How Idolatry Will Lead You Astray: 1 Kings 16:21-34

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Good Morning morning. We talked that through. Good morning,

good morning to you.

So funny man, every time, every time it makes me laugh.

So what did I tell you to sing good morning yesterday?

For? Oh? We were sitting out a video to video. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

we are so Heritage Church is uh busting at the seams.

That's a really good thing. So we were creating a

video to tell people to or ask people to consider going,

you know, making some room, either.

Going to our Stony Creek service or go to the

go to the eight o'clock eight thirty service, or go

to the one service one o'clock service because the two

in the middle are totally packed, or go to the overflow.

Yeah yeah, yeah, we were thinking nobody wants to listen

to this video, right, and so then that's when I said, hey,

you should sing good morning. Everybody will listen to that video.

Then it's funny. It is a good okay.

Yeah, well, hey, if this is one of our favorite segments.

Yes it is. We love this segment. I think I

love would you rather one must go.

And she yes, the one must go is what we have.

And so you're choosing which one stays and which one

goes away forever. And it means for the world ever,

for the world forever, Yes, for the whole world.

It's not just for us.

People cannot have one or the other.

You want to do it with a different context. You

want to do it just for us.

Just for us. Yeah, like if I make the decision,

then you also don't get it correct, Okay, No, like

just for us individually.

Yeah, just just like whatever you would do, and it

affects nobody else except for you. Okay, that's kind of

boring in it. Yeah, all right, let's forget it. That's

a bad idea for everybody, for everybody. Because as soon

as I thought about it, I thought, who cares?

Okay, I've got it for you, because the.

First one is garlic her pickles. It's like, who cares?

Yeah I do. Well, yeah, I'm a cooker, I'm an cook.

Yeah, that's true.

There's a big between garlic and pickles.

All right, here we go the first one, Jeff, for

the world, which wing goes forever? Which one goes a

way forever?

Pickles or garlic Okay, So my daughter lives for Deal pickles.

Oh yeah, I don't know that I've ever met anybody

who eats more Deal pickles than my daughter. Wow. You know,

but I love you, Jenna, but I have to choose

pickles are the ones who go away forever.

Yeah, because garlic is Garlic is so important. It is

so important.

It's because I love steak, right, you gotta have garlic.

So I got a sou vied for Christmas. Do you

know what souvite is? Not? Okay, so very quickly, it's

a machine. You stick it in a tuble water. Then

you you vacuum seal whatever it is you're cooking with

all the spices and stuff in it. Stick it in

the water and it takes it to the exact temperature

and you can't overcook it. Then you just take it

out of that that that bag, put it on the girl,

see on both sides, and it's perfectly cooked. But because

it's pressure sealed in the thing, it just pulls all

the flavors in really strong. So I made I just

got a bunch of Delmonico's. You know those are like

the sweet spots of the rabbis, right, Yeah, So I

got some Delmonico steaks and I put salt pepper rub

on it, and then I chopped up garlic and put

it on top, put some time on top of that

with a little bit of butter, and sealed it like that,

and it just pulled all that garlic, the flavor into

that meat, telling you it.

Was so good that being So, it's vacuum sealed in water.

So the water is the temperature that cooks it.

Yeah, So if you set the water, if you set

the right because it's inside the bag. So if you

set the water at one thirty, your meat never is

going to go over one thirty. You can't overcook it.

It just gets more and more and more tender.

And then you leave it in there for a long time.

I put it in there for four hours. If I

want to, I could. I could start it this morning

back at lunchtime and it'll be fall apart tender and

then I just take it out, put it on the grill,

kicks both sides, sere it, so you get that my

ard reaction, you know, with the seer on it, and

it's good to go. It's phenomenal. Yeah, So you have

to have garlic, is what I'm trying to say not pickles.

Wait a minute, you're trying to say that continued exposure

on a piece of meat at a certain temperature one

thirty will never continue to cook that meat.

It can't. It's stuck at one thirty.

So one thirty over prolonged time stays at one thirty.

It stays at one thirty.

