall. And then what does God do? He gives Elijah the supernatural ability to run fast in a chariot, which is just. Oh, boy. Just proves this is why you don't put your trust in horses and chariots. A, because you need the miraculous reign of God. And if you're in a chariot when rain comes, then you sign your own death certificate. And second, I can cause you to run faster than a chariot because I'm the God of the universe. You don't need chariots. You need my spirit. You need my power. You need the miraculous power of God. So we're going to get a bunch of stories in chapters 20, 21 and 22, okay? And all of these stories are the natural consequences of Elijah not obeying God. Elijah's disobedience to anoint the correct king of Aram and to anoint the next correct king of Israel creates a scenario where Ahab and Ben Hadad are in place to wreak havoc. Chapter 21. I'll give you this nerdy nugget. You may not realize it, but taking someone's vineyard, AKA land, is a big, big deal. So who's the giver of land? Yahweh. Why? Because he made the land, okay? He made the land he put humans on the land. And if you go into the Torah moving boundary markers, this is a big no no. Okay? You should have access to your ancestral land. The fact that Ahab wants to take Naboth's land means that he sees himself as God. But should he even be king? No. And let's go back couple of books. Saul is an evil king, and God tells Samuel, fill your horn and go anoint the new king. Go anoint David. And so Elijah's job is to go anoint the new king that God has. And he doesn't. And because he doesn't, we are going to get Chapter 20, Chapter 21, and Chapter 22. So the key to unlocking Chapter 20, Chapter 21, and chapter 22 is really understanding that Elijah fails big time in chapter 19. So timeless truth is that disobedience always has a ripple effect. Okay, disobedience has a ripple effect. Is Elijah still like a hero of the Bible? Yeah, but remember how I said probably a couple days ago, I probably said this a couple times, that the characters are gonna become more and more complicated as we continue through the Bible. Okay? At the beginning, it's really easy to tell who's good, who's bad. But Elijah, he's good, but, man, he drops the ball. And because he drops the ball, it has this ripple effect that is going to reverberate throughout chapters 20, 21 and 22. And because he wants to quit and because he's named a successor, he's gonna come off the scene as the main character. And actually the consequences of his actions are gonna get put on the forefront of the. Of the narrative as we move through this last section of the book, namely chapter 20, chapter 21, and chapter 22. So I gave you context clues, I gave you nerdy nuggets, and I gave you a timeless truth that disobedience always has a ripple effect. And we're not able to predict where our disobedience is going to have that ripple effect. And for Elijah, we're gonna get three chapters worth of a ripple effect based on his failure to obey Yahweh. And with that, that is the book of first kings. Tomorrow we'll be right here for day 171, and we'll get into the book of two kings, and you'll realize, just like with Samuel, there's no transition from first two Samuel, it's just picks right up. The action is going to pick right up. And so, same thing with kings, okay? Although this is the end of how these books are organized, in our Bibles. They were originally written as one book and so there's going to be no. No skipping the action. Okay. We're going to go right in to the next bit of information and I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 171 as we continue to study the Kings of Israel. Love you guys. So proud. If you're on a streak, don't break it. If you're not on a streak, what are we doing? Like, let's go. The Bible's good for you. Okay. I love you guys. So proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.