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Ahab: When Evil Becomes Acceptable · Wetumpka Church of Christ Online

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All right, good morning, everybody.
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Hope everyone is doing well this morning.
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Want to thank Peyton for filling in for me while we've been on
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some excursions lately. So we actually will be gone next
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week as well and we'll come back on the on the 31st.
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So, but if you haven't heard the news yet, so Chris and I
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actually are going to be working with Truth for Today.
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If you're familiar with the Truth for Today commentary
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series, they're, they're getting sort of their next step in
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their, in their process to produce more of those.
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And so I'm going to be the general editor for them and the
0:49
general editor, writer, teacher and Hebrew scholar in residence.
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So which sounds very impressive, I guess.
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And so anyway, but Krista's going to be the office manager
1:02
there or assistant office manager there.
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So our time here is going to be a little bit short.
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We're going to be hopefully moving or closing the house
1:10
there in about a month. And we'll be we'll be heading to
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the great state of Arkansas. Their football teams aren't as
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good, I think, but I mean, no offense to Arkansas fans, I'm a
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Tennessee fan. So I mean, Alabama's owned us
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for like, you know, like 2 decades or something.
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So I have no room to talk about that.
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But but anyway, yeah, so, so I resigned back last year and they
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asked me to fill out my contract and so we did that and our we're
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moving. So so we'll thank you guys for
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everything. Appreciate all of you guys and
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all that you've brought and meant our family and I'll be
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sorry to have to say goodbye in about a month.
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But of course, we all will look forward to that great family
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reunion in the sky. All right, so today we're going
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to be going and looking at the figure of Ahab, King Ahab in the
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book of first Kings. So if you want to turn with me
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to about first king 16 or so, we spending a little bit of time,
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we're going to be hopping over several places.
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If you've noticed, I have I sort of try to boil down the reigns
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of kings, some of them short, a lot shorter than others, right.
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So with David, it's like, well, you got like almost two whole
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books to like deal with him and Solomon, you got like half of
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half of first kings and then Jeroboam and Rehoboam just a few
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chapters each for those. So it's, it's, it's been some
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have been a little bit more of a challenge than others trying to
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try to boil down these guys to some some notable life lessons
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that we can take away from their lives and what they do and how
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they behave and how they misbehave.
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And so that's where we get to today with Ahab, because he's,
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he is not, not one of the good kings of, of Israel.
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Of course, Israel didn't really have like hardly any good kings
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at all. The southern Kingdom did had a
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few right sprinkled in there. But but but we're going to look
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at Ahab and basically what we're going to going to see with him
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is we're going to look at first Kings 2125.
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And this is sort of the theme verse for our lesson this
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morning. And that is there was none who
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sold himself to do what was I'm sorry, there was none who sold
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himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab,
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whom Jezebel, his wife inside it.
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All right. So there's a there's a lot going
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on in that verse, but that's going to be our theme for our
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for our class this morning. So Ahab is a very powerful, very
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wealthy king in the in the Northern Kingdom, Northern
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Kingdom, after they split, of course, we talked about that
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with Rehoboam. Jeroboam takes over last time,
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of course. I mean, it's been good night
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almost a month since the last time I was here.
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So, so we, we went over you, Jeroboam, basically how to make
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your own custom fit religion and looked at all of his, the things
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that he did to sort of reshape religion to kind of suit him and
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suit his political agenda. A Omri and Ahab are going to go
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even worse. And there's a few verses that
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we're going to pull out that are sort of like those little hidden
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gems that are like sometimes you read through through the Bible
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and you see, like I never noticed this part of this verse
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before. It really like illuminate
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something for me. Hopefully I'm going to pull out
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several of those today and kind of, you know, kind of fill out
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our picture of Ahab here because, you know, we, we think
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of him as a really bad guy. We don't really think of him as
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a monster, but you don't really have to be a monster to be evil.
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And so, so that's, that's kind of our our, this is our guy
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here. Well, the northern Kingdom was
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very powerful after the split and southern and northern
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kingdoms northern Kingdom is very powerful.
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They're very wealthy, got a really good economy that's
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actually going to show up in the profits where guys like, you
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know, maybe like Hosea and Amos are, are talking about some of
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these things. And they're like, oh, yeah, the
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judgement of the Lord's coming down the Pike, You guys better
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get ready. And they're like, you know, I
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don't know, man, things are going really well right now.
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We got a really good economy. Our army whips up on.
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I mean, yeah, we can't beat the Assyrians, really.
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But at least we're like king of the block, right?
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You know, we're the big boys on the block.