Yeah, it never overcooks, So you just get more and

more tender. So the meat that I just blow your mind, Chris,

because apparently I don't understand cooking. This is why. This

is why all the great steak houses have better steaks

than your house. That's why, well, guess what. I don't cook,

But that's why steakhouses do. It's because they've been doing

SUVD for for twenty years, and it's only coming to customer,

you know, the mainstream for maybe last ten. Yeah. Really,

So anyways, so I have to say garlic over. I'm

going to keep garlic and get rid of pickles forever.

I love my daughter, but and I agree with you too,

keep the garlic.

I say, keep garlic because the world needs it, and

nobody technically really needs pickles.

That's correct. Yeah, Well I don't know, but I need

pickles too, but not that piles. Okay, we got to

keep moving. Now, get behind candy corner jawbreakers, that's no

no brainer. Candy corn goes away. Yeah, get rid of candy. Yeah,

I agree too, Okay.

Candy corn. Yes, let me help you to finish it.

I don't know. I don't know.

It's bugs life, okay, all right. Number three Walkman's or pagers? Both?

I vote both.

It was it was the speed in which you responded.

I say, pagers go away. Okay, although that's pages do

serve a purpose though, hm, Walkman's are just for fun. Yeah,

I'm gonna change my mind. I'm gonna say walkman's okay, okay.

Number four fanny packs or cross I already know the answer. No,

crocs go away?

Oh wow, well we disagree.

I hate crocs.

Okay, they're comfortable.

Uh yeah, but people who wear them are not my friends.

They can't go to heaven.

Yeah they cannot.

Okay, there's a band. There's a band on crocks that actually.

Crocs with socks. Okay, yes, if you wear crocs with socks,

I don't chances are I do not like you as

a person.

Okay, all right, And.

If you don't want any If you don't like the office, Yes,

if you don't like the office, chances are I don't

get along with you.

Okay, those are the two.

Those are the two.

Can't be friends.

Okay, last one? Were you really wanting to burn through this,

aren't you?

Well we're at six minutes and thirty six seconds.

Okay, number five Voldemort' or Darth Vader? Which one goes away?

I think that's a no brainer for history. That's a

no brainer. Oh yeah, what is it? Yeah, it's far

as Voldemort because because he can be defeated by a kid.

Oh wow, Darth Vader blows up planets. Okay, Voldemort threatens

to do bad stuff.

Right, and it doesn't. It doesn't really do.

Any He never actually pulls it up.

For seven books, he doesn't really do much.

Right, right, He doesn't really do much. He's just he's

a scary guy, but he doesn't actually do anything. And

then he's defeated by a kid.

Well he's a kid. He's really defeated by himself.

Yes, that's true. Yeah, but but yeah, Darth Vader is

way worser.

Yeah, he's way worser and has a way better storyline.

Yes, that's right.

Yeah, it's not as creepy. That's right, that is not

as wizardy.

Yeah, and I think I think they're just better stories.

Yeah, I agree better, I agree.

All right, Well, hey, wow, we solved it, Riven solved it.

We have people were so worried about that, and now

they're gonna have peace the rest of the day.

If you don't agree with us, then comment.

Find a better podcast.

You don't agree with us, leave this podcast, stop listening now,

and go find another way. That's right, that's so funny,

all right, Jeff, we need to move on. First Kings

chapter twoh, I'm sorry, speaking of one must go. They're

burning through kings like flying.

That's an awesome transition. Well, so there's there's Jerbaum we

know about. Yes, Jea Bohm's reign lasts twenty two years. Yes,

then Nadab he only lasts two years because Basha kills him.

Yeah, Basha kills him.

Then Basha's twenty four years.

And by the way, you're listening to the Kings of Israel.

That's right of Israel. So jere Baum and Basha they

team up for forty six years.

But then this is the Northern this is the northern

yeah section.

But then they go Ela ZIMRII. Ela lasts two years,

gets killed, Zimri last seven days because he's the one

who kills Ela, and then Zimri commits suicide. He burns

a building down on top of himself. Tibney then is

the king for four years. He gets so let's pick

up with Tibney.

He wants to, Yeah, I do want to.

