Kings Of The Divided Kingdom - Frank Brancato

I'd like to invite your attention to the book.

First of all, a First Kings chapter, 16, we'll have two

passages that were read for our text this morning, first of

which First Kings chapter, 16 and will begin reading in verse

29 And in the 30th and 8th year of Asa, king of Judah began

Ahab, the son of Omri to Reign Over Israel and Ahab.

The son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria, 20, and two

years and Ahab. The son of Omri did evil in the

sight of the Lord above all that were before him.

And it came to pass as it had been a light thing for him to

walk in the sins of jeroboam, the son of nebat that he took to

wife Abell the daughter of f bail King of the zidonians and

went and served Baal and worshipped him and he reared up

an altar for bail in the house of Baal, which he had built in

Samaria and Ahab made a Grove and Ahab.

Did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the

kings of Israel that were before him.

The second passage is found in First Kings, chapter 22, and

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

we'll begin reading there in verse 41, First Kings chapter

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

22, beginning in verse 41. And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa.

Began to Reign Over Judah. In the fourth year of Ahab, king

of Israel. Jehoshaphat was 30 and 5 years

old. When he began to Reign and he

reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem.

And his mother's name was a zuba, the daughter of she'll

high and he walked in all the ways of Asa his father.

He turned, not aside from it doing that, which was right in

the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places

that were taken Away were not taken away for the people

offered and burnt off in sense. Yet on high places and

Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that

he showed and how he Ward are not written art thou they

written excuse me. Are they not written in the book

of The Chronicles of the kings of Judah and the remnant of the

sodomites which remained in the days of his father Asa.

Took out of the land barring my mistakes correctly, read reads,

those passages of scripture, that will introduce three kings

for us in our study this morning, one of which is Asa and

ASA. As we have on the board, rain

for 41 years, and ASA reigned over Judah and he was considered

a good King. What we're going to find out

though is even though that he was a good King, he made

mistakes like you and I sometimes make mistakes when we

look to our own wisdom and our own might and our own knowledge.

Sometimes we take matters into our own hands.

ASA is a perfect example of how we ought not to do that.

Secondly his son, Jehoshaphat rain, 25 years also over Judah

and he too was a good King. And finally Ahab, the one that

we know quite well, I'm sure the one that married Jezebel an evil

King that reigned over Israel for 22 years.

We'll talk. These three kings and some

specific things that we can learn from their lives from the

from our history. You know, when the Bible says

that the things that were written aforetime were written

for our learning sometimes. When I put together these

studies from the Old Testament, by way of History, sometimes I

don't know how much detail that I should put in regarding each

King and so forth and so on. And so I really don't want us to

get lost in all the little details of their life.

What I want to be able to do is to leave here and learn

something about the good points of Asa.

The good point, It's of Jehoshaphat and also their

negative points. And secondly, when the Bible

says that regarding Ahab that he provoked, God to anger, more

than all the kings of Israel, what was it about him?

And what were the things that he did that made him so corrupt and

so evil. So that we can leave this place

and learn something from these stories.

First of all, regarding ASA with the Bible, would record that ASA

was truly a righteous man. And because of that Judah

enjoyed peace for the first 10 years of his Reign ASA.

Used this good this time for good Advantage as well.

For example, he reformed Judah by destroying the idols which

had been built during the years of Rhea boehm and abide Jam.

He also commanded the people of Judah to serve God.

You know, just as a historical aside, it's amazing to me that

within 20 years, following the death of King.

King Solomon and only 60 years after the death of David.

The greatest King that Israel had ever known.

It's interesting to me that every single Town Bar.

None, in Judah had its own high place where incense was burned

and offerings were made to false gods.

That is a picture of what can happen.

When error, enters the picture notice, 20 years, following the

death of the Wisest man that ever lived save Jesus Christ and

60 years after the death of the greatest.

King that Israel ever knew that there were high places in every

city in Judah where they offered and burnt incense to false gods

ASA, destroyed, all of those. And as a result, the kingdom

enjoyed peaceful times, the scripture says also that the

faithful people that were still living in Israel.

They Saw that God was with Judah.

And what they began to do is they began to migrate south and

the scripture says that large members from Israel joined ASA

and his kingdom at this point in time.