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And yeah. So like, you know, 30-40, fifty
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years after that, then they kind of like learn what it means when
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the judgment of the Lord comes down the Pike and you run
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headlong into it, right. And so, but that's, that was one
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of the problems. It's really hard to take sin
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seriously when things are going really well for you.
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You know, when, when things are going good, you don't really
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have any challenges. It's, it's, it's those moments
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where, you know, life sort of hits you in the face that, that
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then you start taking those things seriously, kind of like,
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you know, 911, I don't know if I mentioned this in here before.
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I used to work at 21st century Christian Bookstore and, and 911
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happened when I was working at the bookstore and, you know, I,
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I was watching on a little television when the second tower
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got hit when I came into work, you know, 1 morning and, and
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after that sales of the Bible went through the roof.
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Everybody Bible is flying off the, everybody's coming in for
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Bibles after that happened. Well, you know, once things like
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that happen and you're confronted with your own
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mortality, you're confronted with consequences of your
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mistakes or your fears, right? You take things seriously, not
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so much when things are going really well.
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And that was one of the downsides of the Northern
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Kingdom. Things usually went pretty well.
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They were, they were wealthy, they were powerful, They were,
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they were beating up on all the other, other kingdoms around
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them didn't really need anybody. And so, and so that's where,
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where we get to with Ahab, because he's very powerful.
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And, and there is a, there's a monument called the Kirk
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Monolith. And this actually mentions a
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battle between the Assyrians and some people in Canaan.
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So, So what happened was the Assyrians and the Egyptians and
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Babylonians would they would, they would often go on campaign.
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Romans did this too, right? So everybody did this.
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You go on campaign, you go beat up somebody, you go steal all
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their stuff. And it kind of fuels your
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economy. And, and so they, they would
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often do this kind of thing in Syria almost every year would go
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be going into the into Canaan or fighting Egypt or something, you
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know, go, go get spoils of war and all that.
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We read stories about that in the Bible.
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And so one year is 853 BC Ahab and a coalition of kings, about
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a dozen or a little, maybe a little bit more in Canaan, all
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band, all band together and they fight the Assyrians and they
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actually, they either win or they fight them to us to A to a
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draw. It's it's a place called the
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Battle of Karkar and 8:53 And it's just about the only time
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the Assyrians ever got beat by anybody in Canaan.
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Now they all had a team up to do it.
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But because of this inscription, we know Ahab was one of the most
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powerful guys. He contributed the second
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highest number of troops to the coalition's army that beat the
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Assyrians. And we think they beat the
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Assyrians because the Assyrians didn't go back for like 3 or 4
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more years. And so that's a pretty good sign
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that you didn't win. Maybe you didn't lose well, you
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didn't gain anything. And so hey, this is this is
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pretty big. Usually this area is kind of
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steamrolled people and it didn't happen here.
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And so now they don't go campaigning up in the in the
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Canaan anymore for next couple years or so.
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Now they're also going to be wealthy because because he
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marries Jezebel and gets access to Phoenicia.
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So so here's the so here's the first Kings 2125.
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He is going to it says sell himself to do evil in the sight
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of the Lord, and Jezebel incites him.
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And so, So what that means is she is going to encourage.
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Sometimes it could mean something like allure, entice,
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right? There's all kinds of ways.
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Those are all very different words in English for us.
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It's all the same word in Hebrew.
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And so she, and so when you say you incite somebody, that
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doesn't necessarily mean they're your friend, which I mean, I
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guess you could say that here, but to entice, to allure, to
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encourage, you know, that kind of thing is what she's doing
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now. Jezebel is an interesting case.
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She's one of those cases that, you know, it's, it's one of
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those people in scripture that that you're not going to name
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any of your kids after. I mean, I mean, you got like,
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you know, your Johns, your Davids, your Peters and you
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know, and all that kind of stuff.
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And there are people in the scripture you, you never name
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anybody after like Judas. You don't know, nobody's going
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to be a Judas unless like you really don't like them.
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Or Jezebel. I mean, we still use that.
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It's not a flattering name use like the Jezebel.
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But you know, but, but you know, it's, it's, it's it's, we
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usually use it to describe sort of a person that's conniving,
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you know, or, or something like that.
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And that's and that's what she does.
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Now, the first thing that we're going to do and and and I'm
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going to go back and, and and look at this specifically sell
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himself to do what was it? How do you do that?
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Right? How do you sell yourself to do
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what is evil? Well, your associates like are
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like a pretty good doorway to that.
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And So what we're going to look at is influence for our first
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thing is influence. So open the door to influence.
