A King Who Would Not Listen

This is in 1 Kings, and so if you find 2 Kings, 1 Kings shouldn't be hard to find, especially

! the last chapter.

And so as we're going to continue in our series here looking at the kings of Israel.

And tonight we're going to be looking at Isaiah.

And we're going to see here as we began and closed off with Jehoshaphat.

This kind of crosses over a little bit with Jehoshaphat here tonight.

Because he had interactions with him.

And so we're going to, as we begin looking here, Ahab, if you remember, Isaiah's father

there had been slain in battle against Syria.

And Ahab, or Isaiah, took the throne even though Jehoshaphat escaped the same battle with his

life.

You know, if you remember all that dynamic that took place.

Is that not on?

We find that as Jehoshaphat, what's that?

Need some batteries.

We'll see how long it lasts.

All right.

Back to where we were.

You know, if you remember though, that Jehoshaphat had made alliance with Ahab and went into battle.

And God corrected him.

He sent somebody, he sent the prophet to correct him and to say, what are you doing working

with those that stand against God?

And we saw how that ended, how he barely escaped with his life, but Ahab was killed.

But in that, as he came back safely and got things straightened out a little bit with God

and began to do what was right.

Ahab, Isaiah took the throne there in Israel and Jehoshaphat continued to have interactions

with him.

Because you remember last week, we talked about that at the end of Jehoshaphat's reign that

he had, they went, sent the ships to make a commercial partnership and the ships were destroyed.

And he kind of broke off things from there.

But, you know, sometimes, you know, we can learn a lot from Jehoshaphat too, because sometimes

we can be hard headed.

It takes more than one round of the lesson for us to get our attention.

You know, and we see that with Jehoshaphat and his continued dynamic with the northern

tribes of Israel there.

And so, but we're going to look tonight specifically at Isaiah.

He was a king that had a very short and troublesome time as king.

You know, the Bible, excuse me, reveals to us that he died and didn't even have his kingdom

two years.

And it's really kind of a dramatic and tragic ending as we're going to look and see here

as he walks through these couple of years.

And we find here in 1 Kings 22, we see him introduced, look there in verse 41, it says,

Isaiah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel and Samaria, the 17th year of Jehoshaphat,

king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.

And so we see here, it's that he began to reign over Israel.

And we see as he begins, we find him introduced in 1 Kings chapter 22.

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

Then we find the rest of the story in 2 Kings chapter 1.

2 Kings 1 · chapter mention

And so I just want to talk just a little bit of stuff so people have a help understanding,

because we separate these books, but to them, 1 and 2 Kings would be like two volumes of the

same book.

Okay?

So in other words, in the Bible, 1 and 2 Kings is like one continuous book, but there was

enough material, they had two volumes to it.

You know?

How many like books they have two volumes?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Unless they're informational stuff, two volumes is probably too much most of the time, you

know?

I don't know of anybody that says, I want the novel that takes the second book.

You know?

But I want you to understand, these are together, and so you'll see this flow as we walk through,

even though it's divided in your scripture here, it's a continuous flow, you might say,

time-wise in this.

And so, 1 Kings ends by a short introduction and overview, but 2 Kings gives us what you

might say the old Paul Harvey rest of the story.

You know?

Gets the introduction, and then the rest of the story comes in 2 Kings, and describes what

had happened.

And so, we see here, as I had seen his father and mother reject the Lord.

Remember?

Because who was Uzziah's father and mother?

Ahab, and who's his famous mom?

Jezebel.

And we know that they were wicked.

They were very wicked individuals, and the Bible makes it clear here.

Look here in verse 52 of chapter 1, or chapter 22 of 1 Kings.

It says,

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and the way

of his mother, and the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

For he served Baal, and he worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel,

according all that his father had done.

You know, he was walking in the footsteps of his parents.

He was walking in the footsteps that his parents had established for him.

You know, that he had seen displayed in how they responded, the priorities they put.

