Wednesday 7th August Mondays 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th dusty threshing this exciting forget what God king of the Southern Jehoshaphat

Transcription

1 Discerning false prophets and more. 1 Kings 22. July 14 th Home Groups I don t know which HGs are still meeting. IF you re not meeting as a Home Group then I expect you re free to come to the Parish Prayers on Wednesday 7 th August 8pm-9pm at Basil & Pip s home (you ve got until then to work out where they live its on the roundabout. In September Mondays 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th 7.30pm finish. In St Mary s Conker Room, I m inviting all the home groups and anyone who fancies, four evenings of what makes the Church grow looking at some bits of Acts, using a booklet that Bishop Wallace has put together (very good). I hope that this will be an opportunity for us to learn off each other and learn some new things and for others to see what a home group looks like and perhaps stay on afterwards. It will also enable some people to try out other groups and join them if they like. Very likely it will result in more HGs and perhaps a greater variety of days on which they meet. I realize that some of you meet on a Wednesday or during the day or you send one half to one group and the other half to another or that you need babysitters. Sorry about that but come all the same, and skip a month of art class or what have you. Welcome: 1. What books of the bible make for a cracking read? Have you read them all, which one would the group urge you to read next? 2. What summer plans do people have? Worship: try Psalm 141 Word: 1. Read 1 Kings Shall we pray about it? How are you at making decisions first and then praying about it second? 3. Would you marry your son to Jezebel s daughter? 4. Discern: these prophets use spiritual language and Yahweh s name. How can you tell they re not the real deal? 5. What can we learn about giving advice / receiving it? 6. What is the function of religion and faith? Ahab thinks its about having nice things said about you. 7. What do you make of God sending a lying spirit? Why isn t it deceitful!? 8. How can you tell if Zedekiah or Micaiah are telling the truth? Who s got the lying spirit? 9. Would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a charlatan? 10. Where s the grace shown to Ahab in these last chapters? Works: How can we pray for each other over the Summer? Who can we think of and pray for who we could invite to come to the September meetings? */*/*/*/*/* This is a fabulous piece of bible. The detail, the tension, the irony and wit, the pomposity kings in their royal robes, a dusty threshing floor, 400 prophets dancing around trying to impress. One of the problems with a bit of bible that is this exciting is that we get so caught up in a good read that we forget to ask ourselves some basic questions about what God might be trying to teach me through this text. It s good that the bible is a good read, let s celebrate that! But let s also come back and have a think about it too. The chapter tells us of the king of the Southern kingdoms Jehoshaphat coming for a royal visit to the King of the Northern tribes Ahab who has a cunning plan. There s an old Israelite town that is in enemy hands. Ramoth Gilead is on a cross roads for Camels and Caravans and trade routes. It s a wonderful place to make lots of money as all the trade comes through. Page 1 of 4

2 Jehoshaphat is won over by the moment and says My people are as your people. And then as an afterthought he says Shall we pray about it? Shall we inquire of the Lord? Maybe we should be nice to Jehoshaphat because he does at least think about God at this point, its sad to note that its not his gut reaction, its not his starting point. Perhaps there s some money in it for him or some glory, perhaps there s a chance to start up some new policy of co-operation between these two kingdoms. He has after all recently married Ahab s daughter to his own son. Jehoshaphat has a faith what he lacks is wisdom. If I were to offer you the daughter of Jezebel as wife for your sons, I would rather hope that you would pray about that long and hard. So Jehoshaphat says have you got any prophets so that we can enquire of the Lord and Ahab says Yes, I ve got 400 all lined up and ready. 400! It s just astonishing to have this many vicars in the pay of the king. Of course they know which side their bread is buttered. Should I go to war? Well of course if that s what you want to do Yes go and the LORD will give you every success. Its utter nonsense and interestingly Jehoshaphat smells a rat. Do you have a prophet of the LORD here? You might think its an odd question seeing as these religious spiritual people are using Yahweh-language. They don t say Ashtorah says or Baal says, they say Yahweh, the LORD says Go to war. So everything is dressed up in good wholesome spiritual language. So it raises some difficult discernment questions. How can you know if someone is actually from the Lord or not? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. And that would be a good place to start. Let s see what fruits we find in their lives. We should smell a rat knowing that all 400 are in Ahab s pay. We should also smell a rat when Zedekiah suddenly pulls out of a bag some iron horns. This isn t spontaneous, he had these horns made ages ago and has been thinking How can I use them as a sermon illustration? Where can I fit this into a prayer meeting? So he pulls them out and waves these iron horns about and it all looks very dramatic, but its not a carefully considered response of what God says, instead it is a premeditated bit if prefabricated nonsense. Jehoshaphat knows this and says Haven t you got a prophet of the Lord? And Ahab doesn t say What aren t these good enough for you? He doesn t say Look at these fine men, they re all speaking Lord Yahweh language, aren t they churchy enough for you? He says I know what you mean, yes I ve got one somewhere. Micaiah is sent for and the messenger advises him to play along with all this nonsense. Feel the peer pressure. You re in a meeting, you re at the pub, the conversation suddenly takes a moral turn and then someone says Hey, you re a church goer what do you think? They ve been speaking about a plot on Eastenders, or a decision about whether to let the spare office space to a meeting of Kleptomaniacs Anonymous. And everyone s looking to you. Will you tow the party line, will you fall to the peer pressure? 400 prophets all shouting Yes go to war, you ll be fine. It s not easy to be the only one. Micaiah says Yes go to war you ll be fine. Its a real shame that the bible doesn t come with italics or smileys or something because its clear that Ahab knows that Micaiah is fibbing. He can see it in the tone of his voice and the eyes raised to the ceiling. Note how Ahab s prophets are always referred to as my prophets not as Prophets of the Lord. And how Ahab complains He never says anything good about me. Its pretty clear that Ahab understands that the function and purpose of religion is to make me feel good and to encourage me to do what I want to do anyway. Ahab presses him for the truth and Micaiah delivers this killer blow: I saw all Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Let each one go home in peace. There s a real sting here, Micaiah has just said there will be no peace until you Ahab is dead. Page 2 of 4