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Well, a lot of people in the ancient world had political
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marriages, diplomatic marriages, and so they wood seal covenants,
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you know, established good relations between kings.
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It really wasn't awesome for the for the ladies involved.
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They're just sort of like a pawn that are being used for this.
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But Solomon does it. Ahab seems to be doing it here.
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Now what's going to happen is it actually opens the northern
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Kingdom with these good relations with the Phoenicians,
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which Sidon is a Phoenician city.
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So she's a daughter of Etball, king of the Sidonians, and
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that's a city state. OK, so, so Sidon, if you look at
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where Tyre is, you go up to his site, it's pretty much right in
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the middle of that picture. So Sidon there.
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Tyre, Sidon and Bibloss were the three major Phoenician cities.
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And sometimes you see them mentioned in Scripture.
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Bibloss is mentioned. Bibloss is actually where we get
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our word Bible from. So about Biblione, right is is
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the Greek word. And so Bible comes.
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They actually come from Bibloss because Bibloss was a place that
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produced writing materials. So Sidon, Tyre, those are the
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three big ones and Sidon right in the middle.
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You know, Jezebel's daddy was king of this place and so that
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makes her a Phoenician Princess. Now you can tell what God they
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serve by looking at their names ET by all Bale, right, Jezebel
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Bale, right. They love Bale.
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And so in fact, her father's name means with Bale.
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Like you know, I'm, I'm, I'm with Bale, I'm, I'm with this
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guy or you've got Jezebel. That means where is Bale?
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Where is the Prince? And I think I, I told the story
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one time where I took Ugaritic is a language.
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It's kind of like Hebrew. And we had to read some of these
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stories about Baal in this language when I was in grad
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school. And one of the things that and
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I, and I didn't know this going in, but like one of the things
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you were looking at these words and I kept running across the
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this word Jay ZBL. I'm like, that sounds really
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familiar. I know what that is.
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I know, I know what that is, but I can't put my finger on it.
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It's named Jezebel, means where is Bale?
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Where is the Prince? And that's the word that keeps
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coming up over and over in these myths.
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So she's a total Pagan, right? She and her dad and all the
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people totally pagans there. She's going to import Bale into
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Israel. Like they probably had some
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problems in Israel with worshipping Bale prior to Israel
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getting there and even in Israelite times, because you got
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a few moments where Israelites are tempted to worship Baal or
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some version of Baal. So Baal Berites, Baal of the
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covenant, Baal Pior, Baal of the opening, right?
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So you've got several of these little versions or variants of
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Baal mentioned in like numbers and in the Lake Pentateuch
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earlier, Joshua judges. But now it's really getting
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ramped up because now it has official stamp of approval from
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the queen, right? And so now Baal worship is going
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to go, you know, bananas. But that's the that's The thing
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is, is with this, you also have influence and power and money.
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And so the, so the Phoenicians everywhere where there's purple
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on this map, that's where all the Phoenicians went.
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All right, So this is so that's so they have a big trading
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empire now. And I forget which one of the
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profits it is, might be Ezekiel who talks about all the ships
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and how the they're wealthy merchants and that's not going
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to save them from God's wrath. It doesn't matter how rich you
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are. It doesn't matter how powerful
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you are, if it's time for God's wrath, you're just, you're at
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the mercy of it just like anyone else.
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Doesn't matter how, doesn't matter what you who you are.
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And so, so this is where all they all go, right?
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So they're very wealthy. And now Ahab is, has a very
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powerful military. He's been able to beat the
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Assyrians. Not many people could say that.
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And now he's got an open market to being able to, you know,
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produce goods and ship them all over the Mediterranean.
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OK, So you got military power, you got wealth.
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Things are looking really good for Ahab politically.
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The only problem is that that's not true success, right?
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Just kind of like, you know, Rob was saying a minute ago, what's
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what's the successful life? To live a godly life and go to
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heaven, right? To live the the poorest, most
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destitute, most oppressed, most miserable person on earth who
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lives a godly life is richer than whoever the wealthiest
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person on the planet is, right. And so and the and the and the
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opposite is sometimes true as well.
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The wealthiest people are sometimes the most miserable
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because sometimes they're the most spiritually destitute.
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You know, you often hear of those who live in the lap of
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luxury life of absolute ease. They don't want for anything and
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life is absolutely boring for them.
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They have no excitement. So they go and they do weird
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things or criminal things to try to get some out of excitement in
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life because they don't have anything bigger than them or
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bigger than life to look forward to.
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And so and so Ahab very wealthy, very powerful, spiritually
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destitute. And the Bible is going to point
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this out in a kind of a very subtle way.