You know, as a parent, the priorities you put in your life impacts your children.

The places and the priority that you put on the things in life will impact your family.

It makes a dramatic impact, and we see here directly, God ties it directly to his parents

and the influence of the parents.

You know, I want you to know that as a parent, as a Christian, even trying to raise godly children

are a challenge.

But you know what?

If you're ungodly and totally against God, those children are set back at a great disadvantage

sometimes.

Because all they see is that which is against God.

And so we need to understand the importance of what's taking place here and how God is

describing these things.

Because notice the footprints that he leaves.

He says he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

You know, did evil, followed in the way of his father and mother.

He was like the kings before him.

It goes back to the first king of the northern tribes, Jeroboam, that made Israel to sin.

Remember, he set up a false worship within the nation to keep people from going to worship

God in Jerusalem.

You know, his allegiance was to Baal in both service and worship.

His first thought was towards worshiping the god of the land, Baal.

And we'll talk about that more in just a little bit.

But I want you to understand that this stirred the Lord to anger.

Look at the end of verse 53 here.

It says, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel.

You know, I want you to understand, God, some people think God is angry, but God is provoked.

And I want you to understand why God is angry when he gets provoked.

I want you to go back.

If you wanted to spend time, you could read the beginning of this book up to this point.

And consider how many things had God done for Israel.

How he had protected them, how he had brought them through, how he provided for them into

the land.

You know, all those things.

And Israel just basically thumbed their nose at him and said, we don't want you.

I want you to understand that God is still even dealing now with Isaiah.

In this passage, I want you to see, even though Isaiah had rejected God, God is still trying

to deal with him.

God's still trying to get his attention.

You know, even today, people don't realize how much God's trying to get their attention

that they might understand who he is or remember who he is.

And we're going to see here that even in Isaiah, all the way to the end, he made a choice to

reject God.

And people sometimes, sadly, make a choice to reject God.

But I want you to see here what took place.

Because the injury of Isaiah, that's the first thing we're going to look at is his injury here.

And we're going to see here as we get into chapter one of the second Kings, we find here in verse

one, it says, then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

And Isaiah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was

sick.

And he sent messengers and said unto them, go inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, whether

I shall recover of this disease.

You know, I want you to see here, it wasn't long after Ahab, his father had died, that

the king of Moab saw an opportunity to rebel.

And this is something you have to keep in mind.

And we'll talk about this a little more when we get into chapter three, some of the things

that were taking place there.

But Moab, when they heard Ahab was dead, they said, we're not going to give tribute anymore.

We're not going to pay the tribute that went all the way back to David and Solomon, went

all the way back through the United Kingdom.

And we're going to see here that they refused because their tribute, we'll learn over in chapter

three, was 200,000 animals a year.

100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams with their wool.

Every year was what they were supposed to pay in tribute.

And they quit wanting to pay the tribute.

They rebelled against them.

And so we might say his first injury here tonight was a political one because he seemed

weak.

And Moab rebelled and refused to give tribute.

You know, even in the fact it doesn't give us an order of how these things happen.

Maybe Ahab died and his son Haziah took the throne and he fell through the lattice and hurt

himself and he's in bed.

So now you have a new king that's injured and can't get up and do something.

And the enemy's saying, hey, this is a good time.

This is a good time to move forward.

And, and, but we see here that second was a physical injury that occurred when he fell

from the balcony in Samaria and sustained a grave injury.

You'll notice what it tells us here.

It says that he was sick and he sent messengers because he fell through the lattice in his

upper chamber.

In other words, he was on the second story or at least two stories up and fell off and

sustained an injury.

We know he fell from through the lattice and we don't know why he fell.

You know, you, it's always funny reading commentators.

They had all sorts of speculations, you know, that might have done it.

But you know, the Lord doesn't tell us exactly why, but just says that it happened.

You know, because sometimes the why doesn't matter the fact that it happened.

