Understanding the Spiritual Realm: 1 Kings 22:1-28

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I personally like this one.

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for their own benefit and safety. Right, Okay, give a

set up. Yeah, there you go. So here it is

new check engine light for women, will show Ryan Gosling's

face so they'll actually pay attention to it. And you

got us, You've got that's the headline.

It's hilarious.

There's like there's like a spinometer and then Ryan Goslin's

face with this really slick look and it says, hey girl,

check your engine.

Yep, so Detroit, Michigan. As part of a new campaign

to make cars safer for women, General Motors unveiled in

an innovative new customization that replaces the old check engine

light with Ryan Gosling's face so that women will pay

attention to it. Oh my goodness, it's Ryan Gosling, shouted

Nora Walker. Ah, he's saying, hey girl, check your engine.

He's so sweet. Off to the mechanic love. In a

press release, General Motors admitted that creating warning lights that

will actually garner a woman's attention has always been a

bit of a white whale. Now, thanks to our executive

or to our exclusive partnership with Ryan Gosling, women will

finally know when their engine is about to explode. Thanks Ryan,

interest in new GM models has exceeded expectations, leading to

a nationwide shortage. By the end of the year. We

expect every woman to drive a GM vehicle. CEO Tom

Motors said, this is easily the most successful campaign we've

ever launched. At publishing time, the Ryan Gosling check engine

light has been recalled after GM discovered women would actively

damage their cars to get Ryan Gosling to appear on

their dashboard.

It's so funny. You know what that does?

That like slams, That slams women drivers. It has this

undertone of so many things.

So just to be clear, I did not pick that article,

desirat it. Oh no, I'm just saying, if you have

any hate mail to tell us why we shouldn't have

read that, send it to Desire Bible.

Guys.

She just thought it was a good idea.

I think, Well, so maybe she has one of those

GM cars.

Yeah, I don't know. I only drive GM.

Oh yeah, yeah, I'm driving.

Uh what am I driving?

I'm driving? Pick up Chevy.

Yea, yeah, you're driving a Chevy. Yeah yeah, So for you,

who would have to be on the dashboard in order

to get your attention? I know it's going to be

Zach Efron, but beyond Zach Effron, if they didn't put

Zach Effron on the dashboard, who else would it be?

I just wanted some movie with Zach Effron this morning,

I believe you.

I did.

It was it was.

I would have to go with either Carrie Underwood or

I would go with Shania Twain.

Okay, both of them, both of them singing to you.

Who's a classic?

Oh yeah, both of them singing to you, Hey, check

your angine? Yeah yeah, okay, a little bit.

Of a country day to check you injured?

That's funny. So uh yeah, So you're a country music fan?

I am? Yes?

Okay, yes, Well I lived in Atlanta for ten years

and I drove a pickup truck even though I was

never off road, and listen to country music and wore

flannels wow all the time?

All right, that makes you country boy? Then, well full

blown at least that truck. Look, you drove your grocery

getter pickup truck, right, that's exactly a full wheel drive.

That's exactly you're never had any by the way, grocery

stores and golf golf courses those are that's where you

took that full draft.

I very much compared it to like, have you ever

seen a golf course where a person looked like a

golfer because they had all the equipment, all these but

they're not a real golfer.

That was me with a pickup truck. But I did

love country.

Well I don't. I don't look like a golfer. I

look like a guy who stole some clubs from somebody's

yard and climbed the fence. That's awesome.

Climb the fence not even paid, that's so great.

Okay, well, speaking of country, oh okay, Ahab and Jahasafat

are trying to figure out how to build an alliance

to protect their own countries. Nice, nice spam. Got it?

Is that why you said you like country.

Music or you just well I was asking you that

because I wanted to get to country and just don't

get me. That was plan, that was the transit. That

was the Oh hey, there's an opportunity, because if you're

a new listener, you just don't know. We have successfully

come up with some really bad transitions from this silly

time into the conversation about.

The text for reading by the clunkiest part of the ship.

But we do it. We do it on purpose. I

don't know if our fans listen to it or like

it at all, but we love it. So just indulges

for a second.

It's funny.