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All right, So in being good readers of the Bible, it's
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important to pay really close attention to details, right?
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I think we all agree with that. But that means getting not only
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what the Bible says, but what the Bible doesn't say, what the
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Bible leaves out. So if you go back to the account
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of Omri, which is right before Ahab, Omri is Ahab's father.
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He is extremely powerful, extremely wealthy, just like
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Ahab. He only gets about 13 verses in
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the Bible. And the reason why is because
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the Bible's authors are not impressed by the accomplishments
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of evil people. Real accomplishments are
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spiritual accomplishments. They're things that last, like
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Jesus says, stored for yourselves treasures in heaven
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because treasures on earth, they're not going to last,
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right? Thieves are going to get them.
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Wrought rust moths are going to get them.
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They're not permanent. The only treasures you have are
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spiritual treasures. And so, so Omri, very powerful.
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The he was so powerful, the Assyrians called the northern
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Kingdom the House of Omri for almost 200 years.
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They remembered him for almost, you know, over 100 years after
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he died. The Bible gives him 13 verses
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because that's the extent of his worth, right?
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Because it's nothing spiritual. We'll get to A to a few verses
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in a minute outside of kings that kind of kind of show that
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all right now Ahab, Ahab's going to be the same way, though.
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Now when we get to influence and, and the and the problem of
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influence, there are few verses that we could look at.
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One is obviously Psalm one. This is one of the one of the
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best right. So blessed is the man who walks
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not on the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of
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sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in
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the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
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Notice it doesn't say blessed is the man who has a boatload of
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money, right? Or who has, you know, herds and
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homes and all this stuff. His you're, he's going to be
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blessed who doesn't associate with people who don't respect
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God's words. Instead, he delights in God's
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word. And again, you know, this is
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like the law. You know, we don't really think
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of, you know, the law like the Pentateuch, especially like
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Leviticus and Deuteronomy as like the major obstacles to get
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past when you have your yearly Bible reading plan.
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The biblical writers said, no, this is beautiful.
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This is wonderful. Why?
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Because God tells you exactly what he wants.
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He's telling you personally. What he values and what he wants
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you to value and how you maximize your value as a person,
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right? And so, so blessed is this
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person who doesn't associate with people who don't, who don't
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respect God's word. The apostle Paul has a more
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practical way of putting this. He says do not be deceived.
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Bad company ruins good morals, not just your reputation.
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So sometimes it ruins your reputation, right?
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That's the first thing to go. But then the more you associate
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with those who are who have bad morals, that tends to rub off on
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you, right? And so so Paul is talking about
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that. And so when we get to 1st Kings
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2125 and it says there was none who sold himself to do what was
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evil in the side of the Lord like Ahab, What was a big piece
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of that? Jezebel inciting him, alluring
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him, enticing him, maybe provoking him.
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There's lots of ways to put the translate that.
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But there's something from her that is kind of putting him in
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the next gear to do the things that he does.
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Now in the New Testament, obviously we have things like
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Hebrews 1024 and 25 stirrup one another to love and good works,
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right? So influence should go the
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opposite direction. Instead of being someone who
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helps to facilitate people doing what is wrong, we should be
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stirring up one another to be doing what is right.
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Right. And so and Jezebel kind of does
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the opposite of Proverbs 2717. Iron sharpens iron.
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I don't know what the opposite of something dull, something
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else right, or makes it spiritually dumb.
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And that's what Jezebel does for Ahab.
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I mean, not that he really needed a lot of help with that.
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He seems to be a very terrible person.
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But when you are around even more terrible people than you,
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you got nowhere to go but down. So the next thing here is you.
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If you want to sell yourself to evil, allow evil to flourish,
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right? Allow evil to flourish.
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And here we've got several things to point out.
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Because Ahab behaves like he has very little restraint, right?
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So he's not going to be stopped. He's not going to be persuaded.
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He's not, we're going to talk. Our next point is he's he's not,
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he's not going to listen to profits, right?
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He's not going to listen to good advice from people who have it.
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But he's got lots of lots of things or his reign is filled
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with problems. And here I think we would say
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that passive evil is still evil, right?
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I mean, it doesn't make it any less evil just because you've
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got to take a backseat. Giving your approval is enough,
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right? And so so we got several things
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that go on here. 1 is a verse where first Kings 16.
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It says in his days he L of Beitel built Jericho.
