Father, we just pray for open minds and open hearts. If there's anything that's distracting us right now, that can you bring that to our attention so we can confess sin if necessary and focus in on your word. Give me guidance from your spirit so that what you want us to hear from your word is what I present. Father, we thank you for another opportunity to be in your word. We pray in Christ's name, amen. So both the house of Ahab and Athaleah are going to be dealt with. Athaleah is a mother of a king that tried to extinguish the messianic line in Judah. House of Ahab created all kinds of destructive tendencies in both the North and South Kingdom. So, so far we've learned that God has power over nature. He's omnipotent. He's in control of history. He's sovereign. He's the Lord of armies. He protects his people. We saw that with Jehoshaphat and Elisha. He wants personal relationships with people and we can see that through most of the miracles that he does are on an individual basis or close to individual basis. And then so far we've dealt with the raids from Moab, Edom and Ammon. And now it's gonna be Syria, Syrian raids. And then we'll see toward the end of this that Moab gets back in it too, same with Edom. And these raids are coming about because of Deuteronomy 28, the five cycles of discipline. Both North and South kingdoms at different times have departed from God's word. and his commands, especially the Northern Kingdom. And so there's discipline that comes about from that. And God intervenes to stop the evil from the house of Ahab and Athaleia. Athaleia's attempt to kill the Messianic line. So God gives us promises and our part is to believe them, have faith rest and actually act according to his promises. Then we're going to finally leave, how to leave a legacy. We'll deal with that. So right now I'm going to, we're going to start in 2 Kings 9, 1 through 3, but I'm going to read a couple of summaries before we get there. And that is a summary of 2 Kings 8, 1 through 6. The Shunammite woman of 2 Kings 4, where they had a, an apartment for the prophets. And then they prayed for her that she would have a son. She had a son, the son died, and then Elisha had to resuscitate that son. So here in 2 Kings 8, 1 through 6, Elisha reminds her that the famine is here, and it's going to be for six or seven years, and so she needs to leave the country for a while. And this is all part of this five cycles of discipline of Deuteronomy 28, that God is disciplining the northern kingdom. And then 2 Kings 8-7-29, King Ben-Hadad is murdered by Hazael. Both Israel and Judah are in apostasy and very unstable and influenced by the house of Ahab. So that section is just summarized here. In 1 Kings 19.15-17, we're backpedaling now, King Hazael and Jehu Elisha has anointed both kings. God has sent Elisha to anoint both kings. This is the king of Syria now. He's anointed. So what does Hazael do? He kills his son. So that's an interesting thing. Just kind of the Gentiles have a history of being very unstable as far as leadership's concerned. And then we're going to deal with Jehu Now, so let's look at 2 Kings 9, 1 through 3. So, now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, gird up your loins and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth-Gilead. Well, where's Ramoth-Gilead? It's a village, actually it's an outpost in northern, The northern kingdom, it's west of the Sea of Galilee. So we'll look at a map here soon, just keep that in mind. And then I'll continue here. When you arrive there, search out Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Okay, he's the son of Jehoshaphat, that's the southern kingdom king. So now God's gonna make Jehu the king of the northern kingdom. There is a king already in the northern kingdom. So get kind of the picture, this king is probably not gonna like the fact that God is gonna have Jehu anointed. The son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in and bid him arise from among his brothers and bring him to the upper inner room. Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head and say, thus says the Lord, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door and flee. and do not wait. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? Get out of Dodge. It kind of reminds me of when I was 10 or 11 years old and around 4th of July we'd go to get some fireworks and you read on the fireworks, light fuse, get away. Same kind of idea. Trouble is a coming. So the word brothers, just means companion or brotherhood. It doesn't mean his brothers from his immediate family. And so he's the captain of a group in the army. There are other captains there in Ramoth Gilead. And so he comes in, brings him to an inner room, gets him away from all the other captains and military guys, anoints him, Bingo. So now let's look on, called one of the sons of the prophets. Why didn't Elisha anoint Jehu? Possibly because it needed to be done quietly. Obviously, flee, shut the door, flee, get away. Elisha would have been recognized by everyone. Remember, the Magi had to be quiet about finding the king of the Jews in Matthew 2. They had to be discreet about it because Herod wanted to kill him. This is a major battle with the forces of evil right now in this book. The household of Ahab is going to be destroyed by Jehu. So Jehu is the general patent of Israel at the time. Patent was known for just spearheading type A personality. Well, so is Jehu. Does God use our personality sometimes? Well, during the church age, we get spiritual gifts, right? But he uses our personalities. Jehu is handpicked for this calling. And we know that in Ephesians 6, 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against power, against the worldly forces of darkness and against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. So let's look at 2 Kings 9, four through 10. Four