Okay, So, speaking of clunky transitions in First Corinthians chapter,

First Kings chapter twenty two, Oh wow, you really? Yeah?

First there, one Kings twenty two.

I didn't think my reading glasses. I forgot them.

I noticed that. Yeah, because yes, last week Chris was

super cool and had some reading glasses.

I tried them out. Yeah yeah, and they were very helpful.

They look good.

I'm just not in the habit of remembering them.

Well, okay, so so it lasted a week.

So now I have to like pull the book away

from me like this.

Okay, so we're going to read this, and I think

it's the entire chapter, isn't it? Yeah?

One through twenty eight?

Yeah, yeah, and this is kind of a big deal.

This whole yeah, this whole chunk here is kind of

a big deal. It's a pivotal moment in the history

of both Israel and quite honestly, Judah. This is kind

of the beginning of the bad part for Judah. Here's

what it says. For three years, there was no war

between Aram and Israel. Then during the third year, King

Jehashaah of Judah went to visit King Ahab of Israel.

During the visit, the King of Israel said to his officials,

do you realize that the town of Raymonth Gilead belongs

to us, and yet we've done nothing to recapture it

from the King of arm. Then he turned to Jehoshaphat

and asked, will you join me in battle recover Raymuth Gilead.

Joshaphat replied to the King of Israel, why of course

you and I ares one. My troops are your troops,

and my horses are your horses. Then Jehoshaphah added, but

first let's find out what the Lord says. So the

King of Israel summoned the prophets, about four h hundred

of them, and asked them, should I go to war

against Raymuth Gilead or should I hold back? They all replied, yes,

go right ahead. The Lord will give the king victory

but Jehashaphah asked, is there not a prophet also of

the Lord here? We should ask him the same question.

The king replied to Joshaphah, there is one more man

who could consult the Lord for us, but I hate him.

He never prophesies anything but trouble for me. His name

is Macaiah, son of Imla. Jehoshaphat replied, that's not the

way kings should talk. Let's hear what he has to say.

So the King of Israel called one of his officials

and said, quick, bring Makaiah son of Imlah. Josh Fat

enjoyed great riches in high esteem, and he made an

alliance with Ahab of Israel.

Are you reading on second chronicles?

Oh? Oh, what did I do?

You have to skip that section and pick up skip.

That section, pick up right here? Yep. Yeah.

But anyway, by the way, that little interruption was brought

to you by the chronological.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a chronological Bible. So

these stories are being told both in first kings and

in second chronicle. That's correct. So okay. King Ahab of

Israel and King Jehoshaphat Judah, dressed in their royal robes,

were sitting on thrones at the threshing floor near the

gate of Samaria. All of Ahab's prophets were prophesying there.

In front of them, one of them, Zedekiah, son of

Kana Kanana Kanana kan Annaana Na. I don't know, you

make me read him. This guy Zedekiah, made some iron

horns and proclaimed, this is what the Lord says. With

these horns, you will gore the Aramans to death. All

the other prophets agreed. Yes, they said, go up to

raymuth Gilead and be victorious, for the Lord will give

the king victory. Meanwhile, the messenger went to get Makayah,

said to him, look, all the prophets are promising victory

for the king. Be sure that you agree with them

and promise success. But Makaiah replied, as surely as the

Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells

me to say. When Makaiah arrived before the king, a

haveb asked him, Makaiah, should we go to war against

the raymuth Gilead or should we hold back? Makaiah replied sarcastically, yes,

go up and be victorious, for the Lord will give

you the king victory. But the King replied sharply, how

many times must I a man that you speak only

the truth to me when you speak for the Lord.

Then Makaiah told him, in a vision, I saw all

Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd,

And the Lord said, their master has been killed. Send

them home in peace. Didn't I tell you? The King

of Israel, exclaimed the Jehoshaphat. He never prophesied anything but

trouble for me. So good. Then Makaiah continued, listen to

what the Lord says. I saw the Lord sitting on

his throne with all the armies of heaven around him

on his right and on his left. And the Lord said,

who can entice Ahab to go into battle against raymuth

Gilead so he can be killed? There were many suggestions,

and finally a spirit approached the Lord and said, I

can do it. How will you do this, the Lord asked.

