Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn to second chronicles, Chapter
Eighteen. Second Chronicles Eighteen. This here
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we have another scene, another episode
of the life and reign of King Jehosaphat,
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the king who was ruling in the
southern portion of Israel, which is
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called Judah, the kingdom having been
divided between North and south, Israel in
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the north, Judah in the south. And we read about an alliance that
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he makes with the King of the
North, a very evil and terrible king,
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King Ahab, you may remember from
scripture. We read about this alliance
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and what happens. So is common
with the Chronicler, he gives a lot
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of good detailed makes it very easy
to imagine, to put yourself there on
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to picture what it is to happen. So let's do that now, with
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a lot of attentiveness and desiring to
hear God's word. Second Chronicles Eighteen.
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Now Jehoshah fat had great riches and
honor and he made a marriage alliance with
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Ahab. After some years, he
went down to Ahab in Samaria and have
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killed an abundance of sheep and oxen
for him and for the people who are
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with him, and induced him to
go up against Ramoth Gilead. Hey Hab,
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King of Israel, said to Jehosha
fat, King of Judah, will
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you go with me to Ramoth Gilead? He answered him I am as you
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are, my people as your people. We will be with you in the
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war. And JEHOSH's Jehoshah Fat,
said to the King of Israel, inquire
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first for the word of the Lord. Then the King of Israel gathered the
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prophets together, four hundred men,
and said to them, shall we go
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to battle against Ramoth Gilead or shall
I refrain? And they said go up,
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for God will give it into the
hand of the king. But JEHOSHAH
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FAT said, is there not here
another prophet of the Lord of whom we
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may inquire? And the King of
Israel said to Jehosaphat, there is yet
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one man by whom we may acquire
of the Lord, Macaiah, the son
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of imlaw. But I hate him. This part is very childish. I
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think he sounds very childish, but
I hate him for he never prophesies good
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concerning me, but always evil.
And Jehoshah Fad said, let not the
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king say so. Then the King
of Israel summoned an officer and said bring
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quickly Makaiah, the son of imlaw
now, the King of Israel, and
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Jehosha Fat, the King of Judah, were sitting on their thrones, arrayed
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in their robes, and they were
sitting at the threshing floor, at the
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entrance of the gate of Samaria,
and all the People's were prof are all
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the prophets were prophesying before them,
and Zenechaiah, the son of Shenana Shah
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Anna, made for himself horns of
iron and said, thus says the Lord,
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with these shall you push the Syrians
until they are destroyed. And all
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the prophets prophesied so and said go
up to Ramoth Giliad and triumph. The
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Lord will give it into the hand
of the king. And the Messenger who
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went to summon macaiah said to him, behold the words of the prophets with
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the the words of the prophets with
one accord, are favorable to the king.
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Let your word be like the word
of one of them and speak favorably.
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But macaiah said, as the Lord
Lives, what my God says,
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that I will speak. And when
he had come to the king, the
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king said to him, Makayah,
shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle,
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or shall I refrain? And he
answered, go up and triumph.
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They will be given into your hand. But the king said to him,
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how many times shall I make you
swear that you will speak to me nothing
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but the truth and the name of
the Lord? And he said, I
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saw all Israel scattered on the mountains
as a sheep that have no shepherd.
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And the Lord said, these have
no master. Let each return to his
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home in peace. And the King
of Israel said to Jehoshah Fat, did
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I not tell you that he would
not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?
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Macaiah said, therefore, hear the
word of the Lord. I saw
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the Lord sitting on his throne and
all the host of Heaven standing on his
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right hand and on his left.
And the Lord said, who will entice
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Ahab, the King of Israel,
that he may go up and fall at
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Ramoth Gilead? And one said one
thing and another said another. Than a
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spirit came forward and stood before the
Lord, saying I will entice him,
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and the Lord said to him by
what means? And he said I will
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go out and will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets,
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and he said, you are to
entice him and you shall succeed.