So the population of the two kingdoms is much closer in size

than at the beginning. You remember at the very

beginning when they were split between ten and two tribes, you

have Israel, having a greater population in the Kingdom that

small Kingdom and you have quite a Smaller number in, Judah to

the South. But because that there were

still people in Israel, regardless of all of the

evilness and the wickedness of the kings that reigned over

Israel, there were still people in Israel that had a good heart

and wanted to serve God acceptably there were still

people in Israel that were perceptive enough to see that

God was with Judah and they wanted to be among God's people,

they wanted to be where God was and then I wanted to do that

which was right. So they began to migrate south

and now you have the two kingdoms which were once

lopsided in size much more similar in size.

Now after 10 years of Peace time, the calm was finally

broken by the invasion of a fearsome Army led by zura the

kushite or also the Ethiopians. You know what's interesting

about this if there's a picture Of armies that are going against

one. Another that are picture of

David and Goliath is certainly, would be this.

You have, the might you have the power, you have the experience

to have the knowledge. You have all of that of the

Ethiopians or the cushion sheets, and they're going to

invade led by zura Judah. And you have little old Jutsu

there and here it is. The Bible says that they go to

take their stand against the could shites against those

Mighty Ethiopians now in Interesting.

It's interesting what ASA decides to do.

ASA does, the only thing he can do ASA?

Did what we just did a moment ago?

ASA, found himself desperate in ASA.

Prayed, the Bible says that he said these words, Lord, there is

none as one translation, renders it.

There's one tree, there's no one like you to help the weak

against the mighty we are counting on you.

And in your name, we have come out against this vast Army, o

Jehovah, you are God. But notice what he says, he says

do not let men Prevail against you.

Who. The heart of Asa was still on

what God wanted desperate times sometimes, cause for us to take

stock in the things that are going on around us.

Sometimes, we try to exhaust all of our own wisdom and knowledge,

and the wisdom and knowledge of all of our peers.

But listen, we need in Desperate Times to do the only thing

that's going to do us some good and that is to do what ASA does

and ASA. Pours, his heart out to God with

the Bible says that Aid that God gave ASA and his army, a great

Victory. The Kush sites were destroyed in

great numbers and they were crushed before the Lord and his

forces shortly after these events, the prophet Azariah

comes to ASA with a message from God.

And this is what he said. He says, listen to me ASA and

all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord has been with you

because you have been faithful if you continue to seek God, he

will be with you. But if you turn away from God,

God he will turn away from you. You know, this is the same exact

message that God through Samuel told Saul.

This is exactly the same message that God through the prophet

told David it's the exact same message that God through a

prophet told Solomon. Nothing has changed.

You want to taste something, sometimes in this life?

Now, listen to me. I want to say something,

encouraging to you. Sometimes in this life, God's

people grow discouraged. Sometimes we just get

discouraged. You know, I realize that we have

a strong number of folks that are here this morning.

We do we have a strong number. That's a member of this

congregation. We have some of our folks that

are visiting, other places. Some are ill and so forth.

But if you took every single one of us and you put us in this

building at the same time though, we would have a greater

size crowd than we do today. It's quite small in comparison

to numbers that are found in the religious world and in the world

itself. And sometimes God's people can

grow discouraged when it seems as though our efforts go, don't

go to fruition. Let me just say this though, the

promise is still the same, God will never leave our side.

If we never leave God, you know, when we talk about grow, Great

and Mighty Men of old like Samson.

You know, God was with Sampson on every single time, every

single thing, every single challenge, when it appeared,

that he was standing alone. God was with him and God blessed

him with Mighty strength and all of that and courage and Valor.

But there came a day when he left God.

And the Bible says that he knew not that the devil was that the

Lord was departed from him. The point is this God leaves us

when we leave him, it doesn't make any difference.

How sad the circumstances. Look, hold tight of your faith

and hang on, because it's long as we never leave the Lord, he

will never leave our side. That's exactly what the prophet

was. Telling ASA if you stand by me.

If your people stand by me, I will stand by you, but if you

depart from from me, I will depart from you.

When does God leave us only when we leave God?

You know, there was about 14 years of Peace after this

particular event in history, after that battle of the

Ethiopians. But you know, Ace does a human

being. He showed great faith when it

came to this battle, he prays to God, when it came to this

battle, he 100% realized he's in Dire Straits and he needs God,

14 years of Peace happen. From this point down to this

point when Basia a little King over.

Real rain for a short time. He also was a wicked evil King

and while he was raining, he decides that he's going to go

and attack Judah. You know, I don't know why in

the Bible, doesn't say just says the facts, but I don't know why

that ASA didn't just trust in God, again, why didn't he do

that? This time?