through 10. So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went into Romath-Gilead. So let's go ahead and look at the map. And I'll finish this first. So you see the Sea of Galilee there. Ramoth Gilead is east of there and it's close to the border out there with Syria. So this is a border area and this military outpost is designed to protect that border. So that's Jehu. Now we're going to learn in 920 that Jehu is known for being a fierce warrior. Just look over to 920. And the watchman reported, he came even to them and he did not return. And he is driving like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously. So this is the general patent of the army at the time. Knows no retreat. And so God handpicked him for this job. And what is the job? The job is going to be to purify the house of Ahab and Jezebel. So Perjit, he's taken them out, all of them. So I'm gonna go back to this right now. So I wanted to point out here, you'll see in the Kings for Israel, Johash down here, Notice over here, Kings of Judah, Johash. And they reigned for two years at the same time. So that's why you have to be really careful when you read this to know which kingdom you're talking about. And when we get to those, I'll hopefully be able to point that out. So let's... So verse 5 of chapter 9, when he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. And he said, I have a word for you, O captain. And Jehu said, for which one of us? He said, for you, O captain. And he arose and went into the house and poured oil on his head and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel, especially over Israel. But he is going to be functioning over Judah too at times in here. Verse seven, and you shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants, the prophets, and the blood of the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person, both bond and free, in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebeth, and like the house of Basha, the son of Uzziah. And the dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her. Then he opened the door and fled, and one said to him, is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you? And he said to them, you know very well the man and his talk. He's got a reputation. He's got a reputation for righteousness. And the person that asked why did this mad fellow come to you is a servant. of this army post. So then we go on into verse 13. The other captains basically hear this and they say, Jehu is king. So Jehu has got a reputation. He's hungry for God's righteousness and he's had an influence. He's got a testimony. So then I'm going to read in summary 2 Kings 9 14 through 29, Jehu kills Jehoram, the king of the north. Then one of his soldiers, one of his men kill, Ahaziah is killed. And the body of Jehoram is cast into Naboth's field. Remember Naboth is the one that, Ahab was jealous over, he was envious of his vineyards. And so Jezebel said, just kill him, kill him and take it. And so Elijah promised that there would be, God would hold him accountable. Well, this is now he is accountable. His offspring is thrown into that field. And so we see this in 1 Kings 21, 19 and 2 Kings 9, 26. And remember of 920 in this section where he drives furiously like Jehu. So Jehu is gonna be God's instrument to discipline the house of Ahab. So when Jehu comes to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, verse 30 to 31 of chapter nine. So let's go back to 930 through 31. When Jehu came to Jezebel, Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes. Isn't that exactly what you would do if you knew judgment was coming? You'd paint your eyes and adorn her head. And she is arrogant to think she can influence Jehu by her appearance. Old habits are hard to break, huh? Yeah, old habits are hard to break. If that's how you've gotten your way in life, that's probably, you know, when crisis comes, that's where you're gonna go instead of trusting the Lord. Well, she didn't know anything about the Lord. So we see in 1 Peter 3, three through four, the proper, way for women to adorn themselves in the heart, not on the outside appearance. Now, obviously, we don't want to be offensive on the outside, but if you spend too much catering to the outside appearance to your beauty, that's what you're going to have to rely on when the chips fall. And it would be much better if you had, God had your whole heart. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head. Then your master's murderer. So she said, as Yehu entered the gate, she said in verse 31, is it well, Zimri? That's her servant. Your master's murderer. So that's going to really gain some points. We'll see. Your master's murderer. Jezebel thinks man's authority and power are greater than God's authority and power. And at this point, she has no power. She doesn't realize it maybe yet. Does she really think this approach with Zimri and Jehu will work? She's deceived herself. Can we deceive ourselves? Oh yeah. It happens a lot, especially in the area of politics and power. Easily deceived. So let's look at verse 32 and 33 of chapter nine. And he lifted up his face. This is Jehu that lifted up his face. to the window and said, who is on my side? Who? And two or three officials looked down at him and he said, throw her down. Well, apparently they're on his side. So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trampled her underfoot. That's one specific horse I guess. Now walls back then were not perfectly perpendicular. mainly because some of the stones weren't perfect. So you have a little bit of slope there. So she's going to bounce a few times on the way down, you know. I think that's the image we get here. And verse 34 or 35. And when he came in, this is Jehu again, he ate and drank and he said, see now to this cursed woman and bury her for she's a king's daughter. Well, a Phoenician