The spirit replied, I will go out and inspire all

of Ahab's prophets to speak lies. You will succeed, said

the Lord, Go ahead and do it. So, you see,

the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths

of all your prophets for the Lord has pronounced your doom.

Then Zedekiah, son of Kananaa, cannot cannot anna.

It's so wild by the way, just for fun, it's

k e n aa nah.

Yeah, and you're supposed to say the vowels. All of

them cannot anna. I think you got it now, Yeah,

I think so. Uh. Anyways, Zedekiah walked up to Makaiah

and slapped him across the face. Since when did the

spirit of the Lord leave me to speak to you,

he demanded. Makiah replied, you will find out soon enough,

when you're trying to hide in some secret room. Arrest him,

the King of Israel ordered. Take him back to Ammon,

the governor of the city, and to my son joe Ash.

Give them this order from the king. Put this man

in prison and feed him nothing but bread and water

until I returned safely from the battle. But Makiah replied,

if you return safe, he'll mean that the Lord has

not spoken through me. Then he added to those standing around,

everyone marked my words.

Yeah, well there you go, Yeah, there you go. And

uh so, what happens here's the question.

What happens when they battle?

We can't tell you it's coming, dun dun dum.

It is a cliffhanger.

I wonder considering, let me see, four hundred false prophets

said go ahead and fight, You're going to win, right,

and a prophet from God said, don't go. Ahab's going

to die. So I wondered, what's going to happen? Right,

it's a cliffhanger. Yeah, right, but I don't want to

ruin it. Uh.

Not only did the did the one prophet say you're

going to die, but there was the one prophet said

that there was a lying spirit put in the four

hundred prophets.

That's the craziest part of this whole story, right, Yeah,

you want to start at the beginning, yeah, and and

then we'll get to that part. Okay, okay, sure.

So King Ahab of all of Israel and King Jehasaphat

of Judah, they were just in the rower ropes. So

Jahasaphat and Ahab they're the two kings currently right.

Now king of northern Israel. Right. The ten tribes or

the twelve tribes have separated. Yes, so the ten are

what's called Israel. Judah and Benjamin are what we would

call Judah, and they make up the big chunk of

the southern half, and then the northern half of Israel

is the other ten. So Jehashaphat is leading Judah. Ahab,

the wicked king is leading northern Israel.

So and so the four hundred prophets gave a false

vision to who which king.

To Ahab? Right, Yeah, so Jehashaphat is a pretty good guy.

He's a pretty good king. But this begins really bad news.

You know, I started reading. It's terrible. I wish, I

wish we would have read both. Maybe we should have.

Here the second Chronicles eighteen mentions that Jehoshaphat gave Ahab

or had his son marry Ahab's daughter Athalia, and so

they go into a partnership. And this is why Jehoshaphaht says, oh, yeah,

we're like great friends, my soldiers, your soldiers, whatever we

need to do, because we're family now. But this is

a terrible move because God is always warning the people

of Israel do not marry people who follow false gods.

But for political expediency, very similar to his grandfather Solomon,

he decides, you know what, I'm going to marry off

my son to you know, the daughter of Ahab, and Jezebel.

And this begins when Jehoshaphat's son becomes king. The people

of Judah begin worshiping false gods. So they had this

long run of not worshiping false gods, right, but this

right here making an alliance. This is why the Bible says.

I had a conversation with a young man here recently

about starting business U and he was and was acting advice,

and I said, you know, the main thing I would

say is the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Right,

Their values and your values won't be the same. Their

priorities and your priorities won't be the same. And that's

what he does here. This is what Jehoshaphat does, is

he hooks his wagon to Ahab and Ahab and Ahabs

people were wicked people following false gods. And eventually you

either are right now or soon shall be just like

the crowd you run with. And that's what happens, right right.

So anyways, every time you say that phrase, I want

to say, thanks dad.

Yeah that's my dad. So but it's true. Yeah, it's truemorable,

sure is.

It's it's almost always true.