He does something else. In fact, the Bible says, instead

of thinking about God and asking God for God's help, he seeks

after another king Assyrian King and he makes a deal with him on

the side. And he tells this Syrian King,

he says, basically, as I paraphrase, I'll give you silver

and gold from the temple. Treasures, if you will go down

and attack cities of the north and west of a Sea of Galilee, if

you'll do that. Now, the reason that that

happened was, and the reason that he contacted a Syrian King

was Bay Asha, he got tired of all of those people leaving

Israel going down into Judah and he wanted to figure out a way to

stop it, so he decides, he takes all these building.

Isles and he decides to build a fort between Israel and Judah to

stop, the migration of people of going south Instead of trusting

in God ASA contacts, been. Hey Dad a Syrian King and he

says you attack the cities in the north and you attack the

cities and the west of the Sea of Galilee when he does.

The Bible says that though that bay Asha has to go and defend

himself. So what does he do?

He takes all of his men and he leaves the fort on the scene,

then comes a say in his man and he steals all of their

buildings. Adding materials and he takes

those building materials and he takes it back to fortify his own

cities, you know, I would imagine if you're talking about

war and you're talking about from a fleshly standpoint, I

would imagine you're talking about people that would admire

what ASA did, but God did not admire him at all.

In fact, the Bible says that he sent a prophet to him and told

him this he says, because you did not trust in me because you

trusted in a Ian King, instead of me you have War now, from now

on Can you imagine that he was living in 14 years of peace?

Before that there was ten years of Peace, one little battle that

he wins. You're talking about 24 years of

Peace time and now the profit comes to him and says because

you didn't trust in God and you sought after a Syrian King,

You've Got War now from now on Ace of so angry at the property.

Throws him in prison. He's going to have battles now

now, interesting, this was a righteous man.

This was a good King, that messed up.

There was another time to that. God was displeased with Asa.

The Bible says that at some point in time, as he was

elderly. I believe it was in the 38th

year of his Reign, I don't know. All there is to know about it

but the scripture says he had disease feet.

Now, I can just imagine what disease feet were.

We can think about all manner of things, you know, my father was

a diabetic and he had problems with his feet and had to have

toes removed and so on, sometimes people can have all

manner of things wrong with their feet and so forth.

I don't know what was wrong with him.

All I know is the Bible says that he had diseas'd feet.

What does he do? What did he do that?

Made God. So angry and God, so displeased,

simply this He sought help of the Physicians only and not God

at all. You know, a minute ago we prayed

for sister, Claire red. Now, we believe in prayer.

tomorrow Lord willing all goes well, she will go into surgery

and have hip replaced All the praying in the world with

nothing else to be done is not going to remove that old hip and

put the new one in. You need a doctor for that.

I do believe that God uses means to.

And when we pray to God, for someone to get better, that's

been sick, we pray that whatever means you choose, whatever it

is. I want to do a man that thought

he said this to me one time he says you can't be a man of faith

and believe in doctors. How absurd is that?

In fact, he said this, he says the doctors and the

pharmaceutical companies are from the devil and the

university and not from God. This is what he said to, he

said, they're all in it together.

I said how, so he said it all begins with the farmer.

The farmer, puts it in the ground, and all of a sudden, the

crops come up, then they have pesticides that have to come in.

So the plane sweep in and they bomb the the crops out with

these pesticides, chemicals, designed to specifically, make

you, and I sick on purpose, then what's going to happen, we grow

up, we eat this stuff. We get sick, we go to the

doctor, doctor makes a whole lot of money.

They're all in it together. Doc sure sends us to the

pharmacy and the pharmaceutical companies, give us medicine.

They get the most amount of money and they're all in it

together. I'll tell you what folks, if I

get sick or if Tanner gets sick or Taylor.

Or Tina. We're going to the doctor

praying, the whole way. God uses means to we pray.

For the doctors that they'll make the right judgments.

We pray for the doctors that they'll make the right

decisions. We pray for those that are in

that are caring for our loved ones when they're sick.

What was the matter then? With what he did?

He went to the doctor. What was wrong is the Bible says

he ignored God in doing. So he took God completely out of

the picture and he trusted in the It's only and God was not

pleased. Is a truly was a righteous King

and God bless Judah in his day, yet he was rebuked on occasion,

for not relying upon God as he should have.