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He laid his foundation at the cost of Abiram his first born
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and set it set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son
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Segoov, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by
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Joshua the son of noon. OK, so this is maybe where Ahab
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is not so passive because this guy is someone who is, it says
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laid the foundation of Jericho. The word could mean rebuild or
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fortify. All right, so he's rebuilding or
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fortifying Jericho because people did did still settle
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there. It just wasn't rebuilt as a
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walled city apparently until this guy came around.
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And so it's possible that Ahab could have directed this as
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well, not just, you know, becoming because, I mean,
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because you don't use like as a private individual, you go like,
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like rebuild a city, right? You've got to have some kind of
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means and, and bureaucracy behind you to get that done.
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And so it's possible that they have actually was, was involved
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in this. But this guy's the one that's
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doing right. He's spearheading it, right.
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Well, of course Ahab is not going to say, oh, no, please
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don't do that. Remember back in the days of
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Joshua, there's a curse put on anybody who does this, right?
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He's he's not going to do that. And so, so this guy does it.
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And what is so monstrous about this is, and this is debated,
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what this means. What does it mean that this guy,
25:13
Yael, laid its foundation at the cost of his first born and then
25:18
set up his gates at the cost of his youngest son?
25:23
There's two ways to understand that.
25:25
One is this guy just did it and God cursed his children and they
25:31
died, right? Because this is going to be a
25:33
curse involved in this. The only thing is, it doesn't
25:35
say that. It doesn't, it doesn't talk
25:37
about that. And that's where the other
25:40
interpretation comes in, and that is that this could be what
25:45
is called a foundation sacrifice.
25:48
And so in the ancient world, if you were a king, you're an
25:52
architect, you're a builder, administrator of some kind,
25:55
governor of a city, something like that.
25:58
And you wanted the gods to bless your project.
26:03
What you do is you sacrifice one of your children, you put in a
26:06
jar and you bury it under the keystone, cornerstone or the
26:10
foundations of whatever it is that you're building.
26:14
And so it is, I would say it's possible, maybe even likely,
26:20
that that is what is going on here.
26:23
And Ahab hasn't apparently no problem with this, right?
26:25
He's, he's letting, he's letting, he knows, right?
26:28
The law considers child sacrifice or human sacrifice to
26:33
be an abomination. And he is letting it happen,
26:37
right? This, this guy's doing this.
26:38
It's totally Pagan. It's completely Canaanite.
26:42
It is completely against God's law, Hey, but at least they had
26:47
not the one doing it. I mean, he's not the one you
26:49
doing the sacrifice. He's not the one actually
26:51
putting the bricks on top of the little, little grave, right?
26:54
He's not he's not doing that stuff, but he's letting some
26:57
other guy do it, right. And so that's that's one problem
27:01
here. Another is that he apparently
27:07
has no problem with Jezebel just going off and killing prophets,
27:10
right. So I mean, these are God's
27:13
spokesman, these are God's spokespersons, right?
27:16
Usually guys, few ladies sprinkled in there, but they are
27:21
messengers from God and he has apparently no problem with it,
27:26
with her doing this. It says first Kings 18 when
27:29
Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah.
27:33
This is not the prophet. This is another Obadiah.
27:35
I think there are 9 Obadiahs in the Old Testament.
27:39
Took 100 profits, hit them by 50s in a cave and fed them with
27:42
bread and water. OK, so cut off that is not the
27:46
usual word for murder, but it can be to kill.
27:50
All right. So usually it's, it's, it's for
27:54
so, so like, so like when you cut something, you, you bring an
27:57
end to that thing, right? It's kind of like you make it,
27:59
you, you stop it. So you cut a piece of paper, you
28:02
put it, you put an edge on the piece of paper.
28:05
Except now she's doing that with lives, right?
28:07
She's bringing into these guys lives so that she cuts them, she
28:09
cuts them off, she kills them. And so Obadiah is going and
28:13
trying to hide some of these guys in caves to protect them
28:18
from Jezebel's kill order. And of course, that's not going
28:22
to be the only time she's going to try to do this because she is
28:29
it's going to be mentioned in the next chapter actually by the
28:32
at the same time, because that's where you, you see on chapter
28:40
18, you see the the contest at Mount Carmel where they make
28:45
these two altars and you know, Elijah says whichever 1 is God
28:49
you, you're going to serve this one you.
28:51
So if fire comes down and consumes the sacrifice that's
28:53
been bail does it bails God serve him.
28:56
If God does it, then you got to serve him.
28:59
And all the people are like, this is exciting, right?
29:03
This is this is a showdown of the century.
29:05
It's a battle between gods. It's not quite like, I don't
29:08
know if you were MMA fans, but Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano
29:13
last night, that was a very disappointing fight.
