In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the story of a successful farmer in the New Testament who, upon achieving all his dreams and goals, decides to build bigger barns to store his wealth. However, God tells him that his soul will be required that very night, emphasizing the fragility of life. The speaker then discusses the responsibility that comes with knowledge and quotes the Bible, stating that righteousness exalts a nation while sin brings reproach. The sermon also references the prophet Habakkuk, who questions God's inaction in the face of a corrupt nation. God responds by revealing that He will bring Babylon to take Judah captive. The speaker concludes by mentioning the desecration of the temple by King Ahaz and the reasons for Israel's fall, which will be discussed in the next sermon.

Chapter 9. Elisha is an extremely colorful character. And we are coming towards the end of the career of Elisha, a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. And Elisha commanded one of the young prophets to go to Jezreel and there to take a cruise of oil and call Jehu, who was a captain of the host of Israel, into another room secretly. And there anoint him with the oil to be king over Israel and then get out of there as fast as you can. So this young man came to Jezreel where Jehu was sitting with a bunch of the officers and all. And he said, I have a message for you, O Jehu. And Jehu said, or he said, I have a message for you. And he said, which one of us? And he said, you. And so he said, come into the other room. And so he went into the other room and he said, Thus saith the Lord. He has anointed you to be king over Israel. And of course to replace the house of Ahab and Jehoiah Hash who was a descendant of Ahab. And so he poured this cruise of oil over Jehu and then he took off. When Jehu came out with the rest of the officers, he said, what in the world was that guy all about? Man, he was wild looking. What did he tell you? And Jehu said, he anointed me with oil and told me that I was going to be the king over Israel. And so the guys all took their coats off and they made this stairway. They had him stand at the top of the stairs. They began to blow the trumpets and say, long live Jehu king, you know. And so he said, now look, you guys are really serious about this. Don't let anyone go and warn the king what's happened. And so Jehu and the men headed then for Jehoram who was the descendant of Ahab, who was the son of Jehoshaphat. And Jehoram at the time was recovering from injuries that he had received in a battle against the Syrians. And he was at Ramoth Gilead. And so in those days they had, of course, walls around the city and they had the guard towers. And guys would sit up there in the guard towers and they could see people coming from a long distance. And so this guard called down and he said, there's chariots that are approaching the city. I can see the dust in the distance. So they sent out a messenger. The king Jehoram said, go out and ask them if they are coming in peace. And so the messenger came to Jehu and he said, are you coming in peace? And he said, what have you to do with peace? Get behind me. And so the messenger had to get behind him. So the guy up on the wall said, the messenger came to him, but he's not returning. He said, send out another messenger and ask him if he's coming in peace. And then the guy said unto him, the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth his chariot furiously. My wife wanted to get me a license plate with Jehu on it. I don't think that's very charitable of her. But at any rate, the second messenger came to Jehu. And he said, are you coming peaceably? And he said, what have you to do with peace? Turn behind me. And so Jehoram came out to meet him in his chariot with Amaziah, who was the king of Judah, who happened to be visiting him at Ramoth-Gilead because he was sick, Amaziah. And there was an affinity between Amaziah and actually there was a family relationship between the kings at this particular time. And so King Jehoram came out and said, is it peace, Jehu? And he said, what peace as long as the whoredoms of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. And Jehoram turned and fled and he said to Ahaziah, who was the other king from Judah visiting him. He said unto him, it's treachery, Ahaziah. And Jehu drew his bow and shot Jehoram in the back. The arrow came out through his heart. He sunk down in his chariot and died. And then they pursued Ahaziah and they injured him and he went to the city of Megiddo and he died in Megiddo. And some of the men from Judah came to Megiddo, carried him back to Jerusalem and buried him there in the sepulcher of David or the fathers in the city of David. Then Jehu came to Jezreel where Jezebel was still alive, this wicked wife of Ahab who had led the Israelites into Baal. She had introduced the Baal worship to Israel. And so Jezebel, knowing that Jehu was coming, said unto him, did Zimri have peace who slew his master? She was looking out the window. Actually, she had painted her face and teared her hair and fixed up and she taunted him sort of, did Zimri have peace who killed his master? And he lifted up his face to the window. He called up there and he said, Are any of you, anybody up there for me? And there were three eunuchs that stuck out their heads. And he said, We're for you. And he said, Then throw that woman out. And so they threw Jezebel out and she came crashing down, her blood spilled on the wall and upon the horse and he trampled her under the feet of his horse. And then he went on into the house and sat down and ate and drank. And he said, A couple of you guys go out and bury her. And they went out to bury her, but they found nothing but her skull and the palms of her hands and the bottom of her feet for the dogs had already eaten Jezebel there in the streets. Now, this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Elijah against Jezebel declaring that the dogs would eat her in the streets of Jezreel. And so, the end of the career of this extremely wicked woman. It is interesting that women, it seems, have a capacity of deeper depths of depravity than do men. And I think the reason being is that a woman has a much finer tuned emotional capacity. I believe that a woman is capable of higher heights than a man. I believe that she's capable of greater experiences of joy and excitement. But her emotions move on a broader spectrum than as a man. A man is more coarse in his emotions. His emotions move in sort of a rather narrow spectrum, coarse spectrum. He's not as capable as of the great highs that a woman can have. And yet, a woman who turns to the opposite end and goes to the lows is able to go to the lowest. And it seems that the woman's temperament being finer has greater highs, greater lows. The man is more in a middle of the spectrum, moving in a coarser. His emotions are of a coarser makeup than a woman. Not nearly as fine as is a woman. And Jezebel is a classic example of a woman who has gone to the lowest. And of course, I think if you study history, a woman who has gone bad is capable of some of the cruelest things. Things that you would never dream of as you look through history. When they turn to the lower end of the spectrum. Jezebel is interesting in that in the book of Revelation, the church of Thyatira, which introduced idolatry into their worship. The whole introduction of idolatry into worship within the church. That is, setting up idols within