He didn't turn away from God to serve Idols, but he did not rely

on him in all the circumstances in his life, like he should have

done you. And I can learn lessons from

this story, the story of Asa, we can learn lessons because

sometimes we do that, too. Sometimes things look dire some

Sometimes things look difficult. What do we do?

We fret about those things? We worry about those things, we

talked to each other about those things and we failed to talk to

the one that can help. We fail to speak to God, the

only one. That can help.

Somebody said, one time, that prayer is like a well Who's some

people stand draw and drink? And others stand and die of

thirst. You got to dip it in the well.

The Bible says, you have not because you ask not unclaimed.

Promises are like uncashed checks.

We pray to God for everything. We pray to God with for

everything that we have, we rely upon God, for whatever.

Means he chooses to help us. And then we roll up our sleeves

and do our part. That's how we get through this.

I'm going to say something we can get through anything in the

world. If we have God and each other,

that is truly a fact, ASA rain, for 41 years, he died.

And he was buried. The Bible says, in the city of

David, the people came and burned an enormous quantity of

spices and Blended perfumes in his honor.

This was truly a great man in the people loved him because of

his service and Devotion to God. So then on the scene, now comes

another king, his son, by the name of Jehoshaphat, his Reign

was 25 years. He also was considered a good

King. He was truly a righteous man to

he followed in the ways of his father ASA.

He continued the reforms that his father had begun.

He removed the male shrine. Prostitutes or the King James

version says he removed the sodomites that had reappeared in

the land during his father's last year's.

What was the problem? The problem was the people were

not completely and thoroughly devoted to God.

That sounds familiar. Sometimes we as God's people

aren't truly thoroughly and completely devoted to God.

When Jehoshaphat was on the throne, he recognized that fact

he recognized that people were not totally devoted to God.

There does come a time though when we have to rise up and walk

little, Claire was born not long ago, it's cute.

We're sitting there and her mother is holding her and caring

for her and we'll walk out of this building carrying her.

That's all natural. We like all that because that's

the way it needs to be, but there comes a time when she has

to rise up and walk on her own. There comes a time when you have

to make the determine resolve, I'm going to be devoted to God

for the rest of my life. I'm going to be a member of the

Lord's church and I'm not going to fall and I'm not going to

give up and I'm not going to quit.

In fact, I don't have any other plans for the rest of my life

than to be a Christian. I think we have to make that

determined resolve in our life. The question is, how is somebody

today? Truly devoted to God.

How do we demonstrate that sometimes?

People would say well it's how it's when you talk about God in

a favorable way or it's when you feel good in your heart, about

spiritual things, these are wonderful things.

And these are byproducts, that's true.

But the way that we demonstrate our devotedness to God is in our

service. To God.

That's how we demonstrate. How we are devoted to God?

By our attendance of services by our study of God's word by are

visiting, the Sick by our encouraging one another by us

growing in the faith. There were three things that

Jehoshaphat did. That was noteworthy one.

He strengthened his kingdom. Edom was under the control of

Judah. At this time in the Bible says

that a deputy administered, the territory of Edom for

Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat stationed, his troops and

Garrison's throughout the land of Judah and in certain cities

of Ephraim, which ASA had taken from Israel.

But the main point was, this Jehoshaphat sought the Lord

instead of bail. So, God strengthened his hand

and he brought him riches and he brought Honor and he brought him

all of those things in abundance.

You know, because that's not what he was after.

Remember when Solomon prayed Solomon oh Solomon was led away,

we'll touch on that in just a moment, just briefly.

But before Solomon's heart was pulled away.

When Solomon looked to the job of being King.

When Solomon look to all the things that he was going to do

now and be the successor of his father, he felt himself to be a

rather small man in comparison to the task at hand.

So what he prayed for not riches, not honor, not power,

not might not popularity, not an easy life, he prays for wisdom,

he wants to be able to have the wisdom and the knowledge to

lead. God's people people better and

to live his life as the king and serve God's people better.

And God says, not only am I going to give you that but

because you didn't ask for riches and honor and all of

that, I'm going to give you that too.

I'm going to bless you, your to be wealthy.

You'd be the wealthiest man around.

The same was true with Jehoshaphat.

God blessed him monetarily because spiritually, he was

doing that which was, right. Secondly, Jehoshaphat sends out

princes and Levites and Priests. He realized that Judah was not

serving the lord Faithfully that they were ignorant of God.

You know, I really believe this today and talking about Society,

I really believe that we are living in a Bible.

Illiterate Society, we live in a society where people are more

drawn to a doctor's name with all the titles after it in

society. Now is what I'm talking about.

