Route 66: 2 Kings - God's Word as Sustaining Hope

2 Kings, and we'll not be focusing on one passage only in 2 Kings.

We'll be doing some soundings from different parts of this book as we continue on through the 66 books of the Bible.

Last week, if you were here last week, bob did a fantastic job with 1 Kings, and in the original Hebrew collection of books, samuel and Kings were.

Samuel was one book, kings was one book.

It's got split up later on.

So this is really to think of 1 and 2 Kings as one book, one story.

We'd anticipate that what we read in hear in 2 Kings is very much in line with the theme and the progress of 1 Kings.

So, as Bob brought out last week, when we come to the reign of King David in Israel's history, when we come to the reign of Solomon, in one sense, we're coming to the zenith of Israel's history.

You've got God's people in God's place, under God's rule and blessing.

You've got them at rest in the land.

Partially, solomon, as great as he was, goes against Deuteronomy, as Bob brought out.

Multiplying horses, multiplying wives yes, there's peace, and then the sons come and there's conflict and there's bloodshed.

There's a divided kingdom of north and south.

The failures of the kings, though, and the deaths of all the kings and the imperfections of the kings remind us that there's an anticipation of a greater king to come, jesus Christ, who is the one who is God in the flesh, who's come to provide rescue.

He's come to provide true and lasting reconciliation for his people, rest for them and a future inheritance.

And so we would expect second kings to continue on that theme, and it does.

There's a lot of partial kings and failed kings in the book of second Kings.

There's a little bit of a seesaw.

Not all the kings are as bad as possible.

Bob mentioned this last week In the northern kingdom.

Pretty much all those kings are described as bad, 20 of them.

About 20 kings of the southern kingdom, that's the tribe of Judah, centered in Jerusalem, coming from David.

So even there is an interesting geography that the kings that are all bad are farther removed from David geographically, but then also in their hearts.

And yet even those southern kings, there's a lot of seesawing, and that's true of both north and south.

I'll give you a few examples.

2 Kings 12, verse 2.

2 Kings 12:2

Joash did what was right in the Lord's sight, hooray.

Yet the high places were not taken away, boo.

2 Kings 13, verse 2.

2 Kings 13:2

Jehoahaz did what was evil in the Lord's sight.

2 Kings 14, verse 3.

2 Kings 14:3

Amaziah did what was evil in the Lord's sight.

2 Kings 14.3,.

Amaziah did what was right in the Lord's sight, but not like his ancestor David.

2 Kings 15.3,.

Azariah did what was right in the Lord's sight, yet the high places were not taken away.

You see, that seesaw back and forth effect.

So where's the real king?

Where's the eternal son of David is going to rule with perfect justice and wisdom from the river to the ends of the earth.

There has to be a greater coming king, and there is.

But what are the people supposed to do in the meantime?

Jesus comes onto the scene hundreds of years after the events of 2 Kings.

So what was going to sustain the people's hope, and particularly for the faithful remnant?

I mean, it's all well and good that someone's coming eventually.

What about what's happening now?

Okay, we see this guy was kind of a failure.

This guy was mostly a failure.

This guy had some good things, like, okay, not so great, not so great, imperfect king, imperfect king, weak king, bad king, like it seems kind of this continuing pattern.

The people had their hope.

The faithful remnant and a God who speaks God's word was meant to be their sustaining hope and God's word is our sustaining hope as they were waiting for the coming Messiah.

And we see that theme of God's word as the sustaining hope through another set of characters in the book of Kings, particularly second Kings.

Those are the prophets.

First Kings begins with a bunch of Kings, it ends with Kings and there's some Kings in the middle.

Right in the middle of first and second Kings we have a lot of pages that are given over to prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha.

The prophets are the people who carry God's word.

They speak God's word and they stand as something of a counterpoint to the kings.

The earthly hope, but that's not so fulfilling.

But God's word is there all the time and God's providing his word to his people through the prophets.

So I'm going to give us some encouragement, I hope and trust tonight about how God's word is our sustaining hope through the lens of these prophets, especially in 2 Kings.

