2 Kings 6, and we'll begin in verse
24 and go to the end of the chapter. This is number 17 in our studies
of the life and miracles of Elisha. As I read this, this is not a
very digestible section of Scripture. It's a full display of man's
depravity. We won't see a miracle here. The miracle is going to come
after this, I thought I'd just break it up. So, 2 Kings 6, verse
24-33. Verse 24, it states, And it came
to pass after this, that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his
hosts, and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great
famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it, until an ass's
head sold for four score pieces of silver, and the fourth part
of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. And as the
king of Israel was passing upon the wall, there cried a woman
unto him, saying, help me, my lord, O king. And he said, if
the Lord did not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the
barn floor or out of the wine press. And the king said unto
her, What aileth thee? And she answered and said, This
woman said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him today,
and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat
him. And I said unto her, On the next
day give thy son that we may eat him. And she hath hid her
son. And it came to pass, when the
king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and
he passed by upon the wall, that the people looked, and the people
looked, and behold, he had sackcloth upon his flesh. Then the king
said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha,
the son of Saphat, shall stand on him this day. But Elisha sat
in his house, and the elders sat with him, and the king sent
a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to
him, he said to the elders, See how this son of a murderer hath
sent to take away mine head. Look, when the messenger comes,
shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound
of his master, or the king's feet, behind him. And while he
yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto
him, and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What shall
I wait for the Lord any longer? And that's what we'll stop. Bruce,
would you lead us in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we again
come tonight to worship you. We pray, Lord, you'd be glorified
in our time of worship. Give through the words we need
to hear. I'm going to preach it in the spirit that you desire.
Lord, we all have things on our hearts and our minds that burden
us and worry us and we're concerned about, concerned about friends
and family and our country and all these things. Lord, I pray
that as we see you in the message, you can set our hearts at ease
in all these areas. Thank you, Lord, that you call
us unto yourself and that you do care for your children. We
just pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now before I go any further,
that last verse in chapter 6, it looks as though the messenger
is speaking, but let me re-read it in the amplified version.
That makes a little bit more sense. And while Elijah was talking
with them, lo, the messenger came to him, and then the king
also came. And the king said, this evil
is from the Lord. Why should I longer wait or expect
him to withdraw his punishment? what Elijah can be done now.
So it's actually the king is speaking because he's coming
right in behind him is what it says in the preceding verse and
so we see that the king is the one that's speaking that last
thought. But before we get to that, Let's
go back to verse 24 and let's look at this King Benedad. Now,
we kind of mentioned this before, the previous lesson, how this man had seen and experienced
God's general kindness to him. First off, we'll look at 1 Kings
20, He was shown kindness at Ahab's, wicked Ahab, the king
of Israel, Ahab's hands. Let's look at this. This is King
Benadab, 1 Kings chapter 20. And this is when the king which is
there now is Jehoram, which is the son of Ahab. He's the son of this wicked king
and he himself is wicked. But Benadab in chapter 20, verse
1 of 1 Kings, And Benadab the king of Syria gathered all his
host together, and there were thirty and two kings with him,
thirty-two kings, and horses, chariots. And they went up to
besiege Samaria and warred against it. And he sent messengers to
Ahab king of Israel into the city and said unto him, Thus
saith Benadab, Thy silver and thy gold is mine, Thy wives also
and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine." So he's sending messengers,
he's threatening them. And your camels, he says later
on, and your servants, I'm just going to come and take them.