Kristy's chapter sixteen, verse twenty one says, but now the

people of Israel split into two factions. Half the people

tried to make Tibney, son of Gibnath their king, while

the other half supported Omri. But Omriy's supporters defeated the

supporters of Timney. So Tibney was killed and Omri became

the next king. Wow, there you go. So this last

a little while. Their fight for about four years or so.

Where they they're in this civil war. Then it says,

but Omri began to rule over Israel in the thirty

first year of King ASA's reign in Judah. He reigned

twelve years in all, six of them in Terza, when

Omri brought the hill known when Omri bought the hill

known as Samaria from its owner, Simer, for one hundred

ffty pounds of silver. He built a city on it

and called the city Samaria in honor of Shemer. But

Omri did what was evil in the Lord's sight even

more than in any of the kings before him. He

followed the example of Jereboam's son of Nebat, and all

the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.

The people provoked the anger of the Lord, the God

of Israel, with their worthless idols. The rest of the

events of Omri's reign, the extent of his power and

everything he did, I record in the book of the

History of the Kings of Israel. When Omri died, he

was buried in Samaria. Then his son Ahab became the

next king. Don't dunt dahn, I'm talking about darth Vader.

Ahab is like the darth Vader of the Old Testament.

Right.

Ahab, son of Omri, began to rule over Israel in

the thirty eighth year of King Ace's reign in Judah.

He reigned in Samaria twenty two years. But Ahab, son

of Omri, did what was evil in the Lord's sight

even more than any of the kings before him, Yeah,

no doubt. And as though it were not enough to

follow the example of Jereboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter

of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and he began to

bow down in worship of Bail. First, Ahab built a

temple in an altar for Bail and Samaria, and then

he set up in a shap He did more to

provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel

than any of the other kings of Israel before him.

It was during his reign the hile, a man from Bethel,

built rebuilt Jericho. When he laid its foundations, it cost

him the life of his oldest son, a Biram, And

when he completed it and set up its gates, it

cost him the life of his youngest son, Segoub. This

all happened according to the message from the Lord concerning Jericho,

spoken by Joshua's son of Nunn.

Holy Christmas.

Well, do you remember there was a lot in there?

Yeah?

Remember, Well, let's cover that part first. You know, after

Jericho fell under Joshua's leadership. Yep, there was a curse

that whoever rebuilt Jericho, that Jericho should never be rebuilt again,

but whoever rebuilt it would have deadly costs in their family.

And that's what happened there, Yeah, which is crazy, And

it was what a couple hundred years later.

Yeah, yeah, So you immediately burned through these kings, right,

like I said, Yeah, Ela, Zimri, Tidney, Amri, and Omri

lasted twelve years. And and I love how it does

in the Bible. And there's a little chart by the

way in our life Application study Bible that sort of

gives you a timeline, and you'll notice that the kings

of Judah are only three kings. Judah only had Reybaum

and then Bijah. I never know how to pronounce that

guy's name, and and Bijah only lasted three years, and

then Asa lasted forty one years, right, and so it's

like that's it. Three kings, that's it. And then in

the meanwhile, the northern portion of all the other tribes

burns through all these different kings, and there's these rebellions

and and all these different one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

There's eight kings compared to the three, that's right. So

there's a lot going on in the north.

So Ray Boham was partially following God, yeah, right, and

and he had moments where he pointed people to God. Yes,

but he was trying to blend the two religions. It

didn't work. Abijah did religion well, not Jerobom. That was

not re Boam, that was Jerobo.

Yeah.

So Rebaeam is Solomon's son, yes, and he just kind

of did what his dad did.

Should have just looked at the charge.

But then Abaijah did the wrong thing. And so his

his term was short. And then Asa was a good

king all the way up to the very end of

his of his career. He was a good king, and

he pointed the people towards God, and he was always

faithful to follow God. And so you see, God gave

him a very long reign during that time, and the

people prospered. But when the when, when there is no

God centered morality in a country, these these kings are

assassinating each other, they're wiping each other out, they're taking

advantage that people are in civil war. It's just this

horrible time in northern Israel. But in Judah there was

a lot of peace and prosperity during that time because

ray Boem mostly followed the Lord and Asa did faithfully

follow God, and so those two it lasts a long time.

