The Spawns of Nebat
Days of Elijah • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsWalk in the right side of history by following the Lord of history
Notes
Transcript
ME
I like Korean dramas. There, I said it.
No, not the love dramas, I will leave it for those who love the story of two people fall in love, then one has cancer, or lost their memory, or came from out of space, or something else tragic.
I like the Korean dynasty dramas. There’s one called Empress Ki about this female warrior who became first a concubine then struggle through the harem and became the Empress.
I like also Dong Yi, a slave who became the top ranking concubine who as a court lady inspector and much love and respected by the people she comes from.
I also like Jewel in the palace, the first woman to become royal cook and physician.
WE
What is it about dynastic dramas, as I like to call them, that captivates us?
It’s how human everyone behaves, and we can relate to them in our lives. Political intrigues so crazy you’d think it’s like everyday in your workplace. Characters so fascinating you want to cheer on the good guys or gals (did you notice all of those dramas feature the rise of woman from humble beginnings) and villains so vile you want to throw something at the TV for how easily tricked the other good guy (usually the King) is to fall for their tricks. It’s the stuff of life. Love, jealousy, envy, ambition, greed, power, good, evil. Every drama has it.
Perhaps this is why I decided after 2 Corinthians, a letter with just as much drama in the New Testament for a year, I would look at a different genre altogether in a series I term Days of Elijah, yes, named after the worship song by Robin Mark back in the 90s for those who like a little bit of nostalgia (though some people still don’t know what the song actually means).
GOD
We begin to look at the days and the life of Elijah this week by looking at the context. What was happening around 900 - 800 BC in the Kingdom of Israel? Who were the main players? What was David’s dynasty like? What actions did they do to promote or threaten Israel’s exclusive worship of the LORD? Why was Elijah and many other prophets raised so we now have household names like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel and the lesser know minor prophets (minor not because they are inconsequential, but minor because comparatively they wrote shorter books, and I do say comparatively because Hosea for example is still 14 chapters long!)?
I encourage you to read all of 1 Kings 16, or if you have the time and the desire to read all of 1 Kings! It really is a fascinating group of books. Originally 1 Kings and 2 Kings are simply the book of Kings, and according to some scholar belong to a set of history beginning with Joshua, then Judges, Book of Samuels, Book of Kings, and ending with the Book of Chronicles. Since the book ends on the exile of the last King of Judah, it would have to have been written after 550 BC. Again, there’s dispute whether it’s written by one person or a group of people, whether in parts or as a whole. What’s important is since it’s written after the Exile, it belongs in a category of narratives (stories with character, plots, conflicts and resolution) known as prophetic narratives, whose audience would be those in Exile to learn how did we get from entering the promise land, raising up the Davidic dynasty, to our eventual downfall under the hands of the two superpowers Assyria and Bablyon? It’s instructive for us as well to learn how a faithful people veered off to the point of no return, how we are not to follow the way of Nebat (more on that later), and personally it’s just fun to read dynastic dramas!
Since we are setting up the stage, it’s important to know what happened in broad brush strokes. King David consolidated all of Israel under the blessing of God, and Solomon his son succeeded him, the wisest King in the land. Unfortunately, he dabbled with the foreign policy of intermarriage with foreigners, and thus revive the worship of other minor deities as he marries into those religions and conscripted slaves from his own people to build the Temple and his royal palace. Idolatry started festering, and by his son Rehoboam’s time, both wisdom and compasssion were lost, that when the leader of the slaves Jeroboam asked for mercy from the overbearing loads King Solomon has laid on their back, he was received (like Pharaoh’s response) harshly, and he took ten tribes and formed the Kingdom of Israel whereas David’s line have Judah and Benjamin remaining faithful to form the Kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam was made king by the people, but from the get go even though God had promised King Jeroboam a kingdom for the sins of Solomon, he did not remain faithful to God and made two golden calves and high places with temples assigned with priests not from the Levites as God prescribed. So God told Jeroboam’s wife her husband’s sin:
7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israel 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, 9 but you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back, 10 therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.
And here’s the point as we end this quick dive into the Kingdom of Israel’s history:
Jeroboam in many other places in the Bible is known as the son of Nebat. The sin of idolatry (by making other gods from metal images and worshipping them) became the pattern we will see over and over again in the Kings of Israel, with very few exceptions. Whether descendants of the throne directly with blood lineage to him or through assassinations, military coups, civil wars those attributed to the title of King of Israel, you will see so and so King walked in the way of Jeroboam in which he made Israel sin (15:33; 16:19, 26, 31), for the sins of Jeroboam (15:30), being like the house of Jeroboam (16:7).
Jeroboam becomes the curse that overshadowed Israel’s dynasty. All who are covered are Spawns of Nebat. The antagonist to everything God stands for.
So where is the hope?
