Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at SevenSpringsPresbyterian.com. So we come tonight to our final study in the book of 1 Kings, 22 chapters, 70 Bible studies, but it ends in an interesting way. We spend six chapters dealing with the period of time with Ahab as we remember this big timeline of where we were and where everything happens. But we spend quite a lot of time in this upper portion specifically in the life of Ahab. We spend six chapters during his life in the northern kingdom of Israel. But now we come to the end of 1 Kings and we jump across back to Judah and we only get 10 verses of Jehoshaphat. But Jehoshaphat actually reigns longer than Ahab. And then we finally get the last three verses of Ahaziah, and he only gets two years, but yet he gets three verses. And not only in 1 Kings, but 2 Kings, he gets 18 verses for this two-year reign. And so we get a strange, interesting ending, but yet in 2 Chronicles, what we actually find is that Jehoshaphat gets four chapters devoted to him, speaking of his reign. It showcases a little bit of Jehoshaphat's folly but more importantly it shows how he is a good and faithful king. In chapter 17 of 2 Chronicles he teaches the law. He sends Levitical priests out into Judah to be able to instruct the nation about the law. He rejects the idolatry that is happening. He calls Judah to a military strength but also to spiritual strength. And so there is this widespread reverence towards God, peace with surrounding nations. In chapter 18 he seeks God's counsel. What we looked at somewhat last time Ahab and his alliance he makes with Ahab yet Jehoshaphat is the one who insists on speaking and asking for God's counsel before going into battle. Micaiah warns of that defeat. but God still protects him. In chapter 19 we see not only that religious reform prior but judicial reform Jehoshaphat again renews his commitment to the Lord appoints judges throughout the land instructing them to administer justice with the fear of God impartially and faithfulness and so we see these things set up again in chapter 20 He faces this vast coalition of enemies but yet Jehoshaphat calls them to be able to seek the Lord through fasting and prayer. He leads them in a heartfelt prayer acknowledging their dependence upon God. He says, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. And so God responds again, delivering them to victory without fighting. They go on seeing the praises of God as God miraculously causes their enemies to destroy one another. And so Judah in the end has a great triumphant and great spoils. And yet what we see in chapter 22 of 1 Kings we get 10 verses. We get none of what we hear about in 2 Kings. His reform of sending Levitical priests to be able to teach the law, of him appointing judges, seeking to be able to reconcile that, the praise and adoration of Judah during this time. But why is it absent in 1 Kings? you know, the smart answer is, well, that's what the Spirit wanted. That's what the Spirit wrote down. The Holy Spirit is, He inspired the human author, most likely Elijah or Elisha during this time to be able to record these things. Just inspired him to write these 10 verses, nothing more. But I think we can go a little bit further than that to be able to say that through good and necessary consequence we need to be able to understand what's the difference between 1 Kings and the book of Chronicles. There are two different books written to two different people highlighting two different points. You might say the book of 1 and 2 Kings is more political history whereas Chronicles is more of a spiritual history you might say. Kings is more about the decline that led to the demise of particularly Israel, their ascending into exile. But Chronicles is more about looking back on this and God's promises through this. That's not again to be able to say there is no overlap as we've read through 1 Kings. We've seen the spiritual decline not merely just the political decline of the rulers and kings. We've noted God's carrying out His promises to His people. and that there's theology in 1 Kings. It's not merely just a human history. We see the spiritual realities too. But in 1 and 2 Kings we see the focus really of that political history. Israel in the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Judah to be able to show why these nations eventually fall because their moral and spiritual failures particularly of the kings, their idolatry and their disobedience, the warnings that come. the consequences of sin, you might say. But in 1 and 2 Chronicles, what we see is that spiritual history of Judah, mainly just the southern kingdom, not necessarily the northern kingdom. And the emphasis really is on, rather than the kings per se, the emphasis is more on the Davidic line, and the temple. The temple takes a really key part. Levitical priests and things take a very key part in the book of Chronicles. And you think about when it was written, it was written to those who are in exile looking back to be able to come and to be able to come back and return. so they are encouraged to be able to see God's faithfulness highlighted by these positive examples of these kings who actually did follow the Lord, especially in their reforms, in their prayers on their reliance on God. And so you probably see a more encouraging light there in 1 Corinthians 8 Chronicles, more hope. Hope of what is the worship restoration after the exile. And so when we understand this, we're able to be able to understand why then Jehoshaphat only gets 10 verses in 1 Kings. The author doesn't need to go into detail. There's not a lot in Jehoshaphat's life that needs to be able to point out the consequences of sin. He does make mistakes. He's rebuked in both cases, specifically in Chronicles. It's more on the negative kings, that's why we get so much on Ahab, the wickedest of the kings. we are going to try and do something a little bit strange and that is we are going to try and tackle two kings at one Bible study, which is a tall order for me. But mainly we are going to do that because Ahaziah gets three verses, but also we are going to pick it up when we get to 2 Kings. But now let's read through this passage 1 Kings chapter 22 verses 41-50, the reign of Jehoshaphat. And then we will divide that up and see how this specific trying to highlight certain points to us. But let's read now from 1 Kings chapter 22 verses 41 to 50. This is God's holy and inerrant word. Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab the king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azuba the daughter of Shilhai. He walked in the way of Asa, his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles, the Kings of Judah? And from the land he exterminated the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa. There was no king in Edom. A deputy was king. Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Orphir for gold, but they did not go. And the ships were wrecked at Ezzion Geber. Then Uzziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat was not willing. And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father. And Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place." And so what we see here is, again, quite succinct, quite brief, moving from one to another. It's not the shortest it could be, but what we see is Dale Ralph Davis does a good job of helping unpack of all the points we have here. We see his chronology. his theology, his bibliography, his necrology, and then these random facts at the end of how he deals with Israel, how he deals with these cult prostitutes or these sodomites and the ships. So we're just going to walk through this tonight quite briefly trying to look at each section. First we begin with his chronology. verses 41-42 this is the standard refrain that we see. Jehoshaphat, his name, his father, what he did he reigned. What did he reign over? He reigned over Judah. When did he begin the reign? In the fourth year of Ahab. So, what we see is these reigns actually happen pretty equally. Ahab's reign and Jehoshaphat's reign are fairly equal in Ahab is about 22 years, Jehoshaphat is 25 and so they are pretty equal. Now Jehoshaphat is one of these kings that you could look into a lot of detail but most likely Jehoshaphat reigned with his father Asa and then Jehoram his son had co-reigns during this period of time. So, during this time he would have reigned with his father Asa for some time. He fell sick towards the end of his life and so therefore Jehoram probably reigned with him as well. So, this is one of those things where we line up the dates and it seems like there is a little bit of a miscalculation. This just comes that he reigned for these whole 25 years, but a portion of that 25 years he probably had a co-reign with his father Asa and Jehoram. And so he begins his reign at 35 years old. And so he reigns 25 years, which is a pretty long reign. Not the longest. The longest is in the 50s. But normally, the upper 20s is a pretty long reign. Maybe not in the top 10, but specifically, it's a pretty long reign. And we're told about his mother, Azuba, Again, I think we can't read into too much about this. It's just telling us historical fact. People reading this might have known who she was. As you live around here, people might say, well, you know, it's this person's son. Well, that's helpful if you're from here and you know that person, but it's useless if you don't know who this person is. I'm trying not to recall names that have been said. So, this is fairly standard what we are looking at. And so, we need to be able to understand that he does reign for a long time, but yet we don't draw attention in 1 Kings 2 Chronicles gives more of that detail. The second aspect as we are told is his theology in verse 43. Again this is a great encouragement that he walked in the way of his father Asa. Now it has been a very long time since we looked at Asa, his father, but he was a very good king. Judah at this point has not had horrible kings. Asa actually reigns for about 29 years from memory. And so he reigns a long time and it passes on to his son. He reigns, he walks in the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Only eight kings out of the 19 of Israel and the 20 in Judah, well 19 kings and one queen. Only eight of these kings did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and Jehoshaphat is one of them. But we're reminded with this word here, yet, that the high places were not taken away. And the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. So he walks in the way of his father, and this pattern is very revealing. We see this time and time again. And often it's in the negative, that the father is a wicked king, and so the son becomes a wicked king following in the ways of his father. It's a good warning, again, for parents to be able to see, particularly fathers, how we teach and train up. Train a child up in the way of the Lord and he will not depart from it. It's not always the case. One of the best kings you would probably say is Hezekiah and then he's the son of Manasseh. And Manasseh is one of the wicked kings again. So it's not always guaranteed but we see this pattern of the father leading and the children walking in the way of the father. And again we're reminded of commandment. Specifically this warning is annexed to this commandment, not only that you shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness that is in the heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or is the sin that is under the water, under the earth, you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." And so we see this promise carried out with Ahab and his descendants, his line walking in the ways of his father as he walked in the way of them, following in the lines of Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat, But then also Bashar and then Ahab and his line and his descendants all following that they're walking in the same way. They're all those generations who hate God and not following his commandment. But yet what we then see, the opposite is true. here we see Asa walking in the ways of the Lord and then Jehoshaphat following that. Here God showing His steadfast love to those thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. So, we see it is tried and true. Again it is not a direct formula. You see godly people produce ungodly children. And you see ungodly parents produce godly children. And you see this throughout the Bible but this promise is still something we need to be aware of. But what we also see is here Jehoshaphat carries out large of this reform. These things we saw and mentioned briefly in 1 Chronicles chapter 17 and onwards. Here he's carrying out these reforms with this worship. We'll see it again when we see the cold prostitutes. But we see this line that hasn't yet been crossed. They reform it up to a certain point. And they don't get rid of those high places And this has a major impact. Again, what we just saw with the parents, they say, he walked in the ways of his father. They're following what Solomon did. The practice that Solomon had begun at the beginning of first Kings is still something of a stronghold within even the good Kings in Judah. These traditions that were set up in practice, going after gods in high places and worshiping them. But they still have the temple. Remember all those chapters and studies that we devoted looking at the temple and how magnificent it was, and yet they still kind of go and worship God on these high places. And we kind of looked at this with Asa, kind of pointing out that with Asa, he's a good king, and it says that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. And so we still see this aspect of sin within these kings. There's very few kings that actually eliminate these high places and take that reform to that far extreme. And what we see is reform always leads to worship as we looked at briefly a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the reformation. When John Calvin says in his book, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, he begins and says, one of the reasons why we need to reform the church is for worship. And we don't often think about that. We often think about justification by faith alone. And we say, that's why we need to be able to reform the worship for gospel. But the gospel doesn't merely just affect our relationship to God and how we're saved. The gospel also affects how we worship God. and it has a drastic change of how worship is impacted, that every single line in the Reformation branch, one of the major things that they did, they did it differently in different aspects, but one of the major things they did was they reformed worship. took the Biblical truth of Sola Scriptura and applied it to worship. They took the Biblical truth of Sola Christus of Christ alone and applied it on how we worship. That there is no other mediator. That there is no other means of tradition or way. It is through grace alone, through faith alone, through the glory of God alone. And Reformation always impacts worship. And so the author is reminding us that here Jehoshaphat is a good king who does reform The church, but there's this lingering issue within Judah where the high places are not eliminated And so it's it's a good reminder again for us as we think about how we see Our worship that our argument should never be. Well, that's how we've always done it The Catholic Church could argue that for a long time for centuries before the Reformation started This is how we've always done it And the reformers would say, no, there's an aspect, there's a side of tradition that can be good, but if you're doing things that are unbiblical, or if you're doing things and saying, this is what we have to do, then that's not good. Or if you're binding other people's consciences and saying, you need to worship this way. then that's not very good either. So we see that this reform always pushes us to be able to say, why do we do what we do? And our answer should always be specifically with worship. We do it because God commands us to. Here's the scripture passage. Here's the thing through good and necessary consequence. Here's the thing through the light of nature and prudent Christian wisdom. Here's why we do it in that particular way. The next aspect is his big bibliography in verse 45, now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and the might that he showed and how he warred are they not written in the book of Chronicles the Kings of Judah. And often this is one of these lingering lines we are able to see there are other accounts of history out there during this time. And so now we can understand a little bit why an author would say, I don't need to write everything there is to be able to write about Jehoshaphat. If you want to read about Jehoshaphat you can go read about Jehoshaphat. And so we see that he was probably a great king not merely just in his spiritual reforms but specifically here we are told that the might that he showed as a political leader to be able to stand a small nation like Judah, to be