And what I was going to say, is you know

the unequally yoked you know commandment the warning comes from

Jesus talking about, you know, being lined up with a

big piece of wood that you know, straps together oxen

or horse, and you know you have to do that

with the same strength through else the carriage to go

in circles or the plow.

And let me ask you this question.

Paula firms it yes, and the Old Testament yes.

And so here's my question for you is how many

as a pastor for thirty something years, how many people

have you had a conversation with where they didn't pay

attention to the being unequally yoke thing? They ended up

getting married and now later on it causes the number

one problem in the marriage.

Oh yeah, a huge number of people, not only a marriage,

in business and in so many different alliances. But yeah,

it rarely works out, Yeah, very very rarely works out.

So yeah, and I would say that it's really important

to take that seriously before you even enter into a relationship.

I remember my daughter who's now married, you know, and

she's been married for you know, five years, but I

remember she had come.

To us since she.

Had told us that she was being asked out on dates.

And you know, she's a very pretty girl. You know,

at the time, she was like a senior in high school.

And and she really didn't she's not listening. What do

you mean because you said she was pretty at the time.

That's what you just said.

She's still pretty.

Oh okay, But.

I'm trying to say at the time of this story,

Oh okay, so she's a pretty girl at.

The time, she was a senior in high school.

That's it was comma, Oh, I see, So are you

saying that there was a time when she was not

pretty but at this time she was pretty.

No, she's a pretty girl period.

Okay, okay, okay, time I'm trying to cause trouble. I'm

trying to protect you.

At the time, she was a senior in high school. Yes,

And she comes to us and she goes, hey, I

was just asked out by babblah blah. And she tells

us and it was actually like somebody that we knew

that was a good looking guy, and he was a

sharp guy and everything else, and and my.

Daughter says, but no, I'm not going to do it.

He said, why And she.

Says, well, because we're we don't have the same values,

and she was referring to spiritual values, and she was

referring to other things as well.

And then somebody had said one of her friends just

go out and date what it'll hurt. And then my

daughter said, but what's the point. What's the point?

And then she also same daughter I also modeled, she

had a really good friend across the street that lived

across the street from us, and her friend would come

over and her friend was actually not a good influence whatsoever.

And they were friends all the way throughout junior high school.

And then somewhere right around her high school years, my

daughter said, I think I'm going to have to start

distancing myself from what's her name across the street. And

we said why, and she said, well, she's just really

not a good influence. And as parents, we would have

never have known that. And we were like, oh, what

do you mean, and she said, yeah, she's trying. You know,

this is what she wants to do all the time,

and it's really bad news. And so she just distanced

herself and then gave her a speech and said, I

just think that we're maybe interested in different things and

we have different values, and I just don't want to

do these things, and I think that we're just different people.

And that family got so mad that her brother found

out and started to vandalize her house. And it was

a big deal, And it was all because my daughter

demonstrated that she just she's like, I'm only going to

align myself with people who I want to be like

that have my values, that are spiritually the same, you know,

in the same boat.

And she didn't even go out on a date until

that actually happened.

That wild. Yes, it is crazy, it's wonderful, but it's true. Yes, right,

God's principles are true. It turns out we live God's way.

It works out God's way, right, right. So then we

have this whole thing where you know, a have he's

such a powder. Oh, I don't want to talk to Makaia.

He only ever gives me bad news, right right, And

Jehoshaphat goes, what kind of king are you? In your whine?

Is that how king's talk? Right?

So as if God's words only supposed to tell you

what you.

Want to hear. Yeah, Well, Jehoshaphat had this dignity about him.

He was very prosperous. Ahab's country wasn't so prosperous, so

there were all these issues. But Jehoshaphat just acts like

a king. Right, he makes a bad decision here making

this alliance, but he behaves like a king. And Ahab

always is whiny. And this is why Jezbell had such

an inordinate influence on the nation of Israel and worshiping

these false gods. But again, even after Elijah had wiped

out eight hundred and fifty prophets of bail and a

sha Ahab can quickly find four hundred more right, right,

And it's because of the way that they appointed prophets

and stuff like that. But then Makaiah comes and he's like,

first he you know, sarcastically goes, yeah, sure, go ahead

and fight. You're gonna win whatever, right, yeah, because I'm

telling you what you want to hear. And then aheb

knows he's not telling the truth.

