Pastor Dews asked me if I was bringing us a Christmas message and I said, I'll apply it to the season. I think last year I landed on people in the season decrying peace where there was no peace. This is always application to where we are as we live from God's word. This is why I will continue to preach the whole council as we look at second Kings again today, chapter 14. It's a reminder we're going back and forth between kings of Israel and kings of Judah. And today we'll be looking at a king of Israel after having looked at a king of Judah. And I think that will get us to where we need to be briefly. Let us pray before the reading of God's word. Lord God, Indeed, this is a season that many in the world are recognizing now as a season of joy and peace, and rightfully so if we are in celebration of the birth of the one who truly saves eternally. And yet, Lord, there's a lot of other things that people will be celebrating. And so I pray, Lord, that you would instruct us from your word even today on how we should live. But I continue to pray also, Lord, that you would continue to uphold us during this even challenging time for many of us, for different reasons. The students right now, as they finish up over the next couple of days, this is a challenging time. Looking forward to relaxing and celebrating, and yet they must get over this last hump, as it were. But there are many people, Lord, who struggle during this season for many different reasons. And I pray that in our time of celebration that we would not forget those who are suffering, would not forget those who maybe suffer because of things that have happened in previous years during this season and so on. I pray, Lord, that You would help us to be those who have the truth and carry it out during this season. I pray that You would instruct us now from Your Word, and even from 2 Kings. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. 2 Kings 14 Looking at verse 23. In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebohamath as far as the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath Hefer. For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. So he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Now, the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he fought and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah and Israel, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah, his son, reigned in his place. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and fallible word. You may be seated. So the first thing we see here is that Jeroboam, like his namesake, he is Jeroboam II, the first king of Israel, was also named Jeroboam. The first thing we see here is that he's like his namesake, the first king, who led the people into idolatry and away from the living God, Yahweh. He did evil. He led the people in false worship. He himself practiced false worship and encouraged the people to do that. Now, I haven't asked this question yet. And I'm going to ask it here. Why doesn't God give them a king like David? Why doesn't God just give them a king after His own heart? Won't that solve all their problems? We keep seeing these kings leading the people into false worship. Well, that doesn't solve all their problems. Having a good king doesn't make the people's hearts right. Having a good king doesn't necessarily mean they're not going to be sinners, right? The people have a part to play. If you'll remember all the way back to when the people asked for a king, what did they ask for? They asked for a king like the kings of the nations. They didn't ask for the king of Deuteronomy. They didn't ask for the king like David. And even after they had David, at no point do we really see the people as a whole desiring another king like David. At least not in whole. They want certain aspects of David. The aspects of David that were like the other kings. And so I would submit to you that that's exactly what they still want. And this is what God's going to give them with Jeroboam. They want a king who's going to deliver them from their situation as they see it. They want a military leader. So God's giving them what they want. In their sin. So Jeroboam is a spiritual failure. He is a spiritual failure himself, and he is a failure to lead the people spiritually. And we see this over and over. But what about success? He is given success, at least from a worldly perspective, from the people's perspective. He is given military victory. The borders that are described here, specifically in verse 25, extends the kingdom out to the point when Solomon was king. This is one of the largest expansions in their history under Jeroboam II. So this is a great military victory, one might say. But we see very clearly in the text, it's not because of his leadership or because of him in any way. It's not because of his military might or strength. And yet, he has a great military victory. So if we look at other kings who had some success, even in the last generation, there were kings with some success. But how did they act? We have Joash, his father, who apparently was in some sense a strong leader. When the king of Judah wants to come up against him, he says, no, you don't understand how how powerful I am. Now, we may not think of him as powerful because he wasn't conquering, but he was holding certain entities at bay. He was keeping back certain groups from completely taking over Israel. So he had some strength. And certainly when compared to the southern kingdom, Joash was strong. He even pushes into the southern kingdom, if you remember, and takes Jerusalem all the way