Then we are in society about what the grand old book.

Has to say, there was a time though and days gone by when

people that he didn't even have the truth, they at least made an

Attempt to study or know about God's word.

But today we live in a Bible. Illiterate Society, is this

anything new? It's nothing new.

We can go all the way back to the kingdom of Judah.

When Jehoshaphat was on the throne and he recognized a few

things one, he noticed that God's people were not poor

people in Judah were not devoted to God, then he realized why

they were illiterate. They were ignorant of God, so he

sends princes and Levites to teach the people the law.

I'm going to tell you something folks, when we're making bad

decisions and wrong decisions, we need to turn back to the word

of God and have that burn deep within us.

They went out and they taught among all cities of Judah.

This was done in only the third year of his Reign and thirdly

Jehoshaphat grew in power. God gave Jehoshaphat peace.

His neighbor's, the Philistines and the Arabians.

Brought him, great gifts. You know, this is a far cry from

the time when under the judges, the period of the judges.

For example, when Samson was living and he was judging and he

judged Israel, the Bible says, all of those years he had to

fight against the Philistines, David King, David.

As I already mentioned the greatest King Israel ever knew

the most charismatic personality in all, maybe all of the Old

Testament, scriptures, the great singer of Israel, the greatest

poet, the world ever knew All of that, the greatest military

strategist that they ever knew and David had to fight against

the Philistines during his entire reign.

Look what God's doing now God is rewarding righteousness and

faithfulness with peace with peace among enemies and these

enemies of God's people that were once horrible fighting and

warring against God were bringing gifts to Jehoshaphat

when he was on the throne. His army grew exceedingly,

Mighty also notice he had at his disposal, an army of 1 million

160,000 besides those on Garrison Duty.

And the reason for it is because God was on his side, it had

nothing to do with his own power, his own might or his

experience. It was because God was on his

side more on Jehoshaphat in just a minute.

But next, let's skip to Ahab. You know, the Bible uses the

strongest language to condemn the actions of Ahab, according

to the text one of the worst things that he ever did was to

marry Jezebel the daughter of f bail the king of the sidonians,

the ACT would result in severe misery, for both Israel and

Judah as well. Urged on by his Pagan wife,

Jezebel Ahab makes Baal worship the official religion in Israel,

He also made an asscher a pole and had a temple built for bail

in Samaria because of all this. That's why the God said that

that Ahab, provoked him to anger more than all the kings of

Israel that were before him historical note here.

Jezebel as I mentioned, just a moment ago being the daughter of

f bail the king of the sidonians the names Jezebel and F bail

include the name of the false god Baal in them.

That gives the first indication of how bad this marriage was for

Ahab. Beyond that Jezebel was another

one of the foreign wives that a king of Israel married.

And of course, the law of Moses repeatedly forbade such

marriages You know it's just like we're Solomon the wisest

man that the world ever knew the wisest man in the land, 700

wives, 300 concubines and guess what?

Not one, not one was among God's people, every single one of them

was foreign that had Idol gods and so forth.

You want to talk about strength and power and might Solomon was

a, was a strength. Was a strong man.

He was a strong man in so many ways of Very wise, man, made a

made a poor choice. Got tells me this to that.

God can bless us with wisdom, but we have to apply the wisdom.

He certainly didn't apply the wisdom regarding his wives and

what happened. The Bible says that those women,

those wives turned his heart, from the Lord and turned his

heart away. That's what happens when we have

associations and relationships outside the body of Christ.

Need to be careful about that, but I wouldn't notice the

difference though between Baal worship and calf worship.

We speak about calf worship. When we talk about jeroboam, we

talk about all of those other things that we spoke about in

times past what makes Ahab worse.

Regarding the worship of Baal. What is the worship of Baal?

What did they actually do? Who was this?

God? Well, there's a difference

between Baal worship and calf worship.

Both, though did include Idols Baal worship though was worse in

its consequences because the rituals involved in the worship

were far more degrading bail. Get this and asherah, we're gods

of fertility. So, the sin of fornication was

part of their ritual In Worship. The priest and the priestesses

were male and female prostitutes.

The morals of the people would plummet to the very depths when

they would turn to Baal worship now, calf worship on the other

hand, now it was wrong and God did not accept it.

But golden calves were theoretically, representative of

God. They still had their priests

whose function was to offer animals on the altar.

They still had their feast days and special occasions.