the church. This church system that brought in idols as a part of the worship. The woman Jezebel, the name is related to this church system. So the Lord said to the church of Thyatira that thou hast this woman Jezebel who caused my servants to commit fornication and idolatry. And I'm going to cast her into a bed and into the great tribulation unless she repents from her deed. And those that commit fornication with her being cast into the great tribulation. Now there are those who declare that the church is going to go through the great tribulation. Yes, a part of it is. The church that relates to that Jezebel system. So you know when people tell you the church is going through the great tribulation what part of the church they relate themselves to. I don't wish to relate to that part of the church. I would rather relate to the Philadelphian church who has kept the word of his patience and therefore will be kept from that hour of temptation that is coming to try men who dwell upon the earth. But the warning of the Lord because thou hast that woman Jezebel who causes my servants to commit fornication and eat things that are sacrificed into idols therefore I'm going to cast thee into the great tribulation or cast her into great tribulation and those that commit fornication with her unless they repent of their deeds. So this wicked woman of the Old Testament who introduced idol worship the worship of Bel to God's people Israel. The Lord makes the likeness of the introducing of idols in the worship of the church. I cannot understand how a person who reads the word of God and really believes the Bible could establish idols within the church even if they be idols of Jesus or the saints or whatever. In as much as it is definitely prohibited under the law and Jesus himself declares his own feelings against it in his message to the church of Pergamos and Thyatira. There has been in some areas of Mexico what I consider to be a genuine true spiritual revival in the Catholic church. And I believe one of the evidences of the truth of the revival is that in this one area where this one bishop has really been born again and filled with the spirit he has had them remove all of the idols in all of the churches that are under his jurisdiction. And that thrills me because I cannot though I seek to be very accepting and broad minded I cannot see the place of idols in a place of worship of God in as much as it has been so strictly forbidden both Old and New Testament. Jezebel, very wicked woman her death and being eaten by the dogs prophesied by Elijah the prophet and fulfilled at the hand of Jehu. Now Ahab who was the husband of this wicked woman Jezebel who himself was extremely wicked had 70 sons evidently Jezebel wasn't his only wife. Now these sons had grown up in Samaria and in Jezreel and they had been brought up by the Tudors and they were more or less leaders in these communities. And in his letter he said now you have with you the sons of Jehu so you anoint whichever one that you want gather together your men of war and anoint whichever one you want to be the ruler over you and come out and meet us in conflict. Well the men in the cities said hey this Jehu is tough he's already destroyed two kings and who are we to stand against him? And so they sent letters back to Jehu and said look we're willing to submit to you and acknowledge you as the king over Israel and he said if you're sincere in this then tomorrow send me the heads of the sons of Ahab. So the next day they delivered him a pile of 70 heads of the sons of Ahab and thus again the word of the Lord was fulfilled in that God said he was going to cut off all of the descendants of Ahab. He was going to cut off that family line and so God fulfilled that word. Then Jehu met 42 men who had come from Judah who evidently had not heard that Amaziah their king was killed and he said who are you guys? They said we're all brothers of Amaziah and so he ordered that they all also be slain. Then chapter 10 verse 19 Jehu said alright folks call unto me all of the prophets of Baal for Ahab served Baal a little but Jehu will serve him much. Now he was doing this subtly it says because he was intending to eliminate Baal worship. So he gathered together all of the priests and all of the people that worshiped Baal he said we're going to have a great celebration offering our offerings unto Baal and I want to lead you all in Baal worship and so they gathered all of the people from Israel who had worshiped Baal into the temple of Baal and he says now are you sure there are no servants of the Lord here? Nope. All servants of Baal then put on your vestments so they put on their vestments their aprons and all in their worship of Baal and then he ordered 80 men he said alright now go in and wipe them all out and if you let any of them escape it'll be your life for his and so they went in and utterly wiped out all of the worshipers of Baal and so Baal worship was eliminated out of the kingdom of Israel totally obliterated however Jehu did not destroy the two golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Dan and in Bethel and continued in the worship of the golden calves and thus did not serve the Lord completely or fully he did eliminate the Baal worship but not the worship of those golden calves now the Lord said to Jehu because you have been so good in executing my judgment against the house of Ahab your children will serve on the throne to the fourth generation but unfortunately Jehu did not take heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all of his heart so at this point the kingdom of Israel began to diminish in its strength and Haziel began smiting the borders of Israel on the east side of the Jordan River the area that belonged to the tribe of Gad and Manasseh and the Reubenites and they began to they began to fall to Syria now I think that there is an important lesson here when going back now the book of Joshua when the children of Israel were ready to come into the promised land they had been staying for a while on the east side of Jordan the Jordan River up in the area they had settled many of them in the upper area of the Golan on the east side of the Jordan River the area of Moab Gilead and they came to Joshua and they said hey we really don't care to go over and live in that land that God promised we're quite content to stay right here we're cattlemen and this is good grazing country good cattle country and we're just very content to stay here of course Joshua got extremely upset or Moses they first came to Moses and Moses was extremely upset he said oh you I can't believe it don't you remember what happened to us at Kadesh Barnea when the people failed to go into the land how that we've been wandering for 40 years because of it and they said no no you misunderstand us we'll send our men in to fight and take the land but then after the land is taken we're just as soon stay back here on this side of Jordan so they made a covenant that the men of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh would send the men across with Joshua to conquer the land once the land had been conquered then they could return to the cities that they had built on the other side of the Jordan River and they would not dwell then in the land that had been promised from the Jordan westward now when you go into the spiritual typology of the thing again Egypt represents the bondage of sin Pharaoh representing Satan actually and the bondage in sin the Red Sea is representative