Well, Ahab goes to council with the elders and they said, don't
say yes, even though the king of Syria was over. They said
no. Play the man, play the man, as
we would say today. So, the king of Israel, verse
11, which is Ahab, answered and said, tell him, let him not that
girth on his harness boast himself as he hath put it off. You know,
don't speak so proudly. Okay, so he said, okay, well,
we're going to go ahead and besiege you. We're going to go ahead
and war against you. Well, then the man of God, which
I think is Elijah, He went and talked to him and he said, no,
the Lord is going to take him out. The Lord is going to take
care of him. And so what we find is then later in verse 30, as
the war is going against the Syrians, verse 30, but the rest
fled. Now these are the Syrians. They
fled Apec into the city and there was a wall. They fell upon 20
and 7,000 men that were left. And Benedad fled and came into
the city into an inner chamber. And his servants said unto him,
behold, now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel
are merciful kings. Let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth
on our loins and ropes on our heads or around our necks and
go to the king of Israel. Peradventure, he will save thy
life. Well, that's exactly what he did. And now he's pleading
for mercy. He wouldn't have it. He was just
going to march in there and take care of the king himself. Ben-Hadab
was, but Ahab withstood him and God was with him. And so Ben-Hadab,
verse 34, did said unto him, the cities which my father took
from your father I will restore. and thou shalt make streets,
I'll make streets for thee in Damascus as my father made in
Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee
away with this covenant." So they made a covenant with one
another and sent them away. Mercy number one. Of course,
Ahab kind of got in trouble. He said you should have killed
him. He didn't kill him. Mercy number one. merciful situation we talked
about. We saw Nahum's restoration. He was the chief general of the
whole army that Ben-Hadad had. He saw the power and the working
and the wonder of God, the God in Israel. That's what he saw. But, no remorse, no repentance, and
no faith by this King Ben-Hadad. Turn with me to Romans chapter
2. Romans 2. And this should be
a warning to all of us here in this city, this state, this country. Romans 2. And verse 4, despisest thou the riches
of God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? We see, folks,
And that's what we tell them. The goodness of God. The things
that we see. The privileges we have. These are God's goodnesses. They should lead us to repentance.
But it doesn't do that. Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Ecclesiastes
chapter 8 and verse 11. Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons
of men is fully set in them to do evil." That's what we're seeing
in this country right now. That's what we've always seen.
This is what we're seeing here. There's nothing new under the
sun. It's the same. It's just the same loop. Israel.
I'm sorry, Israel. Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 26. This is interesting here. I've never seen this before. Isaiah 26 and verse 10. Let favor be showed to the wicked,
yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of the uprightness
will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the
Lord." That's a good verse. That's what we see in our nice
neighbors, in our not-so-nice neighbors, in our government,
etc., etc. This is what we see. These passages
are most certainly true, yet the wicked will not heed their
dire warning. That's the first point. King
Benedict. The second point is, again, it's
pretty... I'll just go ahead with this.
It's the famine. Now we see this in verse 25-29. There's a great famine in Samaria.
And also the city is besieged. So we don't know if this famine
was because of the besiege in the city that no supplies could
come or go. It's like the Alamo. There's
nothing coming or going. Or if it's the city being besieged
and there was already a drought, plus a drought. So we don't know
what this drought, what this famine is going on. There's a
great famine in Samaria, plus you got there besieged until
these animal parts are sold for food at exorbitant rates. This situation here, and I ask
you this, and I ask myself this every day, and I ask us that
this needs to be asked in this country, in this time, and right
now. Was God still on the throne here? Was God still sovereign
and in control of everything that's going on? To the believer,
there's only one answer. Scripturally, absolutely. This
famine, this besieging, this Ben-Adab, this whole thing was
of God. Whether it came, whether they
expected it, the Israelites in Samaria or not, this is not out
of God's providential control. He controls everything. Every
single thing. I tell you what, somebody wrote
about this, the prodigal, you remember the prodigal, what he
was eating? The husks that the pigs that eat, that would be
quite a meal here. I mean, he had it good and we
saw how bad he had it. But this is terrible. We haven't
seen this kind of thing, I don't even know when. The concentration
camps, the people were so skinny, that perhaps, the prodigal had
more to eat than these folks. We don't know, in this country,
in this town, we don't know this kind of suffering at all. And
I hope we don't, for our kids, grandkids, I hope we don't see
it. But my point is, over all this, God is on the throne. So what's the relevance today?
Well, every event in our short history of America is under God's
watchful eyes and his providential dealing with us. If you want
to call the troubles that we are experiencing now wars, rumors
of war, Korea, China, the virus. If you want to call this God's
judgment or not, I don't know. Jack Shanks, when he was writing
this, there was something going on and he wrote it, this commentary
10 or 15 years ago. Something was going on then.
Something's always going on. But whether it's the virus or
whether it's, I saw one of the mountains, there's word about
Mount St. Helens or one of the mountains out east, there's word
about that going off, there's word about Yellowstone, there's
word about all these different things. Whether it's God's judgment
or not, we must, through scriptural honesty, say, this is of God. He's got His hand on it. It doesn't
take Him by surprise. He controls every molecule, every
plague, every disease, and everything else. And we've talked about this before.
Every time Israel would get besieged, there were some elect in there.
