God is in Complete Control- God's Sovereignty: 1 Kings 22:29-40

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Everybody, welcome back, assuming that.

This is not your first time, which is a big assumption.

That anybody would come back a second time after they

heard us the first time.

But if you're new to the Bible Guys, I'm Chris,

this is Jeff, and we are a couple of pastors

and friends who work at the same church who have

very similar backgrounds.

We really do, and we like to talk about the Bible.

Yeah, same age, even though I'm older, better.

Looking, substantially older, Yeah, substantially better looking, questionable, opinions.

Questionable, and that anyway, we just really just walked through

the Bible. We're in a series talking about the highlights

of the milestones of the Old Testament, and right now

we're talking about a battle between well Israel and Judah

going against airmens.

Yeah.

But before we do, we have a segment.

And these are fun segments. We like these sometimes, yeah,

because scary people right in.

Yeah.

And so here's what we would like to say. We'd

like to say. We would love for you to write

in to email us at info at the Bible guys

dot com. Yes, hope, we'll put down on the.

Screen right there for the stump the Pastor segment.

Yes, or to be honest, any any question that you

might have, or comments or emails or feedback. We just

love it all and we'd like to use it. But

stump the pastor is what is today? This is from

Ivy B.

Yes, Hi, ivy B, and ivy.

B says, I really enjoy listening to both of you daily.

Good job for exclamation.

Marks four Yes, that might be a record for us.

You're measuring exclamation for us. The Bible says, unless we

believe in the Son of God, we will not have

eternal life. He's the only way to God. What then

will happen to the people of the Old Testament. Jesus

was born centuries after them, and no one knows about him,

only maybe hears about him. Doesn't mean they will not

have eternal life. People like Abel, Hagar, Samson, boaz Adam. Well,

I get to see them when I go to heaven,

says Ivy. Great question is great question. Yeah, and so

there's uh you want to you want me to give? Yeah? So, uh,

I mean I think that you can really dive. You

can go down a big well here with theology on this.

But uh, we believe that the Bible is really clear

about the the Theophanes in the Bible. Uh. There there

there are places in the Bible where Jesus Christ appears

in the Old Testament, even though he doesn't physically appear,

there are times where Jesus will be present in prophecy

or in symbolism, and he's there and he's he's being

prophesied uh towards the Cross. So the quick answer is

simply this that there are consistent places all the way

from the very beginning, from the Garden of Eden, from creation,

from creation, all the way up until Jesus Us physically

came to the earth where Jesus has been prophesied about,

talked about, and the people the Old Testament may not

have known his name was Jesus, but they pretty much

believed in and looked forward to the Cross, which is

why the system that God had put in place represented Jesus.

So like, for instance, the animal sacrifices, they didn't remove

the sins of the people, but they covered the sins temporarily,

and people would practice animal sacrifices and different things like that,

looking forward to the cross, everything pointing to Jesus, and

we look back at the cross. So we have the

privilege of you know, you know, being on the other

side of the completed work of Jesus, and his sacrifice

actually removes our sins, and it's so complete that it

removes our future sins. And so basically the short answer

is is that we all get to have in the

same way, the people of the Old Testament looking forward

to the promised Messiah, and the people of the New Testament,

which is Us, and beyond looking backwards to the promised Messiah,

which has come.

Right. That is right, John fourteen six.

Jesus says that no one comes to the Father except

through me, and so Jesus is telling the truth. And

that means that the only way Adam is going to

be in heaven is through Jesus. The only way that

you will get to heaven.

Is through Jesus.

Right, it's from the first to the last. We all

will go through Jesus. But there's limited information and knowledge

for them. But looking forward to and this is why

God would give the sacrifices the innocent, This is why

he commanded it that the innocent would pay the price

for the guilty, knowing that the Messiah would finally come

and pay the ultimate price for the guilty, even though

he's completely innocent. That was the totality of what they

understood about the purpose of the Messiah.

Right.

They also began to believe.

It began to be a traditional thing to believe that

the Messiah was going to come and set them free

from Rome. It's purely political and it was social in

those last couple hundred years. But prior to that, they

were always looking forward to the fact that Messiah would

come and solve this sin issue. And then us looking back,

we know his name. His name is Jesus, but he

did the exact same function for us that he did

for them.

It was the same.

Well, Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish the law.

I came to fulfill it, to fulfill it right right,

He was the fulfillment of everything that had been put

in the place.