3 He then goes into this bit about God sending a lying spirit to Ahab s prophets. You might feel a little confused about why a loving God would send a lying spirit so you ll just have to enjoy the irony of this prophet telling Ahab the plan. If you know that that s the plan then I m not sure if it counts as lying!? One of the 400 prophets - Zedekiah slaps Micaiah, and that tells us something about his character. As Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them, and now we know what kind of person this man is. Zedekiah says So I ve got a lying spirit have I? How do you know it didn t just travel from me to you! And of course that s part of the problem that this chapter raises. How do you know if God is speaking to you? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. The man slaps Micaiah, Micaiah now absolutely knows that he is in the right. The fruit has been shown. The rest of the chapter is about how things worked out for Ahab. Ahab dismisses the real prophet and yet he doesn t. He has Micaiah locked up until Ahab returns here s a tricky thing would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a false prophet? Ahab takes some of what was said to heart he disguises himself, thereby putting Jehoshaphat in very great danger thank you my friend! But God does what God does so that a loose arrow finds the chink in Ahab s armour, he is shot and killed. And as Elijah had said after Ahab had killed Naboth, dogs will lick your blood. What a great bit of bible! We learn here something of Peer Pressure. On the whole we re grown up so we don t suffer from this. Or rather we don t always notice when it happens to us. You re surrounded by 400 other spiritual religious types all shouting the name of your God and somehow you have to hold onto what you really do believe. Pray for our children, pray for yourself and your own integrity. And how are we to discern good advice is it good and godly advice? You must weigh it up these socalled prophets are pretending to be spontaneous but aren t at all. People who are more keen to be your friend than to tell you the truth, or at least to advise you how they see things. Over these last few chapters of Kings we ve seen some astonishing grace shown to Ahab: The terrible king Ben Hadad picks a fight with Ahab and God sends a prophet to show him what to do. Ahab wins, twice. But he takes the glory for himself and the prophet says You let Ben Hadad go, so its your life for his. But Ahab doesn t respond. So he sees a vineyard and in a roundabout way kills the owner of the vineyard Naboth. Elijah comes to him and says God has had it up to here with you, so you will die and all your offspring will die too. And Ahab seems to say Sorry. He puts on sackcloth and ashes. He doesn t really repent, his Sorry is very shallow. But God says well okay, let s hold back the judgement, let s see how his son turns out. And now we come to this chapter and again God sends a prophet who tells him that there s no peace in Israel until Ahab dies and Ahab misses it. He partly listens but not really and finally the judgement catches up with him. We re supposed to see in these chapters the God of enormous grace who comes to Ahab and gives him second chances upon second chances. Ahab has all these chances and utterly fails to take them. The warning is clear for us. God gives us second third fourth chances, mercy and grace and hope and light. And we say, I still have my doubts, I still have my questions and we still do nothing to properly repent, to actually come to the Lord and say I no longer want to be king of my life, I want you my God to be king over my life, forgive me, restore me, lead me. Maybe you ve not made that prayer of commitment. What will God do? He will give you another chance! He will show you more grace and mercy! But there will come a point when God says enough. Page 3 of 4