Hey, I like the fact that in Amri's reign, he

only reigned for twelve years. And when he he it

says he bought a plot of land that he named

Samaria for one hundred and fifty pounds of silver. One

hundred and fifty pounds is pretty good.

Yeah, seems like it pretty good. A bit of money,

pretty good amount of silver. I wonder how much it

would be worth today. Yeah, try it, I'll ask.

And then he said he built a sami or built

a city and called it Samaria. So here it is

we see the beginnings of you know, it's very famous.

The woman at the well was in Samaria, right, Yeah,

that's right, because Jesus said, I have needs to go

through Samaria, right, and he meets her at the well,

and so that's a very famous story. So here it

is the beginnings, and he built the city and he

was buried in it.

Yeah, a lot of things happened in Samaria. It is

pretty but it's fifty four, five hundred and seventy six

dollars what he bought the whole hill for fifty and

seventy six dollars in today's money.

Oh, that's not a lot at all, doesn't seem like it. No,

that must have been a pretty desolate piece of land. Yeah,

you're kidding me, sucker. Nothing can grow there. You can't,

you can't. You can't raise sheep on that thing.

This place is horrible. Yeah, I'll give you a fifty

four thousand bucks.

He just bought a desert.

Yeah. Yeah, so he built a hill there, Samaria. Yeah,

and so a lot of things happen there. Eventually there's

a lot of attention because this becomes a key spot

in northern Israel, and it also represents false worship at

that point, right, yeah, but then we have Ahab enter

the scene, right, and it just gets worse from here. Yeah.

King a has right for the next couple of weeks,

has to go whale. That's right, Well, no, wrong, wrong

story what yeah?

Yeah, Captain one, Oh okay, I see, I see.

Yeah, but King Ahab, this is the beginning of a

couple of weeks of just are you here Israel? Just?

And then not only is it bad? Ahab shows up.

Ahab marries Jezebel.

Yeah, and she's worse than him.

I can't remember my dad we had an old car.

It was an old.

Man.

It looked like a Chevy Nova. I forget the other

there was another one like it, a Pontiac that was

just just like it. Anyways, my dad it was green.

My dad used to call it Jezebel because yeah, yeah,

it was difficult, it was it. Nope, nope, nope. But anyways, yeah,

I used to call it Jezebel. And you know, just bad.

She just bad all the time. I'm just always mad

at this. This yep, so this is.

The Jezebel is a term that is used in that way.

Yeah, well she was a wicked woman. Ahab was bad.

She was bad with a capital B.

Bad. Right, Yeah, he's the Darth Vader and she's the Emperor.

Yea, she is bad news. So the two of them

are ready to lead the people of Israel into just

all kinds of wickedness, quite honestly.

Yeah and so and so here's the example of Ahab

coming in and uh unapologetically deciding to abandon God's ways.

You know, have you ever met somebody who they just

go out of their way to defy and almost seem

to dare you know, there's a certain comedian I'm not

going to mention his name, but but he goes out

of his way publicly to talk about atheism, and he

goes out of his way to defy the logic of

all Christians and laughs at them publicly. And sometimes I

wonder about kind of mocks God publicly, and and I

sort of wonder about that, and and and I think

this person is a funny person, and I sort of

like him in his acting. But I wonder about like

it's like, dude, be careful, be careful what you say.

It's one thing to have doubts. It's one thing to

you know, say hey, I'm not sure I believe, and

you know, just to remain having a posture of humility.

And but it's but it's saying no, he's it's almost

like shaking his fists, saying like I'm going to make

fun of anybody who believes this, and I defy, I

defy the false God that you believe in. That's sort

of what he does. And uh, and I just I

always wonder about it. I always wonder, like good gravy,

like be really careful, buddy, you know. But that's what

aheps doing. He is he is from day one, he

is publicly declaring like I am defying the history of

anything anything that our country has ever had to do

with God. And I'm and I'm and I'm immediately worshiping

Bail and making it publicly declared. You know, as we

all know, this is where Elijah is going to come in, right,

Elijah's going to come in and and defeat all the

prophets of Bail. But this is this is the birthplace

of all of this, and so a have is just

I can even imagine being in a place where it

feels totally dark.