able to stand and to be able to have strong, how he warred. Again, we see briefly about this in the other accounts in Chronicles. But we got 25 years of long reign and probably a great reign when we think about it. We'll talk about this when we get to the ships. But something that would be equivalent almost of King Solomon's reign, quite an achievement. But we don't have it all at the end. And then we, necrology. I had to look this word up, didn't know exactly what it means, but basically it's like a eulogy. This last phrase that we see in verse 50, Josaphat slept with his fathers and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Jeroboam, his son, reigned in his place. So, we see this close, this end of a reign of these 25 years that Jehoshaphat reigns. But this refrain is not merely just a marker. It is a helpful reminder of something that we need to be reminded of as we are reading through 1 Kings and 2 Kings. This longing question that we know that there is a promise to be fulfilled. We see it in chapter 19 with the kings that are going to come. Jehu is going to come and become the king of Israel. We see the lycer's gonna come. There's gonna be a new king who's gonna be appointed in Judah. We see these promises, but they're not yet happened. They haven't happened at this point. And we need to go back a bit further when we think about this unfulfilled promise here that is mentioned. But specifically, here, David is his father. So again, we got this reminder that David, the good king, the great king, has a promise that is made in 2 Samuel. And this promise says that as God speaks to David and says, as your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom and he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And so we see this promise, there's a person coming from the line of David who's going to reign, who's going to come from his physical body, but yet he's going to reign forever. And so when we come to the end of a reign of a king of David's line, when we hear this refrain, we know that Jehoshaphat is not that promised son that is going to reign forever. This is what they pick up on in the New Testament when they say that David saw corruption. The corruption of his flesh, but Christ didn't see corruption. He's the eternal son of David. He's the one who fulfills this promise in 2 Samuel. So although it seems like this minor refrain, we're constantly reminded there's an unfulfilled promise yet throughout all of these kings. The promise hasn't yet come. The son has not yet come. The kingdom has not yet been established. And so we need to be able to remember these reminders. And as we read through them, all of this time, you think about living through these times, the king is coming. The king, the good king, the son of David is coming. And so when you think about reading through first Kings, you're like, well, he's not it. He's not it. He's not it. He's not it. He's not it. And now they end up in exile. In Chronicles, they end up in another country. And the king of David, the throne of David is no longer. Jerusalem is a mess. It's demolished. And they go, well, there's this anticipation, there's a promise yet, not yet fulfilled. So I think we need to be able to remind ourselves of this. But finally, we find ourselves with these, you know, a la carte type items, you know, that would be enough. That would be the bare minimum of what we're used to with our refrains that come about these kings. But yet we find out three other things that the author reminds us of about Jehoshaphat. Now it's not as extensive as we find out in 2 Chronicles, but we also see these relationships that help us to be able to understand a little bit of this story that's happening. The first is his statecraft in verse 44. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. Now we've seen this before with his relationship with Ahab, that he makes this alliance with Ahab and this peace. So they were at war and now they're no longer at war. And so he makes this alliance with Israel and Judah, Ahab and Jehoshaphat. And so we also see that he makes one with Ahaziah as well. Now what we need to be able to understand is this is a comment that is like a seed planted in a small form. This decision has a lasting effect on what happens in 2 Kings. Not just with Jehoshaphat in his life, it's something that impacts later down. Mainly that Ahab and Jehoshaphat, they make this alliance. But they've got children that will eventually marry each other in 2 Kings chapter 8, and they walked in the way the king of Israel and the house of Ahab had done. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So what we see is this alliance leads to a marriage alliance that has an impact to the story later on. So this is one of these things that we need to be able to see early in this warning right here now that we know that it is coming up. And it ultimately has a huge impact that potentially, as we'll see, almost destroys the kingdom. There's a similar illustration to Ralph Davis and his commentary on 1 Kings, but it's more personalized to myself. But the kids in Sierra decided it would be a great idea to be able to plant morning glory. And so they thought it would be a good idea, and I somewhat protested, but my protest was more like, I'm not cleaning it up type protest. It wasn't active like, do not do this, I'm washing my hands of this. But for the first year, it was pretty, it was great. I had to do a little bit of controlling to make sure it didn't grow throughout the whole house. And everyone thought, well, that wasn't too bad a decision. But every year since, we find mourning glory in the weirdest and strangest of places as it had spread everywhere. And so it's one of