4 My advice would not be to wait for that day but to have a proper conversation with yourself about what is genuinely stopping you from handing over your life to the Living Lord and to pray a prayer of commitment. And those of you who have prayed that prayer we learn from this something about the importance of our witness. God doesn t ask us to be successful, to bring in the converts. He calls us to be faithful. I m quite keen on success but actually God isn t so fussed. Micaiah s statement would make a good prayer or creed for any of us I can only tell him what the Lord God tells me. All that God asks of us is for us to be faithful to what Jesus has done in our lives and for us to tell it like it is. There s an option here to use humour Oh yes Ahab go to war! - but the message here is to worry less about success and more about being steadfast and faithful to God. This chapter calls us to marvel at God s grace again. It calls us to watch out for peer pressure and to think through how we discern what God is saying to us through our friends and advisors. Its a call to be faithful and to speak what we do know about Jesus. And it s a call, urging us to respond with a prayer of commitment to the God who gives us second and third and fourth chances. Amen. */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/**/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ Appendix! What an appendix to a sermon! What did we do to deserve that!? to the end of the book didn t get touched on. It speaks of the end of Jehoshaphat s reign (king of Judah in the south) and of Ahab s son Ahaziah and his reign (more of that next week in 2kings1). IF I had preached I might have said something about parenting and how our kids pick up on what we do and say. Here we find that Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of his father. He did a little more good than his dad in getting rid of the male shrine prostitutes. And we read of the Ahaziah and how he walked in the ways of Ahab and Jezebel with as much evil as before. Indeed he provoked the LORD. There s a formulaic feeling to these verses, a rhythm not unlike a school end of term report where the teacher is running out of new ways to say the same things: Nice lad, could try harder. Rob Parsons in his book Getting your kids though church without them ending up hating God gives some excellent advice. One bit is to ask yourself how do you talk about the vicar, the Church service, the sermon, the worship afterwards? Before Church are you whining about how much there is to get done and how it would be more convenient not to go? Or afterwards to moan in the car about the poor choice of hymns, the interminably long talk and how you didn t understand a word the preacher said?! You have my sympathy. But alas the Children in the car hear all this and when they get to a more stubborn age you cannot be surprised if they speak out loud what you re thinking inside. Please Daddy, I don t want to go to Church? It s not easy. IF I was preaching on this bit I might also point to the succinct summary of these kings lives. 25 years of being king and just a few lines in Kings (Jehoshaphat gets 4 chapters in 2 Chronicles 17-20). But perhaps that s okay when he has peace to the North with Ahab (through a marriage treaty). And peace to the east with Edom because they re too weak to attack. And so he is able to build a fleet. A marvellous economic development. Alas it goes wrong and there s nothing here to imply that disaster being a judgement from God but it helps reinforce the (ancient) Jewish understanding that the Sea is a symbol of chaos see Genesis 1 for example and also Rev21 in heaven: no more sea. Jehoshaphat is described by Dale Ralph Davis as being pious but stupid. He clearly has a faith of his own. He applies some good policies to his own country but he marries his son to the daughter of Jezebel and that marriage will very nearly be the death of the Davidic line. We re familiar with Christians having their own faith but then you want to do something that s wrong (marry Jezebel s daughter) and you find ways to excuse it in your own mind. Folly. The book ends in a poor way, this is no way to end a book. But of course this isn t the end. Page 4 of 4

5 Discerning false prophets and more. 1 Kings 22. July 14 th Home Groups I don t know which HGs are still meeting. IF you re not meeting as a Home Group then I expect you re free to come to the Parish Prayers on Wednesday 7 th August 8pm-9pm at Basil & Pip s home (you ve got until then to work out where they live its on the roundabout. In September Mondays 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th 7.30pm finish. In St Mary s Conker Room, I m inviting all the home groups and anyone who fancies, four evenings of what makes the Church grow looking at some bits of Acts, using a booklet that Bishop Wallace has put together (very good). I hope that this will be an opportunity for us to learn off each other and learn some new things and for others to see what a home group looks like and perhaps stay on afterwards. It will also enable some people to try out other groups and join them if they like. Very likely it will result in more HGs and perhaps a greater variety of days on which they meet. I realize that some of you meet on a Wednesday or during the day or you send one half to one group and the other half to another or that you need babysitters. Sorry about that but come all the same, and skip a month of art class or what have you. Welcome: 1. What books of the bible make for a cracking read? Have you read them all, which one would the group urge you to read next? 2. What summer plans do people have? Worship: try Psalm 141 Word: 1. Read 1 Kings Shall we pray about it? How are you at making decisions first and then praying about it second? 3. Would you marry your son to Jezebel s daughter? 4. Discern: these prophets use spiritual language and Yahweh s name. How can you tell they re not the real deal? 5. What can we learn about giving advice / receiving it? 6. What is the function of religion and faith? Ahab thinks its about having nice things said about you. 7. What do you make of God sending a lying spirit? Why isn t it deceitful!? 8. How can you tell if Zedekiah or Micaiah are telling the truth? Who s got the lying spirit? 9. Would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a charlatan? 10. Where s the grace shown to Ahab in these last chapters? Works: How can we pray for each other over the Summer? Who can we think of and pray for who we could invite to come to the September meetings? */*/*/*/*/* This is a fabulous piece of bible. The detail, the tension, the irony and wit, the pomposity kings in their royal robes, a dusty threshing floor, 400 prophets dancing around trying to impress. One of the problems with a bit of bible that is this exciting is that we get so caught up in a good read that we forget to ask ourselves some basic questions about what God might be trying to teach me through this text. It s good that the bible is a good read, let s celebrate that! But let s also come back and have a think about it too. The chapter tells us of the king of the Southern kingdoms Jehoshaphat coming for a royal visit to the King of the Northern tribes Ahab who has a cunning plan. There s an old Israelite town that is in enemy hands. Ramoth Gilead is on a cross roads for Camels and Caravans and trade routes. It s a wonderful place to make lots of money as all the trade comes through. Page 1 of 4