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Go Out and do so now,
therefore, behold, the Lord has put
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a lying spirit in the mouth of
these your prophets. The Lord has declared
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disaster concerning you. Then Zedekiah,
the son of Chennana, came near and
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struck macaiah on the cheek and said
which way did the spirit of the Lord
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go from me to speak to you? And macaiah said, behold, you
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shall see on that day when you
go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.
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And the King of Israel said,
seize Machaiah and take him back to
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ammon, the governor of the city, and to Joe Ash, the king's
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son, and say thus, thus
says the king. Put this fellow in
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prison and feed him with meager rations
of bread and water until I return in
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peace. And macaiah said, if
you return in peace, the Lord has
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not spoken by me. And he
said here all you people's so the king
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of Israel and Jehoshah Fat, the
King of Judah, went up to Ramoth
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Gilead, and the King of Israel
said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself
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and go into battle, but you
wear your robes. And the King of
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Israel disguised himself and they went into
battle. Now the king of Syria had
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commanded the captains of his chariots fight
with neither small nor great, but only
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with the King of Israel. As
soon as the captains of the chariots saw
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Jehosha fat, they said it is
the king of Israel, so they turned
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to fight against him, and Jehosha
fat cried out in the Lord helped him.
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God drew them away from him,
for as soon as the captains of
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the chariot saw that it was not
the King of Israel, they turned back
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from pursuing him. But a certain
man drew his bow at random and struck
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the king of Israel, but queen
the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore,
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he said to the driver of his
chariot, turn around and carry me
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out of the battle, for I
am wounded. And the battle continued that
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day and the King of Israel was
propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians
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until evening. Then, at sunset, he died. Just a few more
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verses here, Jehosha Fat, the
King of Judah, returned in safety to
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his house in Jerusalem, but Jay
who the son of Hanani the seer,
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went out to meet him and said
to King Jehoshah fat, should you help
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the wicked and love those who hate
the Lord? Because of this, the
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wrath of God has gone out against
you. Nevertheless, some good is found
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in you, for you destroyed the
Ashraff out of the land and have set
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your heart to seek God it.
God bless his word to us. A
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big story and a fascinating one,
one with many, many truths, some
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very mysterious. For example, as
we consider the will of the Lord and
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his providence in deceiving this Israelite King, his providence in working in various ways
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in the details of the lives of
these people, I'm some very clear some
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some doctrines and truths about God that
stand out very strongly. For example,
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and this will be our main focus
this evening, the Prophet of the Lord
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says that he sees the people of
Israel like sheep without a shepherd, an
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ironic thing, given that there are
two shepherds, two kings, right there.
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And yet we do see that the
Lord is watching over them all and
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ruling all things. I read these
last few verses in Chapter Nineteen, because
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they really help us to understand what
was happening at the very beginning of chapter
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eighteen. Let me point this out
to you and then we'll kind of go
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through the story, thinking through it
together and making sure that we all understand
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what's there and what's going on and
focusing on some important observations along the way.
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The first thing I want to point
out are these beginning verses in Chapter
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Nineteen. We're here. We read
how the Lord characterizes it this event.
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He says that what Jehosha fat is
done is to help the wicked and love
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those who hate God. This is
something I think you see implicitly throughout the
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story, but it doesn't, but
it comes out very explicitly here. Implicitly.
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Why? How do we see Jehosha
fat helping the the wicked loving those
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who hate the Lord? Well,
first of all we remember Ahab, a
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terrible, wicked king whom he's made
an alliance with. We also know that
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throughout this story Jehosha fad is really
serving as a servant of King Ahab,
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though at one point they're pictured in
their robes, perhaps sitting equally on two
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thrones. Throughout the story this is
very clearly Ahab's battle. You notice the
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prophets continually say the victory will be
yours, O king, and not kings
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plural. Also notice how it's Ahab
who initially who proposes this arrangement. He
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goes to Jehoshah fad and says,
I want to go up against Ro Moth
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Gilead, I want to win this
battle. Will you come with me?