29:16
It ended in 17 seconds. This is not that fight, all
29:20
right? This is Bale and his people are
29:24
pleading with him for hours and hours and hours and cutting
29:28
themselves and screaming and howling.
29:31
And, you know, when you cry out to something that doesn't exist
29:36
and it doesn't respond, you know, that's the kind of tracks,
29:40
right? And so finally, Elijah's like,
29:43
OK, let's just go ahead and take care of this.
29:46
But while we're at it, let's go ahead and make sure there's no,
29:51
there's no question which one has got.
29:52
So he has all the was water dumped on the on the sacrifice
29:56
and it goes up, right? No question now want us to
30:01
remember that because it's going to be important in in the in the
30:06
next point, but remember that right?
30:09
So so Bale doesn't show up right?
30:11
He he doesn't show up to the doesn't show up to the ring.
30:14
God does and sacrifice goes up in flames.
30:19
All right, well, after this. I mean, you would think that
30:24
even a spiritually obtuse dummy would get some kind of sense
30:33
that maybe there's something behind this Yahweh thing, right?
30:36
When when my guys go out and they and they scream and they
30:41
howl, they cut themselves. And you know, this is a high
30:45
stakes game, high stakes contest between Baal and Yahweh, God of
30:50
the Bible, God of Israel. And bail doesn't show up.
30:53
And as soon as the prophet prays, all of a sudden fire
30:56
comes down and annihilates everything.
30:58
It's Ground Zero. You would think that even a
31:05
spectacularly foolish person would say, you know, maybe I'm
31:10
wrong. I don't know about this.
31:12
And maybe maybe my bail guys aren't aren't right.
31:15
And so, but Ahab doesn't and neither does Jezebel.
31:20
Ahab goes back and he tells Jezebel, this is first Kings.
31:23
I don't know that I've got I don't have the verse here.
31:25
I don't think First Kings 19 one and two.
31:30
He says Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how
31:34
he'd killed all the prophets with the sword.
31:38
And and that last part is like all the is like her total take
31:42
away from it. Oh, he just killed my prophets.
31:44
Oh yeah, Forget the fact that we had this spectacular miracle.
31:48
It was just to kind of ignore that he killed my prophets.
31:52
And so Jezebel sent a message to a messenger to Elijah saying so
31:56
may the gods do to me and more. Also if I do not make your life
32:00
as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow, basically
32:05
I'm coming for you and and Elijah, I'll admit Elijah very
32:10
tough times for him. You know, this is a moment of
32:14
sometimes we look at Elijah here and kind of see him in a moment
32:17
of depression. You know, I mean, I mean, you're
32:20
Public Enemy number one. You've got a head of state who
32:24
knows you personally and can get to you personally and says you
32:31
got 24 hours. So Elijah goes off and he is,
32:38
he's very, very distraught for good reason, right?
32:42
Because because in Scripture, you know, there there is no,
32:47
just because you're a follower of Christ or you're a follower
32:50
of God, that doesn't insulate you from hardship, right?
32:54
Just ask Job, right? Or ask in the book of Jeremiah,
32:58
there's a prophet, I think his name is, is it Uriah or Shamiah?
33:04
I forget which one it is. It's one son of the other and
33:09
Jeremiah will eventually think goes into exile.
33:12
This guy gets killed, right? Tradition says Isaiah was killed
33:16
saw in half, right. So being one of God's people
33:20
doesn't necessarily insulate you from all harms that could
33:23
possibly happen. Oh, Elijah, I think knows this,
33:26
right. So he's he's upset.
33:28
Don't want to be too hard on Elijah there.
33:32
Although God does say, hey, you know, there's like there's like
33:34
thousands of people that haven't, you know, got it yet.
33:37
So, you know, I'll take care of you, but you have to look at the
33:42
absurdity of this, the absurdity of God just having embarrassed
33:50
Bale your guy. And then your response is I'm
33:55
going to go kill one of his messengers.
33:59
That's that's not a good plan. And so and so, but that's, but
34:03
that's her response now. And Ahab is apparently totally
34:08
OK with this right now. The next, the, the 3rd and, and,
34:13
and last example I'll, I'll give of this is one of the most
34:20
famous stories of Ahab's reign. That's Naboth's vineyard, right?
34:23
So when you go to go to the text, what you're going to find,
34:30
this is first Kings 21. You're going to find that Naboth
34:36
is actually a he's actually following the custom.
34:42
He's not going to sell his land. Ahab wants it.
34:44
It's apparently adjacent to, to his property.
34:48
He wants this, this vineyard for the, for a vegetable garden.