For every antagonist, every villain, every idolater and sinner, God, even in these 14 verses of seemingly hopeless brooding of evil dynasties and empire, has good news for all of us. We can summarize it as this:
Walk in the right side of history by following the Lord of history
Let’s take a look at how God still, explicitly or implicitly, shines forth in these evil days:
I. Kings come and go, but their godless feat becomes a footnote (21-28)
I. Kings come and go, but their godless feat becomes a footnote (21-28)
Sorry, even more history, but bear with me because at least I find it fascinating!
21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri.
What happened? There’s several features to the curse of Jeroboam, one of which is assassinations. Follow me here: Baasha became King of Israel by killing all of Jeroboam’s remaining offsprings as God promised him king, but he remain faithless and follow the way of Jeroboam. Then Baasha's son Elah is assassinated by Zimri, the commander of half his chariots (someone says dejavu), in a conspiracy. But Zimri also was faithless and followed the ways of Jeroboam, so Omri, King Elah’s commander over the army, was made king by the people of Israel. In fact, Zimri was king for no more then seven days, hiding in the capital of the kingdom at the time called Tizrah. When he was besieged he said, you know what, if they are going to take me, they can take a burnt out city with me. Ironic Tizrah means pleasantness, but it’s probably better named charred. Omri had a rival named Tibni and half made one king, half made the other king. Eventually though Omri won and became king. But Tizrah is too charred perhaps to rebuild, so King Omri decided to look for a fortified hill that can rival Tizrah and bought such a militarily strategic location for two talents of silver, and named it after Shemer the owner, and called it Samaria, or watch-mountain. Yes, the same Samaria from which we get the Samaritan that Tim was talking about last week. That’s a big deal! No one remembers Tizrah being the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, but everyone remembers Samaria.
Case in point, King Omri historically did many things: he forced the conspirator Zimri to die of suicide, he had four years of Civil war and prevailed over Tibni, a rival for the throne, he moved the capital city and built in into a mighty fortress. In verse 27, it says:
27 Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
The might that he showed, and yet he walked in all the way of of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and did MORE than those before him, this mighty king in human eyes which even Moabites and Ammonites have inscriptions in his honour... is but a footnote, a mere 8 verses within the Book of Kings. Why? Because he was not faithful to God, and he merely ruled for twelve years, half in Tizrah and half in Samaria.
25 Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him. 26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.
He did more evil then his predecessors combined! Now we shouldn’t necessarily follow the logic bad kings rule shorter, good kings rule longer, because there are exceptions, yet one cannot help but see his counterpart in Judah just peering out from time to time as one cursed king comes, and another king goes.
Which leads to our second point:
II. Each succession has a choice to repeat evil or do good (25-26, 30-33)
II. Each succession has a choice to repeat evil or do good (25-26, 30-33)
Starting from verse 8:
8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years.
Then, we see in verse 10 and 15 Zimri died on the 27th year of Asa King of Judah, then Omri was crowned in the 31st year of Asa, and Omri’s son Ahab on the 38th year of Asa. You can’t help but see four kings, two dynasties from Baasha to Omri until Ahab Judah has absolute political stability. If you’ve read 1 Kings 15 you will know Asa ruled a total of 41 years in Judah, and this is his legacy in 1 Kings 15:11
11 And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done.
The contrast cannot be more clear: Asa followed the LORD faithfully, receiving the promise and blessing given to King David his father (more like his ancestors) has done.
Blessing and curse?
David or Jeroboam?
The sons of David or the Spawns of Nebat?
As I said before, the Kings of Judah have a mixed bag of faithful and faithless kings, but the Kings of Israel just repeat the curse of Jeroboam and its evil. Could they have chosen differently? You may say well if you are born in an evil family, you are more likely to continue in your father’s ways. Or if you were born in a good family, you are more likely to continue to do good. Yet if you read the Book of Kings, that is not necessarily true. King Hezekiah who was good gave birth to King Manasseh, who should be a spawn of Nebat! Asa had a terrible mother Macaah and an evil father King Abijam who brought evil through worshipping Asherah to mother of Baal, wife of El the Canaanite god, yet he was able to depose his own mother!
The whole point is each King can choose in their generation to do good or further evil, so let’s see how King Ahab, son of Omri did.