up to the capital, which geographically is not very far, but you would think it is one of the strongest strongholds in Judah. And yet he's able to take that. So there was some strength in Joash. Jeroboam is going to truly expand. Is this due to his strength? Historically, Historians will point to the fact that this is after Jonah has gone to Nineveh. Nineveh in a military sense, or at least in a wickedness sense, or a greed for land and maybe power and wealth, they are in a time of repentance. So one might say they were weak from a worldly perspective. They're not on the move as they have been in the past. Egypt as well seems to be historically weak if this is the time when we believe it is historically. And so historians will say he's able to do this not necessarily because of his strength. But because of the weaknesses of other nations around him. And while there may be great truth in this, and I think there is. None of this discounts what God is doing. And that's what the text is about. The text is about what God is doing. God is giving this deliverance of His people. It says directly that Yahweh is the one who does this. And He doesn't do it because of the people's faith. He doesn't do it because of Jeroboam's faith. In no way is this about his faith. Now, we see that there was a word from Jonah, Yahweh's word, and it came from Jonah. This is the same Jonah from the book of Jonah. What does this mean, according to the word of Jonah, that he takes he takes this military victory according to the word of God that came through Jonah? What does that mean exactly? And I wrestled with this as I studied. Does this mean that Jeroboam is acting upon the word of the Lord? Does this mean that he has heard the word of the Lord and he is acting on it? In other words, is he obedient? And a number of commentators that I read read this as it is and immediately go that direction, that he carries out the word of God and then point to the fact that this does not mean he is in any way a godly man. So both can be true, but I tend to lean towards the idea that Jonah was a prophet. Jonah was prophesying. He has given the Word of the Lord that is known, and Jeroboam may come to know the Word of the Lord, but this is not necessarily obedience. This is him strategically looking at the world, seeing weak nations, seeing his strength, And then hearing the Word and saying, ah, well yes, if there was any doubt, now he's maybe encouraged or bolstered by the Word of the Lord. But I struggle to say that this is obedience. That's where I lean. Because this is about what God's doing in the end. Whether He's acting obediently or not. Even if He was obedient, this success is not from some faith that He has put in Yahweh. The text seems to be clear about this. But Jonah's the one who delivers God's Word. God's Word of deliverance comes through his prophet Jonah. And very well, Jonah, if he was not prophesying directly to the king, he is prophesying in Israel what God is doing and what God is going to do. He is bringing God's Word to God's people. And so, In some way, I think the way his intent to act, his action is dependent upon God's word, whether it's because he's directly obedient or whether it's because he simply uses this to bolster his actions. I think he hears God's word. Brothers and sisters, God's word is needed in the world. It's needed in our communities. It's needed. Doesn't always mean that everyone who hears it's going to be saved. Doesn't mean everyone who hears it's going to repent. But if the truth is not being declared, we must not expect people to act upon it. So Jeroboam does deliver God's people, and I submit to you that it is because God is speaking. His servant Jonah is bringing his word. And we need to be about the same work, bringing God's word to people, to our communities. We also see in verse 26 that this is God's action, and it tells us why He acted. He saw bitter affliction. He saw bitter affliction in His people. Now this, of course, harkens back to Exodus in a certain way, but He does not hear here. God sees, but in Exodus, He also hears the cries of His people. Are we to assume the people were crying out? I'm not so certain. It doesn't seem to be the case. God sees here and he acts. But why now? Why does God act at this very point in history? I think part of the answer to that question comes in this phrase about no one being present with me in 26. He saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free. And there was none to help Israel. None left, bond or free. I think that's the key to understanding why God acts now. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 36, this is when God says He will come back and deliver His people. There's a time, this is during, that chapter is Moses giving a song to the people, a song of warning. It's not a song of celebration. It is a song of warning that the people will leave God and God will bring out great discipline upon the people. And then in this verse, he says, this phrase, he uses the same phrase and says, then I will come back to my people and I will deliver them. So God does it at this time because whatever his purposes were, for their suffering, they're done. It's his time. And we're not told in the text exactly what that is. We're not told what the people were to learn. Those who were left, those who had no hope or had no help, what were they to learn? I'm not sure. But God had his purpose. And when he uses this phrase, he's telling us that that purpose was fulfilled. And he is acting according to his promise in Deuteronomy. And we must accept that he is acting