And so I want you to see here tonight as he has fallen from the balcony and sustained this

great grave injury.

You know, he's not sure he's going to recover, but we find here that a few things, it's ironic

that, you know, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22 for a moment because he falls through the

Deuteronomy 22 · chapter mention

lattice of the upper.

And it's just ironic that you find that God had given him some specific instruction about

second story and higher buildings.

You know, here in Deuteronomy 22 and verse 8, as they're coming out of the land of Egypt,

it says, when thou buildest a new house and thou shalt make a battlement for the roof and

thou shalt not bring blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence.

In other words, God says, make sure when you got a second story that it has secure railings

so that the people don't fall.

You know, when you read that and you read through Deuteronomy chapter 22, it's kind of an odd

Deuteronomy 22 · chapter mention

place.

It's one of them verses that just like, and then you look at this and it's like, well,

if Isaiah would have been reading and understanding God's instruction, he would have said, hey,

maybe I need to fix that.

You know, I think sometimes we miss what God has instructed us to do and then wonder why

it happened.

And God gives him instruction, but we see here that he was not going to recover from the fall

and Isaiah wanted to know what the future held for him.

Would he recover?

So what's he do?

We find next, not only his injury, but we see the inquiry of Isaiah.

Isaiah here is, he sends forth a messenger, not to find a prophet of God, but to go to Beelzebub.

Now, you'll find this name throughout the scripture because he sends a messenger with a question

about his future to a city called Ekron.

Ekron is where the temple of Beelzebub was built.

Now, Ekron should sound familiar.

It's mentioned many times in the Old Testament.

It's brought up and many things happened there.

You know, if you remember, if you go back and think back to when they lost the Ark of the

Covenant in battle under Saul.

You remember that when they brought, they marched out the covenant and they were relying on the

Ark of the Covenant that was going to save them?

And they forgot the fact that it isn't the Ark of the Covenant that saved them, it's the

God that's the one the Ark represented that saved them.

You know, I mean, that's a whole nother lesson for another day, but people get foolish, you

know, it's kind of like my Bible is going to protect me.

I want you to understand that if you don't know the God of the Bible, this is just a bunch

of pages.

It's not supernatural because it's printed on paper.

It's supernatural because it's the Word of God.

You know, and I want you to see here, but, you know, if you think back, 1 Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

5 and verse 10, Ekron was the last place the Ark of the Covenant departed before it went

back into Israel.

And it's funny because it didn't stay there very long.

Ekron was ready to go, ready to get rid of it, you know.

In verse 10 of 1 Samuel chapter 5, it says they brought about the Ark of the God of Israel

1 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

to slay us and our people.

In other words, at this point, they're looking and saying, Israel, let us take it because

they want it to destroy us.

You know, they're ready to get it out of town.

If you can go back and read through all the things that happened when the Ark went from

city to city, and when they put it in the temples that the Philistines had, and all the

things that took place.

But it was here that Uzziah sends his messenger to inquire of the God of the Philistines for

an answer.

You know, he should have known from, if he'd have read his Bible, that God already told

him that God of the Philistines have no power.

But you know what?

We search a lot of things that have no power.

He wanted to know the future.

You know, a lot of people today do a lot of things trying to find out their future.

There's a big rise in mysticism and astrological signs and all the things that people seek

after to try to find the future.

They worry about a future that they forget that God tells us the important part of your

future.

Because your future is only going to be one place or another.

You know?

I want you to understand that here he is.

He's seeking a Philistine God for the answer.

And so he sends out his messenger.

Now notice here, as we find here, it says in verse 3, we find the instruction of Elijah.

The instructions given to Elijah.

Here's Elijah jumping back on the scene again.

You know?

I don't know what Elijah did in the meantime.

The Bible doesn't tell us, but he always seems to show up for big events.

You know, God always sends them out for the big events of things and to confront the kings.

And we see this.

It says, look at verse 3,

But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite,

Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria,

and say unto them,

Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?