And then this can be really hard for people. So

I like to mess with the people who like to

think about these things. But the reason why this works

is because God is not bound by time. This is

a time based question. I came after Adam came before

that's all about time, right, But for God, time isn't

an issue. He's the author of time, he's the cause

of time. But the Bible says and he's outside of time, right,

that's right. The Bible says that a day is a

thousand years, a thousand years is a day, kind of

referencing the idea that time has no effect on him.

So this is why the cross can happen in the

middle of humanity and it applies both ways. Is because

he wasn't waiting for it to happen. It happened, and

we he's not waiting for us, he's not waiting for Adam.

All these things is time is not a thing for him,

and so because of that, then the cross can solve

the problem in the past and in the future completely.

That's why even when you trusted Christ, maybe you became

a Christian ten years ago, but God forgave all of

your sins forever, right, you know, past, present, in the future.

And it's because from a cross event that happened two

thousand years ago. That's why it applies. Is because he's

not worried about this time component. So that's kind of

a twist your mind thing, a little bit. But just

understand it's not a problem for him. You looking back

thousands of years to Adam is kind of a weird

thing because it's thousands of years to God, it all

just is right. It's not then and now it just is,

and so is the cross, and the cross solves.

The problem for everybody.

So Adam had a limited information, but with the information

he had, it applies as long as he was looking

forward to the Messiah, and you have more information to

who much is given, much has required Jesus said. So

now as we look back, we have more complete information.

But even then, Paul says, we have limited information compared

to what's going to be like in heaven. Right, So

he says, we're like looking in a in a mirror

with that's foggy, right, But one day we're going to

see him face to face. So even while your information

is more complete than Adams, none of us have complete

information about Jesus until we actually.

Mean yeah, well, he says, not the half has been told, right, right,

So it's just half.

So it's all part.

So it's faith in what you do know about Jesus,

not not consequences for what you don't know about Jesus

name the band.

I don't know what this is?

Your favorite band?

Is it new song?

Yes?

Okay not the half has been told.

I didn't recognize the way you're saying it.

Oh, there it is, there it is. Here's the idea

of them say it. Yeah, okay, okay.

So question, thank you Ivy for writy in.

Yeah. Yeah, that was fantastic for sure. Talking about going

to heaven.

There's some people who don't because they reject God right

when they die.

And talking about dying. Wow, Ab dies today?

Yes? In the stories, yes, yes, wow.

Okay, that was a stretch. That was a very that

was a bad one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you're new to listening, we've been trying to get

the worst transitions we possibly can.

That's been a goal of ours.

And that sort of was a transition that led into

another transition.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. It was too bad transition.

Too bad transition.

It's so bad it needed another transition.

So this is a These are parallel stories in First

King's chapter twenty two. You can find the same story

in Second Chronicles chapter eighteen, and it's telling about the

death of Ahab. So it's just a few verses here,

but it says, So, King Ahab of Israel and King

Jehoshaphat of Judah led their armies against Raymouth Gilead. The

air Mans had taken Ramoth Gilead, and they wanted to

take it back. The King of Israel said the Jehastaphah,

as we go into battle, I'll disguise myself so no

one will recognize me, but you wear your royal robes.

So the King of Israel disguised himself and they went

into battle. Meanwhile, the King of Aram had issued these

orders to his thirty two chariot commanders. Attack only the

King of Israel, don't bother with anyone else. So when

the Aramean chariot commanders saw Jehashaphah in his royal robes,

they went after him. There's the King of Israel, they shouted.

But when Jehosaphah called out, the chariot commanders realized he

was not the King of Israel, and they stopped chasing him.

An Airman soldier, however, randomly shot an arrow at the

Israelite troops and shot the King of Israel between the

joints of his armor. Turn the horses and get me

out of here. Ahab groaned to the driver of his chariot,

I'm badly wounded. The battle raged all that day, and

the king remained propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans.

The blood from his wound ran down to the floor

of his chariot, and as evening ard he died, just

as the sun was setting, the cry ran through. His

troops were done for Run for your lives. So the

king died, and his body was taken to Samaria and

buried there, And then his chariot was washed beside the

pool of Samaria, and dogs came and licked his blood

at the place where the prostitutes bathed, just as the

lord had promised. The rest of the events in Ahab's

reign and everything he did, including the story of the

Ivory Palace and the towns he built, are recorded in

the book of the History of the Kings of Israel.

So Ahab died and his son a Haziah became the

next king.