king, not a Jewish king. And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and feet and palms of her hands. So this verse 34 and 35 kind of reminds me of it's just another day at the office. Because he goes in and ate and drank while she's being annihilated by the dogs. But that's kind of typical of somebody that he had a job to do. He's doing God's calling. Verse 36 and 37 of chapter 9, therefore they returned and told him, that's Jehu, and he said, this is the word of the Lord. which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, in the property of Jezreel, the dog shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel. So they cannot say, this is Jezebel. There's no monument. There's nothing to build a monument around. The idea is, let's just kind of forget she ever existed. Trust God's promises is the word for us, not in people. Wicked people, when we put wicked people in power, wickedness will come. And that's what happened here. God had to intervene, but he's not finished yet. So the purge continues in chapter 10 of 2 Kings. And in chapter 10, verse 10, the quote is, know then that there shall fall to earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done what he spoke through his servant Elijah. Now this is like three times now, this prophecy from Elijah has been mentioned. God keeps his word. This is God's word and you can trust it. So we see in 2 Kings 9, 7 through 10, that's the son of the prophet. We see in 1 Kings 21, 19 through 29, that's Elijah. And so the purge of the house of Elijah continues. So let's look at the fall from the earth I got kind of, yeah. God will fulfill his words of the prophets. Let's turn to 1 Samuel 3, 19 through 20, and keep a finger here in 2 Kings. 1 Samuel 3, 19, because this is gonna get repeated a few times. 1 Samuel 3, 19 through 20. This is about Samuel. Thus Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall, fall to the ground. It's amazing, okay? So, when God uses a prophet, it is going to happen. So is the rapture going to happen? Yes, it's going to happen. Is the tribulation going to happen? Yes, it's going to happen. Is the millennium going to happen? Yes, it's gonna happen. We can have faith rest on those promises. And right here with Elijah's prophecy, it came true. You can trust God's word. When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me, that is absolutely the truth. There's no other way to come to God other than by believing that Christ died for your sins. So let's flip back to 2 Kings 10, 32 through 36. Samaria continues to battle with Syria and lose territory. This is promised for apostasy. Deuteronomy 28, 15 through 68. Even animals attacking people is part of this discipline for nations that go into apostasy. So what's the future for the USA? If we continue in apostasy, can you even count on Christians understanding what's going on? No. There are many of them that think that they've replaced Israel. The church has replaced Israel. No, many of them are born again. But as far as really understanding prophecy, they don't have it. Let's look at 2 Kings 11.1. Oh, yeah. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, remember, this is the guy that Jehu killed, She arose and destroyed all of the royal offspring. Well, that's kind of nice, huh? She's influenced by Satan. And then, look at this one. Royal offspring, just like Herod tried to kill Jesus to stop God's plan of salvation for man, Athaliah tried to wipe out the Messianic line. and Matthew 2 and other gospel. Look at verse 2. But Jehoshabba, the daughter of King Joram, sister, remember here's Jehoram. This is the other name that I mentioned earlier. This is the southern kingdom. Sister of Ahaziah. Now he's the guy that just died, but this is her sister. So does God always have a remnant? Yes, God always has a remnant. Took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the king's son who were being put to death and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid him from Athaliah and he was not put to death. Now this is pretty amazing, okay? Because this happened for six years and she's close. The palace is pretty close to the temple yard, and the temple yard has its own army. It's not the same army as the nation. So how are they keeping this secret from her? Because she would have killed him if she had known about it. So, getting a little bit behind here again. So let's look at, so hid him from Athaliah. Why did she not know that he lived for six years? Verse three. They indicates there was a group that hid him. There's always a remnant. And we see in 1 Kings 19.14 when Elijah said, only I am left. And God had to remind him, no, there's 7,000 that hasn't bowed the knee in verse 18 of 1 Kings 19. So Jehoiada, verse four, the priest organizes defense around Joash for six years. And these guys had to swear in the temple that they were gonna have allegiance to the only true king. They brought Joash out to be crowned. There were many people still following the Lord to pull this off. They took their oath seriously. It's amazing. And then we see in 2 Kings 11, 13 through 21, Athaliah is put to death outside of the house of the Lord. Joash was seven years old when he became king. He is heavily guarded. And Jadoida, the priest, instructed him. In 2 Kings 12, 1 through 3, In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. It's a long time, a long time of stability in what has been very unstable for both kingdoms up until now. He did right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Only the high places were not taken away. And this is the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Okay. So worshiping at the high places instead of the temple is a distraction from perfect obedience, isn't it? Convenience. It was done out of convenience. Rather than having to go down to Jerusalem, they could just go up to one of the high