The Book of Kings: Leadership and Legacy

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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.

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It had been 62 years since the death of Solomon. For 62 years there were two Israels. The house of Israel, the capital in Samaria. The house of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. You know, you can cast your mind back 62 years from today and get a feeling for the passage of time. Even if you weren’t alive then, you know what was going on about 62 years ago. And at the time we’re talking about here, there were many old people who still remembered King Solomon. I remember once going out on a visit and sitting chatting with an elderly lady who was English. We were in Los Angeles at the time. And she still remembered Queen Victoria, had seen her actually once. It kind of made chills run up and down the back of my neck to realize what a connection over time this was. The only reason I’m telling you this is so you’ll understand how things progressed in the history of these two kingdoms in their decline and final fall over really relatively few years in the course of human history. With the reign of King Ahab in Samaria, we can see how quickly a nation can go to ruin under bad leadership. how quickly they went down the drain and they were never able in all their history to find their way back. There was a reason for that. The die was cast with their very first king. You find his name again and again throughout the books. He is called Jeroboam the son of Nebat who did sin and made all Israel to sin. It’s like a formula that keeps being repeated. Well, what was the big sin? The big sin? He divorced the house of Israel from the worship of Jehovah. He actually cut them off from going down to Jerusalem for the festivals because he believed that if they did, they would eventually reunite as a kingdom. They’d hang him up from some tree somewhere, and that would be the end of it for him. So he established different feasts, different centers of location, different centers of worship, set up his own priests of the lowest of the people, and ironically was involved in the office of a priest himself. And he took these people down a path away from God. And then because of this, there was no way back to God. It was these annual holy days, these annual festivals, the three pilgrimage festivals in particular, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, when all the people got back together again and a lot of old national animosities were healed. So, as you read through here, you’ll find this man coming up again and again. As the book of 2 Kings opens, the scene changes from the wretchedness of King Ahab to the reign of Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem. It’s more than a little confusing simply reading straight through the books because they don’t proceed strictly in chronological order. There is a progression from old to more current as you read through it, but it kind of goes back and forth. For example, it finishes with the reign of King Ahab before it turns to the reign of King Jehoshaphat. It’s interleaving the histories of two kingdoms. And so when it finishes with Ahab and switches over to Jehoshaphat, They have to back up because Jehoshaphat has acceded to the throne in the fourth year of Ahab while he still had quite a few years to go. At the end of 1 Kings, the editors dispose of King Ahab. They tell us of the battle that he fought and how a marksman actually shot an arrow at a venture. He just fired it off into the air. And it wound up hitting King Ahab and went right between the joints of his armor and wounded him, mortally wounded him. And finally he died, was brought to Samaria. They buried him in Samaria. And one fellow took his chariot down to a pool and washed the chariot there. And as the blood ran out of the chariot, the dogs licked up his blood, according to the word of a prophet that said, In the place where they licked the blood of your victim, they’re going to lick your blood. They washed his armor, according to the word of the Lord, which the prophet had spoken. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, the ivory house which he made, all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? You know, I forget where it was, but I visited a museum once where there were a lot of biblical artifacts, and sure enough, here was a little display case carrying shards of ivory, decorative little pieces of ivory that had been found in the ruins of the city of Samaria. The Bible said he made a house of ivory there. So Ahab slept with his fathers. Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his stead. Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. Now we are flashing back. Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he began to reign. He reigned for 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azuba. Jehoshaphat is a good guy overall. Nobody’s perfect. The scripture tells us he walked in all the ways of Asa, his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. I want to pause here to kind of explain a little bit about the way things were in that world at that time. Idolatry, the old Canaanite gods and religion, was all over the place. They were everywhere. High places were shrines, places built on a high place, high ground, where there was usually an Asherah pole, an upright piece of carved wood representing the goddess Asherah, who came down to us as Easter, I’m afraid. And alongside of her would be the image of the god, the male god, to whom she was consort. And I mentioned in a previous program how that all over the Middle East you have different gods over all these nations. The Moabites had their god. The Ammonites had their god. The people of Syria had their gods. But all of them, from one end to the other, had a female consort who was the same goddess. Overall, she was the great female principle in everything, and she was pagan completely. Now, in the house of Israel in the north, where they were divorced from the temple, they were cut off from the holy days of God, they were cut off from those things, which gave people an avenue to return to God. Those people chased off after their high places, worshipped Baal, worshipped Ashtaroth and the whole nine yards, and all their long history never, ever turned back to God. Now, the same overall situation prevailed in Judah. There were shrines to these idols all over the place, but in the middle of everything stood the temple of God alone. And three big occasions in the year when everyone came together to worship the same God in the same way on the same days, there was a day of atonement when they came to confess their sins before God, all fasting and in repentance and asking for them to be made at one with God. And so consequently, even though these high places, these places of pagan worship that were all over the place were there, and people actually went to them and worshiped, There still was a way, an avenue, a well-marked path back to God through all this time. It was a mistake for a king not to get rid of those. But you know, this is so pervasive in the world at that time. It would have required an incredible amount of brutality. It would have required almost ruling with an iron fist to get rid of these things. Be easier, by far, to get the fleas off your dog than to get all the idols out of any Middle Eastern country back in those days. Well, there came a place where Jehoshaphat finally made peace with the king of Israel. We heard about some of that and the war they fought with Syria in a previous program. Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he warred are all written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. These are not, by the way, the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles we have in the Bible. They were apparently contemporary court records that were lost in later generations, but were doubtless were used by the people who put together 1 and 2 Kings so that we can read through the sequencing of events that we have here. The account goes on to say, the remnant of the male temple prostitutes that remained in the days of his father, he took out of the land. So here’s a king, finally, that gets that particular gang of Sodomites out of the nation. There was no king in Edom in those days. There was a deputy king. And Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they couldn’t go because the ships were broken, apparently, by a storm at Ezeon-Geber. I would gather that the king of Israel, Ahaziah at this time, must have thought that was because of poor seamanship on his part. So he said, hey, let my servants go with your servants in the ships. You know, there’s gold at the other end of the route. Jehoshaphat said, no way, and finally he died and slept with his fathers, was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Jehoram, his son, reigned in his stead. The story goes on, but first, grab a pencil and a piece of paper. I want to give you some important information.