of baptism coming into a new relationship with God a new life and journeying towards the land of promise and coming to the land of promise there remain the last barrier the Jordan River now in typology the Jordan River is a type of not physical death and this is where a lot of people make a mistake especially in the hymnology swing low sweet chariot coming for to carry me home I looked over Jordan what did I see a band of angels coming after me coming for to carry me home I won't have to cross Jordan alone Jesus Christ died for my sins to atone and Jordan in hymns has been likened to our physical death roll Jordan roll roll Jordan roll I want to go to heaven when I die roll say here old Jordan roll but that breaks down because after they crossed Jordan they still had a lot of battles to fight there will be no battles to fight in heaven after they crossed Jordan they even experienced defeat there will be no defeat in heaven but Jordan in the spiritual analogy represents my reckoning of my old life and old nature to be dead it's that place of faith where I reckon my old life to be dead and I enter in to that life of the spirit the promised life of victory in Christ Jesus so that there are many Christians who have come out of the world but who have never entered in to the full life of the spirit possessing your full possessions that are ours in Christ Jesus and their whole Christian walk is sort of a wilderness kind of an experience and there are those who are content to stay on the other side of Jordan they say well I'm happy I'm satisfied in my Christian life and I really don't see the reason why I need to commit everything why I need to deny myself these worldly things I'm very content and happy living on this side of Jordan living after the flesh I really don't know that I need to walk after the spirit or even desire to walk after the spirit and they really have no strong spiritual desires for the fullness of God within their lives they're content in their nominal Christian state they are like the tribe of Reuben Gad and Manasseh who said we're content to stay over here we don't really care about going in now unfortunately there are a lot of Christians in this position really are not pressing in to the fullness that God has for them in the life and in the walk of the spirit but this is the danger because Reuben and Gad and Manasseh were the first to fall to the enemy there on the other side of Jordan they didn't have the defenses of the land that God had promised and so often we see those who fail to enter into the fullness those who fail to come to the reckoning of the old man to be dead crucified with Christ and enter into the walk and the life of the spirit are often those that fall into the captivity of the enemy and so the spiritual analogy is very important here so these three tribes were the first to fall to Haziel the king of Syria now the rest of the acts of Jehu are written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel which books we do not have in our Bible we do have the book first and second chronicles but those are the first and second chronicles of the kings of Judah so as we move from second kings into first chronicles we will be more or less getting a repetition of this period of history only we will be getting it from only Judah's slant they will tell you of the kings of Israel but they won't give you much detail they'll be giving you more information on the kings of Judah because it is the chronicles or the official records of the kings of Judah that we have first and second chronicles there were also the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel these books are referred to many times but we don't have those books in our Bible so another reference to the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel which we do not have so Jehu slept with his fathers they buried him in Samaria and Jehoiah has his son reigned in his stead and Jehu had reigned for 28 years over Israel now going back 28 years we go back now to when Jehu first became king he killed Amaziah the king of Judah and Amaziah was the son of Athaliah who was the daughter or a relationship to Jezebel and there was an intermarriage there tying the kingdoms together now Athaliah the wicked queen when she heard that her son Amaziah was killed immediately she went out and killed all of the rest of the children of her son or all of her grandchildren in order that she might reign as queen in order that there be no heirs to the throne so that she could reign as queen now one of the children of Amaziah a baby Jehoshaba was hid away this nurse took him and ran into the temple and there they hid him and they raised him secretly for six years so that he was preserved Athaliah wasn't able to kill him and he was preserved and brought up actually in the temple and raised there in the temple in disguise for six years now when he was seven years old the priest who had more or less raised him Jehoiada sent out through all of Judah for all of the captains and all to come and when he gathered them all together he swore them to secrecy and being a priest of God he made them swear by the Lord you know that they wouldn't reveal anything and having sworn them all to secrecy then he brought forth Jehoshaba and he said here is the descendent of David you see Athaliah wasn't the descendent of David and here is the descendent of David to reign upon the throne and now he says we are going to divide into three companies and you know I want a part of you guys to surround the king and I want a part of you to surround the temple and surround the city and we are going to proclaim him king and so they gathered together for the celebration and they took this seven year old boy who was a descendent of David and they gathered all together they were all standing there and they brought him forth and they put the crown on his head and they made him king and anointed him and they all began to clap their hands and say God save the king now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guards and the people she came into the temple of the Lord to see what was going on and when she saw the king standing by the pillar as was the manner of the king and all of the princes and the trumpeters around him and the people of the land rejoicing then Athaliah tore her clothes and she cried treason treason and Jehoiada the priest said get her out of here don't kill her in the temple but take her out and kill her so they laid hands on her and they took her out and killed her and Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they should be the Lord's people so there came now a time of sort of spiritual revival as we have now a king who was raised in the temple under the strong influence of the priest and now in conjunction with Jehoiada the proclamation that the people are going to really turn back again and worship the Lord Yahweh and all the people of the land went to the house of Bel and they broke it down his altars the images they broke in pieces thoroughly they slew Matin the priest of Bel before the altars and they took the rulers and the captains and the people of the land and they brought down to the king from the house of the Lord and the king was placed upon the throne and all of the people rejoiced the city was quiet and he was seven years old when he began to reign as king now in the seventh year in which Jehu was the king in Israel is when this king began to reign as you remember he was just one year old when his dad was killed