1 Kings 22:29-53

[0:00] going me to the book of 1 Kings. We'll finish up 1 Kings this evening. 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings chapter 22. We'll pick it up where we left it off and that would be verse 29.

[0:11] And we'll go to the end of the chapter which gets us to the end of the book. So we're finishing up the Old Testament book of 1 Kings this evening. Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll get right into our text with one another. God we're so thankful for this day.

[0:30] Thankful that we have the opportunity of gathering together. Thankful that we have the blessing of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ and the grand privilege of opening up the word of God. We praise you for this place, for these people. We praise you for every opportunity you give us. God we do pray for those families around us that are hurting. We pray for the Allison and Hart family. We pray for the ripple effects that it's going to have in the community. We pray God for the school systems even as they deal with that as we've already petitioned. But Lord we pray for others. There are others around us that are hurting as well. There are others that are in need. So God we ask that you continue to move. We pray that the truths which we learn from scripture this evening would find application in our life. And Lord that that application would bring you glory and honor on a daily basis. And we ask it all in Christ's name.

[1:20] Amen. Okay 1st Kings chapter 22. We'll pick it up in verse 29. But if you need the context which we we always need when we get into it. You remember that in this last chapter is pretty unique.

[1:37] And that it had been three years since the king of Israel is Ahab at this time. He's referred to over and over again this chapter is just the king of Israel, the king of Israel, the king of Israel. Only when the vision of the prophet sees the Lord speaking of Ahab do we find his name.

[1:56] But the king of Israel has had a three year peace time with Ben-Hadad, the king of the Arameans. Actually if you go all the way back because you need to have this in context to the 20th chapter.

[2:10] You'll notice that it is there. Actually it's the 20th chapter, 19th chapter. Where he had captured Ahab, he captured Ben-Hadad and had the opportunity to be used of the Lord to defeat him.

[2:25] But didn't let him go. Entered into a covenant with him. Made a covenant of peace. He was rebuked by a prophet. And then we get into Naboth's vineyard. He's rebuked again by Elijah. Then we get to this point where the king of Judah, who's Jehoshaphat, one of the good kings, has entered into a peaceful agreement with Ahab.

[2:43] And Ahab wants him to go to war with him against the Arameans to take back a piece of property of Ramoth-Galid. Which was supposed to be theirs according to that covenant.

[2:54] I know that's a lot of technicalities to give you. But Jehoshaphat said, yes, let's all go with you my people. As your people, my chariots, and your chariots, sure, we'll go to battle. And he says, but first let's inquire of the Lord.

[3:05] And then we get the false prophets. And then we get Micaiah, who comes in and delivers a true prophecy. And this true prophecy is that the Lord is using this battle to draw Ahab for a time of judgment.

[3:16] Now, that's where we left it. Ahab sent Micaiah back to prison, essentially. He said, when I return safely, let him go. So Micaiah said, if you return safely, then I have not delivered the word of the Lord.

[3:31] So we have kind of this test, not just for Ahab, but for all the people of Israel. Because if you remember, there are a multitude of people there. This prophecy was given at the gates of Samaria.

[3:42] So it was a very public prophecy. And now we have kind of this litmus test to see if the Lord is speaking to his people or not. Again, we see God's patience and his continuation of just extending mercy and opportunity for repentance.

[3:57] The northern kingdom is so far away from him that they're not walking in faithfulness at all. They're sought to replace and really completely dismiss the true worship of the Lord God.

[4:09] And they're worshiping the bell. So that's where we're at. And then we pick it up here in the 29th chapter. Our 29th verse of the chapter. So the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up against Ramoth-Galib.

[4:21] And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into the battle. But you put on your robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. Now the king of Aram had commanded the 32 captains of his chariots, saying, Do not fight with small or great, but with the king of Israel alone.

[4:38] So when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Surely this it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him. And Jehoshaphat cried out. And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.

[4:53] Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn around and take me out of the fight, for I am severely wounded.

[5:04] The battle raged that day. And the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Arameans and died at evening. And the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot.

