Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: No matter what you're called to do for God's kingdom, whether it's big or small, it's important. Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

There's nothing wrong in God's economy with simple tasks. What Billy Graham does in God's kingdom is not more important than setting up chairs for church or for a Bible study or prayer meeting. Tasks are not more important than other tasks. Just because somebody is famous and millions of people know who they are doesn't mean they're going to get any bigger reward in heaven than you are if you do the work God called you to do.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, coming your way once again today from Calvary Chapel of Marlton. Before we get started, let me take a moment to invite you to join us here at the church this coming Sunday or for our Wednesday night service. I'll give you directions at the end of the program.

We're currently studying the book of 2nd Kings on our program, and we've arrived at chapter 3. War movies have always been very popular with film fans, and the story we'll read about here in chapter 3 is full of the same type of action and adventure. Let's join Pastor Bill Luebkemann for part one of our study.

Bill Luebkemann: Last week we looked at chapters one and two and saw that Ahab died and Ahaziah, his son, became king. That was in chapter one. He didn't last very long. He didn't have a son. He died, and so his brother took over as king, Joram. Then in chapter two, we had a side path when we saw Elijah being taken up to heaven and his ministry being passed off to Elisha.

Now we see both the continuing threads continue here, almost like a soap opera. We see the storyline of the king here, Joram, the other son of Ahab, Ahaziah having died. Joram taking over as king. We're going to see Elisha pop up here in this chapter and the next one as well.

Joram, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned 12 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them.

This guy took over, and we see that Jehoshaphat was still the king down south. Joram was the king up north in Samaria, the Northern Kingdom, the nation of Israel. The Southern Kingdom, the nation of Judah. They were separated by a civil war. The Southern Kingdom, Jehoshaphat, had been the king for a good long time now, 18 years.

Jehoshaphat had outlasted Ahab, his father, and had outlasted Ahaziah, his brother, and now Joram is taking over in the north. He still got Jehoshaphat down south of him, so you would get the impression that Jehoshaphat is most likely an older guy. This guy Joram was evil. In fact, I don't think the Northern Kingdom ever had a good king. If they did, I haven't seen him here. But it seems like there were various degrees of evil.

This guy was not as evil as his father and mother were. Ahab and Jezebel continue to be about the most evil pair that there were. Jezebel, if you wanted to call her the queen, was certainly the most evil wife of a king that there ever was in the nation of Israel, and Ahab, her husband, equally so. This guy was evil but not up to the measure of his father, so he wasn't going to outdo his father's evil.

In fact, he got rid of this sacred stone, some kind of a stone idol, altar, or something having to do with Baal that his father had made. But he still clung to the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. If you think back to what they were, those sins of Jeroboam had to do with creating other places for the nation to worship. They were sins of convenience. They were sins of political convenience.

You remember when Jeroboam should have been allowing the people to go down to Jerusalem to offer up their worship and their sacrifices to the Lord during the various festivals of the year. But Jerusalem was part of the Southern Kingdom, and this was the Northern Kingdom. Rather than have the people go down to the Southern Kingdom and go up to Jerusalem and make their offering there where they were supposed to, he wanted to make it more convenient for them.

He set up alternate places to worship God. Only thing was that was not permitted. It was not permitted to worship God, to make a sacrifice to God anywhere else but at the temple. I suppose if you want to worship God, sing praises to his name, glorify his name, you could do that anywhere. But when you went to the festival to make an offering, that had to be done at the temple. The temple was in Jerusalem.

If you go back into 1st Kings, we saw this a few weeks ago, that was the primary error of this guy Jeroboam. He was saying, "Don't bother going down to Jerusalem. That's too far. I'll make it more convenient for you. I'll set up an idol here, and you can worship here." This idol might have been representing the Lord God, so in their minds, they're still worshipping the real God; they're just going about it the wrong way.

In God's mind, there was no difference. Worship the wrong God or worship the right God the wrong way is about the same thing, almost equally bad, maybe not quite as much so. See, it says he did evil here but not quite as bad as his father and mother had done. But he clung to these sins of Jeroboam which Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them.

He let the nation continue to do these things. If you remember when we looked at this, we saw that quite likely Jeroboam was just afraid that these people would go down to Jerusalem and the king of Judah would be down there, and they would just see him and they would just be friendly with him. Then maybe all of a sudden, they'd want him to be their king and not him. He was perhaps afraid that the king down there in Jerusalem is going to win them over.

That could hurt me. Even though God clearly made Jeroboam the king of the Northern Kingdom and he should have gone with the Lord and trusted him and said, "God made me king. I'll be king as long as God wants me to be king. He made me king, so I'm going to be the best king I can be, and I'm going to do things by the book, the only book that matters: the Scriptures." Whatever part of them that they had available at that time, certainly the five books of Moses.