First, god's word always comes to pass.

2 Kings 1.

Turn there if you're not there yet.

2 Kings 1.

Verse number three the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, the Tishbite, that's the prophet Elijah.

Go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them.

Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Baal Zabub, the God of Ekron?

Therefore, this is what the Lord says you will not get up from your sickbed, you will certainly die.

Now look down to verse 17.

Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.

You see how God's word is so much more certain and powerful than the fluctuating kings.

The word of the Lord comes.

The prophet speaks it and it happens.

God's word always comes to pass.

We can rely on that.

Second.

God's word overturns human expectations.

I want to keep us in chapter 1 for a little bit here.

So when that message comes to Elijah in verse number 3, we read that.

Then verse number 7, the message gets delivered to the king.

And look what the king says in verse number 7, 2 Kings 1.

The king asked them what sort of man came up to meet you and spoke those words to you?

They replied a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.

That's how they describe Elijah In the Bible.

It doesn't describe people's appearance that often you notice that.

So when it does, it's like you want to think about it.

Like was this guy?

Like you know, when we hear that hairy guy, leather belt, we're thinking like that's a man's man, like he's a.

He's a Paul Bunyan.

That's not really the point here.

Remember someone else in the Bible that was described that way John the Baptist.

Coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, he wore camel's hair, I guess he didn't have the natural hair so he had to go camel and he was out in the wilderness and listen to how Jesus describes John the Baptist.

What did you go out to see?

This is Matthew 11.

What did you go?

Got to see A man dressed in soft clothes.

See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces.

What did you got to see?

A prophet?

Yes, the kings have luxurious clothes.

They have wealth, they have power.

Elijah was kind of a blue-collar nobody.

He's almost like kind of this weirdo out in the wilderness Doesn't have the king's clothing, he just has what he has.

But what he has is the word of the Lord.

Even if it's sort of not the human expectation of what a great leader would do or call armies to himself, he's got the word of the Lord.

Even if it's sort of not the human expectation of what a great leader would do or call armies to himself.

He's got the word of the Lord and that's what's most important.

That's so much better than human pomp.

God's word overturns human expectations.

Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.

Go to chapter two, and I'm going to speed up as we go.

I'm not going to go chapter by chapter the whole way through 2 Kings, but the way even the book starts sort of brings us into some of these themes.

2 Kings 2, verse number 4.

Elijah is going to hand off the mantle of prophecy to Elisha, his successor.

Verse number four Elijah said to him Elisha, stay here.

The Lord is sending me to Jericho.

But Elisha said as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.

So they went to Jericho.

What happened at Jericho?

Remember?

God's word spoke and the walls came tumbling down.

Look down to verse number six.

Elijah said to him stay here, the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.

What happened at the Jordan?

The people of Israel crossed over the Red Sea.

Look over at verse number eight.

Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which parted to the right and the left.

Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Where's the water parting and people crossing over on dry ground.

When Israel comes out of Egypt, god's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption the king's.

It's almost like Elijah and Elisha, almost like retracing the steps of Israel.

And it's almost like Elijah and Elisha are almost like retracing the steps of Israel, like to Jericho, to the Jordan, striking the water at parts.

Those were mighty acts of God's deliverance through his word, and the kings don't get to do it.

It's the prophets that get to take those steps and remind people of God's past redemption through our record of what they did here, of God's past redemption through our record of what they did here, number 11.

As they continued walking and talking, this is Elijah and Elisha still.

That's it, number 11, verse number 11.

Sorry, chapter 2, verse number 11.

Number 11.

Now we get caught up in the like that must have been amazing to just kind of skip death and get to go on a personal escort ride to heaven.

And it is amazing you have chariots and horses when you're a king with armies.

They didn't have that, but God gave it to him.

And there's a contrast here with the first chapter.

I didn't go into the detail of the first chapter, but what's happening in the first chapter is when the message comes and this guy comes.

They said who's the hairy guy?

Elijah.

Yeah, go get some troops and bring him in, I'll talk to him.

And a captain goes out with troops and chariots and Elijah calls down fire from heaven and they all die.