There were some elect in there that had to deal with the same
things. I pray that we would acknowledge this and we would
trust Him that He is right in this and every other thing ordering
all these things for our lives. That we would have true faith
and not fear but snuggle up to Christ, remembering, as Corinthians
says, He is for us and not against us, and He does all things for
us. And I got to thinking, we always say, we've talked about
this for years, the believer, once he comes to Christ, he keeps
coming to Christ. Peter says, unto whom coming?
And the believer continually, he repents. It's not a one-time
act, and then it's over. because we're in the flesh. So
we're constantly asking the Lord to forgive us. So I ask us to
examine ourselves. Let us flee to Christ. Somebody
called me today and I said, when situations like this happen in
this country, the government, whatever's going on, riots or
whatever, it doesn't matter. Spanish flu, West Nile virus,
the ones that came from the bird, all these different crises. I think the believer would be
like Job and say, you know, maybe my kids have sinned. Maybe I've
sinned. The believer always takes the
low road. And I'm not saying this is judgment.
I don't have no idea. There's differing views on it.
It doesn't matter. I know God's on the throne. But the believer
says, maybe I've not sought His face. Maybe I've sinned. And
who confess our sins? He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. Always examine yourself first, because the unbelievers,
they don't have a clue. They're lawless. They don't have
a clue. And we saw these last several verses. They don't care. Remember our text here. This
is a horrible, humanly speaking, time in Israel's history, yet
the Lord, and we'll see this next week, well the week after,
chapter 7, He delivered them out of it all. They didn't even
have to go to war. He delivered them out of them
all. Basically, what the believer
knows is, and I'll just read it to you and you'll know it
in Romans 9, this is what we know without
a doubt. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had been as Sodom
and made like a Nagamora. Who makes us to differ? It's
only the grace of God. Now, I'm not saying anybody here...
I'm just saying, if anybody understands sin, it's us. Confess it. And I've talked to several pastors
about this and they agree. Judgment must begin at the house
of God first. And we know what the weight of sin is. And a lot
of times we don't even know we sinned. Let's confess it. And
let's move on. Okay, the third thought I have
here is this King Jehoram. Now how is he? He's a wonderful
guy. He repented or did sackcloth
and asses. Ah, that was just for show. 2
Kings chapter 3. This is the third point. King
Jehoram. Chapter 3, verse 1, Now Jehoram
the son of Ahab, and you remember him, you remember his wife was
Jezebel, they were both wicked, began to reign over Israel in
Samaria, the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned 12
years. And look at verse 2 and 3, He
wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, but not quite like
his father, like his mother, but he put away the images of
Baal, that his father had made. Nevertheless, he cleaved unto
the sins of Jeroboam and the son of Naphat, which made Israel
to sin. He departed not therefrom." So
we've got a wicked king. So we've got two wicked kings. Let's look at his testimony.
2 Kings 6, verse 27. This woman comes to him for help. And he answers, if God doesn't
help you, what am I going to do? Rather flippant. Rather flippant. And he's answering in anger,
as all self-righteous people do, why is this coming upon me? Why is this coming upon this
great nation of America? It's because we're all sinners,
and the believer knows that, and understands that, acknowledges
that, confesses that, and goes forward. And then in verse 30, that's
verse 27, verse 30, it came to pass the king heard the words
of the woman and he rent his clothes as he passed by upon
the wall and the people saw. They looked. And behold, he had
sackcloth upon his flesh. Outward show of religion. He's
not convinced in his heart. He's mad at God for this total
situation. And what's he going to do? He's
going to go after God's prophet, the man of God, the preacher,
the believer. If you can't get God, they've
already tried to go up to the Tower of Babel. It didn't work.
They can't touch God. So he said, God, do so more also
to me. Better be careful. If the head
of Elisha, the son of Saphat, shall stand on this day, he's
threatening his murder. How do we know this is not real
repentance, faith, and humility? I read to you chapter 3, verse
1-3. He just continued on with the sins of his parents, his
parents Ahab and Jezebel, most of them. He pitied the people,
but he had no sorrow for his own sins. It's like, oh, this
poor woman situation. How easy is it to adapt and outward piety and the niceties
of Christless religion." Let's look at some scriptures. Zechariah
chapter 7. It's very easy to put on a facade,
because we can't see the heart, but God does, how easy it is
to adapt outward piety and the niceties of Christless religion. Now, we're talking about the
depravity of man here. Zechariah chapter 7, verse 5, 6 and 7. Speak unto all people of the
land and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in
the fifth and seventh month, even those seven years, did you
at all fast unto Me, even to Me? They're doing it for outward
show. They've got the clothes, they've
got the garb, they've got the garment, they've got the office.