by Jehu he was hid for six years and so in the seventh year in which Jehu was reigning this young man began to reign now Jehoiash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him and so he was more or less a puppet leader Jehoiada the priest was the influence behind the throne however there were high places of worship where the people burned incense and offered sacrifices which was following after the pagan customs and these they did not destroy and of course that remained the blotch on the kingdom now Jehoiash this young king as he grew older he ordered that they take all of the money that was brought into the temple and they use it to repair the temple for the temple had come into a state of disrepair because the people were worshiping on the high places and they were worshiping bell and all and so the temple of God had come into a state of disrepair and the king Jehoiash ordered that they take the money and they repair all of these places in the temple but after a period of time the priest had done nothing in the repair of the temple so Jehoiash came and said what's happened how come you haven't made the repairs and the priest were pocketing all of the money so Jehoiash put this agape box in there he got a box and put a hole in the top of it so that the people could drop the money in the box so that the priest couldn't get it and they then took the money that the people would drop in the box and they began to repair the temple and they gave it to the builders and the masons and so forth who began to restore the temple building now at this time Haziel who had taken and had captured the area where the Rubenites and the Gadites and the tribe of Manasseh were living he now had moved his troops down into the area between Jerusalem and the coast the city of Gath which was a Philistine city and he had taken the city of Gath and was now moving his Syrian army to besiege Jerusalem and Jehoiash took all of the gold and the silver and all and he bought off Haziel and he gave him all of this money and said hey look we surrender and here's all of the money so he paid him off and Haziel returned to Syria but the temple was robbed of all of its treasures the gold and silver vessels and all they were taken by Haziel we come in verse 19 to the death of Jehoash he was killed by his servants who conspired against him and his son Amaziah began to reign in his stead now we're going to move north again to the reign of Jehoahaz over Israel in chapter 13 so up in Israel Jehu has died and his son Jehoahaz begins to reign over Israel there in Samaria and he reigned for 17 years and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and I told you before that Israel did not have one decent king of every king of Israel it is declared he did evil in the sight of the Lord not one of them followed after the Lord how tragic continued in the sins of Jeroboam the first king who had led the people away from Jehovah to the worship of the calves and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel he delivered them into the hand of Haziel the king of Syria and into the hand of Benhadad who was the son of Haziel and Jehoahaz sought the Lord and the Lord hearken unto him for he sought the oppression of Israel because the king of Syria was oppressing them and the Lord raised up a savior for Israel so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians and the children of Israel began to dwell in their own cities their own tents as before time nevertheless they did not depart from their sins but they walked in them and there remained the the grove the place of pagan worship in the city of Samaria and so the people were really cut down and the death of Jehoahaz is recorded in verse 8 the rest of his deeds are in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Israel now we're going to come back to we have his death recorded but we're going to come back to Jehoahaz in chapter 14 so try and hold that in your mind we get his death here but as we get back to Amaziah because Amaziah related to Jehoahaz we'll come back to Jehoahaz now the rest of the acts of Joash who is also Jehoash Jehoash and all that he did the fighting against Amaziah are written in the books of the chronicles of the king of Israel so we'll we don't have that in the chronicles but we will have more of that in the next chapter now we turn to Elisha and the death of Elisha Elisha was fallen sick of the sickness whereof he died and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face and said oh my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof so this is what is called parenthetical we're still Joash is still king we've already recorded his death but now we're recording about Elisha and he is he came down when Elisha was sick now this to me is interesting as far as the Old Testament is concerned two men stand out as as having great faith for miracles one is Elijah and the other is Elisha as Elisha was as Elisha was ready to be caught up into heaven he said to Elisha what do you want he said I'd like a double portion of the spirit that is upon me he said if you see me when I go it will be granted if you don't then it won't be granted so Elisha was there and he saw Elijah caught up into heaven and his life was a life of miracles marvelous miracles of God were wrought by this man Elisha man of great faith but this particular verse of scripture now Elisha fell sick of the sickness whereof he died let me tell you something people of great faith get sick people of tremendous faith die and it is folly to believe that sickness or death results from a lack of faith or commitment to God sickness and death happen to everybody but there are always those who are trying to sell snake oil from the days of the early prairie the cure all from bunions to ear aches and there always seems to be someone offering the spiritual snake oil or the panacea or the cure all to all of the problems that a Christian faces and these panaceas are offered to people and they go through various stages when they are offered you know the book is written and all you have to do is praise the Lord and if you just praise the Lord for anything and everything then that is going to be a cure all once you learn to really praise the Lord it is all going to work out smoothly you know all of these people had all these horrible problems until they began to praise the Lord for the problem and once they started to praise the Lord the problem went away let me tell you something there are some problems you can praise the Lord for from now to eternity and they are not going to go away and I think it is absolutely idiocy to praise the Lord for some of the things that happen my uncle died as an alcoholic oh praise the Lord no that is tragic that he should die an alcoholic but people are offering these cure all's enough faith you never need to be sick enough faith you will always be prosperous and the spiritual cure all's that are offered and they go for a while but soon there are people who try it and it doesn't work and then all of a sudden as they share their failure they find that other people have experienced the same failures they have been praising the Lord for a long time nothing has happened to their situation and they have been believing nothing has happened who really can understand the ways of God I will frankly confess I don't understand the ways of God now don't let that surprise you if I stood up here and told you I understood the ways of God then I would be a first class liar any man