Hey remember the blood profit from the vineyard. Yes, uh huh,

that was it. Yeah, that was exactly what happened.

When he took Naboth's vineyard.

Yes, and so if you were here last week and

you listened then you know that his death was prophesied,

but then he repented, so God said, Okay, he's not

going to bring it in his lifetime, but he carried

it out at the end of his life. Yeah, because

he said, Hey, where Nathan, we're nay both with stoned.

That's where the dogs are liqu your blood. And turns

out that they were washing his chariot and uh and

as they were doing it, the blood was in the water,

and then the dogs came and looked up the blood, which,

by the way, is gross.

What a gross blalk about?

Yeah, sure, I guess, says.

When I come home.

It's funny I have I have, you know, I put

my foot down and said, we are not getting any

more puppies, and my wife and daughter went out and

got two little tiny yippers. You met him, Yes, Gucci,

Chanel Gucci and Chanelle Gucci about.

Tough guy names by the way, the worst manly names ever.

But it's so it's so funny because I mean they

are literally they are the definition of lap dogs. They

don't even have fur. I don't know if you know.

They don't have fur. They have hair, so they don't shed.

They when they get haircuts, they feel so soft, right

and fluffy, all this kind of stuff. Uh, they're terrified

of everything. And but when I come home, if I

bring a deer home, Gucci turns into a wolf. He

can't stand it doesn't mean we can bring groceries home

with meat. And he's interested, but not aggressive. I bring

home venison, fresh venison, and he turns into like this,

just fight you to get get the meat. It's the

weirdest thing, right, Yeah, it's dogs. That's what they go for.

They love it. So this is it.

Now.

The weird thing is the translation where it says, you know,

this is where the prostitutes bathed. The translation could have

been and the prostitutes bathed in it.

Oh that's a little weird.

Isn't that weird? Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of one of those mockery

kind of things.

Yeah.

Bathing in the blood of the king.

Yeah, bathing in the blood of the king.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty talking about shame that that's

what happens.

But let's talk about this for a minute.

Much. If you think about it, it was mixed with

water and soap as they were washing.

Sure, but they're right to make a statement. It seems

like it's they're making a statement.

Yeah, yeah, so so the the interesting thing is Jehasha

Fat made this really bad decision and allowed his son

to marry Ahab and Jezebel's daughter Athelia.

It's bad news, right, it's terrible.

Yeah. Can you imagine, by the way, as a father

signing off for one of your kids to marry into

a family that were hedonistic, false worship idling people who

didn't recognize the authority of God that.

The Bible says, Well, the Bible doesn't tell all of

the stories of Ahab and Jezebel. Multiple times, God says

these are the most wicked people that ever led Israel.

Yeah right, they were worse than all the other kings.

So so as horrible as we know the kings had

been up to this point, Ahab was by far worse.

Yeah.

And it was Joosphat. Was it is his son or

was it his daughter?

It was his son married Ahab's.

Daughter, okay, I dally, okay, so maybe he thought my

son will lead.

Well, it's an alliance, right, right, it's an alliance.

But Jesebel's daughter is going to be Jezebel's daughter and

she had all this power over Ahab.

Yeah, I was only thinking, honestly of just from the

vantage point only for a father, Like.

I think it was just purely political. It was diplomatic.

Daughter is different than giving your son. Giving your son

you just hope he leads, but giving your daughter, you know,

is subject you know, especially in that day.

Well, I think you probably had this sense of jehosh

Fat going, hey, here's an opportunity, Ahab, the country is

not strong. Judah was strong. Israel was not strong. Judah

was economically prosperous. They had a powerful army. They weren't

in battle and war all the time. Israel was constantly

at war. Ahabs, people did not honor God. God did

not bless them. They were living under the curse. And

so they have a weaker nation. It's a weak moment,

and Judah is strong. So now, hey, what if I

marry his daughter? What if my son marries his daughter? Right,

we can maybe seize a just a little bit more

control over the north. Right, there's I think a strategic thing.

And then in return for that, I think it's kind

of funny that Ahab goes, hey, listen, as we go

to war, you wear your robes and look like a king,

and I'm gonna wear a disguise which and pretend I'm

not the.

King the right, Like, why would you agree to that?

I don't know.

But Ahab's thinking, maybe I can maybe with Jehoshaphat, because

you've got such a good, good army, maybe we can

beat Aram. And at the same time, maybe they'll kill Jehoshapat.

I can get both kingdoms, right, he's playing both ends

against the middle, that's what he's doing.