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So jehosha fat is serving as a
supporting role. Again. The question is
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why? Why is he going to
unite himself with Ahab? Why is he
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this wicked and Evil King? What's
the purpose? It's not entirely clear,
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at least to me, what that
purpose is, but he follows it anyway.
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We also read that this fight against
this foreign power, the king of
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Syria, was also against Ahab.
In other words, Ahab's perspective was I'm
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against them, and the perspective,
as I of his enemies was we're against
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Ahab. You remember that at the
end of chapter eighteen, the King of
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Syria commands this is verse twenty.
The captains of the chariot fight with nobody.
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I don't care how important they are, I don't care how unimportant they
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are. I only want one thing, the King of Israel. That's who
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I want, and it seems that
Ahab even understands that this is going to
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happen. I don't know why Jehoshah
fat went along with this plan, but
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he says, remember to Jehosha Fat, Hey, when we're going to go
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out into battle, I want you
to make sure that you were all of
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your robes, have your big king
had on. You know, all the
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arrows king right here over here.
ME, however, I'm going to cover
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myself up with armor and going out
in disguise again. Jehosha fat, what
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are you thinking? Why is he
doing this, especially when ahabs not even
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following the same plan? It's not
two kings in all their glory and power
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moving out into battle, it's Ahab
sneaking along the side lines, making Jehosha
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fat take all the risk. Again. Jeosha fat, what are you thinking?
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And for him? So these are
the things that we read implicitly throughout
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the story, and then the Prophet
makes very clear to us and and of
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course, to Jehosha fat himself at
the end. Should you help the wicked
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and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath because
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of this wrath has gone out against
you from the Lord. With that sort
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of in our minds, let's go
back to the beginning of chapter eighteen and
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think what happens here. We've already
set up the scene. A HAB is
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wanting to go to war. He
grabs Jehoshah fadden says, will you come
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with me, Joseph Hat? Jehoshah
fat says yes, sir, but it
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seems as though Jehoshah fat has some
reservations. Before they go, Jehoshah fad
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in verse four, says let's let's
ask the Lord First. There's something about
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him that seems to hold back.
Doesn't exactly say why, but it's certainly
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a smart thing. Jehosha fat says
in quire first, a word of the
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Lord, and the King of Israel
seems to he agrees with us, and
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he gathers the prophets together. Four
hundred men. Now this is should be
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a little bit suspicious to us,
especially when we read that these are his
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prophets, because, if you remember, a while back, the King of
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Israel cast out all the servants of
the Lord, he set up his own
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priests, he set up his own
idols and perhaps he set up his own
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profits as well. So here he
has a class of men that are ruling
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for him and for his glory,
not particularly wanting to speak the word of
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the Lord, and he asks them, right, he asks four hundred yes
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men. What do you think,
guys? SHALL WE GO OUT IN BATTLE?
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What do they say? Go Up, go up, for God will
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give it into the hand of the
king. So there's this decision to be
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made. Ahab's already made his decision. Jehosha fat has some reservations, and
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so he calls on some prophets.
But Josha Hoosha fat presses him a little
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more. Perhaps he senses in these
prophets not the word of the Lord.
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Don't know exactly why. Maybe it
was the historical circumstances that I mentioned before.
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They're just not trustworthy people. Maybe
it was that he didn't trust King
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Ahab entirely, or maybe it's maybe
it was simply that he wasn't hearing the
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voice of his shepherd, his shepherd, the Lord himself. Jesus says,
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you remember that the sheep hear my
voice. They we there. We recognize
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when we hear God speak, and
maybe something in Jehoshah fat's conscience was bothering
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him and even having all of this
great display. Four hundred that's a lot
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of people, all working together and
to put on this show for Ahab and
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Jehoshah fad he. He presses yet
further and says is isn't there anyone else?
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Verse six, is there not yet
another profit of whom we may inquire?