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I’ll be right back. Is it possible that an infinite God could find himself wanting anything? The Bible says it is not good for man to be alone. If it’s not good for man to be alone, then perhaps it wasn’t good for God to be alone either. Ronald Dart’s book, The Lonely God, is available from Amazon.com or directly from BornToWin.net. For information, you can write to BornToWin, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. That’s 1-888-242-5344. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.

SPEAKER 03 : 11:28

So in the 17th year, Jehoshaphat had been reigning for 17 years now. Ahab dies. Ahaziah, his son, begins to reign over the house of Israel in Samaria. Maybe… Maybe there’s still a handful of old people who still remember Solomon, because we’re somewhere in the range of 79 or 80 years after the divided kingdom begins. Well, Ahaziah did evil on the side of the Lord. He walked in the way of his father and the way of his mother. Guess who his mother was? Her name was Jezebel. He walked in the way of, are you ready for this? Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who’d made Israel sin. For he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel according to all that his father had done. Just went right on down the same line that his father had followed. And sometimes you would think people would learn that because he did the evil things his father did, the curse that God had placed on his father, came home to roost on Ahaziah. Well, in those days, after the death of Ahab, who had been strong enough to keep the Moabites across the river under control, they rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and was sick. He was hurt. He sent messengers and said to them, Go. inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover of this disease. You know, you sit here and you say, what? I mean, if you’re sick, get a doctor. But he wants him to send off to some god in another land to find out whether he’s going to get over this or not. Well, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, well, here’s this man again, the man who was the enemy of his father. He said, get up, go down to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ah, is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus saith Jehovah, you will not come down from that bed on which you’re gone up, but you shall surely die. And Elijah departed. Funny thing about Elijah, however many words there are that you’ve got to have, that’s all you get. Well, the messengers turned back, and they said to the king, well, we’re back. He said, why are you back here this quick? And they said, well, there came a man to meet us, and he gave us this message from God that said, what are you doing going down to Ekron? Is there no God up here? Let me tell you, you’re not going to recover from this. You’re going to die. And the king said, Tell me, what did he look like? What kind of a man was it that met you and told you these words? They said, Well, he was a hairy man, and he was girt with a girdle of leather about his waist. And Ahaziah knew right off the bat, it is Elijah the Tishbite. So the king, in something of a fit of pique, sent a captain of 50 with his 50. This is probably a large platoon of infantry sent up here, 51 men. And he went up to where Elijah was sitting. He was on top of a hill, a high place. And he said to him, you man of God, the king has said, come down. Now, I suspect the demand for Elijah to come down was considerably less than polite. And Elijah answered and said, if I am a man of God, Then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. And immediately fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty, and I suppose left a lot of charred smoking corpses lying on the ground. Lesson, remember to be polite. when you speak to a man of God? Someone should have remembered what he did on Mount Carmel when the fire came down from heaven, consumed all that offering, all the water, took the soil away down to the bedrock, and now Elijah took the prophets of Baal down and killed every one of them. Should have thought about that. So the king sent another captain of 50, along with his 50. And he answers that, O man of God, thus has the king said, come down quickly. Elijah said, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. Now, you know, suppose you could think that maybe if this happened once, it was a perfect storm, it was lightning, it was who knows what it is. But when the thing happens twice, Well, even without the Internet, word spreads. Then the third captain he sent up there knew what had happened and was a man who was in no hurry to die. He sent the third captain of 50, and the third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah and begged him and said, ìO man of God, I pray you, let my life and the life of these 50-year servants be precious in your sight.