tells you well I understand the ways of God he doesn't know what he's talking about and he is contradicting God because God said my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts for my ways are beyond your finding out and I frankly confess I do not know the mysteries of God I do not know why God allows certain beautiful Christians to be sick I do not know why God allows many beautiful Christians to suffer I do not know why many beautiful Christians are in prison in Siberia and in China and been tortured for their faith I do not know why James was beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded and the early disciples all suffered martyrdom because they believed God just as much as any of these pseudo prophets today and if God wanted us to all be wealthy and prosperous and all then he would have declared it plainly in the scripture and there would be a consistency to it within the Christian body it's a tragedy with the way that these doctrines have proliferated through the country people so anxious to believe let me tell you something these doctrines haven't really had any effect upon the Siberian Christians yet if you went up there and said hey you know God wants you all to be prosperous and wealthy you all ought to be driving Cadillacs up here and yet because of the hardships they have been forced to a much deeper commitment than we even dream about their commitment to Christ cost them the slavery that they experience in Siberia and there are thousands of Christians enslaved in Siberia today because they dared to proclaim their faith and commitment to Jesus Christ I wonder just how strong the commitment would be if God began to take away some of the Cadillacs well he has actually that's the problem with this thing it's beginning to die out thank God because too many people went out on the basis of this and began to charge their Cadillacs and their caviar and all when the bills came due they didn't have enough faith to pay them Elisha was fallen sick of the sickness wherever he died it doesn't mean that God doesn't love you it doesn't mean that God is opposed to you it doesn't mean that you've done something wrong and God is punishing you because you are sick it isn't a sign of second class spiritual development or growth the best of God's children get sick and it is tragic to lay that kind of a thing on well there's something wrong in your life or you know if you only had enough faith or you know just confess your sin whatever you've been doing and God will heal you we'll be getting to the book of Job soon and we'll learn about this kind of doctrine so he came to Elisha who was there reading sort of on his deathbed and Elisha said to the king Joash take your bow and your arrows and he said now put your hand on your bow and draw back and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hand he said now open the window towards the east and he opened it then Elisha said shoot and he shot and the arrow he said the arrow of the Lord's deliverance the deliverance from Syria where you will smite the Syrians at Aphek until you have consumed them he said now take your arrows and he took them and he said to the king of Israel now smite the arrows on the ground and the king smote the arrows on the ground three times and Elisha became upset he said why did you just strike three times why didn't you smite five or six times because then you would have utterly consumed the Syrians but now you will only defeat them three times so Elisha died and they buried him and at this time the Moabites began to send their bands into the land sort of marauding bands and there were there was a man who had died and as they were getting ready to bury him they saw this band of Moabites coming in and so they just dropped the guy into the grave and began to run and they dropped him into the grave where Elisha was buried and when this guy's body hit the bones of Elisha he came to life and stood up that to me is interesting and exciting such power in Elisha that even the bones there in the grave this guy's body hitting them the guy comes back to life but Haziel the king of Syria was harassing Israel during the whole time of Jehoahaz but the Lord was gracious had compassion on them and respect because of his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he would not destroy them nor cast him out of his presence as yet so Haziel the king of Syria died Ben-Hadad his son reigned at his stead and Jehoash the son of Jehoaz took again out of the hand of Ben-Hadad the cities which had been taken from Jehoaz Jehoahaz his father by war and three times Jehoash beat him and recovered the cities of Israel now we're coming again to Amaziah who became the king in Israel at the death of his father who was assassinated at the end of chapter 12 now in the second year the Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz was the king of Israel Amaziah whose father's name was also Jehoash the king of Judah began to reign he was 25 years old when he began to reign he reigned for 29 years and his mother's name was Jehoadan and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord yet not as much as David his father he did according to all of the things as Jehoash his father did now notice not as much as David his father David wasn't his father directly but was his great great great great great great great grandfather but in the Bible they don't always signify the great great great greats I only point this out here because there are certain people who fancy that the Bible has errors in it and when you get to the book of Daniel a book that the critics especially like to attack because it's such a totally damaging book for those that don't believe that God was able to speak to men or the prophecies of Daniel are so accurate and so intricate that the only way the Bible critics could do anything to destroy Daniel was to say that Daniel didn't write it it was written by some fellow some 300 200 300 years later who put Daniel's name to it a very devout young man who wrote this fanciful story after the history happened and he was really just recording history but then he put Daniel's name on it to look like Daniel had written it but it was actually they say written after the fact well the fellow was very clever because he deceived Jesus in the thing because Jesus refers to the prophecy of Daniel and when you see the desolation the abomination of desolation as was spoken by Daniel the prophet so these Bible critics are actually putting themselves up as smarter than Jesus but I'm not surprised that's why I have said I have very little respect for these supposed theological seminaries and brilliant men who have done their best to take away from the work of God in the scriptures but in one of the things that they find fault with in Daniel is that it talks about Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar when in reality Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and so the Bible critics say you see it calls Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar and he wasn't really Neopeleser was the son and of course now he was the grandson and so the fact that it refers to him as the son of Nebuchadnezzar they try to use that but here the Bible refers to him as the son of David and because the Bible doesn't have the term the Hebrew didn't have the term grandson or great grandson it was just the son and as far as my descendants go down the line they refer back to me as the father so the Bible is true and these brilliant