It's similar to those found in the law of Moses, but God did

not accept the worship of golden calves either, but the worship

was not as destructive to the moles of the people that were

involved. This is but a small picture of

the kind of King that Ahab was. I told you I was going to

mention Jehoshaphat again. Now, we're going to tie together

a very poor choice so far. We're finding good things being

spoken about Jehoshaphat and wise things.

Spoken about this King all of a sudden now as these kingdoms

were about were closer in size and terms of its population, you

have Jehoshaphat on the throne and Judah.

You have Ahab on the throne over Israel and even though that they

didn't have a whole lot of active Wars and battle between

them on this particular occasion of History, we find that Ahab

and Jehoshaphat form a bond of peace.

They form a bond of peace. This is the first time since the

Kingdom's, had separated That official peace was to be made

between them, even though there was very little open Warfare at

first glance, this would seem to be a good move for the

Kingdom's. We would think that any time

that you're going to have a time of Peace, wouldn't that be

great? No, not at all.

It was not. Look at the contrast between

these two little kingdoms one. None of the kings that Judah had

up until this point. We're extremely Wicked.

In fact, none of the kings of Judah had ever tried to

discourage faithfulness of those who wanted to worship God

correctly, even when they were doing that, which was not

correct, you know, even when there were kings that

sought-after idols and did things that were wrong in Judah.

They never tried to keep someone else from doing that which was

right. you know, I taste, you know, I thought about I thought

about what happens when we make a decision about our own soul.

When it affects everybody else. I think about the father that

leaves the church and then one by one, the rest of his family

due to I think of how sad that is.

You know, I would imagine that if a person wants to go to hell,

I would imagine I guess person has that, right?

I can't fathom that but I guess the poor person has that, right?

It's their choice. But the problem is the far

reaches of our decisions, go way beyond that.

I have to make the right decisions in my life so that my

kids do the same thing. They're going to follow in my

example, one day they really are.

It was different with Ahab because not only did Ahab bring

in Baal worship and I told you how disgusting it was and

morally corrupted. It was he makes it the official

religion and demands that the people would honor it.

That's different. No wonder, he provoked God to

anger more than anyone. Israel had gone down spiritually

from the day it began. When we look at these two

kingdoms, jeroboam right off the bat, son of nebat.

The Bible says, right off the bat, what does he do?

Brings in Golden calves brings in incense to burn on the

altars. He appoints.

Any Vagabond that would to be a priest of a high places, they

went down, spiritually from day one.

But it was different for Judah. The kingdom of Judah was

prospering because Asa and Jehoshaphat had had sought to

bring people closer to God and God rewarded them.

Ahab, not only allows Baal Worship in the land makes the

official religion. Any contact between Judah and

Israel could only prove to be a corrupting influence to Judah.

And that's exactly what happened, you know, one of the

great Mysteries and Bible History is, how could you host a

fat one of the greatest and best Kings and ever reigned over

Judah, would Ally himself with Ahab.

The very worst king of all. We don't know.

Well, as it was so often the case, the Treaty of Peace was

sealed with the marriage of Jehoshaphat son, jehoram and

ahab's daughter athaliah. Well, during this period of

time, God strove mightily to bring Israel back to his side.

And it was during The Darkest Hours of Israel.

The Darkest Hours they had ever seen as a nation that to Great

prophets, come on the scene. One of them is Elijah and the

other is Elijah, you know, much of the next times.

And the next events that we read about about Ahab the king over

Israel is in dealings with these two prophets.

You know there are profits in the scriptures like Elijah and

Elisha we've noticed other prophets in our Bible Old

Testament narratives and so forth these were prophets but

they were not what we would consider literary prophets a

literary profit is simply that That it is a prophet that has

writings that bear their names. For example, there are 17 of

those in the Old Testament. There are five that are

considered Major Prophets and 12 that are considered Minor

Prophets. The Major Prophets are Isaiah.

Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel and Daniel the Minor Prophets

are Hosea. Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah, Micah

Nahum habakkuk Zephaniah, haggai and Zechariah.

I am Malachi. Those are the 17 prophets that

were considered literary prophets.

They had writings bearing their names.

The major prophets were those that had longer writings the

Minor Prophets had shorter writings, but these were two

prophets that were in the grand scheme of things regarding God's

plan of trying to bring Israel back to him these prophets, come

on the scene and miracles come to And that's the next thing

we're going to talk about is some of the history and some of

the events that transpired with these prophets regarding Israel

and King Ahab. We thank you for listening to

our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

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