34:53
And he says, I will give you a better vineyard for it or I'll
34:57
give you its value and money. Hey, man, what?
35:00
Hey, whatever you want. I'll give you what I'm I'm a
35:02
reasonable guy. I'll give you whatever you want
35:04
for this. And Naboth says the Lord Yahweh,
35:09
this is the covenant name of God.
35:11
Yahweh forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my
35:14
father's. OK, Well, this is not, this is
35:18
not kosher for him to just sell this off.
35:20
This is his family property. It's connected to his family,
35:23
right? So he's not just one lone actor
35:26
in this. This represents something that's
35:28
part of his, his family's inheritance.
35:31
And so it says Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen.
35:35
So he goes and pouts because of what Naboth and Jezreelite had
35:39
said to him. But Jezebel, his wife, verse
35:43
five, came to him and said to him, why is your spirit so vexed
35:47
that you eat no food? Look, man, I don't know.
35:51
I mean, I mean, we've had deals fall through on, you know,
35:54
rental homes and properties. Nothing really tore me up so bad
35:58
that like I missed a meal over it all right.
36:00
So, but for some reason, and may now maybe maybe it was just that
36:07
Ahab's the king and the king didn't get his way right.
36:12
Pride. So maybe Pride's part of the
36:14
picture. But but, but she says basically,
36:23
do you now govern Israel? There's nothing that gets most
36:29
guys going like a challenge to your manhood, which is basically
36:34
what this is. Aren't you the king of it?
36:37
I'm sorry. Are you the king of Israel or
36:38
not? Right.
36:40
And so arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful.
36:43
I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
36:48
OK? This is a woman who's already
36:49
killed people. OK, what does Ahab think she's
36:52
going to do? Just go and use her feminine
36:55
charms on him and beguile him? And somehow, you know, I don't
36:59
know, sometimes that works with guys.
37:00
But what does he think she's going to do?
37:04
Right, So she writes letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with
37:07
his seal. OK.
37:10
Did she steal it? Did he just give it to her?
37:12
Did he just say, hey, at least I'm not the one that's going to
37:14
have blood on my hands? Here you go, lady.
37:16
I don't know, but somehow she gets his seal, sends letters
37:21
around and basically has him basically frames.
37:27
It's a frame job frames him for for for apostasy here and he's
37:39
going to get stones. OK, and that's, and that's the
37:42
thing, SO2 says worthless men. Worthless is usually the term
37:48
the Old Testament uses to describe things that are
37:50
absolutely bankrupt. So idols will be called objects
37:55
or things of worthlessness. And so worthless means just
38:02
wicked, right? Abominable.
38:07
OK. And it says they came in, they
38:10
pressed a charge against him. And so they go out and they
38:13
stone him. Now, I that's usually where the
38:22
story is. And Ahab gets his vegetable
38:24
garden. You know, Jezebel goes and tells
38:26
him everything's happy. I mean, at least for him.
38:29
And, and, and that's sort of the end of it.
38:31
However, there is one reference and it's just a piece of a verse
38:40
that seems to say that Jezebel didn't just go after Naboth, she
38:44
went after his entire family. At least all the guys in his
38:46
family. Because remember, this is an
38:48
inheritance. So if Naboth is out of the
38:51
pictures, his sons get it. What if his sons are out of the
38:54
picture? Oh, now Ahab can have it.
38:58
So for Second Kings 2, Second Kings 926, as surely as I saw
39:07
yesterday, the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons
39:12
declares the Lord is talking to Jezebel.
39:15
I will repay you on this plot of grounds.
39:19
Wasn't just Naboth, it was his kids too.
39:23
So that makes Jezebel's actions even more monstrous than just
39:28
framing a guy and getting him murdered, right?
39:30
Judicial murder. She got his sons too, right?
39:34
And so this is this is the this is the, the, the thing that
39:37
Ahab's like, yeah, I'm OK. Just, you know, bell pepper
39:41
season's coming or whatever. And so, so, so evil is being
39:48
done. And Ahab apparently has no
39:49
problem with it. Now the last thing, the last
39:53
point we've got here is if you want to sell yourself to evil,
39:57
just go ahead and reject the truth.
39:59
Just go ahead and cut yourself off right, because that is
40:03
exactly what Ahab does. Now when when Ahab is doing
40:10
things like about to go to to battle, he he wants to get his
40:16
guys, his prophetic yes men to kind of agree to it.
40:20
So when you go to 1st Kings 22. You know, he says, should I go
40:25
up to battle against these guys? And they're all like, yeah,
40:27
yeah, you know, You know, you're going to do all this stuff.