Well, he obviously said it sarcastically, right, because he said,

how many times you have to tell you?

Give me the truth?

Right? So then Makaiah goes, well, let me just tell

you this vision I saw, and this is what this is.

We had wanted to see it. We'll talk about at

the beginning. It's just astounding. He's saying, I saw God

sitting around on his throne and different angels and spirits

were coming to him, and God was like, oh, well,

how are we going to get Ahab to go die?

He's having like a planning session. It's like a war council,

Isn't it bizarre? That's not how we think of how God.

Works, right, Yeah, I mean, well it's very confusing, to

be honest, you know, because it's it seems like God

is planning Aheb's demise.

Well, it's exactly what he's doing.

Yeah, And so it's like, why would God plan a demise?

But then again he allowed Aeb to rule for.

Twenty one years.

Well, because God's the king of the kings, right right,

that's why, and we got to get rid of him. Well,

the only way to get rid of a king is,

you know, to have him be deposed, and you know

that's wipe him mountain. And by the way, it had

already been prophesied that he was going to be killed,

right Yeah, yeah, so God's just worked that out. But yeah,

he says, who can entice Ahab to go into batt

against raymonth Gilead? So he can be killed. Ray Mouth

Gilead is in what is modern day Jordan. Now, if

you want to know, aram is Uh was centered around Damascus,

which was in Syria. So the the Arameans had come

down and that Raymonth Gilead had been a part of Israel,

and the the air Maans had come and defeated that

taken that area. Now Ahab wants it back, right, which

is reasonable, that's not unreasonable. But God decided, okay, this

is We're done with af Aheb was never going to

turn around. Let's let's get rid of him. And so

he pulls it together. But you know, the Book of

Job talks about the angels, the sons of God, the

angels of God coming before the throne God consulting with them.

In the Book of Daniel, the Daniel prays for a month,

almost a month. Finally when the angel shows up. He says, hey, listen,

God answered your prayer on the first day and sent me.

But I've been fighting against the Prince of Persia, some

demon for all this time. And then God had to

finally send Michael to archangel to defeat the prince so

that I could come and bring you this message. So

how we think God works and those three hints, it's

only three hints in the Bible about the fact that

God works through angels. This is this is one of

those where God is consulting, going okay, what are we

gonna do. We're gonna wipe out ahab I know that.

So one of the one of the the spirits goes, well,

I'll just plan a lie in the minds of the

four hundreds prophets. He's like, okay, yeah, isn't that amazing?

Hey, those are great cross references.

By the way, I'm not sure I quite ever thought

of it that way, but yeah, that's that's great.

God's consulting angels.

For well, he uses angels to do his bidding for sure,

Like we always think zap and it's done, right, But God,

that's the function of the angels is to do God's bidding.

And so in this situation, he's like, all right, you go, well.

I mean, all the way through the two angels show

up with God's messages, right, you know, do his battles

at times, right, right, So yeah, it's it's whatever God.

Wills, and I'm gonna we're gonna have some astute Bible

student who's gonna say this was a lying spirit, right,

God's talking to spirits of some kind. I am, my

personal reference, don't have any concept of spirits apart from

angels and demons, right, and I don't believe at this moment,

I'm not sure. I think he's talking to demons here,

So that's all. But if you think it's a demon,

that's fine. We don't know of any other spirits. There's

the Holy Spirit, but that's not this one. Right, There's angels,

there's demons, there's the human spirit. Those are the right,

Those are the spirits that we know of that are

mentioned in the Bible. So I'm not sure what this is,

but I think it's probably some kind of an angel,

just like God had the Death Angel, right, and those

kinds of things. But yeah, yeah, so that's kind of

a surprise to people to find out that that's how

God functions.

Yeah, it's definitely the wildest part of the story.

Yeah yeah, sure, really amazing.

All right, Well, hey, we're gonna find out what happens,

so stay tuned and hopefully we'll see you next time

on the Bible guys.

Mhm