men are liars the Bible says let God be true and every man a liar so I'm only quoting the scripture worldly wisdom is so worthless when it comes to the word of God I would rather listen to a spirit filled man who didn't know Greek from hand scratches expound the truth of God's word than I would some PhD who knew all of the original languages but wasn't born again for I would learn much more true spiritual truth from the uneducated man than I would the professor for the natural mind cannot understand the things of the spirit neither can it know them for they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual understands all things though he is not understood so I care not for the doctorates of man honored or earned they mean nothing to me I care for the work of the spirit and the understanding of the spirit in opening up the scriptures to our hearts so in the second year of Joash son of Joas Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah began to reign he was 25 years old when he began to reign but he did not come up to the spiritual though he did good not as good as his father David however he still did not remove the high places of worship and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on those high places now it came to pass as soon as he had confirmed the kingdom his father you remember was assassinated by his servants he then in turn executed the servants who had assassinated his father and then he went down against the Edomites and thereby the dead sea in the valley of salt he killed 10,000 of the Edomites and he took the rock city of Petra now he is feeling pretty strong pretty powerful so Amaziah sent messengers to Joash the son of Joash who was the son of Jehu who was the king over Israel and he said come let's face off with each other and Joash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah and he said look the thistle that was in Lebanon said to the cedar give to me your daughter for my son as his wife and there passed by a wild beast and trampled down the thistle now you have indeed smitten the Edomites why don't you just sit at home and be happy and glory in the victory you have for why should you meddle to your own hurt however Amaziah would not hear of it therefore Joash the king of Israel came against him they met in battle at Beth Shemesh which belongs to Judah so this is not the Beth Shemesh up near Mount Gilboa and Judah was put to the worst before Israel and they fled every man to their tents and Jehoash the king of Israel took Amaziah the king of Judah at Beth Shemesh and he came to Jerusalem and he broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate 400 cubits or about 600 feet of the wall he took all of the gold and the silver and all of the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and the hostages and he returned to Samaria now the rest of the acts of Joash which he did again we are told they're written in the chronicles of the kings of Israel this meddling to your own hurt it's something that people quite often do there are things that you have no business meddling with you can only get hurt if you do there are places that as a Christian you have no business meddling around and if you do you're only going to get hurt it is a very reasonable question why should you meddle to your own hurt don't meddle around with anything that can bring you into a snare into a trap I wrote a paper in a philosophy class one time on the Christian ethic for our philosophy teacher we were studying at Orange Coast College in a philosophy class and they wanted us to do a paper on the ethics and so I chose to do one on Christian ethics and I took the statements of Paul the Apostle and Corinthians seeking to show that the Christian ethic is the broadest ethic of any philosophy broader than any philosophical ethic for Paul in his Corinthian epistle said all things are lawful for me now you can't get a broader ethic than that I can do anything and I pointed out how that so many people looked at Christianity as a very binding restricting kind of a thing but in reality the true Christian ethic is so broad all things are lawful for me but Paul said all things are not expedient now the idea of expediency you see as a Christian I am pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God I'm in a race and I'm in a race to win I'm pressing towards my goal now there are things that can impede my progress towards my goal but I'm so interested in achieving my goal I'm not going to get involved with things that could impede my progress so it may be lawful for me it wouldn't send me to hell it wouldn't destroy me for doing it but it would hinder me in my progress towards my goal so though I could do it I don't do it because I don't want to be impeded in my pressing towards the mark he repeated all things are lawful for me but not everything builds up now as a child of God I want actually to have Christ built up in me and there are things that tear down the image of Christ now though they are lawful though I could lawfully do it they wouldn't send me to hell yet they would take me away from him it would be tearing down and thus I don't do them because I don't want anything to tear me down I'm only desiring to be built up in Christ Jesus and then he finally concludes all things are lawful for me same broad Christian ethic but he said I will not be brought under the power of any now you see as a Christian I know what real freedom is very few people really know true freedom but as a Christian I know true freedom those in the world they talk about free love and freedom and so on they don't really know what freedom is they are so bound by their own lust and all and by the things that they're in they are so bound they don't know what freedom is they've been brought under the power of the things they're doing having really tasted a freedom knowing what freedom is I love freedom so much that I'm not going to sacrifice freedom by meddling around with something that could bring me under its power so if by doing it I could be brought under its influence I could be brought under its power I'm not going to do it because I love my freedom too much if I were brought under its power then I don't have this glorious free ethic that says all things are lawful for me you know it is really a blessing to see things and say well I could be doing that but I don't want to or I don't need to I don't have to have that I don't have to do that sure I could do it but I don't have to I don't need to I'm very complete and satisfied and happy with my present relationship with Jesus Christ and I'm not reaching out and grabbing for you know higher standards or higher things just very content in Christ Jesus and it's neat to have that kind of freedom to have the capacity but not be pushed by some ambition or desire or you know drive within I've got to have a kind of a thing oh what freedom that is lawful sure send me to hell no but it might impede my progress towards heaven I don't want that it might bring me under its power I don't want that I'm too free and I love my freedom incidentally I got an A on the paper blew the teacher's mind she didn't even know anything about Christian philosophy at all and just absolutely blew her mind she made notations all over that paper she was really surprised and all by it in fact she I had quite a talk with her meddling to your own hurt now the result of the meddling the king came and tore down the wall the defenses were destroyed the result of our meddling of