But God's saying, you're doing this, but you're not doing it
to me, you're doing it for show. And when you did eat, and when
you did drink, did not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves,
how much am I going to get paid? standing behind the pulpit, or
whatever it may be. Verse 7, Should ye not hear the words
which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem
was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round
about her when the men inhabited the south and the plain? They
should have, but they didn't. Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter
32. And verse 6, Exodus 32. And verse 6 is talking about the people.
They rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings,
and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat
and to drink, and then they rose up to play. They rose up to play. Worship. They were just kind
of wanting to get through it. Is the preacher still talking?
He's talking five minutes longer than he normally does. They're
just going through it. And they're raising up the play
afterwards. They're not going back home and
speaking over the message or talking about it or whatever.
It's just something else comes up. Did you see the news today?
Did you see the weather? All these different things. And
we do talk about these things. I'm not saying we can't. But
I'm saying we need to be careful because it's easy to adapt in
outward piety and the niceties of religion. He says the same thing in 1 Corinthians
10. We won't turn there, but if you
get time, when you go home, look at Malachi 1, verses 6-14. They're bringing wounded animals
to sacrifice. They're not doing what they were
told to do. They're half-hearted. They're
not even into worshiping and worshiping the Lord Christ. Well,
let's go back to our text. Look at verse 31. He says, I'm
going to go kill Elisha. He's threatened towards the prophet. He hates God. He hates his followers.
That's depravity. Verse 32, Elisha calls him the
son of a murderer. That's depravity. That's gracelessness. And in verse 33, the king is
speaking. He comes right behind the messenger,
as I read in the Amplified Version. And what he's saying is, let's
see what the Lord can do for you now. You're in my hands. And also what he's saying, and
we hear this a lot in 2020, God owes me kindness, not this mess
that I'm going through. I've served Him. I've been a
deacon. I've been an elder. I've given to the church. I've
given to the missionary. I'm somebody. I don't deserve
this. Therefore, I will never trust
a God like this. Tim James says, What's Ralph
Barnard? He gets it from Ralph Barnard.
People say God's a monster. And Ralph would say, when you
die, get ready to meet a monster. We know Him as merciful and compassionate.
But this world, any little thing that happens, why is this happening
to me? That's not the attitude. And
I know we can do this in the flesh. This is warning. These
are warnings about our flesh and depravity. We put no confidence
in the flesh, is what Paul said. So, the truth that we, if we
are not like these two kings, the truth is that we owe everything
to the super-bounding grace of God found squarely in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're different, and we know
what's right and what's wrong, it's only because He has given
us grace to do that. May our Lord reveal to us our
own hearts, examine ourselves, and may He soften them to love
Christ and obey Him singularly. Let me close by reading J.C. Ryle, not even on this text,
it's just a good quote. The very hairs of believers'
heads are numbered. Their steps are ordered by the
Lord, All things work together for their good. When they are
afflicted, it is for their profit. When they are sick, it is for
some wise purpose. All things are said to be theirs,
life, death, things present, things to come. There is no such
thing as chance, luck, or accident in the life of a believer. There
is one thing needful in order to make a believer calm, quiet,
unruffled, and undisturbed in every circumstance. That one
thing is faith in active exercise. For such faith, let us pray. Because if we have faith, we
have grace. Let us pray to walk in faith
and not in fear. I can't imagine the hardship
that those people were going through. And some of them were
elect, I'm sure. know that He has the kings, politicians,
every person's heart in His hand. And He'll turn it for us, and
if it seems against us, we submit to His wise decision, His wise
purpose. And that's how we should live.
Now I know, tomorrow, something's going to hit me upside the head. We don't excuse that. The believer
has no excuse but to trust Christ. And we know that His Spirit will
echo when He cries. It will echo. It will call back.
That's what I was looking at in that passage I was telling
Bruce about. That's the working of the Spirit. He calls and we
respond because we can't help but love Him, obey Him, and worship
Him. Nathan, would you close us please?
Heavenly Father, we ask that there is a time when we are under
such a famine or whatever trial we have that we first