6 Jehoshaphat is won over by the moment and says My people are as your people. And then as an afterthought he says Shall we pray about it? Shall we inquire of the Lord? Maybe we should be nice to Jehoshaphat because he does at least think about God at this point, its sad to note that its not his gut reaction, its not his starting point. Perhaps there s some money in it for him or some glory, perhaps there s a chance to start up some new policy of co-operation between these two kingdoms. He has after all recently married Ahab s daughter to his own son. Jehoshaphat has a faith what he lacks is wisdom. If I were to offer you the daughter of Jezebel as wife for your sons, I would rather hope that you would pray about that long and hard. So Jehoshaphat says have you got any prophets so that we can enquire of the Lord and Ahab says Yes, I ve got 400 all lined up and ready. 400! It s just astonishing to have this many vicars in the pay of the king. Of course they know which side their bread is buttered. Should I go to war? Well of course if that s what you want to do Yes go and the LORD will give you every success. Its utter nonsense and interestingly Jehoshaphat smells a rat. Do you have a prophet of the LORD here? You might think its an odd question seeing as these religious spiritual people are using Yahweh-language. They don t say Ashtorah says or Baal says, they say Yahweh, the LORD says Go to war. So everything is dressed up in good wholesome spiritual language. So it raises some difficult discernment questions. How can you know if someone is actually from the Lord or not? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. And that would be a good place to start. Let s see what fruits we find in their lives. We should smell a rat knowing that all 400 are in Ahab s pay. We should also smell a rat when Zedekiah suddenly pulls out of a bag some iron horns. This isn t spontaneous, he had these horns made ages ago and has been thinking How can I use them as a sermon illustration? Where can I fit this into a prayer meeting? So he pulls them out and waves these iron horns about and it all looks very dramatic, but its not a carefully considered response of what God says, instead it is a premeditated bit if prefabricated nonsense. Jehoshaphat knows this and says Haven t you got a prophet of the Lord? And Ahab doesn t say What aren t these good enough for you? He doesn t say Look at these fine men, they re all speaking Lord Yahweh language, aren t they churchy enough for you? He says I know what you mean, yes I ve got one somewhere. Micaiah is sent for and the messenger advises him to play along with all this nonsense. Feel the peer pressure. You re in a meeting, you re at the pub, the conversation suddenly takes a moral turn and then someone says Hey, you re a church goer what do you think? They ve been speaking about a plot on Eastenders, or a decision about whether to let the spare office space to a meeting of Kleptomaniacs Anonymous. And everyone s looking to you. Will you tow the party line, will you fall to the peer pressure? 400 prophets all shouting Yes go to war, you ll be fine. It s not easy to be the only one. Micaiah says Yes go to war you ll be fine. Its a real shame that the bible doesn t come with italics or smileys or something because its clear that Ahab knows that Micaiah is fibbing. He can see it in the tone of his voice and the eyes raised to the ceiling. Note how Ahab s prophets are always referred to as my prophets not as Prophets of the Lord. And how Ahab complains He never says anything good about me. Its pretty clear that Ahab understands that the function and purpose of religion is to make me feel good and to encourage me to do what I want to do anyway. Ahab presses him for the truth and Micaiah delivers this killer blow: I saw all Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Let each one go home in peace. There s a real sting here, Micaiah has just said there will be no peace until you Ahab is dead. Page 2 of 4

7 He then goes into this bit about God sending a lying spirit to Ahab s prophets. You might feel a little confused about why a loving God would send a lying spirit so you ll just have to enjoy the irony of this prophet telling Ahab the plan. If you know that that s the plan then I m not sure if it counts as lying!? One of the 400 prophets - Zedekiah slaps Micaiah, and that tells us something about his character. As Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them, and now we know what kind of person this man is. Zedekiah says So I ve got a lying spirit have I? How do you know it didn t just travel from me to you! And of course that s part of the problem that this chapter raises. How do you know if God is speaking to you? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. The man slaps Micaiah, Micaiah now absolutely knows that he is in the right. The fruit has been shown. The rest of the chapter is about how things worked out for Ahab. Ahab dismisses the real prophet and yet he doesn t. He has Micaiah locked up until Ahab returns here s a tricky thing would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a false prophet? Ahab takes some of what was said to heart he disguises himself, thereby putting Jehoshaphat in very great danger thank you my friend! But God does what God does so that a loose arrow finds the chink in Ahab s armour, he is shot and killed. And as Elijah had said after Ahab had killed Naboth, dogs will lick your blood. What a great bit of bible! We learn here something of Peer Pressure. On the whole we re grown up so we don t suffer from this. Or rather we don t always notice when it happens to us. You re surrounded by 400 other spiritual religious types all shouting the name of your God and somehow you have to hold onto what you really do believe. Pray for our children, pray for yourself and your own integrity. And how are we to discern good advice is it good and godly advice? You must weigh it up these socalled prophets are pretending to be spontaneous but aren t at all. People who are more keen to be your friend than to tell you the truth, or at least to advise you how they see things. Over these last few chapters of Kings we ve seen some astonishing grace shown to Ahab: The terrible king Ben Hadad picks a fight with Ahab and God sends a prophet to show him what to do. Ahab wins, twice. But he takes the glory for himself and the prophet says You let Ben Hadad go, so its your life for his. But Ahab doesn t respond. So he sees a vineyard and in a roundabout way kills the owner of the vineyard Naboth. Elijah comes to him and says God has had it up to here with you, so you will die and all your offspring will die too. And Ahab seems to say Sorry. He puts on sackcloth and ashes. He doesn t really repent, his Sorry is very shallow. But God says well okay, let s hold back the judgement, let s see how his son turns out. And now we come to this chapter and again God sends a prophet who tells him that there s no peace in Israel until Ahab dies and Ahab misses it. He partly listens but not really and finally the judgement catches up with him. We re supposed to see in these chapters the God of enormous grace who comes to Ahab and gives him second chances upon second chances. Ahab has all these chances and utterly fails to take them. The warning is clear for us. God gives us second third fourth chances, mercy and grace and hope and light. And we say, I still have my doubts, I still have my questions and we still do nothing to properly repent, to actually come to the Lord and say I no longer want to be king of my life, I want you my God to be king over my life, forgive me, restore me, lead me. Maybe you ve not made that prayer of commitment. What will God do? He will give you another chance! He will show you more grace and mercy! But there will come a point when God says enough. Page 3 of 4