Well, And so so you've.

Got I think Jehoshaphat thinking, hey, I'm gonna I'm I'm slack,

and we're gonna work out this this family kind of diplomacy,

and eventually, over time, I'm gonna play the long game

and I'm gonna take over Israel and have a going No,

you wear your kingly robes and I'll just wear this.

Guys, well, I think that he's also trying to get

him killed. Well yeah, but he's also trying to avoid

the one prophet who who predicted the truth, right, So

in the back of his mind, he's thinking, well, somebody's

dying today. Somebody's dying. And by the way, how ridiculous

is it to think that he get out smart what

God says. Right. So you know all the time in

the scripture, you know, when we live our lives, we

have promises and guidelines and thou shouts and thou shot knots,

and you know, God encourages us, he commands us, he

nudges us. You know, he challenges us, and all these

different kinds of things. And so here's the thing. God's

word is true, and God's word is going to be

true regardless of we can't out smart God. What is

Galatians saying, right, don't be deceived? God is the moms right,

You're gonna saw what You're gonna what you read, and

it's just gonna It's just gonna happen. It's going to

find you out. It's going to find you and you

can't avoid it. It's like Jonah can't run in sale

to Tarshis far enough, right, It's like you can't outrun God.

And so and so here he wears a disguise. Well

guess what it was? Actually think about this. I didn't

think about this ti this very second. It was actually

his disguise that he wore that did him in because

the arrow perhaps would not have Eddie woren his other outfit.

It wouldn't have slipped through that exact crack of that

exact armor, right, because I mean, think about it, different

outfits are gonna have different seams, and they're gonna look

different and just be different. And it says that just

so happens, this random arrow went through the cracks of

his armor, and so he will be wearing a different outfit. Happened.

You know, I have had conversations with people before. You know,

some Christians will talk about the fact that nothing is random, right, right,

but God chooses to use this verse that says it

was a random guy. So this guy was not aiming

at anybody, right, He was just shooting at the forces

of Israel.

Right.

He wasn't aiming at Ahab, He wasn't intentionally trying to

kill him. But God guided that arrow to a crack

in his armor, just just just a gap, you know.

It's it's where you got to have, you know, in

the joint areas. You have to have mobility, and so

those would be vulnerable spots. You know, big chunk of

armor here, big chunk of armor on your shoulders, whatever,

in your back. But you're going to have to have

some things for mobility, and it was one of those

cracks that got through. And you know, he he bled

for a long time from the middle of the day

until evening before he.

Died, which goes to show you that God, like God trumps.

All us absolutely, that's right, He.

Trumps all uds. And and you know, so sometimes we think, oh, no, like,

how could this possibly work out for the best? How

could this possibly you know, go my way? When we're

praying and we're thinking ourselves, there's only a certain amount

of chance that, you know, this person would be healed.

There's only a certain amount of chance that I'm gonna

get the promotion or whatever it's going to be. Just remember,

God trumps all odds in his exactness of this era.

He knew exactly you know, he knew exactly where it

was gonna happen. Right, So that's the exactness of God.

So you know, so, uh, when I when I when

I actually uh decided that God was asking me to

go into ministry, I was at a summer camp and

and I actually snuck out of my cabin like some

people do, and I went out, what I.

Know, out of your cabin at camp as a kid.

Yeah, and I went out and coming Chris, Yeah, I went.

I laid. I laid on this wooden uh, sort of

like stage with a big cross on it, on the

side of the hill near a lake. And I told

my friends, I said, I've never seen a shooting star.

I've never seen one. And I said, I'm gonna go

out there and I'm just gonna ask God to confirm.

You know. It's that whole like being only seventeen years old,

and I said'm gonna ask how to confirm and give

me a shooting star. So I go out and I

was laying there and I looked up and it was

beautiful sky of her right, it just was filled with

stars because we're in the middle the country. And I

started saying, in how great they are? And you know,

so then sings my soul, my Savior God to the

you know, and of course it starts with the Lord

that God, when I also want to consider all the

worlds they have, you know. Anyway, So I'm sitting there

singing all that, and just as I hit the crescendo

of the chorus, right, how great thou art, God said

a little shoot star right perfectly untiming, right as I

was singing right, how great thou were? And then I

thought to myself, wait a minute, stars burn out millions

of miles away. Light travels at what one hundred and

eighty six thousand miles an hour or something like that, right,

So God timed it right. God's like, hey, I'm gonna

I'm gonna cause the start to burn out. And it's

burned out a long time ago.