But instead, he had this convenient thing going on where we'll just allow you to worship God. You'll be worshipping the same God, just a little bit different. We'll just do it in a different place. We'll set up these high places and we'll set up some altars and you can come up and make some sacrifices there. Not permitted. Mesha, king of Moab, raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with 100,000 lambs and with the wool of 100,000 rams.

But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. Here we have Moab being across the Dead Sea, over on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They were subservient to Israel. They were paying tribute to the king. Israel was stronger, and so they were exacting a toll out of them, sort of like the way the governor of New Jersey does it. They probably increased it every year.

They had to give over the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. That's what they had to give him. Now they decided Ahab died, and now would be a good time to break free. We're going to rebel. The new king is his son. One son died, his other took over. He's young; he doesn't know what he's doing. This is perfect. We'll rebel now and we won't have to give him all this tribute anymore. They decided to run through the toll booth without their Easy Pass turned on.

At that time, King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel. He also sent this message to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?" He got all his troops up. We're not going to take this. He sent a message down to the Southern Kingdom, who technically they weren't on great terms with, but he asked the guy, "How about going after Moab with me?"

It's kind of like we hate them more than we hate each other, so maybe we can work together here on this common foe. "I will go with you," he replied. "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. By what route shall we attack?" he asked. "Through the desert of Edom," he answered. So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.

Here we have Jehoshaphat helping this guy. Jehoshaphat joined arms with Ahab at one point and helped him, and I think he got yelled at for it by one of the prophets if you look back in 1st Kings. At the end of 1st Kings, Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail. They were wrecked at Ezion-geber. At that time, Ahaziah, son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my men sail with your men," but Jehoshaphat refused.

It seems that Jehoshaphat had some kind of a deal going with Ahaziah, the previous king of the Northern Kingdom, that they were going to do this sailing ship thing together, and it didn't work out. The ships got wrecked. In Chronicles, there's some more details on that; we're not going to go down that path. I'm not really sure why he's helping out this guy.

Jehoshaphat was a good king. Remember, his father was Asa, who was also a good king. They were generally speaking godly men, and they were doing the right thing for the most part. God was pleased with them. Why he was hooking up with Ahab's son here, I'm not really certain. It doesn't say that he asked the Lord if he should go. It says that okay, we're going to go. They decided on a route to go, and you don't really have an idea here at this point that anybody's asked God about it.

But he does know the correct route. When the king of the North, Joram, king in the Northern Kingdom, asked Jehoshaphat—by the way, that's Jumping Jehoshaphat—when he asked him which way should we go, he says, "Look, we're going to go through the desert of Edom." They picked up the king of Edom along the way. Now 1st Kings also tells us that Edom was paying tribute to the Israelites, and Edom didn't really have a king.

They really had more like a governor or something who was probably appointed by one of the kings in Israel. This guy was defined here as the king of Edom, but he was on their side because he had to be on their side because he was paying them tribute as well. They went around the back way, kind around to the south of the Dead Sea. The idea was that they're going to come up into Moab from the rear and maybe surprise them.

This was a long way to go, and it was roundabout, as it says. They ran out of water. Maybe it was lack of planning, also. Maybe they should have asked God sooner. But to their credit, they do ask him now. "What!" exclaimed the king of Israel. "Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?" But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord through him?"

Isn't it interesting that the guy Joram from the Northern Kingdom feels like the Lord has called the three of them together maybe to hand them over to Moab and lose? You kind of feel like this guy's got some conviction. He's got so many things going wrong in his kingdom. He knows that he's doing the wrong thing, that his father and brother were not doing the right thing in the sight of God. He's not doing it also.

And you kind of wonder now, is he getting the idea that he's going to get wiped out in the desert because this is what God is going to pay him back with? But Jehoshaphat has the good common sense, because remember, he's the godly guy, he has the good common sense to say, "Let's inquire of the Lord." Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord through him?"

An officer of the king of Israel answered, "Elisha, son of Shaphat, is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah." We have this guy here that is a prophet that used to travel around with Elijah. He used to be Elijah's helper. He was Elijah's assistant. He was his understudy. He was his apprentice. He was his right-hand man. He did simple tasks like pouring water on his hands when he needed to wash his hands.

There's nothing wrong in God's economy with simple tasks. What Billy Graham does in God's kingdom is not more important than setting up chairs for church or for a Bible study or prayer meeting. Tasks are not more important than other tasks. Just because somebody is famous and millions of people know who they are doesn't mean they're going to get any bigger reward in heaven than you are if you do the work God called you to do.

And if your work is to pour the water on the hands of someone else, then that's a noble thing to do here. Isn't it interesting? Not only did Elisha do that, but that's what he was known for. It doesn't say, "Elijah is here. He's a great guy. He called down fire from heaven and he did this and that and rode a rocket ship to the moon." It doesn't say that.