8 My advice would not be to wait for that day but to have a proper conversation with yourself about what is genuinely stopping you from handing over your life to the Living Lord and to pray a prayer of commitment. And those of you who have prayed that prayer we learn from this something about the importance of our witness. God doesn t ask us to be successful, to bring in the converts. He calls us to be faithful. I m quite keen on success but actually God isn t so fussed. Micaiah s statement would make a good prayer or creed for any of us I can only tell him what the Lord God tells me. All that God asks of us is for us to be faithful to what Jesus has done in our lives and for us to tell it like it is. There s an option here to use humour Oh yes Ahab go to war! - but the message here is to worry less about success and more about being steadfast and faithful to God. This chapter calls us to marvel at God s grace again. It calls us to watch out for peer pressure and to think through how we discern what God is saying to us through our friends and advisors. Its a call to be faithful and to speak what we do know about Jesus. And it s a call, urging us to respond with a prayer of commitment to the God who gives us second and third and fourth chances. Amen. */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/**/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ Appendix! What an appendix to a sermon! What did we do to deserve that!? to the end of the book didn t get touched on. It speaks of the end of Jehoshaphat s reign (king of Judah in the south) and of Ahab s son Ahaziah and his reign (more of that next week in 2kings1). IF I had preached I might have said something about parenting and how our kids pick up on what we do and say. Here we find that Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of his father. He did a little more good than his dad in getting rid of the male shrine prostitutes. And we read of the Ahaziah and how he walked in the ways of Ahab and Jezebel with as much evil as before. Indeed he provoked the LORD. There s a formulaic feeling to these verses, a rhythm not unlike a school end of term report where the teacher is running out of new ways to say the same things: Nice lad, could try harder. Rob Parsons in his book Getting your kids though church without them ending up hating God gives some excellent advice. One bit is to ask yourself how do you talk about the vicar, the Church service, the sermon, the worship afterwards? Before Church are you whining about how much there is to get done and how it would be more convenient not to go? Or afterwards to moan in the car about the poor choice of hymns, the interminably long talk and how you didn t understand a word the preacher said?! You have my sympathy. But alas the Children in the car hear all this and when they get to a more stubborn age you cannot be surprised if they speak out loud what you re thinking inside. Please Daddy, I don t want to go to Church? It s not easy. IF I was preaching on this bit I might also point to the succinct summary of these kings lives. 25 years of being king and just a few lines in Kings (Jehoshaphat gets 4 chapters in 2 Chronicles 17-20). But perhaps that s okay when he has peace to the North with Ahab (through a marriage treaty). And peace to the east with Edom because they re too weak to attack. And so he is able to build a fleet. A marvellous economic development. Alas it goes wrong and there s nothing here to imply that disaster being a judgement from God but it helps reinforce the (ancient) Jewish understanding that the Sea is a symbol of chaos see Genesis 1 for example and also Rev21 in heaven: no more sea. Jehoshaphat is described by Dale Ralph Davis as being pious but stupid. He clearly has a faith of his own. He applies some good policies to his own country but he marries his son to the daughter of Jezebel and that marriage will very nearly be the death of the Davidic line. We re familiar with Christians having their own faith but then you want to do something that s wrong (marry Jezebel s daughter) and you find ways to excuse it in your own mind. Folly. The book ends in a poor way, this is no way to end a book. But of course this isn t the end. Page 4 of 4

9 Discerning false prophets and more. 1 Kings 22. July 14 th Home Groups I don t know which HGs are still meeting. IF you re not meeting as a Home Group then I expect you re free to come to the Parish Prayers on Wednesday 7 th August 8pm-9pm at Basil & Pip s home (you ve got until then to work out where they live its on the roundabout. In September Mondays 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th 7.30pm finish. In St Mary s Conker Room, I m inviting all the home groups and anyone who fancies, four evenings of what makes the Church grow looking at some bits of Acts, using a booklet that Bishop Wallace has put together (very good). I hope that this will be an opportunity for us to learn off each other and learn some new things and for others to see what a home group looks like and perhaps stay on afterwards. It will also enable some people to try out other groups and join them if they like. Very likely it will result in more HGs and perhaps a greater variety of days on which they meet. I realize that some of you meet on a Wednesday or during the day or you send one half to one group and the other half to another or that you need babysitters. Sorry about that but come all the same, and skip a month of art class or what have you. Welcome: 1. What books of the bible make for a cracking read? Have you read them all, which one would the group urge you to read next? 2. What summer plans do people have? Worship: try Psalm 141 Word: 1. Read 1 Kings Shall we pray about it? How are you at making decisions first and then praying about it second? 3. Would you marry your son to Jezebel s daughter? 4. Discern: these prophets use spiritual language and Yahweh s name. How can you tell they re not the real deal? 5. What can we learn about giving advice / receiving it? 6. What is the function of religion and faith? Ahab thinks its about having nice things said about you. 7. What do you make of God sending a lying spirit? Why isn t it deceitful!? 8. How can you tell if Zedekiah or Micaiah are telling the truth? Who s got the lying spirit? 9. Would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a charlatan? 10. Where s the grace shown to Ahab in these last chapters? Works: How can we pray for each other over the Summer? Who can we think of and pray for who we could invite to come to the September meetings? */*/*/*/*/* This is a fabulous piece of bible. The detail, the tension, the irony and wit, the pomposity kings in their royal robes, a dusty threshing floor, 400 prophets dancing around trying to impress. One of the problems with a bit of bible that is this exciting is that we get so caught up in a good read that we forget to ask ourselves some basic questions about what God might be trying to teach me through this text. It s good that the bible is a good read, let s celebrate that! But let s also come back and have a think about it too. The chapter tells us of the king of the Southern kingdoms Jehoshaphat coming for a royal visit to the King of the Northern tribes Ahab who has a cunning plan. There s an old Israelite town that is in enemy hands. Ramoth Gilead is on a cross roads for Camels and Caravans and trade routes. It s a wonderful place to make lots of money as all the trade comes through. Page 1 of 4