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Now the King of Israel tips his
hand a little bit in verse six
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and first seven and says, yeah, I suppose we could ask Macayah.
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But notice what happens before macayah comes. There's this little interlude, this this
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transition time. Macaiah doesn't just show
up and start speaking. There's some few
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things that happen. First of all, the prophets, these four hundred pro
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four hundred prophets, continue to press
the point, even after Macaiah is sent
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for as they are sitting there a
raid, on their thrones and in their
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robes at this very important place,
this place of Judgment and rule, the
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prophets continue to prophesy. Zetechiah makes
these horns of iron. Not sure how
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long that would take, but some
effort is going into this prophesying. I
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think it might be fair to.
It's a little bit of a conjecture,
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but I think it's fair to imagine
some kind of big display going on,
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that there are these presentations and people, all these people. They are these
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kings seated on their thrones. The
point gets keep it keeps being pressed and
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pressed and pressed. Go, go, go, battle, battle, battle.
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Then in the meanwhile the Messenger goes
to Makaiah. We read in Verse
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Twelve and listen to what he says. He says, Hey, you should
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probably know the words of the Prophets. We are with one accord a favorable
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to the king. Let your word
be like the word of one of them
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and speak favorably. This messenger probably
thought he was doing Makayah favor. You
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know, he's sort of you know, put your finger in the air see
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which direction the wind is blowing,
and I'm going to tell you they're all
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saying the same thing. If you
go in there right now and you say
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I don't think so and you shouldn't
go to battle, this is not going
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to bode well for you, Makaya. We know from the past, from
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Ahab's comment, that it's not gone
well from macayah before, and he's selling
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him is not going to go well
for you if you do this. Just
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go with it, go with the
flow, say what everybody's saying. It's
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sort of a political move. I'm
perhaps I'm done, even out of a
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desire to help. But macaiah,
a true prophet, as all true prophets
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do, stands firm and instead of
saying that the Messenger pay. Thanks,
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Buddy, I really appreciate that.
I almost walked into that one. He
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says, as Yahwe lives. What
my God say as that I will speak.
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What boldness. This morning we were
talking about zeal. Certainly a big
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part of it there. So Makaiah
is set up right away. We see
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that this is someone who has a
character that we can trust, and indeed
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he is a trustworthy so he shows
up and then we get another scene,
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or at least the continuing of this
round two of the decision making process.
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Makaiah cut is brought before and then
he says something that I think throws us
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off a little bitter, at least
it does on a first reading. He
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says, macay or he's asked,
Macaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Ghilliad
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to battle, or shall I refrain? And he answered go up and triumph.
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They will be given into your hand. So what's going on here?
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Makaiah just gave this great expression of
his confidence and hit the thing that he
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was planning to do. Was it? Are we supposed to read it as
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a moment of weakness? Was He
trying to lie? What's going on here?
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I think it's a little bit hard
to say exactly why, but I
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think there are several reasons that we
can say Makaia knew exactly what he was
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doing and he wasn't doing anything wrong. First of all, there is his
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history, his commitment, his character. The the chronicler sets up an expectation
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for us to understand this profit in
a certain way. We're supposed to trust
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him. That's what we're pulled that. He's spoken well, he's been against
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King Ahab He, and then we
see his confession here to the Messenger of
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what his plans are to do.
And along with that point we see no
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mark of change, no transition in
macaiah. Right. It's surprising because everything
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is not set up that way in
the story. So that's one reason to
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think macaiah isn't isn't doing something wrong
here. His personal history, is character,
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his commitment, a second reason,
and this comes from EJ young,
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the Great Old Testament Professor at Westminster, a theological seminary. He notes a
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contrast between the first thing macaiah says
in the second thing he says. The
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first thing is this kind of parroting, this very simple phrase. Go Up
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and try UMPH, they will be
given into your hand. You compare that
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to what comes where in after he's
pressed in Verse Sixteen. Listen to the
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language. What EJ young says is
there is now no mere repetition of words
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which the king wished to hear,
but a depth and dignity and beauty such
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as characterized could by great and true
prophecy. So compare the first thing he
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says to her sixteen. I saw
all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep
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that have no shepherd, and the
Lord said, these have no master.