according to his will and his purposes. The point here in 26 is that God's purposes were completed, and that's when he saved his people. That's when he delivered. And then we're told that he had not made a promise. So we actually get him answering a promise. If you go back to Deuteronomy 32, 36. But we also see that he's he's doing what he's he's he's he's doing something, but we're given a negative. Usually we get according to his promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now we're told he's doing it because he didn't make a promise to block them out. Why the negative? Why the negative? Because he had not said. It's a great number of questions I have about this, and I don't know that I have the right answer or even a good answer for you. But my first thought is, is Israel part of the covenant? Is the northern kingdom part of the covenant at this time? I think they are. I think it's clear they are because his prophet is still there. So he has people, sheep, and I think the nation, Israel, is still a part of the covenant because his prophet is still there. Jonah is still prophesying. And so in that sense, I think it's sort of a fruitless question or a fruitless argument to try to run down. Are they part of the covenant or not? I don't, I'm assuming they are because his prophet's there. And then I begin to think, is there a distancing here of God from the people? Is God distancing Himself in some way from Israel? And perhaps He is. Perhaps the writer of 2 Kings here is communicating that God is moving towards some sort of cutting off of Israel. Whatever the answer to those questions The fact is he does cut them off in a sense as a nation in Christ, because Christ is Israel. He's the true Israel, and we learn in Romans 9 that not all those of Israel are part of true Israel. So praise be to God that Christ is Israel, and we can be part of Israel in Christ, and we can be God's people truly and eternally. But I do think there's a sense in which he is preserving the name Israel. He's preserving the name Israel for Christ, he's preserving it for us. And I also believe there's hope for the ethnic people of Israel, according to Paul. But the people at the time should have responded in repentance totally and faith. They did not respond in repentance in faith. Now, the text doesn't tell us what they did, but we can look at other prophets who are prophesying at the same historical time. We can look at Hosea. We can look at Amos. And the people were not repentant. The people assumed the good mercies of God and the grace of God, and they continued in their idolatry. They wanted immediate deliverance now, and God gave them exactly what they wanted. And their response was not worship of the living God. So, brothers and sisters, today, there are many people who are benefiting from a generational covenant the same way these Israelites did. They didn't cry out. They weren't looking for deliverance from the true God, but the true God gave them deliverance. There are still people who are living presumably under that idea. And they are not truly part of Israel. They're not truly in Christ. They're not truly repentant. And they don't have true faith. They are benefiting from generational covenant with the true God without accepting the covenant maker. The God who made that covenant. And many of those people will be celebrating this season. They'll be celebrating along with everyone else. They'll be desiring deliverance today from whatever their sufferings are. They'll be desiring to reap gifts and benefits from charity and the things that we are often a part of during the season. Be aware, brothers and sisters, that that's not enough. It's not enough to simply show mercy. You must be about delivering that word of God, that gospel message. The word that convicts, these are the things that are going to bring God even greater glory during this season. Speaking the truth as Jonah did. Many people desire deliverance now, but there's also many people who will be celebrating a false Jesus. They'll be celebrating a false Jesus of their own making. They'll be celebrating a Jesus who delivered them last year, financially. They'll be celebrating a Jesus who delivered them from something that may or may not have been real. But they won't be celebrating the Jesus of the Bible who will come again to judge the living and the dead. They have no fear of judgment. So brothers and sisters, I beg you during this season, find a way by the Holy Spirit to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. And at the same time, find a way in your celebration to speak truth in love, truth of conviction, and also true eternal deliverance. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its sufficiency. I thank you, Lord. That it is the power to save and salvation, it is it is the power unto salvation, it is. Able to divide what we can't even comprehend. We do not know the hearts of all people. Lord, we don't even truly know our own hearts. And yet, because you give us warning after warning in the New Testament for the church, we must know, Lord, that there are tares among the wheat. And we also know, Lord, that we can look out and we can see the behavior of people and the ways that they celebrate. And we can know that there are people who are not walking with you. And there are certainly many people who are not walking according to your word. So I pray, Lord, that you would help us during the season, celebrate you, but help us, Lord, to celebrate you by declaring you. I pray that you would do this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.