And the second comes out.

He calls down the fire from heaven and they die again.

And finally the guy's pleading for his life and God says all right, go with him back.

So there's already a contrast of the king and his power and this weirdo out in the wilderness just has the word of God and he's just ripping through these soldiers.

Now it's the army of the Lord coming to bring Elijah up to his reward.

He's, in a sense, not himself somehow this great person, but he's got God's word and he's got the acts of redemption of the Lord.

God's word is personal, it's number four.

If you happen to be taking notes, god's word is personal, it's number four.

For if you happen to be taking notes, god's word is personal.

Go over to chapter four.

So so much of this book is taken up with events that relate to the whole of the nation, or the northern kingdom, of the southern kingdom, and yet there are these episodes within the book, these stories.

They're individualized and they don't seem to have any obvious referent to the progress or success or not of the nation as a whole.

And there's a widow in chapter 4.

And look what happens here as we just I'll look at verse 14 of chapter 4.

I'll look at verse 14 of chapter 4.

So he asked her what should be done for her.

Gehazi, this woman has helped out.

Elisha Gehazi answered well, she has no son and her husband is old.

Call her.

Elisha said Sounds a little bit like Abraham and Sarah when the word of the lord came, call her.

So gehazi called her and she stood in the doorway.

Elisha said at this time next year you will have a son in your arms.

Then she said no, my lord, man of god, do not lie to your servant.

This son doesn't grow up to become the king of the southern kingdom or northern kingdom.

It's just a sign, just a boy, just a story.

But God's word is personal.

God doesn't just care for the group he reaches into this widow, just care for the group he reaches into this widow's life through the prophet.

Even though God's word is personal, it's also universal.

Go over to chapter 5.

Chapter 5.

And just look at if you've got a Bible that has maybe a heading over chapter 5, you'll see something about Naaman.

You might remember that story.

But notice how chapter 5 begins Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, this is not one of David's right-hand men and yet God's word comes to this outsider and he experiences cleansing.

Bob brought out last week how the kings are built off of this promise in 2 Samuel 7 that God's going to bring a descendant of David to rule and reign from his throne.

And God says it's instruction for mankind.

It's not only for Israel, it's going to eventually be for all kinds of people.

And we see hints of that here, where God's word comes not just to those that are right, near and dear to David, but those that are even outside.

Someone like Naaman to David, but those that are even outside.

Someone like Naaman.

Interestingly, naaman's servant inherits his leprosy because he's greedy for silver and gold, which is the problem of a lot of the kings.

They're greedy for money and prestige and fame.

They're not willing to accept simply God's word and his blessing.

Number six God's word brings judgment to mockers.

Let's go back to chapter two, verse 23.

From there elisha went up to bethel.

As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting go up baldy, go up baldy.

He turned around, looked at them and cursed them in the name of the Lord.

Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the children.

From there, elisha went to Carmel and then Mount Carmel.

Then he returned to Samaria.

Now I hesitated to give this story.

I don't want to be distracting.

I knew we would have like tons of visitors here.

They would have been like taken aback by that.

But I don't think we have tons and tons of visitors here tonight and it's not a personal thing, so don't think I'm going at it from that angle.

But don't lose the fact.

The prophet is the man of God.

He's the one that has the word of God.

It's not about being nice to people or not.

Fundamentally, it's about when you disregard the word of the Lord embodied in this prophet.

Judgment's coming.

That's what happened scoffers.

In Noah's day, peter talks about scoffers who will come again.

It's part of that pattern of God judging people who simply don't have respect for his word.

Go over to chapter 9, 2 Kings, chapter 9.

2 Kings 9 · chapter mention

And while you're turning there.

So the prophets are not just counterbalances to the kings in some kind of American political sense, like well, there's the president, he's in charge, but you got to have the Congress to kind of keep checks and balances on them.

You got like the kings, ahaziah and them, but the prophets kind of keep a check on them.

It's not really.

They're not meant to balance each other out.

There's both prophetic elements in both offices, but the prophets are a confrontational rebuke in many ways to the king and they're the ones that actually bear the word of God.