40:29
You got one guy who comes up and he actually even makes these
40:32
iron horns. And it was one of those weird
40:34
things the prophets sometimes do that they'll do, like these
40:36
little prophetic object lessons, Like Ezekiel does some of these
40:40
as I does some of these. And so he's got these iron with
40:44
these iron horns. You're going to gig the
40:46
Assyrians, you know? And so it's going to be great.
40:48
And everything's wonderful. And Jehoshaphat, who's taking
40:52
the southern Kingdom, he's like, he's like, is there not a, like
40:55
a, like a real prophet in the ground here?
40:57
They're not like a, like, like a, like a legitimate prophet
41:00
anywhere in the, in the, in the area.
41:02
And Ahab says there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of
41:10
the Lord, just one, maybe just one that he knows of my Caius,
41:15
son of Imla, but I hate him, for he never prophesized good
41:19
concerning me, but evil. Jehoshaphat says let the king,
41:24
let not the king say so. So Jehoshaphat is an awesome
41:27
himself, but at least he has, you know, enough of a foundation
41:34
to say, you know, I got all the guys over here that are on your
41:38
payroll. So they're going to tell you
41:40
what you want to hear. I want to hear from a real
41:42
prophet. And so and so they bring this
41:45
guy in. Of course, he, he, he at first
41:50
he's a little sarcastic with him at first he's like, Oh yeah, go
41:52
up, go up, you'll win. And you know, he's being
41:54
sarcastic because Ahab goes tell me the truth.
41:58
And he says, right, I see all this real like sheep, you know,
42:03
on the, you know, on the, on the mountainside, like sheep without
42:06
a shepherd, right. You're when you go out to
42:10
battle, you're not coming back home is basically what he says.
42:13
And and so there are there are other other times when this
42:16
happens. There's Jeremiah, which I don't,
42:21
I don't have this passage for on the slides, but Jeremiah 531 God
42:27
tells Jeremiah the prophets prophecy falsely and my people
42:33
love to have it. So sometimes you like being lied
42:40
to. You tell you have somebody tell
42:42
you what you want to hear. And Ahab is that guy.
42:45
Well, that's how you sell yourself out to evil just to
42:47
surround yourself with a bunch of yes men and yes women.
42:51
Have them tell you what you want and never ever confront you for
42:54
anything. But what I will say is Proverbs
42:58
27 six, and some of you may already know this faithful are
43:03
the wounds of a friend, right? Did you have you ever gone up to
43:09
somebody and said, you know, I want you to be honest with me?
43:13
And they're like, oh, OK, right. And then and then they hit you
43:16
with it and they're just like, OK, I, I, I can take it.
43:18
I got it right. But you want the truth.
43:21
You don't want them to lie to you.
43:23
That's what kind of what that verse is talking about.
43:26
Now there's a couple very one or two very quick things.
43:33
Evil can become institutionalized.
43:35
And Ahab does that. And so when you look at what
43:38
Ahab and Omri do, so Micah 616 says you have kept the statutes
43:44
of Omri and all the works of the House of Ahab.
43:48
So the word for statutes there, it's not the usual word for
43:53
God's commands, but it is one of them, right?
43:56
So it appears in Psalm 119 a bunch when it talks about God's
44:00
commands and statutes and laws and all that kind of thing.
44:04
Well, this is what the word for statutes, all right, so, so, so
44:07
Omri, Ahab, they set these things up.
44:12
Psalm 9420. Can wicked rulers be allied with
44:15
you, those who frame injustice by statute?
44:19
It's exactly what Omri and Ahab do.
44:22
They go and they ramp up wickedness and ramp up false
44:27
worship and Baal worship because they're rejecting the truth.
44:32
They rejected God and now they've substituted it with
44:35
something else, and that something else is not going to
44:37
do anything for them. It is not going to do anything
44:40
for them but bring them to ruin. Last verse, Hosea 511 Ephraim is
44:46
oppressed, crushed in judgment because he was determined to go
44:50
after filth. And the word that's used there
44:55
is a word that is related to the word for command, and it's
45:01
usually used of God's commands, but it can be either human or
45:05
God's here. It's clearly man made.
45:09
So you want to know why your country's been crushed?
45:12
You want to know why you've gotten the judgement of God?
45:15
Because you're following the wrong authority.
45:18
You've rejected the truth, right?
45:20
That's that's the consequences. All right, Well, thank you guys.
45:24
That's our look at Ahab. And we will have our last look
45:29
at a biblical king in two weeks. So we'll talk.
45:32
We'll see you then.