Now therefore, thus saith the Lord,

Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up,

but thou shalt surely die.

And Elijah departed.

You know?

So here we find the Lord here once again is gracious

because instead of allowing him to go first to require a false god,

God intervenes and sends Elijah.

God sends Elijah.

You know, and sometimes we think, well, God is judging him.

No, God's being merciful.

Think about one more opportunity.

One more opportunity to make a difference.

He's there, and we find here what he,

the receiving that he had, you know,

basically the instruction he gave was a very clear message.

You know?

Elijah comes on the scene and says,

Don't inquire of something else.

You only need to be concerned about one thing.

You know, just as Jesus spoke about in Luke 13, 3,

where he says, I tell you, nay, but except you repent,

you shall all likewise perish.

He's telling them the truth.

You know, we find here that Elijah arrives quickly on the scene

and then departs again.

You know?

We're going to find him on the hillside and, you know,

waiting here in just a little bit.

But this greatly shortened the trip for Haziah's messenger

because it was a 40-mile trip from Samaria to Ekron.

But the messenger shows back up to Haziah right away.

So basically, we can understand that it wasn't very far

outside the city of Samaria that we find that his messengers

were confronted by Elijah.

That is, the messengers confronted him

and arrives and gives him a message.

He says, Go on back.

You know?

The multi-day trip was suddenly shorted

as he returned to the king

with Elijah's message of demise.

He received Elijah's message.

And he gets there.

Look at verse 5.

And when the messengers turned back unto him

and said unto him,

Why ye now turn back?

You know?

He's going, Why are you here so soon?

You couldn't have went that fast.

You know?

You couldn't get to Ekron and back

in the time you've been gone.

What are you doing here?

I sent you there.

You know?

And so they give the report to the king.

You know?

What they received, they reported.

We see here in verse 6,

And they said unto him,

There came up a man to meet us,

and said unto us,

Go, turn again unto the king that sent you,

and say unto him,

Thus saith the Lord,

Is it not because there's not a God in Israel

that thou sendest to inquire Beelzeb of the God of Ekron?

Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed

on which thou art gone up,

but shalt surely die.

Now I want you to see here the report

that was given about a man

that they met in the way

with instruction from the Lord.

The Lord God of Israel is asking a relevant question.

The Lord was the one that established

everything they had.

He says,

While you're searching someplace else,

I'm still here.

I haven't gone anyplace.

You know?

How true as it is today,

people want to get rid of God,

and God says,

I haven't gone anyplace.

I'm still here.

I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He hasn't changed who he is,

or what he does,

and he hasn't changed the requirements

to get into heaven.

Everything is still the same.

And he was the one that brought them up out of Egypt

and gave them what they possessed.

Is there not a God here you could ask?

You know, basically that's what he's asking.

He says,

Don't you know there's a God here already

that is far greater than any of the others?

He gives them the instructions,

and why do you seek another?

And he's asking,

he's seeking Beelzebub.

Beelzebub.

Now the name there is interesting

when you study this a little bit,

and I'll give you a little insight,

because Beelzebub means this,

Lord of the Flies.

He was called the Dung God.

Rather interesting,

why would you go

ask something that represents death about life?

It's interesting that they would go

and ask something

that's associated with death,

because you know who shows up first after you die?

The flies.

It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor.

Guess what's going to show up?

The flies are going to show up.

And we see here that in Ekron,

God had already shown his dominion over their God.

I mean, we talked about that in 1 Samuel.

And we see here Beelzebub was the God they would go to,

and this is interesting.

They tell us they went for medical and health advice

when they were seeking something.

And it's like,

makes you just shake your head, doesn't it,

when you understand the picture?

It's like,

why would you go to the Lord of the flies

to get an idea of whether you're going to live or die?

Head in the wrong direction.

They would inquire about,

from the God of the flies,

for health concerns.

You know, today,

it's kind of funny,

because here they're asking,

he's going to a God

that represents something

that's going to give nothing but cause your problems.