That's going to push things through.

So in 2 Kings 9, we see the death of Jezebel.

She doesn't even get a proper burial, even being a queen, and yet what happens is it fulfills God's word.

So if you just turn over to chapter 10, look at verse number 10.

Know then, that not a word the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab will fail, for the Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.

So Elijah had prophesied about this in the past.

Given God's word, now it's coming to pass.

Verse 17 of chapter 10.

When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained from the house of Ahab in Samaria until he had annihilated his house.

According to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah, verse number 19,.

Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, all his high priests.

None must be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal.

Whoever is missing will not live.

However, jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal, because that's what God had said would happen.

Over to chapter 19.

Go to chapter 19.

So we're going back and forth just a little bit Chapter 19, and we're actually introduced to Isaiah.

So Elisha and Elijah are the two main prophet pillars in the kings.

But Isaiah comes out 19, verse number 20.

Then Isaiah, son of Amaz, sent a message to Hezekiah.

The Lord, the God of Israel, says I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib.

This is the word the Lord has spoken against him.

So who's going to prevail, isaiah or Hezekiah?

Prophet or king Got to be the prophet, because the prophet actually has the word of God.

One of the best kings that's described in this book of 2 Kings is Josiah, your namesake, and he gets a lot of good mentions in this book.

He's one of the best perhaps even the best, depending on how you read it after Solomon.

But he gets hold of the word of God and he has it read.

He consults the prophetic word.

That's what makes him such a great king.

And when you get to the end of the book of second kings, there's exile and judgment.

Go ahead and turn over to chapter 25.

It's the punishment is delayed in one sense through Hezekiah's prayers, but eventually God allows the kingdom of Babylon to come in and destroy Jerusalem, to destroy the temple, to take people captive Chapter 25, verse 21,.

The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.

So Judah went into exile from its land.

Why does god's word of, why does god's judgment come on the people?

It wasn't because babylon's military was greater than israel's military, wasn't because their kings were greater than israel's kings.

It's because they didn't grab hold of the word of god.

They, by their actions, by their idolatry, including the kings, by their dismissal of the word of god, they, by their actions, by their idolatry, including the kings, by their dismissal of the word of God, they were in one sense like those young people, foolishly mocking the prophet, foolishly mocking the word of God.

He said no, think about it later.

And judgment came.

And judgment rightly came for God's, zealous for his own name and his own character.

Now you might be saying, well, wait a minute.

Here you said God's word is our sustaining hope.

At the beginning I mean there was some hope in there, but I'm hearing a lot of heavy things about God's word.

If there's hope, where does hope come in?

And there is hope in 2 Kings.

Despite the canopy of imperfect kings, despite the people and the kings not always really grabbing hold of the prophets and the word of God like they should, there is still some hope here.

So if you look at the way this book ends verse 27 of 2 Kings 25.

On the 27th day of the 12th month of the 37th year of the exile of Judah's King Jehoiakim in the year of Evel-meradach, in the year he became king of Babylon, he pardoned King Jehoiakim of Judah and released him from prison.

Why?

Just because there's hope even amidst exile, there's mercy even amidst exile and there's really hope sprinkled throughout the book.

And this is last point for tonight.

So if you're kind of tracking along so far, god's word always comes to pass.

Number two God's word overturns human expectations.

Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.

Number four God's word overturns human expectations.

Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.

Number four God's word is personal.

Number five God's word is universal.

Number six God's word brings judgment to mockers.

And number seven God's word brings resurrection life.

And if you've got, if you're holding on to that, that'll sustain you, go back to chapter 4.

We'll just trace this theme as we start drawing towards a close for tonight.

2 Kings 4.

That child that the widow had, he dies.

Verse 32 of chapter 4,.

When Elisha got to the house he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed.

The king didn't, really isn't, going to be able to do much about that.

So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord.

Then he went up and lay on the boy.

He put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.

While he bent down over him, the boy's flesh became warm.

Elisha got up, went into the house and paced back and forth.

Then he went up and bent down over him again.

Then the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Resurrection life.

Verse 40, same chapter.