10 Jehoshaphat is won over by the moment and says My people are as your people. And then as an afterthought he says Shall we pray about it? Shall we inquire of the Lord? Maybe we should be nice to Jehoshaphat because he does at least think about God at this point, its sad to note that its not his gut reaction, its not his starting point. Perhaps there s some money in it for him or some glory, perhaps there s a chance to start up some new policy of co-operation between these two kingdoms. He has after all recently married Ahab s daughter to his own son. Jehoshaphat has a faith what he lacks is wisdom. If I were to offer you the daughter of Jezebel as wife for your sons, I would rather hope that you would pray about that long and hard. So Jehoshaphat says have you got any prophets so that we can enquire of the Lord and Ahab says Yes, I ve got 400 all lined up and ready. 400! It s just astonishing to have this many vicars in the pay of the king. Of course they know which side their bread is buttered. Should I go to war? Well of course if that s what you want to do Yes go and the LORD will give you every success. Its utter nonsense and interestingly Jehoshaphat smells a rat. Do you have a prophet of the LORD here? You might think its an odd question seeing as these religious spiritual people are using Yahweh-language. They don t say Ashtorah says or Baal says, they say Yahweh, the LORD says Go to war. So everything is dressed up in good wholesome spiritual language. So it raises some difficult discernment questions. How can you know if someone is actually from the Lord or not? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. And that would be a good place to start. Let s see what fruits we find in their lives. We should smell a rat knowing that all 400 are in Ahab s pay. We should also smell a rat when Zedekiah suddenly pulls out of a bag some iron horns. This isn t spontaneous, he had these horns made ages ago and has been thinking How can I use them as a sermon illustration? Where can I fit this into a prayer meeting? So he pulls them out and waves these iron horns about and it all looks very dramatic, but its not a carefully considered response of what God says, instead it is a premeditated bit if prefabricated nonsense. Jehoshaphat knows this and says Haven t you got a prophet of the Lord? And Ahab doesn t say What aren t these good enough for you? He doesn t say Look at these fine men, they re all speaking Lord Yahweh language, aren t they churchy enough for you? He says I know what you mean, yes I ve got one somewhere. Micaiah is sent for and the messenger advises him to play along with all this nonsense. Feel the peer pressure. You re in a meeting, you re at the pub, the conversation suddenly takes a moral turn and then someone says Hey, you re a church goer what do you think? They ve been speaking about a plot on Eastenders, or a decision about whether to let the spare office space to a meeting of Kleptomaniacs Anonymous. And everyone s looking to you. Will you tow the party line, will you fall to the peer pressure? 400 prophets all shouting Yes go to war, you ll be fine. It s not easy to be the only one. Micaiah says Yes go to war you ll be fine. Its a real shame that the bible doesn t come with italics or smileys or something because its clear that Ahab knows that Micaiah is fibbing. He can see it in the tone of his voice and the eyes raised to the ceiling. Note how Ahab s prophets are always referred to as my prophets not as Prophets of the Lord. And how Ahab complains He never says anything good about me. Its pretty clear that Ahab understands that the function and purpose of religion is to make me feel good and to encourage me to do what I want to do anyway. Ahab presses him for the truth and Micaiah delivers this killer blow: I saw all Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Let each one go home in peace. There s a real sting here, Micaiah has just said there will be no peace until you Ahab is dead. Page 2 of 4

11 He then goes into this bit about God sending a lying spirit to Ahab s prophets. You might feel a little confused about why a loving God would send a lying spirit so you ll just have to enjoy the irony of this prophet telling Ahab the plan. If you know that that s the plan then I m not sure if it counts as lying!? One of the 400 prophets - Zedekiah slaps Micaiah, and that tells us something about his character. As Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them, and now we know what kind of person this man is. Zedekiah says So I ve got a lying spirit have I? How do you know it didn t just travel from me to you! And of course that s part of the problem that this chapter raises. How do you know if God is speaking to you? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. The man slaps Micaiah, Micaiah now absolutely knows that he is in the right. The fruit has been shown. The rest of the chapter is about how things worked out for Ahab. Ahab dismisses the real prophet and yet he doesn t. He has Micaiah locked up until Ahab returns here s a tricky thing would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a false prophet? Ahab takes some of what was said to heart he disguises himself, thereby putting Jehoshaphat in very great danger thank you my friend! But God does what God does so that a loose arrow finds the chink in Ahab s armour, he is shot and killed. And as Elijah had said after Ahab had killed Naboth, dogs will lick your blood. What a great bit of bible! We learn here something of Peer Pressure. On the whole we re grown up so we don t suffer from this. Or rather we don t always notice when it happens to us. You re surrounded by 400 other spiritual religious types all shouting the name of your God and somehow you have to hold onto what you really do believe. Pray for our children, pray for yourself and your own integrity. And how are we to discern good advice is it good and godly advice? You must weigh it up these socalled prophets are pretending to be spontaneous but aren t at all. People who are more keen to be your friend than to tell you the truth, or at least to advise you how they see things. Over these last few chapters of Kings we ve seen some astonishing grace shown to Ahab: The terrible king Ben Hadad picks a fight with Ahab and God sends a prophet to show him what to do. Ahab wins, twice. But he takes the glory for himself and the prophet says You let Ben Hadad go, so its your life for his. But Ahab doesn t respond. So he sees a vineyard and in a roundabout way kills the owner of the vineyard Naboth. Elijah comes to him and says God has had it up to here with you, so you will die and all your offspring will die too. And Ahab seems to say Sorry. He puts on sackcloth and ashes. He doesn t really repent, his Sorry is very shallow. But God says well okay, let s hold back the judgement, let s see how his son turns out. And now we come to this chapter and again God sends a prophet who tells him that there s no peace in Israel until Ahab dies and Ahab misses it. He partly listens but not really and finally the judgement catches up with him. We re supposed to see in these chapters the God of enormous grace who comes to Ahab and gives him second chances upon second chances. Ahab has all these chances and utterly fails to take them. The warning is clear for us. God gives us second third fourth chances, mercy and grace and hope and light. And we say, I still have my doubts, I still have my questions and we still do nothing to properly repent, to actually come to the Lord and say I no longer want to be king of my life, I want you my God to be king over my life, forgive me, restore me, lead me. Maybe you ve not made that prayer of commitment. What will God do? He will give you another chance! He will show you more grace and mercy! But there will come a point when God says enough. Page 3 of 4