But it'd be a meter, right, but ibe what it'd

be an asteroid or a meteorite.

Okay, yeah, I mean that's right.

That's it's not a real star.

That's right. That's right. Okay, fine, fine, still shooting star

is what we call it.

That's what we call it. Okay.

And then but anyway, but it's like, it's like it

was the timing. And I thought to myself, I thought,

I thought, I tried to calculate all of it, and

I thought, I wonder if God decided a long time ago,

did he put in motion? And he said, like, I'm

going to give it to him right right at the

right at the rest.

Worked it out.

Man, That thing's barreling things barreling through space at tens

of thousands of miles an hour.

And I just thought to myself like, like can God?

Does God really care about me that much? And then

I decided, Yeah, I think he does.

So so this idea of randomness is really hard for

people to understand. That God's in control and yet he

allows some things to be random. In some of the

other you know, uh translations, it says, and a certain

man drew a bow at a venture, right. He just

he had no intent, He's just shooting, right, is what

it says. Soh when God chooses to intervene, that's a miracle.

That's why the Bible tells.

Us about it, right, It's because that's not normal, right,

And so what was what was extraordinary was this is

a random event. And sometimes random things happen. Sometimes you

just are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And it wasn't that God was like, I'm going to

make that thing happen to you. Sometimes things just happen

to you, right. But what God can do is then

take that random moment and manage it for his purposes, right, right.

And so so when God chooses to take a random

moment and intervene, that's super natural. So God created everything

in the natural, and he set up all of his

natural laws. So then everything functions within the parameters of

his natural law. But they function right. But everything functions

within the laws that God established, even within our lives.

Are respiratory things, digestive things, how gravity works, friction, momentum,

all that stuff just happens. It's happening now that he

set in place. God's in control of it from the

perspective of he can intervene at any moment, but when

he chooses not to intervene, it runs in the way

that he established it. That's still God's authority. He established

it that way. So then a guy can just be

riding in his chariot, pull up his bow, shoot an arrow,

just to shoot an arrow, because it turns out he's

in a war, right, He's in a battle, and so

he shoots this thing, but he's not aiming at anybody.

And then God goes, Okay, that arrow is the one,

and he reaches in and supernatural super means above or beyond.

So the natural thing this guy does, centrifical or not

centrifical force, thermodynamics right opposite and equal reaction lets that

string go.

The arrow goes.

That's one of God's laws. It's flying through there and goes,

God goes. Okay, let's guide that one right in there,

because today's Ahab's day, right, and God supernaturally he imposed

himself on nature in that moment and guided that arrow

to kill Ahab in that moment. So it's okay for

you to accept the fact that some things happen. That

wasn't so much the plan as it is. It just happens.

It just happens, and then it's not wrong for us.

That's why we pray for God to intervene in our lives.

We pray that God would do miracles. We pray that

God would protect us. Jesus said, lead us not in temptation,

but deliver us from bad things. Right, Jesus says, we

need your provision. There's all these things. We need God

to intervene in what is the natural systems, and when

that happens, that's when we experience a miracle.

Right.

And so this can be kind of a confusing thing

when you read this phrase, but that's all it is

is life happens, and when God chooses to intervene, that's

why he tells us about it in the Bible.

Yeah right, So.

Yeah, well, I mean at the end, the human reaction

is almost always hey, what are the yeah right, We

always say like, can you believe it's one of the

us or.

The other one?

Is?

Well, that was God's will, yeah right now, it was

God's will to choose not to intervene. But it may

not have been something that God went, oh good, here's

a bad thing coming for Chris, right right. It doesn't mean,

you know, somebody runs the red light. It doesn't mean

that he made them run the red light to.

Hit you, right right, yeah, right, yeah.

And so that's what I'm saying is life happens, we

get caught up in life. Sometimes God chooses to intervene supernaturally.

Otherwise we're living within the authority of the systems, the

laws that He put in place. And this is one

of those passages. There's several in the Bible that just

talk about this idea of randomly or unintentional decisions, and

then God chooses from that unintentional decision to intervene. That's

Rome's eight twenty eight. God causes all things to work

together for good for those who love him or called

accordingate purpose. It doesn't say God causes all things right

right to happen, but it does say God can take

everything that is happening and make it work out for good.

That's really good. That's really good. Okay, well that's that's

our time, and so we're going to pick up tomorrow

and hopefully we'll see you then on the Bible gus

mhm hm