So you can see in this contrast between the Northern

Kingdom Israel that has so many wicked kings, like there's

not a redeemable king among them. Yeah right, and you're like,

are you serious, dude, It's just every one of them

rebels against God, does horrible things. And then you've got

the other side, Asa being the best of them. But

God gives prosperity and success and relative peace and long term,

there's only three kings during that time, two of whom

had long, long careers, and God just gives stability. And

so you find people leaving their trashed country and wanting

to move down into to Judah. Because they see the prosperity,

but they just don't understand where the prosperity came from.

And you know, I think nations do that sometimes, where

you know, nations rise up there. I think the US was,

you know, built on biblical Judeo Christian ethic and and

a trust in God, and we understood where our strength

came from. And then we forget over time and we

begin to fade, and we think it's because of our money.

We think it's because of our successes. We begin to

take credit for our own victories. We begin to all

these things and we begin to fade and slip away

from it, and next thing, you know, society begins to

break down. There's all kinds of fear, there's all kinds

of degradation. It happens country after country, ruler after ruler.

You know, there's there's good kings and bad kings. And

what you pray for is that God gives good rulers,

because Salomon says, blessed is the nation whose God is

the Lord right. And when we when we have good

godly rulers, there's a lot of stability. And this is

what you see even in that timeline that we have

there on the page in front of us. You see

this stability and prosperity among the kings that were honoring God.

And so then the people tend to follow their kings. Hey,

my king is following God. I'm going to you know,

follow God to But then you find these other eight guys,

they're just a mess. And then Ahab shows up on

the scene, and the Bible just goes out of his

way to say, and he's by far the worst of them.

That's not right, He's worse than all of the others combined.

Yeah, it says it twice, right, It says that he

has gone out of his way to do worse. What

does it say to do things to make God angry? Right?

So isn't just he's done worse things. It is he

is he has done more actions that have made God

angry than all the other kings combined. So it's a

statement about God's opinion toward ahead.

Well, it was interesting. I was going to comment on

it forgot yesterday when I got distracted. But it talked

about how the Lord's anger was stirred by the people.

It's not like God's just walking around angry all the time, right,

It's Finally, the people just keep pushing and pushing and

pushing against God. You know, there's there's a limit to

your patients. Yeah, right, there is. I mean, you can

be in a good mood, you can be paid, but

eventually somebody just keep pushing you. And so that's what

it talks about, is the people. God is slow to anger,

is what the Bible says. It doesn't say God never

gets angry. He's slow to anger. But the people just

keep pushing his buttons, pushing his buttons, and they're doing

it through horrific evil. You know, we kind of blow

past it. The worship of bail sometimes included horrific sacrifices, right,

horrible things. Literally, one of the passages we read over

the last couple of days, you had temple prostitution, both

male and female, and they were the priests right in

their religions. There was all kinds of we know, some

of the other gods and goddesses required human sacrifice for

crying out loud. It was horrible, horrible stuff. And then

the Arab poles we've already talked about, you know, those

are phallic symbols and all the worship that goes along

with that. Kind of stuff. It was just all evil,

and as the Bible says, that's what stirred God's anger.

It's come on, I've given you these opportunities. I chose

your kings, I've given you all kinds of opportunities, and

you still keep choosing to go and pursue all these

evil things. And there was a note about the appeal

of idols, talking about how idols give us. People go

to idols for power, they're looking for the magic of it.

They go for pleasure that you know, there's a tremendous

amount of sensuality in idol worship around the world. Still passion, right,

the idea that humanity is really reduced just down to

an almost animalistic level. We just do whatever we want

to do, just please ourselves all the day, right, and

then praise and popularity. People want that power, pleasure and passion.

And so then they're like, yeah, wait to go, King,

give me that. And the kings are willing to trade

the integrity of the nation for more of their own power,

and so that's what they do. And so that's what

you get in Northern Israel versus the God, the godly

kings of Judah at the time and the destruction in

the North versus the success and prosperity in South is

a stark difference.

Yeah wow, well, hey, that's where we are now, and

so hopefully we will pick up this story tomorrow and

you'll be joining us on the Bible guys. H