places. What do we do? at a convenience that compromises our perfect obedience to the Lord. Whatever it is, we need to really take that seriously and put it to death. Ask God to reveal it to us so we can confess that sin and rely on the Holy Spirit instead of our tendencies. So the time period in here that we're skipping in chapter 12 is their repair of the house of the Lord. Because I wanted to zero in on Elisha as much as possible today. Second Kings 13, one through two. Jehoaz, the son of Jehu, became king over Israel at Samaria, and he reigned 17 years. and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. We've seen this one before, huh? So now the roller coaster ride is going down in the southern kingdom. And he followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He did not turn from them. So man, this is steady downward on this roller coaster. So let's look at made Israel sin. What is the sin of Jeroboam? We probably have heard this before, but let's go forward through it again. He created a substitute system. Jeroboam created a substitute religious system to keep Israel from going to Jerusalem. It was about power and about his own safety. Kind of like some of the bad choices that Solomon made was about safety. as he got foreign wives to get allegiances with surrounding kings. But here, he was afraid that if Jeroboam was afraid that if both, if all the people went down to Jerusalem to worship and interact at the different festivals, then they would be drawn back together as a kingdom. He would lose control and there would be a competitive king that would probably kill him. And he didn't want that. So he, well, really he didn't want to obey the Lord because the Lord would have given him the whole thing. So he set up this system with non-Levitical priests and two golden calves, quote unquote, that brought them out of Egypt. The golden calves brought them out of Egypt. That was a total lie. And what he's doing is rewriting history. Do we see the Marxists in this country trying to rewrite history in our educational system? Yes, we do. Some of the same things. And then he even eventually allowed Baal worship in 1 Kings 1, 12 through 13. But rewriting history is, if you tell people something frequently enough, they'll believe it eventually. So that's the idea there. Second Kings 13.3, though the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he gave them continually into the hand of Hazael, king of Syria. Remember, Elisha weeped when he anointed him king because he knew that he was going to kill a lot of people. Israelis in the Northern Kingdom. And into the hand of Benhadadon, the son of Haziel. Well, obviously that little insert is before Haziel killed his son, Benhadadon. He got waterboarded, you might say. Second Kings 13.4, then Jehoaz entreated the favor of the Lord and the Lord listened to him. So even this evil king, The Lord listens to his prayer because of the people. For he saw the oppression of Israel, verse four, how the king of Syria oppressed them. Second Kings 13, five through six, the Lord gave them a deliverer, but their hearts did not change. So they walked in the way of Jeroboam. They are losing territory. They're not trusting the Lord. They're not believing his promises. They're going their own way. First chapter 13, seven through 13, both kingdoms decline spiritually in national stature. Second Kings 13, 14, King Joash of Israel, now this is the same name, but this is the king of Israel, goes to Elisha on his deathbed. 2 Kings 13, 15 through 19, Elisha said to the king of Israel, take the bow and arrows. He took the bow and arrows, and he said to the king of Israel, put your hand on the bow. He put his hand on it. Then Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. And he said, open the window toward the east. So he opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot, and he shot. And he said, the Lord's arrow of victory over Syria, for you shall defeat the Syrians at Aphek until you have destroyed them. Then he said, take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, strike the ground. Strike the ground is part of this conditional prophecy here in that, He would not destroy them completely unless he struck the ground several times, we're gonna find out here. And he struck it three times and stood, so he stopped. So the man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Syria until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Syria only three times. Okay, so this, now we're gonna be a little bit of a time gap here. In 2 Kings 13, 20 through 21, Elisha died and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. So the Moabites are back at it again. got pounded a little bit by Syria. Now we're going back to Moabites. And as they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band, and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. So he's in a tomb. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. Pretty unusual, huh? So there's a message here. and that is believe God's prophets. The bones of Elisha. God speaks through his prophets, believe his word and trust him. Like Joseph, God used Elisha after his death. In Genesis, let's look at Genesis 50, 24 through 25. Genesis 50, 24 through 25. Genesis 50, 24 through 25. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the lands which he promised an oath to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely take care of you and will carry my bones up from here. So his bones were a constant reminder. to them of God's promises. He believed the promise made to Abraham that they would be out of the land for 400 years. And that's exactly what happened. So as they're taking the bones of Joseph through the wilderness for 40 years, here's a constant reminder that God is gonna keep his promise. So what happens? 