2 Chronicles 21-22
We
left off looking at the life of Jehoshaphat – one of the godly kings – One of 3
really stands out
A) Man who sought God –
walked with God – who’s only real problem was ungodly associations
B) One of the worst things
Jehoshaphat ever did was arrange the marriage of his son Jehoram to Ath/a/liah, the daughter of the evil
king Ahab and his wife Jezebel.
Perhaps some people thought
that the marriage between the royal families of the
Instead, it brought the
Usually
the way that it is – Flesh is week -
Satan pulls – Dan pull up!
RD V.1-5
Jehoshaphat does the same
thing that King Rehoboam had done – He spreads his
kids out throughout the kingdom -
Jehoram king
He kills his brothers –
His father Jehoshaphat was a
godly man who had a bad and sinful habit of making compromising associations.
The worst fruit of this sinful tendency was not evident until after
Jehoshaphat’s death.
Kids watch follow
in our footsteps – to a greater degree:
A) Say you drink – don’t get
drunk – liberty – kids watch that – the chances of them abusing that liberty –
greater – simply don’t have the maturity to deal with it
B) Never forget the father in our Church – Liked to drink – beer /
wine/ house
1) Until his daughter took
some wine from the house – her and friends – plastered picked up for under age
drinking
Jehoshaphat’s ungodly associations were
manifested in his sons life –
Magnitude he would have never imagined murders all his sons
WHY did Jehoram attack his brothers?
Because he was
INSECURE. He
did NOT really feel secure
in his position as king and
looked at them as potential
threats to his power base.
SO - He took the sword and did them in.
NOTE: Whenever
we chop at each other - even with the
Scriptures, it is often
indicative of deep seated insecurities.
The people I most admire in the Lord are the last ones to put down and
find fault with others.
Gayle Irwin and Jon Courson
Believers put the sword away in the camp!
Now
the Chronicler breaks his pattern here – for 20 Chapters – Introduce a King and
tell us how long he reigned – and if he walked in the ways of the Lord
Then he would give us
details about his life – Here he gives us the details first
Jehoram’s life was so
defined by this event –
So he walked in the way of the kings of
V.7 Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of
David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and since He had
promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
Now this is an interesting insight - : The implication is that Jehoram’s evil was
great enough to justify such judgment, but God withheld it out of faithfulness
to his ancestor David. Grace
God is
always faithful to his promise
The consequences of
his Rebellion RV 8-11
A) Listen there are always consequences to
rebellion
B) Listen we all sin – fall – blow it – grace and
forgiveness – plead the blood – confess
C) But when you live in rebellion - God is going
to chastise you –hold blessing from you – Angry with you –
1) Still loves you – But Angry – Righteous anger
D) Every parent knows
this: I love my kids but if they are rebellious – ticked – Liars
1) They will be punished -
E) You can make God mad! – He will do whatever is
necessary to get your attention!
In Jehoram’s
life it comes by way of the Edomites
A) They had been in subjection to
B) Later will we see it is the Philistines
C) Another spiritual principle here
“As long as the kings of
When the link between
them and God was broken – their power over their enemies was broken
This applies to our passions; when we are properly submitted
to God, our passions are properly submitted to us.
When we come out from
submission to God, we often find our passions flare up in seemingly
overwhelming strength.
Our power to resist comes from our Submission”
So
Chastisement comes by way of revolt from the Edomites and then God send a word
a letter from the Prophet Elijah
A) Perfect illustration of
how God works when we are away from Him –
B) Chastisement – something
to get our attention and then a word to draw us or confront us
C) So this letter comes from
Elijah – Question is when was this written.
1)2 Kings 2,3 Elijah taken
up ….Chariot fire during the reign of Jehoshaphat
D)
But the end of
3 possible ideas – 1.
Misprint really Elisha’s letter
2. It seems that there was a
period where Jehoshaphat and Jehoram were co-reigning
3. The Letter was prophetic:
God gave Elijah a vision of the Kind of King Jehoram would be and commissioned
him to write this letter
Took time to be delivered –
Letter was prophetic
A) Now you get a letter
postmarked from Elijah – U don’t want to open it
B) Just see Ath/a/liah – You
don’t want to read that Just ask my Mother
C) Elijah was heavy dude
- Heavy message
RD V.12-15
Now
if I got a letter like that – first thing I am doing fall on my knees and beg
for mercy
A) Grab a lamb and heading
to the temple –
B) Not Jehoram – this
doesn’t seem to faze him one bit!