[5:15] Then a cry passed through the army close to sunset, saying, Every man to his city and every man to his country. So the king died and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria.

[5:26] And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs lit up his blood. Now the harlots bathed themselves there according to the word of the Lord which he spoke. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the king of Israel?

[5:43] So Ahab slept with his fathers. And Ahaziah, his son, became king in his place. Now Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.

[5:56] Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king, and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shulha. He walked in all the way of Asa, his father.

[6:08] He did not turn aside from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not taken away. The people were still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.

[6:20] Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might which he showed and how he wore, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? The remnants of the Sodomites who remained in the days of his father Asa, he expelled from the land.

[6:35] Now there was no king in Edom. A deputy was king. And Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to Ophir for Go. But they did not go, for the ships were broken at Izan-Geber. Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.

[6:51] But Jehoshaphat was not willing. And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David. And Jehoram, his son, became king in his place.

[7:01] Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel and Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. And he reigned two years over Israel. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, who caused Israel to sin.

[7:19] So he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done. And that's the end of 1 Kings. Now, we have some matters of history there at the end, which find greater clarity when we read through the book of Chronicles and we see really the fullness of the story.

[7:37] So we're not going to concern ourselves so much with the historical settings of the events that are taking place with the ships that were built and things of that nature. We'll get to that later on, as the Lord God allows us to. But we have those matters which we'll address in just a moment.

[7:49] But I want you to see the rendered judgment of Ahab here. The rendered judgment of Ahab, that what God has proposed, what he has discussed, what he has prophesied through his word, and even which he kind of held back.

[8:03] He reserved that judgment. Ahab could have been judged so much sooner to this, but he wasn't. But finally, this judgment is sure, it is certain, and it is real. There is a day of accountability, and here it finally comes, and the judgment of Ahab is secured.

[8:18] And there's some things in which we can see here, some realities which we need to hold on to, which kind of show us the reality that there will be a day when man is judged for his sin. That is, that the righteous and the unrighteous alike, that God is faithful to bring all to account.

[8:33] One of the great arguments against Christianity that people like to bring up is, if there is a good and sovereign God, then why is evil allowed to continue to exist?

[8:43] Or why do bad things happen? And now we can really get into a great discussion of that, but the certainty that we find in scriptures that there will be a day of reckoning, there will be a day of judgment.

[8:54] God, in his word, does not deny the existence of evil or wrong or misdoings in any of those matters, but he always assures us that there will be a day when that is judged.

[9:05] And here for Ahab, who did more wickedly than any other king who went before him, we finally see his day of judgment coming. And we can really answer those questions in a very biblical and easy manner, but we're not going to here.

[9:17] We're just going to look at this rendered judgment of Ahab. The first thing that I want you to see is the shortcoming of self-preservation. That is, no matter how much we try, no matter how much effort we put into it, no matter how much we try to change the course of history, we often fall short.

[9:33] And we see this shortcoming here. It says, So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up against Ramath-Galib. They went in spite of the prophetic word that was offered by Micaiah, in spite of the reality that Micaiah has clearly portrayed and declared to them the fullness of the counsel of the word of God.

[9:50] That while the two of them were sitting in royal array on their thrones outside of the city gate of Samaria, Micaiah says, But I saw the Lord God sitting in his throne. I saw one greater sitting with his angels around him.

[10:03] These two had 400 false prophets prophesying, Go up, go up, go up. Micaiah said, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven around him. And it is there that I heard what would happen.

[10:14] If you remember, the prophecy that is given to the king is very clear. For I saw all of Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and each man returning to his own home. So God was very clear in saying that the war is going to end not in the death of the multitudes, but in the death of the individual.

[10:30] The prophecy was that this battle would be used to draw out Ahab so that God could bring his judgment upon him. This was a very clear prophecy. This was a very simple prophecy, and it was accurately and publicly delivered.