12 My advice would not be to wait for that day but to have a proper conversation with yourself about what is genuinely stopping you from handing over your life to the Living Lord and to pray a prayer of commitment. And those of you who have prayed that prayer we learn from this something about the importance of our witness. God doesn t ask us to be successful, to bring in the converts. He calls us to be faithful. I m quite keen on success but actually God isn t so fussed. Micaiah s statement would make a good prayer or creed for any of us I can only tell him what the Lord God tells me. All that God asks of us is for us to be faithful to what Jesus has done in our lives and for us to tell it like it is. There s an option here to use humour Oh yes Ahab go to war! - but the message here is to worry less about success and more about being steadfast and faithful to God. This chapter calls us to marvel at God s grace again. It calls us to watch out for peer pressure and to think through how we discern what God is saying to us through our friends and advisors. Its a call to be faithful and to speak what we do know about Jesus. And it s a call, urging us to respond with a prayer of commitment to the God who gives us second and third and fourth chances. Amen. */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/**/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ Appendix! What an appendix to a sermon! What did we do to deserve that!? to the end of the book didn t get touched on. It speaks of the end of Jehoshaphat s reign (king of Judah in the south) and of Ahab s son Ahaziah and his reign (more of that next week in 2kings1). IF I had preached I might have said something about parenting and how our kids pick up on what we do and say. Here we find that Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of his father. He did a little more good than his dad in getting rid of the male shrine prostitutes. And we read of the Ahaziah and how he walked in the ways of Ahab and Jezebel with as much evil as before. Indeed he provoked the LORD. There s a formulaic feeling to these verses, a rhythm not unlike a school end of term report where the teacher is running out of new ways to say the same things: Nice lad, could try harder. Rob Parsons in his book Getting your kids though church without them ending up hating God gives some excellent advice. One bit is to ask yourself how do you talk about the vicar, the Church service, the sermon, the worship afterwards? Before Church are you whining about how much there is to get done and how it would be more convenient not to go? Or afterwards to moan in the car about the poor choice of hymns, the interminably long talk and how you didn t understand a word the preacher said?! You have my sympathy. But alas the Children in the car hear all this and when they get to a more stubborn age you cannot be surprised if they speak out loud what you re thinking inside. Please Daddy, I don t want to go to Church? It s not easy. IF I was preaching on this bit I might also point to the succinct summary of these kings lives. 25 years of being king and just a few lines in Kings (Jehoshaphat gets 4 chapters in 2 Chronicles 17-20). But perhaps that s okay when he has peace to the North with Ahab (through a marriage treaty). And peace to the east with Edom because they re too weak to attack. And so he is able to build a fleet. A marvellous economic development. Alas it goes wrong and there s nothing here to imply that disaster being a judgement from God but it helps reinforce the (ancient) Jewish understanding that the Sea is a symbol of chaos see Genesis 1 for example and also Rev21 in heaven: no more sea. Jehoshaphat is described by Dale Ralph Davis as being pious but stupid. He clearly has a faith of his own. He applies some good policies to his own country but he marries his son to the daughter of Jezebel and that marriage will very nearly be the death of the Davidic line. We re familiar with Christians having their own faith but then you want to do something that s wrong (marry Jezebel s daughter) and you find ways to excuse it in your own mind. Folly. The book ends in a poor way, this is no way to end a book. But of course this isn t the end. Page 4 of 4