And today,

you know,

many people do the same thing.

They inquire for answer in places

that just perpetuate their misery.

They miss what they have,

what God has given to us.

And when you seek to the flies

for an answer about death,

instead of seeking to the God who gives life,

it's important to see the picture here.

He delivers here the rest of the story

about what he said.

The king and prophet said,

you're going to not get out of that bed,

and you're not long for this world.

Now, it says messengers.

I wonder which one drew that card.

You know,

you're the one that gets to tell the king that part.

You know,

you're not going to get up.

You're going to die in that bed.

And so what's Uzziah do?

He goes,

he asks a question.

Look in verse 7,

and he said unto them,

what manner of man was he

that came up to meet you

and told you these words?

He's like,

I think I have a few ideas,

but he was like,

I want to know what he looked like.

Who is this guy?

Give me a report

so we can put out the wanted poster.

And when he gets the description,

we're going to find out

there was already a wanted poster

because Uzziah's mom

had put out a death warrant upon him

before she died.

And we see the identity

of the prophet here in verse 7.

And Uzziah was suspicious

about the identity

about the identity

of the prophet

there that had stopped them.

And he had seen

a bold prophet like this

before in his life.

You've got to remember,

Uzziah was old enough,

he would have most likely

seen what took place

on Mount Carmel.

And his parents

that were promoting Baal

to worship him,

I imagine they had him

there on the mount that day

and saw what Elijah did.

I imagine he was very familiar

with Elijah.

Because he asked,

what did he look like?

Look at verse 8

and it says,

and they answered him,

he was a hairy man

and girt with a girdle of leather

about his loins.

So here he is,

he gives this description.

He's a hairy man

with a leather belt

and he looks kind of rough

and he speaks kind of rough

and you know what?

Uzziah looks at it

and hears that

and he goes,

you know what?

Notice what he says

in verse 8.

He says,

it is Elijah the Tishbite.

He says,

I've met him before.

I know who you're talking about.

He's one that's going to be

bold enough to come,

the prophet that caused

the drought,

that called down fire

from heaven,

the prophet that killed

the 400 prophets of Baal

on Mount Carmel,

the one that mom and dad hated.

You know,

the one that already had

a bounty on his head.

He goes,

yeah,

I know Elijah.

And so what's he do?

Look at verse 9.

We see here the instructions

to capture Elijah.

You know,

look at verse 9 here.

And then,

the king sent unto him

a captain of 50 with his 50.

And he went up to him

and beheld he sat

on top of a hill

and he spake unto him,

thou man of God,

the king has said,

come down.

Now,

you know,

the instructions

to capture here.

Here,

Isaiah saw an opportunity

to fulfill

to fulfill his mother's wish

to see this prophet killed.

So what's he do?

You know,

like anybody would do,

you know,

you got one man

sitting alone

on the hillside

and they send out

51 people

to go get him.

You know,

here they send out

51 people.

The captain

with his 50.

51 armed men

go out to get him.

You know,

while the Bible

doesn't tell us,

I imagine here

this picture of Elijah

sitting up on

a hillside

that was probably

difficult to get up

or even get behind

because he's sitting

there on the hilltop

and the captain

of the 50s comes up

and looks up at him

and says,

come down here.

Commands him

to come down

so he could arrest him.

You know,

let's read through

this account

of what happened

and it tells us here,

he went up unto him

and behold,

he sat on top

of the hill

and he spake unto him,

thou man of God,

the king has said,

come down.

Now that's interesting.

He recognizes

that he's a man of God

but he says the king

has more authority

than your God

and commands him

to come down.

Now this is a

pretty famous happening.

You'll find

even the disciples

referred to this

later on

in the New Testament.

They say,

Lord,

they offended you.

Call down fire

from heaven

like Elijah.

You know,

I imagine

the Jewish boys

really loved this passage.

You know,

they probably loved

when the parents

would read through this

going,

yeah,

they got what

they deserved.