î We know that fire came down from heaven and burned up the two platoons that were set up here before. Please let my life be precious in your sight. And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, You can go with him. You don’t have to be afraid of him. He’s not going to hurt you. So he arose and went with him to the king. And he said to the king, This is what the Lord says. Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, Isn’t this because in your sight there is no God in Israel? You can’t inquire of his word? Well, because of this, I’m telling you, you’re not going to come down off that bed where you have gone up. You will surely die. Absolutely nothing came of this except the saving of the lives of 51 men. The message was exactly the same. It was just delivered in person this time. So he died, according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. The rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Now we have made our way to year 81 AD. of the divided kingdom. And yes, by the way, if you were listening carefully, you might have heard there are two Jehorams. They’re also known in the Bible as Joram. One is the king of Judah, the other the king of Israel, reigning at the same time. And to compound the coincidence, they both died in the same year, which was about 483 B.C. I say about because all Old Testament chronology has to be considered about. It came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. This is the second chapter of 2 Kings. Elijah, knowing that the time had come for him to leave, said to Elijah, You wait here, I pray you, because the Lord has sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said, As the Lord lives, as your soul lives, I am not leaving you. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from your head today? How did they know this? Well, they’re prophets. They were in touch with God, and it had been revealed to them that Elijah was leaving. And he said, Yes, I know it. Be quiet. And Elijah said to him, Now, Elisha, stay here, I pray, because the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. They went on down to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets of Jericho came to Elisha, and they said the same thing. Are you aware? Do you realize what’s coming down? Do you realize God’s going to take your master away today? He says, yes, yes, I know it. Hold your peace. And Elijah said to him again, I said, stay here, please. The Lord has sent me to Jordan. And as he said, as the Lord lives, as your soul lives, I am not leaving you. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off. They got them a high place where they could watch, and the two of them, Elijah and Elisha, stood by the Jordan River. You know, the Jordan is an incredibly symbolic place in the whole story of Israel. So much happens there, and it’s a dividing line of sorts. Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided here and there so that the two of them walked across dry shod. This also is symbolic because you have to go all the way back to the time when Israel arrived in the land, and God parted the waters of the Jordan, stopped the flow of the river, gave him dry ground to cross over into the promised land. And here it’s happening again, and Elijah and Elisha cross Jordan. It came to pass when they’d gone over that Elijah said to Elisha, What do you want me to do for you before I’m taken away from you? What do you want? Ask what I shall do. And Elisha said, I pray you, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. Now, you know, I never would have imagined to have asked that. I might have asked, let me have your spirit. Let me have the same spirit, the same drive, the same contact with God that you’ve got, so I can carry on your ministry and what you’ve been doing. He didn’t do that. He said, let me have a double portion of your spirit. And Elijah must have given him a look. He said, you’ve asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, It shall be so to you. If not, it shall not be so. It was not Elijah’s to give. God had to decide that. And interestingly enough, the issue was decided on the incredible perseverance, the persistence of Elijah. It came to pass as they were walking on their way and talking, all of a sudden there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Basically, into the sky, because there are certain other issues about this that are never answered satisfactorily for us. You have the impression, of course, that he jumped into a heavenly chariot and was carried off by the chariot, but that’s not quite the way it was. the old spiritual swing-low sweet chariot arose from this very event. Elisha saw it happen, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! and he saw him never again. He took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two pieces, and picked up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and he went back and stood by the bank of the river Jordan as it flowed on its course. What happens next is the end of one era and the beginning of another. Stay with me. I want you to be sure and get this important message, but I’ll be right back.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:30