30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
Terrible! First Ahab was awarded the same commentary by the writer of the Book of Kings he did more evil then all who were before him, like father, like son! (In fact, Ahab’s name means like my father in Hebrew). He certainly is! And then three comments, something new to the effect as if it’s a trivial thing to follow the sins of Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, a Sidonian, a worshipper of Baal, the thunderstorm and fertility god, the spiritual antagonist in all these books. Why was Baal worship so popular? Because all the nations in Israel and surrounding regions are agrarian in nature, and who promises if you will worship me, I will provide you rain for your crops and your prosperity? Baal of course! You know who else is a provider of rain, and all of life and growth, the LORD God! So Ahab had a choice, to trust God alone provides, or to worship Baal? Didn’t anyone let him know marrying Jezebel is bad news, heck, his father-in-law’s name has Baal written in it, literally means living with Baal! All the warning signs and yet Ahab just dived right in! He brought Baal right into his living room through this strategic marriage. (Yes, it is true this intermarriage may have political and economic motivations to ensure stability from the North with the Phonecians in Tyre, to prevent the possibility of an Assyrian invasion). But how does he explain Asherah? Yes, the same Asherah which wreaked havoc in the Kingdom of Judah until Asa removed it!? That’s why the Bible not once, but twice in verse 33 again, wraps up this King’s legacy with angering the Lord, the God of Israel, than ALL THE KINGS OF ISRAEL WHO WERE BEFORE HIM!
Which leads to our third point:
III. The Lord remains Lord of history, unchanging in character and promise (25-26, 30, 33, 34)
III. The Lord remains Lord of history, unchanging in character and promise (25-26, 30, 33, 34)
This point is a subtle one, because we already went through the same verses in our second point. Do you see it? “God is provoked by the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat.” It’s bad news for sinners, but good news to the righteous? Why? God every remains constant in his character, detesting sin and evil, and as we saw earlier with King Asa of Judah, lovingly protects and uplifts the righteous. He will not accept the idolatry of rival gods like Baal and Asherah because he knows his people will be led astray to worshipping what’s not true, an idol (which literally means breath, vapour, ). That’s why the NIV and some other translation always add worthless in front of the word idol (v. 13). God ever remains the good LORD and bearer of truth. He ever remains for his people, but if his people goes astray, he will be angered and will bring about judgment, not so he can flex his muscles, even though sometimes it does feel or seem like that, but so his people will be corrected! We can trust and depend on God because he doesn’t waver, he can’t be bribed, and wants what’s best for us. History is unfolding even in this dark period with his servant Elijah on the horizon, and he ever remains LORD of Israel and Judah. This should give us great comfort.
A more obscure reference lies in verse 34:
34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.
This verse seems to be a weird ending to the chapter. Wouldn’t it make more sense to end on verse 33 with the character sketch of Ahab the God-provoking idolater? What’s this all about? Well, it is based on a promise God made through Joshua about the city of Jericho to his people from Joshua 6:26
26 Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
“At the cost of his firstborn shall he
lay its foundation,
and at the cost of his youngest son
shall he set up its gates.”
Now someone has gone ahead, knowing the curse he and his family will incur, Hiel, which ironically means God lives, defying the very God his name bears, and rebuild what should never be rebuilt, at the cost of his family. This almost reminds us of those famous verses in Judges:
“In those days there were no kings, everyone did what is right in their eyes.”
And it is in this godless times our protagonist, Elijah the Tishbite, who represents THE Protagonist the LORD our God comes on the scene.
YOU
But now let’s consider the three points and how they can apply to us:
I. It’s the old cliche, but history is HIS STORY. We as individuals, the way we raise our kids, love our spouse, honour our parents, work faithfully at the vocation we were given to glorify God and love our neighbours (and families) as ourselves. On top of that, we have been given the great commandment AND the great commission to make disciples of all nations. Life is fleeting, just look at someone like Zimri, who didn’t even last for more than seven days as king, or Omri, who overcome a civil war, built a new capital city, and ensure a legacy for his son. Their life is but a footnote in the Bible. What legacy do you want to leave which God is calling you towards? How might you do everything in the name of the LORD?
II. Some of us today have been making a terrible choice, we know it, maybe our love ones don’t know it yet, but you do, your conscience do, and you know you could be on a self-destructive or life destructive path and you are looking for hope and guidance to correct your course. Well, today’s message might be a reminder to us we need a course correction. A course correction in your relationships, in your finance, in your habits, in life and in faith. Where is one place God is stirring in your heart today to make a course correction, before you end up like Omri, 8 verses, and being labelled a provoker of God, walking in the ways of evil. Start with a conversation with God. Confess to someone. Whatever you do, do something, by the power of the Spirit.
III. Lastly, some of us may have lost our faith because of COVID-19. Or some unforeseen circumstance. Or you look at what’s happening around the world, down South, maybe even how Christians are behaving, denying justice and racism on the one hand, and violence and so polarized you can’t even talk to one another. That’s what the world is seeing as the church, the followers of Jesus Christ. Well, I want to reassure you Jesus is still our Saving King, and he still reigns over all of creation. As we said earlier, Kings come and go, but the one true King never fails, is always good, just, and faithful. He will never turn a blind eye to the hurting, never compromise his integrity and speak lies.
MCBC! Brothers and sisters, and friends. Let us stand on God’s side of history, let us correct our course, whatever it is, to set our sight on the prize of God’s plan and purpose, and let us allow him to write in our lives a story so worth living that we will leave a faith legacy for the generations to come!
Let’s pray.