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Let each return to his home and
peace. And then after that we get
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this opening up of the heavenly places, in this great scene of the Lord
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seated on the throne, which matches
in many ways some of the other expressions
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of prophecy, great prophecy that we
have from Isaiah and others. So EJ
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Young's point is that Macaya is way
of speaking as we see it here,
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is markedly different, and he draws
from that this perhaps that it was intended
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to be that way. Perhaps macaiah
spoke in a way that wasn't intending to
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lie or be tricked, but that
everyone was going to understand it in the
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very first place, that that's not
what he really thought. Perhaps he spoke
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in a mocking way, you know, perhaps he was asked, all right,
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what do you think we should do, and he says, well,
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why don't you go and triumph that
they may be given under your hand.
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Right. He's sort of obviously parroting
what's going on around him as a way
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to scorn and mock those who are
hearing the word. It's one possibility.
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There's other ways that you can you
could perhaps express that, but what is
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clear is that Ahab's not tricked.
Ahab seems to immediately recognize what's going on
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there. Notice he doesn't say,
oh great, finally some good news.
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He says, come on, spit
it, what do you want to say?
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So there must be something in the
way that he said it, or
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perhaps it's in the Hebrew or something
else that at least I'm not able to
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perceive, but something by the everyone's
reaction, by his character, by the
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contrast with it, does his other
words, something that is indicating to us
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that Isaiah or that Makaiah wasn't making
a mistake here. He was speaking plainly
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and clearly, in a way that
these kings would understand that this is not
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what he believed and this is not
what he meant. And so he speaks
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to them plainly and says this isn't
going to go well. And in fact
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he not only tells him that if
they go into battle, there will be
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it will it will not go well, but even explains why all this has
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happened, that a lying spirit has
been sent out from the Lord to Create
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Deception among these prophets and to and
to lead Ahab to his death, most
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certainly a punishment for all of Ahab's
witness in Israel. Now, before we
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go any further, I want to
just pause and reflect a little bit with
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you. What can we learn thus
far from what the chronicle has told us?
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I think one thing we might say, and is good to point out
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a simple truth, is that there
are true and false prophets. Not everyone
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who says that they speak from the
Lord are from the Lord, and that's
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exactly what Z that a Kiah and
the other prophets were saying. Thus,
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says the Lord. He even uses
a God's name, Jehovah or Yahweh.
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Thus says the Lord. With these
you shall push the Syrians until they are
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destroyed. There's a possibility there that
Zee Kiah is even speaking of a prophecy
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earlier, I mean God's Word Concerning
Joseph. He was very much grounding what
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he was saying in Yahway's words,
in the all ways promises. And yet
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he was false. We know that
not only from what Macaiah says, but
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from what actually happens. Ahab died
in this battle and was not successful,
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as Ze Kai and the others said
they were. There are true and false
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prophets, and the same is true
today. We are warned by the Lord
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in the New Testament that there are
people who will deceive us. His Apostle
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say the same thing, and we
are to be on guard, we are
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to watch out and be testing.
If jehoshahats conscience here is being at least
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somewhat sensitive to the situation he's put
himself in. It's a good thing to
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notice and a good thing to remember. We ought to be testing and listening.
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Just because someone says something doesn't mean
that it's true. A second thing
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you might notice is that the existence
of the false, true and false prophets
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presupposes that there is a God who
speaks to some people and not to others,
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that there are some people who speak
the word of the Lord and there
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are other people who simply speak their
own words and their own hearts. There
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is a God who exists, a
God who speaks, a God who declares,
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and this sovereign, awesomely powerful God
is sort of in the background here
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at the beginning of chronicles, but
the more and more macaiah speaks, the
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more and more he comes into the
foreground of the story and we see how
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God is ruling over everything, the
false prophets and all that. We will
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continue certain courses of action that we
might take. Our right and some are
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wrong. It depends on God's word. The difference depends on God's word.