They served some for the men to eat to pot a stew.

But when they ate the stew.

They cried out there's death in the pot, man of God.

I don't know how they knew.

Somehow they knew what it was.

They ate was poisonous and they were unable to eat it.

Then Elisha said get some flour.

He threw it into the pot and said serve for the people to eat.

And there was nothing bad in the pot.

Here's a newsflash.

The prophets don't go to culinary school.

All right, he wasn't somehow able to concoct.

He's the man of God.

Yeah, there's death in the pot for you, but God's word is life, it's not death.

Chapter 13 of 2 Kings.

Flip over there.

Strange little story in the middle of second Kings, second Kings 13, verse 20,.

2 Kings 13:20

Elisha died and was buried.

Now, moabite raiders used to come into the land in the spring of the year.

Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party, so they threw the man into Elisha's tomb.

When he touched Elisha's bones, the man revived and stood up.

The word of God brings resurrection, hope, just like Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, where what causes the bones to come together and have sinos and bands?

It's when God says preach over the bones, prophesy over the bones, speak, prophet of God, and there's resurrection, life.

And then last story this is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, actually 2 Kings 6.

Not as well known, but I really enjoy it.

I'm just going to try to summarize it.

It extends from 2 Kings 6, 24, down into chapter 7.

This is Northern Kingdom.

There's a terrible famine and it's so bad that they're selling donkey's heads and dove's dung, trying to just survive off of it.

And it's going for a high rate.

And the prophet comes and says you know, tomorrow barley and wheat is going to be cheap.

And the king per the kings in this book, king's kind of like.

Well, I'll believe it when I see it.

I don't know about that.

King's attendant, his representative, does that.

And then the story shifts to these lepers that are at the gate of Samaria, and they're very logical lepers.

They say everyone's starving, we're starving, we're going to die.

There's an army there that's sieging in the city.

Let's go out and throw ourselves at the mercy of the army.

They might kill us.

What difference is that going to make?

We're going to die anyway.

So they wander out and they find tents that are abandoned, supplies and food, and God had miraculously caused this sound like many chariots and armies.

And the troops thought oh no, they've hired the Egyptians to come help them.

We're in trouble, we got to get out of here.

And they just leave all their supplies and their food and everything.

So you've got these lepers who are as good as dead.

Well, they're starving, but they're also lepers, so they're outside of God's covenant people.

They're insufficient of themselves.

They're like stumbled on buried treasure.

They're just having a ball out there.

And then they say you know what?

This is a day of good news.

We've got to go back and tell everybody else.

And they do.

And just like the word of God said, barley and grain flowed freely, but out of the city that's bound for starvation and death, out of lepers that are having their own skin eaten away, all of a sudden God's word comes and there's hope, there's life, and so that's happening.

All throughout this letter, as we think about our own lives, we can look back at Jesus's first coming, just like the faithful remnant could look ahead to Jesus's coming.

But he's not present.

He's not visibly present with us.

We're still, as we heard this morning, we're still awaiting his second coming.

But God's word is our sustaining hope.

We don't just wait kind of apathetically.

We grab hold of God's word, and we know that you know what the kings of this world.

That's not, ultimately, where our hope is.

Our hope is in resurrection.

Our hope is that God can do things amazing in our midst.

He can bring dead sinners to life, and he can do amazing things among us, and then what's to come is eternal life and glory.

So be encouraged.

Tonight.

God's word is our sustaining hope.

Let's pray Lord.

So much is in scripture, so much is valuable and profitable for us and we're so thankful for it.

Oh Lord, give us a hunger to know and see all the stories of your word and how they bring us to Christ, who is indeed the living word from heaven, who is the very prophet of God, who has spoken to us in the grandest and greatest sense.

Lord, don't let our hearts be so easily disturbed or troubled by death and, in a sense, exile around us, but we know that, having the Word of God, we have the seed of the gospel that springs up and gives fruit and life and mighty trees.

Lord, give us this resurrection, hope through your Word.

Thank you that our Christ reigns and rules as all the things that we so desperately need.

In Jesus' name, amen.