For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings Number 14. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.

SPEAKER 03 : 23:58

It’s a curious thing, but the idea of a mantle as a prophetic image has carried all the way down to this day. You’ll hear preachers and evangelists to this day maybe, especially in their fundraising letters, will talk about how they have the mantle of God or a mantle of prophecy and so forth. When Elijah disappeared or was taken up by the whirlwind, his mantle fell. Elisha picked it up and walked back to the Jordan River. And standing on the banks of Jordan, he smote the waters and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also smitten the waters, they departed hither and thither, and he walked right across it. And standing on a high place not far away, those fifty sons of the prophets that had watched from a distance saw that. And they said, The spirit of Elijah does rest on Elisha. They came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him. It’s kind of strange in a sense that down through time, Elijah is the one who is the archetype of all prophets, who is referred to again and again and expected again at the end time. And yet, Elisha, who succeeded him, had a double portion of the spirit and the power of this man, Elijah. The prophet said to him, look, there are 50 of us here, 50 strong men. Let us go, I pray, and seek your master for adventure. The Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, no, there’s no point in going. Don’t bother. They just urged him until finally he was ashamed, and he said, go ahead, look. They sent 50 men. They looked for him for three days but found no sign of him. They certainly did not think, this group of men didn’t think, that Elijah had gone to heaven as is commonly assumed. And tornadoes, of course, can pick you up and drop you anywhere. And as far as they were concerned, that’s what had happened. They came back to him in Jericho. And he said to them, didn’t I say, don’t go? Well, the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, I pray you, the situation of the city is pleasant as my Lord sees, but the water is bad, and the ground is barren. He said, Bring me a new cruise full of salt. They brought it to him. He went forth to the spring of the waters, cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. And it was so. The waters were healed unto this day, which presumably when the editors put this together was a long time had passed, and the waters in that spring were still good. According to the saying of Elisha, which he spoke, he went up from there to Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young men out of the city and mocked him and said to him, Go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head. I guess they had heard what Elijah had done. This was a large gang of young thugs. He turned back and looked at them and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the woods and mauled 42 of them. And that was the end of that. I really need to hear from you. From time to time, we have to make some hard decisions as to which of our radio stations we keep and which of them we have to let go. If you write or call, we know you’re listening. So protect your station. Our phone number is 1-888-BIBLE44. Our mailing address is Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. So until next time, I’m Ronald Dart.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:59

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