course is once you do it your defenses are destroyed it's so much easier to do it the second time and even easier the third and the fourth the fifth until it's just a course and a matter of life first time it was so hard you resisted a lot but you meddled you got burned not only that the treasures were taken away and you lose something valuable whenever you meddle to your own hurt even as the treasures of purity innocence health clear mind are so often lost because people have meddled to their own hurt the death of Amaziah is recorded in verse 17 we'll read about him again when we get to the chronicles of the kings of Israel and Azariah Amaziah became the king in his place he was only 16 years old when he took over from his father actually Amaziah was assassinated even as was his own father and his son 16 years old became king and he didn't do much but build Elath and he died now in the 15th year of Amaziah so we've already had his son succeed him but now we go back and pick up one more part of the story Jeroboam the son of Joash began to reign in Samaria now this is the time when Amos and Hosea were both prophesying so if you and you should as you develop in your biblical studies you should start to fit the prophets back into here now because you'll understand their prophecies so much better when you realize the period of history this is now getting to the end of the northern kingdom of Israel we're coming down into the last century for that kingdom in the spiritual decline and God is now beginning to raise up more prophets and if you'll read the prophecies of Amos and Hosea you'll understand them much better when you can in your mind fit them into this period of spiritual declension in the northern kingdom of Israel and also a mention of Jonah the prophet here in verse 25 so these three men were sent of God to the northern kingdom at this particular time to prophesy unto them now this Jeroboam is Jeroboam the second Jeroboam was the very first king over Israel and now another king named after him and he reigned for 41 years but he did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord saw the afflictions of Israel it was very bitter no one to help them they were isolated and the Lord said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash the rest of acts of Jeroboam are in the book of chronicles of the kings of Israel which we do not have now the reign of Azariah who is also known as Uzziah now when you think of Uzziah and we're back now Azariah was the son of Amaziah and he didn't do much but his son Azariah began to reign the other name was Uzziah and we think now of the prophet Isaiah and so the prophecies of Isaiah Isaiah was the prophet who actually began his real career and the prophecies at the death of Uzziah Uzziah reigned for about 52 years and you remember there in the 6th chapter of Isaiah in the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting upon the throne and was trained to build the temple so we're beginning when we get to Uzziah to come into the time at the end of Uzziah's career we're coming into the time of Isaiah he was 16 years old when he began to reign he reigned for 52 years one of the longest reigns he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all of his father that Amaziah had done except that he left the high places where the people were sacrificing and the Lord smote the king with leprosy we will get the full story of this when we get to Chronicles until the day of his death and so his son was sort of a go between Jotham his son was over the house and judging the people but Uzziah was a king though leprous very popular king a very good king in fact during his reign as we get into the Chronicles it will tell us that the name Uzziah was on the lips of all the people they were all he was a powerful strong leader good king and the people really came to trust in him and all because he had brought the kingdom into a place of prosperity now the rest of the acts of Azariah we're going to get when we get to 2nd Chronicles so Azariah slept with his fathers they buried him in the city of David and Jotham his son began to reign in his stead and in the 38th year of Azariah the king of Judah Zachariah who was the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel and he reigned for 6 months very short reign he did evil in the sight of the Lord and Shalom conspired against him and killed him and reigned in his stead now he was the 4th generation from Jehu so the Lord promised 4 generations to Jehu and with the death of Jeroboam that ends the line or the dynasty of Jehu and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled when he promised Jehu 4 generations Shalom conspired and killed him in order that he might have the throne and he reigned for a full month in Samaria isn't that the way it goes you know you spend your whole life to fulfill an ambition I'm finally there alright I've got it made and then you get wiped out so many people you know they finally, oh I've finally retired and in a month they're gone I was talking with an old railroad man down in Moundsville Virginia or West Virginia and he worked for the BLM railroad and he said I've been working for them for 57 years and I said well when are you going to retire and he got angry at me I said well I didn't mean to offend him but what's wrong he said when you retire from the railroad you die and he told me all of his friends that had retired and died within the year so he said you've got to just keep going so he was still going on a railroad and but here is one of those things of life you know it is interesting how so often when a person just gets to the place of the achieving of all of his dreams and goals that it sort of, remember in the New Testament Jesus told about this guy successful farmer and all and he said well what am I going to do my barns are full, oh I know what I'll do I'll tear down my barns and build bigger and all and the Lord said thou fool tonight your soul is going to be required here life hangs on such a tenuous string we need to be not laying up store for this life but laying up store for the life to come which will never end we put much too much into this life and emphasis into this life and much too little emphasis and input into the other life, the eternal life that we have and so he reigned for a month in Samaria and he was assassinated and the rest of his acts of conspiracy are written in the books of the Chronicles of Kings of Israel and Menahem smoked he became the king and he smoked the cities of Tifsa and all of the area around it Terza and he smoked it and he ripped up all of the pregnant women in the 39th year of Azariah the king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel he reigned for 10 years he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and during his reign Paul the king of Assyria came against the land and he bought him off with a thousand talents of silver which he exacted from all of the wealthy people in the land and his death is recorded in verse 21 and his acts the rest of them are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and in the 50th year of Azariah the king of Judah Pecahia the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel and he reigned for only 2 years and did evil in the sight of the Lord and Pecah who was the son of the captain conspired against him and killed him in Samaria so Pecahia was killed by Pecah and that's why getting into these kings can sometimes get confusing because of the various names