13 Discerning false prophets and more. 1 Kings 22. July 14 th Home Groups I don t know which HGs are still meeting. IF you re not meeting as a Home Group then I expect you re free to come to the Parish Prayers on Wednesday 7 th August 8pm-9pm at Basil & Pip s home (you ve got until then to work out where they live its on the roundabout. In September Mondays 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th 7.30pm finish. In St Mary s Conker Room, I m inviting all the home groups and anyone who fancies, four evenings of what makes the Church grow looking at some bits of Acts, using a booklet that Bishop Wallace has put together (very good). I hope that this will be an opportunity for us to learn off each other and learn some new things and for others to see what a home group looks like and perhaps stay on afterwards. It will also enable some people to try out other groups and join them if they like. Very likely it will result in more HGs and perhaps a greater variety of days on which they meet. I realize that some of you meet on a Wednesday or during the day or you send one half to one group and the other half to another or that you need babysitters. Sorry about that but come all the same, and skip a month of art class or what have you. Welcome: 1. What books of the bible make for a cracking read? Have you read them all, which one would the group urge you to read next? 2. What summer plans do people have? Worship: try Psalm 141 Word: 1. Read 1 Kings Shall we pray about it? How are you at making decisions first and then praying about it second? 3. Would you marry your son to Jezebel s daughter? 4. Discern: these prophets use spiritual language and Yahweh s name. How can you tell they re not the real deal? 5. What can we learn about giving advice / receiving it? 6. What is the function of religion and faith? Ahab thinks its about having nice things said about you. 7. What do you make of God sending a lying spirit? Why isn t it deceitful!? 8. How can you tell if Zedekiah or Micaiah are telling the truth? Who s got the lying spirit? 9. Would you rather die a true prophet or live with the shame of being a charlatan? 10. Where s the grace shown to Ahab in these last chapters? Works: How can we pray for each other over the Summer? Who can we think of and pray for who we could invite to come to the September meetings? */*/*/*/*/* This is a fabulous piece of bible. The detail, the tension, the irony and wit, the pomposity kings in their royal robes, a dusty threshing floor, 400 prophets dancing around trying to impress. One of the problems with a bit of bible that is this exciting is that we get so caught up in a good read that we forget to ask ourselves some basic questions about what God might be trying to teach me through this text. It s good that the bible is a good read, let s celebrate that! But let s also come back and have a think about it too. The chapter tells us of the king of the Southern kingdoms Jehoshaphat coming for a royal visit to the King of the Northern tribes Ahab who has a cunning plan. There s an old Israelite town that is in enemy hands. Ramoth Gilead is on a cross roads for Camels and Caravans and trade routes. It s a wonderful place to make lots of money as all the trade comes through. Page 1 of 4

14 Jehoshaphat is won over by the moment and says My people are as your people. And then as an afterthought he says Shall we pray about it? Shall we inquire of the Lord? Maybe we should be nice to Jehoshaphat because he does at least think about God at this point, its sad to note that its not his gut reaction, its not his starting point. Perhaps there s some money in it for him or some glory, perhaps there s a chance to start up some new policy of co-operation between these two kingdoms. He has after all recently married Ahab s daughter to his own son. Jehoshaphat has a faith what he lacks is wisdom. If I were to offer you the daughter of Jezebel as wife for your sons, I would rather hope that you would pray about that long and hard. So Jehoshaphat says have you got any prophets so that we can enquire of the Lord and Ahab says Yes, I ve got 400 all lined up and ready. 400! It s just astonishing to have this many vicars in the pay of the king. Of course they know which side their bread is buttered. Should I go to war? Well of course if that s what you want to do Yes go and the LORD will give you every success. Its utter nonsense and interestingly Jehoshaphat smells a rat. Do you have a prophet of the LORD here? You might think its an odd question seeing as these religious spiritual people are using Yahweh-language. They don t say Ashtorah says or Baal says, they say Yahweh, the LORD says Go to war. So everything is dressed up in good wholesome spiritual language. So it raises some difficult discernment questions. How can you know if someone is actually from the Lord or not? Jesus said By their fruits you shall know them. And that would be a good place to start. Let s see what fruits we find in their lives. We should smell a rat knowing that all 400 are in Ahab s pay. We should also smell a rat when Zedekiah suddenly pulls out of a bag some iron horns. This isn t spontaneous, he had these horns made ages ago and has been thinking How can I use them as a sermon illustration? Where can I fit this into a prayer meeting? So he pulls them out and waves these iron horns about and it all looks very dramatic, but its not a carefully considered response of what God says, instead it is a premeditated bit if prefabricated nonsense. Jehoshaphat knows this and says Haven t you got a prophet of the Lord? And Ahab doesn t say What aren t these good enough for you? He doesn t say Look at these fine men, they re all speaking Lord Yahweh language, aren t they churchy enough for you? He says I know what you mean, yes I ve got one somewhere. Micaiah is sent for and the messenger advises him to play along with all this nonsense. Feel the peer pressure. You re in a meeting, you re at the pub, the conversation suddenly takes a moral turn and then someone says Hey, you re a church goer what do you think? They ve been speaking about a plot on Eastenders, or a decision about whether to let the spare office space to a meeting of Kleptomaniacs Anonymous. And everyone s looking to you. Will you tow the party line, will you fall to the peer pressure? 400 prophets all shouting Yes go to war, you ll be fine. It s not easy to be the only one. Micaiah says Yes go to war you ll be fine. Its a real shame that the bible doesn t come with italics or smileys or something because its clear that Ahab knows that Micaiah is fibbing. He can see it in the tone of his voice and the eyes raised to the ceiling. Note how Ahab s prophets are always referred to as my prophets not as Prophets of the Lord. And how Ahab complains He never says anything good about me. Its pretty clear that Ahab understands that the function and purpose of religion is to make me feel good and to encourage me to do what I want to do anyway. Ahab presses him for the truth and Micaiah delivers this killer blow: I saw all Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Let each one go home in peace. There s a real sting here, Micaiah has just said there will be no peace until you Ahab is dead. Page 2 of 4