10 of the spies got focused on their own inability, which should have been good. We all need to look at our own inability to do things and rely on God's power, but they would not rely on God's power. And so they failed the faith rest test. So Joseph's bones were used to have an influence, a legacy for people to draw after his death, Elisha did also. So what can we do to have a testimony or a legacy beyond our lives? Well, our current testimony should be an influence on people around us. We could be discipling someone. That would allow our life to have further meaning beyond our lives. Or mentoring someone. How about estate planning? Do any of us have an estate? Well, first of all, do you have a will? If you don't have a will, know for sure the state of Washington, if you live in the state of Washington, is going to determine what happens to whatever you have after you've died. Do you want that to happen? Then you have to take action. You actually have to do something. And it doesn't have to be complicated. You can probably get a will online for 30 bucks that'll get the job done. You just have to have the right witnesses. But remember who you're leaving this to. Is it gonna actually help somebody? Or is it gonna cause them to stumble? Can you create problems in your family by having it divided unequally? Or is there a way to do that so that it won't cause stumbling? So these are some ideas that you might wanna think about. So in summary, God continued to send prophets to Israel and Judah. Obadiah served in the northern kingdom alongside Elisha at about 845 BC. And then doing a little research, I find out there's probably 10 or 12 different Obadiahs in the Old Testament, a very common name. And so easily confused there as well as some of these kings. Joel served alongside Elisha to about 840 BC. The latter prophets warned Israel and Judah of coming discipline for their apostasy and the need for repentance. Most of the miracles God did through Elisha reveals God's interest in our daily lives and our daily needs and his desire to be personally involved in our lives. Think of the little girl for Naaman. She had no power and yet God used her. Some of the miracles were national deliverance but most were personal level. We learn from this to pray daily and include our daily needs. You do not have because you do not ask, James 4.2. And in Matthew 7.7, Jesus said, ask and it'll be given to you. So we're reminded again about what we've learned here. God has power over nature. He's omnipotence, omnipotent. Why would this be a really important message to these people? Because many of them are pagan in the Northern kingdom. There are, it's rarely you'd find somebody probably that would really understand God's will. Most of them are sucked into the, made to sin by Jeroboam. God is in control of history. He's sovereign. He uses military sometimes. And he certainly did here with Jehu. I mean, he just went in and nailed people. but he was the right person for the right time, and he wasn't perfect. He just recognized that was his calling. God protects his people. We saw that with Jehoshaphat so many times. Nothing says love like Ahab, his father-in-law, setting him up to get killed in that one battle. That is a selfish person, Ahab. And then we see Elisha was protected from the army when he prayed that God would blind those soldiers. And then God wants personal relationships with us, with people, and we see this with so many of these miracles that he performed one-on-one with people or small groups. God intervenes to stop the evil from the house of Ahab and Athaliah, to attempt to kill a Massianic lion, that's what we learned today. God gives us promises and he expects us to believe them and act accordingly. With Jehoshaphat and his prayer, he led his people to act as though God had already answered the prayer. And many think that began a major revival in Israel at the time, Judah, actually, specifically. And then we see that God wants us to leave a legacy. Elisha left a legacy, not just because of his bones and the life given to the person that was tossed in his grave, but through just his commitment to serve the Lord and be the prophet, a faithful prophet. He and Jehu made sure that some of Elijah's prophecies came true, just almost exactly the way he prophesied them. And so you can have confidence that God's word is true and that God will keep his promises. He'll keep his promises to you. He's gonna keep his promises to Israel. We see this in Romans 9 through 11, chapters 9 through 11. And so when he said in John 3, 16, God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that who should ever believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. If you have believed that Christ died for your sins, you have everlasting life. You may not know it, you should, somewhere along the line, the Holy Spirit should make himself known to you where you've been able to do things you could never do before. But perhaps personal habits and sin has intervened in that and you confess that sin and the Holy Spirit will be in control again. And then you'll be able to realize the calling that God has given you. So with this, I think we'll close. If you walk by the spirit and God's word, you will see God's calling and have purpose for your life. So my encouragement is walk by the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's an absolute. You're either walking by the spirit or walking by the flesh. So let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for another time to be in your word. And we can see as an example of Jehu, you used his personality as well as his calling. He saw what you wanted him to do and he did it. It wasn't pretty, but he did serve you. And so we just pray that each of us will look at our lives and search for your calling in our lives and walk by the Spirit so that you can use us mightily. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.