You know,

they were probably

excited about it.

But I want you

to see here

what takes place

and Elijah answered

in verse 10

and said to the

captain of the 50,

if I be a man of God

then let fire

come down from heaven

and consume

thee and thy 50.

You know what,

Elijah?

He's not bragging.

He's just saying,

if God is on my side,

this is what's

going to happen.

He's not saying

by the power of Elijah,

he says,

by the power of my God,

there's going to be fire

come down from heaven.

And look what happened

here as he said

that,

and there came down

fire from heaven

and consumed him

and his 50.

So you have this 51 guys,

one with his mouth open

and trying to give commands

that gets consumed.

I imagine when it talks

about this,

I look back at earlier,

if you remember,

when Elijah was on

Mount Carmel

and the fire came down

from heaven,

what happened to the

sacrifice in the altar

that day?

Even the stones were gone.

I imagine this was

the same fire.

There probably wasn't

nothing but the burn mark

left,

which makes it really

irony when you see

what happens next.

You know,

the ground is probably

a little bit singed

when that happens.

So the word gets back

that when these guys

don't show back up,

look at verse 11,

again also he sent unto him

another captain of 50

with his 50.

And he answered

and said unto him,

O man of God,

thus hath the king said,

come down quickly.

You know,

I want you to catch this

for a moment.

The first guy tried

to be bold

and instruct Elijah

of what he was supposed

to do,

and the next guy

gets even more arrogant.

He says,

if I've told you once,

I'm not going to tell you again,

get down here

like a parent talks

to a little kid.

Come down quickly.

Now,

I want you to catch

the irony of this

because he's standing

in the burn zone.

I think Elijah was

on the same spot

on the same hill

waiting for him.

You march up there

and you're all arrogant

and you fail to look down

to see what happened

to the previous ones.

And he gives them,

get down here now,

you know,

even more demanding.

To which,

notice what Elijah answers.

Verse 12,

and Elijah answered

a sin of them,

if I be a man of God,

let fire come down

from heaven

and consume thee

in thy fifty

and the fire of God

came down from heaven

and consumed him

in his fifty.

So now you have

a hundred and two guys

incinerated.

I imagine it incinerated

their gear,

I imagine it incinerated

everything about them.

So what does Isaiah do?

Let's try this

a third time.

That makes sense,

you know.

The sad part is

we can be like Isaiah

a lot of times.

God makes it very clear

what we ought to do

and we still try

to move forward

even though God's

made the answer

pretty clear.

But notice here,

he sends out

another fifty

and look at verse 13.

He sent again

a captain of the

third fifty

and his fifty.

And the third

captain of the fifty

went up and came

and fell on his knees

before Elijah

and besought him

and said unto him,

O man of God,

I pray thee,

let my life

and the life

of these fifty

thy servants

be precious

in thy sight.

Now notice,

we know that

there was something

that he understood

what happened

to the previous ones

because look at

the next verse.

Behold,

there was fire

come down from heaven

and burnt up

the two captains

of the former fifty

and their fifties.

Therefore,

let my life

now be precious

in thy sight.

You know what?

You've got to have

a lot of respect

for this guy.

Here's a guy

doing his duty.

He was doing

what his duty

told him he had to do.

But he said,

I'm not going to be

disrespectful to God

doing my duty.

You know?

You could probably

preach a whole message

about this guy

right here.

Because he understood

the difference.

He understood

how those things

interconnected.

And you know what?

I want you to see here.

Elijah and God

both respected

this man

for being

an honorable

individual.

and requesting,

not coming arrogantly,

but respecting

where he was

and what was happening.

This guy had

some wisdom.

He arrives

with some humility.

If he doesn't come

looking at Elijah

and say,

get down here now

or else,

he arrives

and it says

he falls on his knees

like he would

before a king.

He says,

Elijah,

let my life

be precious

in thy sight.

he came humbly

before him.