those things that here is this comment that he makes peace with Israel through this alliance. There's this hint here, but the consequence of that is not yet seen. We don't actually see what that's actually going to do. It actually has a huge impact. And actually what we see is we see it and we'll get to it later as well. The second thing that we are able to see is this mentioned in verse 46 about the sodomites or the cult prostitutes. So what we're left with before is he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet in these high places we're still left. But I think the author wants to be able to reiterate that here it's not merely that he wasn't just reforming in a politician type of way saying, oh, we're going to reform, we're going to get back, make worship great again, and we're going to do it the way that the Bible teaches, and we're going to go back to this way, and that's how we're going to do it. actually see is that he actually carries it out. He actually does reform the worship to make it what God had told and instructed, not going to the ways of the other nations. Mainly that these male cult prostitutes that had remained in the days of Asa as we looked at during his reign he got rid of them. And so we see Ahab getting rid of the prophets of the Lord, but yet Jehoshaphat getting rid of these male called prostitutes or these sodomites. And so what we are able to be able to see is that here Jehoshaphat is a good king. He's someone who does do right in the eyes of the Lord. He has his faults and his flaws, but we're reminded of this. So he removes this. And then finally we end up with this random story in verses 47 and 49 about these ships. We're told about this, Edom doesn't have a king. Edom was overtaken. Samuel chapter 8 David overthrows Edom becomes a might and a power and so maybe potentially throughout all this time Judah has reigned over Edom and the way that sometimes they reign they would appoint a deputy to be able to rule and kind of be the king during and over that place. And so here Jehoshaphat makes these ships to be able to go collect this gold. from Ophir. But what happens is they get wrecked. Now this is actually what Solomon did. Solomon actually got ships, he went and got gold, he got a lot of gold. And so many commentators believe that this is a comment to be able to say, here's Jehoshaphat and he didn't quite reach the same level that Solomon did. He was a good king, he was a great king, But he didn't quite reach that Solomon-esque. But I think what we're actually seeing is these faults and flaws in Jehoshaphat's reign once more. His weakness is not women or money or wisdom or whatever that is. His wisdom was really his alliances that he made. And this is really one thing that we're gonna be able to see more in 2 Kings. But what we find out in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 is this is how it ends. After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Ahaziah king of Israel who acted wickedly. He joined in building ships to go to Tarshish and they built ships in Ahazion-Geber. And Eliza the son of Dod-va-ahu of Mershah prophesied against Jehoshaphat saying, because you have joined with Ahaziah the Lord will destroy what you have made. And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish. And so what we see is we find out a little bit more about this alliance that they go together to be able to find and build these ships. But a prophet comes and says, the Lord's going to destroy them. And that's exactly what we see in 1 Kings. But what's interesting is both 1 and 2 Kings, however different they are about the accounts of Jehoshaphat, they end the same way. The story about these ships. Again, some commentators want to be able to highlight it as Solomon's reign, but I think what we ought to be able to see is there's a story that's not yet told. One commentator explains it this way and says, Jehoshaphat's refusal to help here thus fits well with the presentation of Jehoshaphat and kings as basically godly king who makes poor alliances but eventually learns his lesson. And so that's what we see from Jehoshaphat. But yet we see this end, that here Jehoshaphat, that he's not willing to be able to continue with this alliance to Ahaziah. So now we're gonna end with Ahaziah, this short little brief introduction to Ahaziah in verses 51 to 53. Let me read that for us now and then we'll look at this. Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah. and he reigned two years over Israel. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done." So what's the gist of this? Well, we see Jehoshaphat was a good king that made some bad choices and bad friends, but eventually was, you know, a good king. But here's Ahaziah and what is he? He's a bad king. But let's jump out. We see it's a short reign. Again, Jehoshaphat is 25 years and we see two years. Now it's not always the case, but normally it is the case. Bad kings have short reigns. And these short reigns have a consequence and effect on a nation. The shorter the reign, the more rotation you have. The more rotation you have has a greater impact on the kingdom politically speaking. And normally it means their demise, it's their fall. There's instability, there's unrest, there's vulnerability. New kings are unpredictable. What's it going to be like? Other kings can come and take advantage of it. You can have these coups, these treasons happening and forming. And so we know that there's already going to be a change coming in 1 Kings chapter 19. We know that Jehu is going to come and dethrone the king of Israel. But that's not what happens in this time. Jehu is coming, but he's not here yet. But we also see here that he does evil in