C) No repentance – heart is
hard – well here comes the 2nd wave of Judgment RD V.16-17
“In the outworkings of God’s justice, the man who began by
massacring his own brothers ended by suffering the loss of his sons and wives.” (Payne)
RD
v.18-20
Usually
when a king died as an honor to him they would burn incense – not this guy –
not worth it
A) People were not even sad
at his passing – good riddance
B) What about you – what
about me – How do we want to be remembered?
C) What do you want pp to
say about you when at your memorial service and after ward
1) Tony Jones – Man I wish I
knew that guy more
D) Saw another friend of his
today: Tony had a very passionate Spirit for the Lord –
E) Terri McEwen – Saturday –
a lot said
How do you want
to be remembered – How are you living right now to secure that?
Ch.22 Short - Rd v.1-4
So
Ahaziah takes the throne – He reigned one short year
A) Your counselors shape
your perspective
B)
Who are your counselors? - Often we
think of Counseling being in the Pastors office – true
C) But we are all being
counseled every day.
1) Rush / Oprah / Ungodly friend
at work
D) Books we read: Are they
giving us a balanced view of God.
Those are all our counselors
– His counselors were all ungodly so it is no surprise that He did that which
was ungodly
RD v. 5-9
So
His ungodly alliance leads him into a battle with
A)
This man Ahaziah was caught in the
B) He was hanging out with
the ungodly. He was spending time with the sick.
C) It seems noble. BUT
Ahaziah was the sick one. Because
of he was in the
with the WRONG PERSON he was
slain.
D) There are certain PLACES and PEOPLE that we
must avoid.
E) This man LITERALLY lost
his head because of that error.
V.10 Now when
Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she
arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of
She used the occasion of her
son’s death to take power
for herself, and she reigned over
the land for six years
Only time a woman throne in
Evil woman: Kills all her
grand Children – Gee
Grandma what big teeth you
have – Demonic
A) Only way to explain a
woman who would kill all of her grand Children
RD V.11-12
Athaliah felt that her position was secure, yet in the house of God a
little child was being raised.
Though Ahaziah was a bad
king who made evil alliances, he was still a descendant of David and the
successor of his royal line.
For the
sake of David, God remembered His promise and spared this one young survivor to
the massacre of Athaliah.
The line of David was almost
extinguished and continued only in the presence of a small boy named Joash,
but God preserved that flickering flame.
This is what made
Ath/a/liah’s attempt Demonic
Eliminate the line to the
messiah
Now as we close
tonight here is what I want you to think about!
A) At this point in
B) For Safety reasons only a small few knew that an heir was alive.
C) God Promised that there would always be a descendant of David …
throne– come the Messiah
1) It appeared to them – David’s line had just been cut off. What a dark time!
D) So for 6yrs to all of those who were godly in
But we know that is impossible- so there must be something happening
that they don’t know or understand
When we get into
a situation where it seems like God’s promises are failing in our lives
A) When we get into a situation where it seems like God has forsaken us
in our circumstances
B) We have to step back and say: we know that is impossible – there
must be something here happening that I am not seeing
C) There must be something here that I don’t know about – instead of
dwelling on what I don’t know
D) I am going to
trust in what I do know God you are faithful to your word
1) Heaven and earth will pass away but your word NEVER FAILS
E) You hold your word above your name !
Now that is
sometimes hard for us to do when we are heart broken
A) When we feel like the righteous have been forsaken and we feel like
nothing is working out
B) We can have this tendency to base our walk with God on how we feel.
1) I don’t feel like he is watching out for me I don’t feel his love
C) We can be so prone on interpreting our relationship with God based
on how we feel
It is wonderful
to feel God’s presence and it is wonderful to feel God’s love
A) Great when I have those days
B) Awesome when I sense his pleasure and his presence – feel his love
1) Great when I have those days
C) Awesome when I sense his pleasure and his presence
D) There are
times though when I don’t – sometimes it is prolonged periods when I don’t feel
Him
1) Times when I am wondering where are you Lord
The idea there is not by our senses!
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this
is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. 5 Who is he who
overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Cling to what I know: Victory
Last night we had a little set back –
A) Issue this building - Church
– 4-5 million
B) Commercial property: Closer to 2 million that is significant
C) Not in the conditions – talked about it 3 yrs ago
Surprised when they brought it up
1) Continuance: 2 Weeks – pray – Wisdom
E) Option fight: Legal basis – Not right
1) Means God is going to have to do a bigger miracle
Buyer who will pay more / provide from some where
-