He had a duty

and responsibility

but yet he was

humble enough

to realize

who he was

speaking with

and who Elijah

represented.

We see here

and he tells them

all the things

that happened.

Look at verse 16.

They say,

and behold now,

there be with thy servant

fifty strong...

Okay, that's verse 2.

Get back over

to the right one.

Get used to this one.

Verse 15.

And the angel of the Lord

said unto Elijah,

go down with him

and be not afraid.

And he arose

and went down with him

unto the king.

And he said unto him,

thus saith the Lord.

So here Elijah,

God tells him

after this man

humbly comes

before him

and Elijah

has some mercy

upon him

because God says,

hey, no,

we don't need fire

in this case.

He came humbly.

You know what?

It's amazing

in the scripture

you'll find

that you humble yourself

before the sight of God.

God's a God of mercy.

What a great picture.

This guy came

with the same job

to do the same responsibility,

but because he came humbly

in the right spirit

and the right attitude,

God had mercy on him.

There was nothing special

between him

and the other two

except for the fact

of the attitude

that he represented.

He was the same captain

over the same type

of people,

group of 50,

had the same authority

but realized humility

was beneficial.

So we see here Elijah,

it says in verse 15,

the angel of the Lord

said to Elijah,

go down with him,

be not afraid of him.

And he arose

and went down with him

unto the king.

You know what?

God said,

if this man's willing

to be humble,

you can trust him.

God says,

this man is one

that you can,

we know what,

he's not going to

just turn Elijah in

or he's not going

to harm him

because of the spirit

and the attitude

that he had

and God tells Elijah

to go on down with him.

So Elijah comes down

and he goes with him

and he comes before Hosea.

Verse 16,

and he said unto him,

thus saith the Lord

for as much as thou

hast sent messengers

to inquire Beelzebub,

the God of Ekron,

is it not because

there is no God

in Israel

to inquire of his word?

Therefore thou shalt

not come down

off that bed

on which thou art

gone up,

but shalt surely die.

You know,

it's interesting

that Isaiah wanted

Elijah to come down

so he could kill him.

And Elijah says,

you've gone up

on your bed

and you're never

going to come down.

Elijah arrives

and personally delivers

the same message.

You know,

it's kind of interesting

that God's message

didn't change

from the time

he sent it back

to him with the messengers

to the time

that Elijah confronted

him.

It's the exact

same message.

There's no difference.

It's exactly the same

and why did,

when they're there,

Elijah arrives

and he personally

delivers that message

and asks him

very clearly,

why did you seek

information about life

from the Lord

of the flies

instead of the living God?

What a very beneficial

for things

for us to consider.

You know,

this Beelzebub,

you'll find him

all the way up

through the scripture.

You'll find even Jesus

was accused

of serving him.

He's directly associated

with Satan

and the devil.

As you'll find later on,

he's associated

with some very wicked things.

Children being sacrificed.

There's a lot

of different elements

as we look through

the scripture

that he's tied to

and we find here,

he says,

your rejection,

why did Isaiah die?

Because he rejected God.

He rejected God's mercy.

He rejected all

that God stood for.

He rejected all

that God had done for him.

All that God provided

all the way up

to the very end.

Here's Elijah the prophet

and he had an opportunity

to make a choice

and he chose

to still deny God.

Thou shalt surely die.

You know,

the reality is

is the wages of sin

is death.

When people reject God,

that's the reality.

It always ends in death.

You know,

Isaiah's short,

tenuous king

ended when he died

just as Elijah

had spoken.

Notice in verse 17,

it says,

so he died

according to the word

of the Lord

which Elijah

had spoken.

And then his younger brother,

Jehoram,

takes his place

because he had no children

or at least no son.

And so we're going to

pick up here

next time

as we continue

looking through this

because this is still

as God is working

through two years,

less than two years,

his reign

and he met his demise

and still did

great wickedness

in the eyes of the Lord.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

heavenly Father,