the sight of the Lord in the way of his father, Ahab, but also we see it draw attention in the way of his mother as well, Jezebel. So we see not only the parent, the father has an influence, but in this case the mother has a very big influence and not a good influence. Just like good kings follow David, also not only Justin, Ahab, and Jezebel, but also Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He gets mentioned time and time again, specifically, who made Israel to sin. Now we know what this is, and we often think about these wicked acts that the kings do, or ones that we mention about the prophets, and them not looking after the widow, or caring for the orphan, or abusing their power. They've killed the prophets. They've killed Naboth. But what does it mean for them? We need to be reminded what is this sin that they're talking about in 1 Kings time and time again? What is Jeroboam, son of Naboth's sin that he causes them to sin? Well, we know about it in 2 Kings 17. where it says, ìWhen he had torn Israel from the house of David,î this is talking about Jeroboam, ìthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin.î This is the sin that theyíre talking about, them walking away from God, Yahweh. And the people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did, and they did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day." And so we see this sin that they talk about time and time again, that the people sinned against God, the Lord, their God, who had saved them out of the hand of Pharaoh and given them the land, and they go and fear other gods. And they walked in the customs of the nations, and God drove out through the period of Judges, through David, culminating in David and Solomon. and they bring in those customs. But in chapter 17, we're given a long list of these sins that they keep on carrying over. Majority is that they're walking away from God. But here's a list of five sins that they do to begin with, and then we'll have a break, and then there's another 14 sins that they do next. But the first list of sins is they built for themselves high places. So again, this line from Judah that we see. The next thing, they set up for themselves pillars and ashram everywhere. And then at these places, the third thing is they did, they made offerings in all these high places. wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger. They served idols, which God had told them not to do." So these patterns of sins that they began to do. But then we get this line in 1 Kings chapter 17 where it says, Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with the law that I had commanded your fathers, that I had sent to you by my servants the prophets. So what we see is they do these wicked sins and God sends prophets. And what have we seen up to this point in 1 Kings? God sending prophets. Elisha, Micaiah, all these other prophets time and time again. God is sending prophets to the king to be able to warn them. And so this is the period that we're in. And then what do we see? It happens in 1 Kings chapter 17. They do these wicked sins. God sends the prophets. And then how do they react to this? And this is how they react. They don't listen. They were stubborn. They did not believe the Lord their God. They despised His statutes and His covenants and the warnings. They went after false idols. They followed the nations that were around Him. They abandoned all of His commandments. They made for themselves metal images of two calves. They made Asherah. They worshipped all the hosts of heaven. They served Baal. They burned their children as offerings. They used divination and omens. And they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. And so what we see is this is the period of time that we're living in. God is sending the prophets and how are they acting? They're not listening. They're being stubborn. They don't believe. They go after false idols. They serve Baal. And so what we see is this pattern that is happening. And what's going to happen is that all of this, this refrain that we keep on hearing, they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. We often think about those things in the latter six aspects of the Ten Commandments. Of course they were doing wicked, evil things, not loving their neighbor. But more importantly, they were not loving God. as He had required them. They were violating the first four of the Ten Commandments. And this is the thing that provokes God to anger. Even specifically highlighting that they didn't serve the Lord your God with all their heart, the first commandment. They made other idols. They weren't honoring God's name, the third. And often what happens in the prophets is they bring out the Sabbath as well. But what we see is these great sins that are happening are sins against God. And what will ultimately happen is this refrain constantly happens that they did these great sins that provoke God to anger and we know this is coming. This is what's going to come in verse 18 of chapter 17. Therefore the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. And so what we see Ahaziah is this contrast of what is happening to these wicked kings time and time again. Their patterns that they form, the ways that they worship, they're going to get cast out, exiled. And so every time we hear they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord we need to be able to know that this is building and building and building. And as they do these evil things God is sending more and more, more and more prophets and they are still not listening. They are not heeding His words. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. 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