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So we are right to ask ourselves, well, if all of this is
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true, which it most certainly is, where do we hear the Voice of
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the Lord? And it's here in
his word and the words of the Apostles
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and the prophets and the words of
the Chief Prophet Himself, the Lord Jesus
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Christ, who has spoken to us
and told us the will of God.
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Knowing that there are true false prophets, and false prophets should make us desire
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to know what is true, to
test and to learn and to grow,
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and that means hearing God's word in
the scriptures and learning it and growing in
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it. Well, let's continue on
and the story. In addition to telling
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the truth about what would happen in
battle, he goes on to talk about
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what, why all of this has
has happened. He allows macaiah to see
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the events that happened or that proceeded
all of this from a spiritual perspective.
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And with all of that before him, now a HAB and Jehosha fad have
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a choice. They are brought to
this point of decision. Will they listen
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to the Prophet of the Lord?
Will they do the right thing, or
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will they not? And we of
course, know what a have chooses.
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Lock him up. I don't want
to hear this guy anymore. And in
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fact he presses the point and his
great confidence that it's not the word of
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the Lord that matters, but what
a have desires. When he says you
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stay there until I come back in
peace, they have locks up Makayah and
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sets out to prove him wrong.
And then we have the end of the
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story. Of course macaiah is absolutely
right and despite every human expectation, humanly
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speaking, Ahab is killed, despite
everything that we would expect to happen,
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despite everything that Ahab was planning for. This great I think perhaps deception or
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seems kind of obvious to me,
but anyway, Jehosha fat seems fooled.
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He goes into battle. There's one
person that seems like he should die,
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and that's Jehoshah fat. Jehosha fats
out there. JEHOSHA FAT's obvious. Everyone's
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looking for a king and they even
go after him. They're on his trail,
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they're about to bring him down and
the Lord pushes them away. It
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doesn't say how he does it,
but he does it. JEHOSHAH FAT is
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about to face certain death. They
turn to fight him. They say in
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verse the Thirty One. It is
the King of Israel after him, but
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it says that Jehoshah fat seeing them
coming, he cries out and the Lord
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helped him. God drew them away
from him, for as soon as the
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captains of the chariot saw that it
was not as the not the King of
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Israel, they turned back from pursuing
him. So here you have the the
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great captains in the chariot's rushing at
Jehosha fat, and then meanwhile this Arrow
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goes off in the midst of whatever, and I put it that way not
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to be respectful, but that's the
way scripture reports it. Verse Thirty Three.
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A certain man, just someone.
They're no great commander, no Cherry,
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just a certain man drew his bow
at random and struck the king of
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Israel, the King of Israel,
Ahab, who is seeking to win the
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whole thing between the scale armor and
the breastplate, he's even wearing an armor,
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and somehow this random Arrow set bought
shot by this random man, goes
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and from lodges in between his armor. This is a good reminder, as
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we think about these words like random
and chance, that they are very much
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that way from our human perspective.
But ultimately the point of this chapter is
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that they are not random. They
appear that way, they act that way,
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but the Lord is sovereign over all, and Ahab who puts his hands
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on his fists and climbs into his
armor and rides out into battle and says
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forget that I'm going to win,
does not win. Those who go against
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the Lord do not win. They
will die. Jeoshah fat receives, I
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think, some long suffering patience in
this story. I wonder if you've been
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in a situation like that, gotten
yourself into a fairly big mess and fell
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and felt the consequences of it trailing
on you, breathing down on you,
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and in the last moment the Lord
diverts them away. How should you react
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in a moment like that? How
should you respond? I think we should
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praise the Lord. Think we should
turn in repentance and walk away from enemies
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of the Lord, from evil and
wickedness, and say that the Lord is
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good, the Lord is Merciful.