and sometimes they have 2 names Pecah reigned over Israel beginning in the 52nd year of the last year of king Uzziah and he reigned for 20 years he did evil in the sight of the Lord and during his reign Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria took Ajahn and Abel-Makkah and Januah and Kadesh and Hazar and Gilead and all of the Galilee and the area of the tribe of Naphtali so all of the area around the sea of Galilee and upper Galilee and he carried captives to Syria so the northern kingdom is falling now more and more to Assyria Hosea the son of Elam made a conspiracy against Pecah, smote him and killed him and he reigned in his stead and in the 20th year of Jotham who was the son of Uzziah he began to reign and now we go back to Judah the son of Uzziah, Jotham in the 2nd year of Pecah the son of Ramaleah the king of Israel, Jotham began to reign in Judah he was 25 years old when he began to reign, he reigned for 16 years, his mother's name was Jerusha and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done except he did not remove the high places and his acts are told in 2nd Chronicles and we'll learn more about him later now in the 17th year of Pecah Ramaleah or the son of Ramaleah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah began to reign Ahaz the son of Jotham, so you have now an Ahaz reigning, you used to have an Ahaz in the northern tribe now you have one in the southern tribe he was 20 years old, he began to reign, he reigned for 16 years in Jerusalem but he was one of the rare bad kings in Judah he did not walk after the Lord like David his father, but walked after the ways of the kings of Israel in fact he caused his own children to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen that the Lord had cast out of the land before the children of Israel had come in, he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places in the hills under every green tree and Rezan the king of Syria and Pecah the son of Ramaleah both attacked him and so he sent to the king of Assyria and sent him money under Tiglath pleaser and asked for his help and Tiglath pleaser came down to Syria he took Damascus and Ahaz of course sort of bought him off and the king of Assyria began to strike against Syria and against Israel of course they called off their attack then on Ahaz and king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest saying upon the great altar when he was up there in Damascus the king of Assyria after taking Damascus he invited him to come up and see Damascus and when he got up there he saw an altar that attracted him and so he drew it out got the dimensions and then he went home and he said to the priest now I want you to build an altar like this and so they built another altar they took away the altar out of the temple and replaced it with this altar that was fashioned like unto the pagan altar that he had seen in Damascus also this great brass laver that was set upon these twelve brass oxen out in front of the temple he took it off and set it on the ground and just sort of desecrated the temple of God and sort of fashioned it after some of the pagan temples that he had seen there in Damascus and his death is recorded in the last couple of verses here now as we get into chapter 17 next week we'll find the reasons why Israel fell God lists to us the reasons why Israel went into captivity for we come to the end of the nation Israel next week and all the reasons are listed their failure to follow God and worship God now with knowledge comes responsibility and the Bible says that righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and as we get into the reasons for the fall of Israel to their enemies and as we sort of try to learn from history the lessons that we are going to learn will be bitter lessons indeed as we look at the United States today and we see how godless a nation we are becoming now there are people who have a hard time understanding the ways of God Habakkuk the prophet said to the Lord one day God please don't show me anything else because the nation is going downhill so fast it's so corrupt the leaders are so corrupt and God you're not doing anything about it and God said to Habakkuk I am doing something about it but if I told you what I was doing you wouldn't believe me Habakkuk said well try me Lord and so the Lord said alright I'm going to bring Babylon against Judah and they're going to take Judah captive why Lord would you do that? He said I told you you wouldn't believe me but he said hey we're bad that's true but they're worse than we are why would you use a nation that is worse than we are to punish us and he said because they don't know they're not my people but you are my people and you have turned from me and because you have known me knowledge brings responsibility and the failure to act to the knowledge is the thing that brings the judgment of God so that if God should use Russia as an instrument to punish the United States we'd have the same kind of mental problems that Habakkuk had Lord they're atheistic nation why would you use them to punish the United States it wouldn't be the first time in history that God used a godless nation to punish a once godly nation because the godly nation had turned from their godliness and had turned after idols and turned away from the living God therefore I would not be surprised to see God judge our nation I could surely not blame God for doing it because of the things that are going on in our nation today surely we must lead the world in pornography and in so many filthy things and in godlessness and we look at how we have sought to rule God out of our national life and how the courts are seeking to rule God out of our national life and we cannot and should not complain if God brings his judgment against this nation as we read the reasons why judgment was brought against Israel you'll see that God has every right to judge the United States and I believe he is going to and he's going to judge it severely but I think that judgment is going to fall after I'm gone when God was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah you remember what Abraham said to the Lord Lord shouldn't God be fair would you judge the righteous with the wicked what if there are 50 righteous there God said I will spare it for the 50 righteous hey you should feel very honored tonight because it is because of you that God is sparing the nation the judgment that is due it and God did not bring his judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah until he had first removed that righteous man lot and then the judgment fell I believe that God is going to remove his righteous church but then judgment such as the nation deserves will surely come from God we'll get into this more next week as we look at the fall of Israel the judgment of God and the reasons for that judgment so we stand may the Lord bless you and keep you and may he strengthen you through this week as you have to go out and mix in that world I pray that God will give you divine insulation by his Holy Spirit that will just sort of ward off all of the evil influences that are pointed in your direction that surround you daily when you're on the job or in your classroom or just dealing with this corrupt system I pray that God will just help you to keep your mind and heart fixed upon him and that you'll look above the corruption of this world and that you'll be strengthened as we look to him our only hope but who is our strength and our defense