Sermon Tone Analysis

I Kings 20-22

 

! Introduction

            I am really bad at playing video games.

A few seconds into the game and zap, I have used up all my lives and the game is over.

For me this is frustrating, for those of you who are good at these games, you take this as a challenge.

There is no mercy or margin of error in a video game.

You either play right and keep going, or play wrong and the game is over.

The rules are very clear and very clearly defined.

There is no middle road, there is no lee-way.

You know right away if you have done it right or wrong.

What if it was like that in life?

Do you remember the story of Ananias & Sapphira?

The early church was growing and people were really catching on to what it meant to walk with Christ.

One of the things they were doing was unloading a lot of investments in order to share all things with each other.

Everyone was doing it.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to participate and so they also sold some land.

When they brought the proceeds to the apostles for distribution, they were trying to make a good impression and said that the money they were bringing was what they sold the land for.

In reality, they had kept some back.

Their wrong was not that they kept some back, but that they lied in order to make themselves look good.

Ananias was the first one who came with his portion of the money and as soon as his lie was uncovered, he fell down dead.

A little while later, Sapphira came and gave her portion and she also immediately died.

There was no lee-way.

They had played the game wrong and God’s judgement on their sin was immediate, their life was over.

What if that happened all the time?

It is a good thing that it does not because there would be few of us left standing.

However, because God is gracious and gives us lots of time to change and is very patient with us, we sometimes become a little careless about how we live and we may even begin to think that just because God’s judgement is not immediate, that it is not going to come.

As we come to the conclusion of our study of I Kings, we will learn that God does not ignore our disobedience and we will learn that He judges sin.

There are three stories we will look at today from I Kings 20-22.

They tell us about what happened to Ahab.

We have seen in the past messages, that Ahab was a wicked king with an even more wicked wife, Jezebel.

We learned about the contest that Elijah proposed which would bring Israel back to God.

Did they return?

What happened to Ahab?

As we look at these stories, we will notice that they are difficult in some ways.

It is hard to understand some of the things that are happening here.

I will not be able to answer every question, nor will I attempt to.

In spite of these challenges, the main point is quite clear and I will focus on that.

The message of this passage is clear, but not pleasant and in many ways, I would prefer not to preach this message, but it is the Word of God and so it is necessary to examine it and apply it to our life.

It will challenge us to live in a right relationship with God.

!

I. God Doesn’t Ignore Disobedience I Kings 20:1-43

            The first story concerns Ben-Hadad who was the king of Aram.

Aram was North East of Israel and also known as Syria.

Ben-Hadad was more powerful than Israel and instead of attacking Israel, offered terms in which Aram would be in charge of Israel and get tribute from her and would defend her but not attack her.

The terms of peace are found in 20:3(read).

Ahab agreed to these terms even though they seem rather harsh because he understood them to be simply a figure of speech.

It was like saying, “you are my master, but I will keep on ruling in my land, under you.

You own me, but will leave me alone.”

But then Ben-Hadad violated this understanding.

He actually sent to Ahab and demanded that all these things be given to him.

It was a clearly attempt to provoke Ahab to war.

When Ahab heard this demand, he responded that it was asking too much and refused to pay up.

Instead, he prepared for war.

We see a lot of good in Ahab.

A prophet came and told him that he would win the battle.

Ahab inquired of the Lord about how he should go into battle.

God told him to go against the vast armies of Ben-Hadad with a small force of merely 7000 men led by young officers.

It was clear that he defeated the Arameans by the power of God.

When they returned the next spring, reasoning that the God of Israel was a god of the hills and the next time they would attack them on the plains, God again provided victory to demonstrate that he was God over all.

After this second defeat, Ben-Hadad went to Ahab to ask for terms of peace.

He offered to make a treaty and Ahab granted it and set him free.

There was only one problem with this.

God had wanted Ben-Hadad put to death.

A prophet enacted a story in which he asked someone to beat him up.

In that beat up state, he went to meet Ahab and told him the story that he had been guarding a prisoner at the cost of his life and the prisoner had escaped.

When Ahab pronounced his sentence, the prophet pointed out that Ahab had done this very thing.

We read of the wrong of Ahab in 20:42.

It is a little hard for us to understand this.

We may wonder why God would want him put to death and how that fits with the character of God.

The idea of things devoted to destruction is found in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 20:16-18 where we read, “However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.

Completely destroy them…as the LORD your God has commanded you.

Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.” 

            Ahab must have known that God had determined that Ben-Hadad had done enough evil in this world and that the time for his destruction had come.

Although we see that Ahab did many good things, yet the main point of the story is that he failed to obey God completely.

He knew what God’s will was and he was held accountable for failing to live up to it.

The application for us is equally clear and that is that God does not ignore disobedience.

He did not in the case of Ahab, but held him accountable.

He did not in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, but held them accountable.

He will also hold us accountable for the things that we do wrong.

We may think that our sin is no serious thing.

We don’t know what Ahab thought when he let Ben-Hadad go free.

He might have been belittling the seriousness of disobedience to God, he may have had a greater fear of future conflicts with the Arameans than of God.

Whatever the case, I doubt if he thought that he would be so quickly held accountable for his wrongdoing.

We need to understand and be very sure that we know that we are not getting away with anything.

God always will hold us accountable for the things that we do wrong.

A number of years ago we heard about a young girl who wanted to go to a party with her boyfriend.

Her parents had gone away for the weekend, but had told her that she should not go.

While they were gone, she borrowed her father’s truck and went to the party.

On the way home, she rolled the truck and was severely injured.

She was in a coma for a few weeks and then died.

Whether it is immediate or takes many years, Numbers 32:23 warns us, “you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”

!

II.

Continuing in Sin Brings God’s Judgement I Kings 21:1-26

            The story in the next chapter takes this warning one step further.

God does not ignore our disobedience and if we continue in disobedience, His judgement will be pronounced on us.

Ahab had a home in Jezreel, which was about 20 miles north of Samaria in the hills.

Near his property, there was a vineyard owned by Naboth.

Ahab wanted this vineyard and made an offer to Naboth.

It was a fair offer, but for reasons that appear to have a religious component to them, Naboth was unwilling to sell.

He speaks about not selling the inheritance of his fathers and it may be that he was referring to the law in Leviticus 25:23 which said, “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

Whatever the case, Naboth was not willing to sell and Ahab was mad.