Jehoshah fat lives another day and he goes
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on. I think the central message
of this chapter of God's Word here is
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that ultimately, God is, is
sovereign and connected without is that we would
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do well to heed his word.
It's a story about what happens when we
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don't, and it's a story of
Jehosha fat, feeling that. I think
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he's feeling that. He's wondering,
even though he kind of keeps pressing on,
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even against his conscience, even after
he hears macaiah speak Jeosah had is
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his feeling, that burden. He's
right to be sensitive to it, even
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though ultimately he callouses his heart against
it. Now, you may not be
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a king, but God doesn't only
command kings. He commands prophets and Messengers
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and arrows. God commands you.
He calls us to obedience and he tells
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us that if we do not obey, we will die. There is a
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king, though, who comes after
these two kings, and he is the
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final king, the long hoped for
king, the promised King, and that
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is King Jesus. I bring him
up not only because he is our king,
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but he is the pulmination of this
line of Kings. He is the
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one to whom all of this is
pointing towards. And when we consider King
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Jesus not only ruling all over all
of these things, the kings and the
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prophets and the messengers and the arrows
and you and me, we are right
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to stand in awe that our king
goes into a battle that is winnable.
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When Jesus goes to battle sin and
death and wickedness and idolatry and all of
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the rest, he goes according to
the word of the Lord. Indeed,
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not only does he go according to
the will of the Lord, but all
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of the prophets have been speaking about
this day. This is one of the
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contrasts we see in this chapter with
the final king, King Jesus, throughout
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the Prophets, they, the prophets, speak and testify that there is a
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coming one, an anointed one,
a shepherd, who will rule, who
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will win. When Jesus goes into
battle and we align ourselves with him,
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we're not making a mistake, because
all of the law and the prophets are
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testifying to this fact that this king
will go into battle and will win.
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When we stand on Jesus's side,
we are not standing with a wicked king
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who's going against God's word. We
are standing with the king to whom all
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God's word, including this chapter,
is pointing to. When we stand with
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King Jesus as he goes in to
fight against sin and death and the devil,
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we stand with Jesus who is garanteed
a victory. Now we in some
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ways face an opposite situation, because
there are all kinds of prophets saying don't
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go, don't go, it won't
go well, and snickering at us when
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that King is put on a cross
and put to death. See how well
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that went for you, they said. And indeed his disciples were afraid,
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his subjects were scared, but the
Lord Jesus rose from the dead. He
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didn't die in his chariot, looking
at the battle field and saying I didn't
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accomplish it, I didn't do it. The Sun didn't set on Jesus,
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but on that Easter morning it rose
and he rose with it. He rose
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from the dead victorious over battle,
and we rise with him too, conquering,
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ruling and powerful. Perhaps we will
have to suffer, we will have
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to suffer, he tells us that
we will have to endure false prophets and
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people and lying spirits. But the
Lord who promises that his son will come
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and win is sovereign, as we've
seen in this chapter. The Lord God,
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Yaw Way of Israel, controls all
things, and so when God comes
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and takes on the flesh of mankind
and goes into battle, we need not
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fear that he will fail because,
though he submits himself to though he submits
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himself to pilot and to the Jews
and goes to the cross. Ultimately,
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we read and we know that it
is God's work, that he is going
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of his own accord, that all
things are falling out to his perfect plan.
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Just to remind you, as it's
he tells this to his disciples.
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He says, I will die and
in three days I will raise again from
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the dead, and they scratch their
beards and wonder what does he mean?
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That's exactly what happens, exactly as
the Lord speaks here with confidence and second
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chronicles eighteen, and it comes to
pass. He speaks with confidence in the
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land of Galilee and and Jerusalem,
and it comes to pass. And so
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I want you to have confidence when
you think about this final king, this
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one whom we submit to and love
to, to put your faith in him.
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The prophets testify to him, the
law testifies to him. He Speaks