What he's known for is that he poured water on the hands of Elijah. That's what he's known for. We need to be known for our works, and our works need to be what God has called us to do simply, not with a bunch of fanfare or a lot of showing off and that kind of stuff, but simply what God has called us to do. How poignant it is of a reminder here that Elisha was known as the guy that washed Elijah's hands.

Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the Lord is with him." He knew who Elijah was. He knew that Elisha heard from God. He knew that Elisha was a faithful servant of the Lord. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Normally you go to see the king; he don't come to you. So here's a guy. What did he do? What's his claim in life? He washed someone's hands. And he's got the king coming to see him.

Not just one king, three kings. They don't call him up and say, "Hey, we want you to come and see us." They are coming to see him. Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother." "No," the king of Israel answered, "because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab."

Elisha sees them. He knows who they are, and he sees Joram and he says, "We got nothing in common. We're not even on the same page. I'm serving God. You're an evil bum doing evil things, leading the people astray, clinging to the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and not turning away from them. What do we have in common? What do we have to do with each other? Why are you coming to see me?"

We don't even belong in the same room together. We don't have anything to talk about. We don't have anything to relate to. We have nothing in common here. It's kind of like we don't even speak the same language. "Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. You like Baal so much? Go see Baal. See if he can help you. Go worship, go ask whatever prophets your father and your mother answered. Go see them. Let them take care of you. They're so great; deal with them."

"No," the king of Israel answered, "because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab." See, I think the guy thinks here that the Lord's going to turn him over. He's going to lose. Maybe he's now all of a sudden getting nervous. Everybody always repents when they're caught. "I'd like to offer my sincere sorrow to all the people I've offended and everything at whatever I did wrong in front of the TV cameras and everything."

But they're only sorry because they got caught. If they didn't get caught, they'd still be doing the same thing that they were doing the day before. They wouldn't be offering their sincere sorrow. This guy here is beginning to think maybe I shouldn't have been doing the things I was doing as king of Israel. By the way, it's not like he cleans up his act after this anyway. But I think maybe he's having second thoughts here.

Maybe he's thinking, "Man, I should have done some things differently. I wouldn't be here if I had been serving God more faithfully. I wouldn't be here if I had done such and such more properly." Elisha said, "As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you. But now bring me a harpist."

He says, "If it was just you, I wouldn't even talk to you. I'd go somewhere else. But because you've got Jehoshaphat with you, because he's a man of God, because he's a king who follows God, because I have respect for him, I'm going to talk to you." For whatever reason, he needs to get in the mood here to listen to God, and he wants to have some music played. Maybe he wants to worship the Lord in song a little bit.

Maybe he's so angry at confronting this guy that he needs to calm down a little bit so that he can hear that still, small voice speaking to him. I have every reason to believe it's a still, small voice for him just like it is for us. While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha, and he said—it wasn't that God spoke to him through the music; it was that the musician was playing and then God spoke to him.

Maybe he just needed to clear his mind so that God could break through there. Seriously, when you pray in the middle of the day, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but I've found it's better to pray when you first get up because in the middle of the day, you try to set aside some time to pray and you can't do it because there are so many things going on in your mind. A million things: got to do this, got to do that.

The phone calls and whatever. And I think my phone system must be able to read my mind. As soon as I sit down with my Bible, it starts ringing. It's hard to do that. But in the morning when times are quiet before the phone starts ringing, you can maybe get in tune with God a little better. Maybe that's this guy's problem. Maybe he just needs to clear out the flutter in his brain so that God can speak to him.

The hand of the Lord comes upon Elisha here, and he said, "This is what the Lord says: Make this valley full of ditches. For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle, and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. He will also hand Moab over to you.

You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones." He says you are going to have a total victory. This is what the Lord says. But the first thing you have to do is you have to step out in faith. You want some water? You need water; you need to have some kind of container to put it in.

You don't have any jugs with you? No problem. You're going to start by digging ditches. They have no water here. It says in the previous few verses earlier, after a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them. It says by the way, where were they? They were in the desert. Let's think about this now. They're in the desert. They've been marching for seven days, and they've used up all their water.

Now they are told to dig ditches, and God's going to fill them up with water. Do you think it would take a little bit of faith to believe that if you dig a ditch, God's going to fill it up with water in the middle of the desert? I think so. Do you think it would take even more faith if you were the king for you as the king to tell all the troops that they should dig ditches, that God's going to fill them up with water?

You're going out on a limb here because if God don't deliver, you're going to really look foolish as the king telling everybody to dig these ditches that remain empty if God doesn't deliver. I think it's a harder thing to step out in faith and dig a ditch. It's a harder thing to get someone else to dig a ditch for you. It's a harder thing when you're the king telling the army. And it's a really hard thing when you're in the desert telling all these dry, parched out, starving, thirsty guys that they have to dig.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 2nd Kings. You can hear this message and more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope From the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in 2nd Kings next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.