[10:44] Yet in spite of this, as much as Ahab wanted to cast off this prophetic word, he did not want to believe in it. Recently, I read a quote of an atheist who said, The real reason why we claim atheism is because we do not want to believe in the morality of Christianity, and we do not want to believe in the existence of a moral God, because the moment we begin to believe in that existence, we will have to change our actions.

[11:10] When the end of the matter comes, it is simply because I do not want to live with a moral standard. So we can cast these matters off. We can say we don't want these things to be in existence, and we can ignore them all we want to, but it does not diminish nor dismiss the reality.

[11:26] And we see Ahab doing that. Ahab and the king of Israel. Ahab is the king of Israel in Jehoshaphat. We can scratch our heads and wonder why Jehoshaphat went, but we also know that he had already declared to go before he heard the prophetic word.

[11:40] He had already committed to that, so being a person of his word, and maybe he's looking at it saying, Well, if Ahab, the prophecy was against him, and he's willing to go, then I'll be willing to go as well.

[11:51] We don't know. For all of the good, which he did, this is the one spot we can find on Jehoshaphat's reign. But he goes. And while he is there, it is amazing.

[12:02] This is, just to be honest, where I would have pulled out. When the king of Israel looks at you and says, Hey, I'm going to disguise myself, but you put on your royal appare, and let's go into battle. Because he heard the prophecy.

[12:12] The prophecy was for the destruction of the king. And we see Ahab with all of the self-preservation in mind. I'm not going to look like a king. I'm not going to act like a king.

[12:23] But I'm going to go to battle. I'm going to let someone else take my place. And we see here that this comes woefully short. Because the reality is, no matter how much he disguises himself, no matter how much he pretends not to be, no matter how much he tries to avoid the word of God, what God has said will come about.

[12:42] We see this reality. There is only one on the battlefield that it tells us that looks like a king, and it's Jehoshaphat. We see that the king of Aram had told them, Don't concern yourselves with the regular soldiers.

[12:55] Just go after the king. Probably because he has felt the humiliation of the lost battle. When he entered into a covenant agreement with Ahab earlier in the book, probably he wanted to be recompensed for that.

[13:09] So he said, Just go after the king. The people see Jehoshaphat. They think it's him. We don't know what his cry is. Some Bible commentators will tell you more than likely, each king had their own specific cry for their soldiers.

[13:22] And since his soldiers were there, they realized this is a different king. This isn't the king of Israel. So they turn away. But yet we see the reality here. That though Ahab disguises himself, though he tries to pretend like he's not the man, yet in the end he will die in this battle.

[13:37] Why? Because God said he would. We see the shortcoming of self-preservation. No matter how much we try to persuade ourselves, no matter how much we try to pretend like it's not going to happen, no matter how much effort man puts into the reality, there is still coming a day of judgment.

[13:54] And that day will come at the appointed time, no matter how much we try to avoid it. Man simply cannot preserve themselves. Man falls woefully short when it comes to that, because that leads us to the second thing.

[14:06] Not only is there the shortcoming of self-preservation, there is a sovereignty of God in discipline. That is, God is sovereign. And this is why man cannot preserve himself. The sovereignty of God supersedes and overrules the self-preservation of man.

[14:21] And that's a good simple way of saying that what God wills to happen is going to happen. And God had declared that he was using this battle as an instrument of judgment and discipline for Ahab and his sins.

[14:34] Now we have to say that God has been more than gracious and more than kind, because time after time and time again, Ahab has had opportunity to repent. We've counted it since he's come to the throne, over four prophetic encounters with prophets, where the word of God has been proven.

[14:49] And over four times he could have repented, each time he didn't. One time he repents slightly. He's remorseful over the consequences of his sin. This is that which concerns the vineyard of Naboth.

[15:00] He puts on sackcloth and he goes to bed in the sackcloth and he repents and God spares him for a time. But this is a short-lived repentance. This is not a repentance without regret, to use our text this morning.

[15:12] This is a repentance of the world. This is one that goes the way of the world. I'm sorry I got caught. But yet what we find is that even though God has been patient, Ahab has continued to fall away, he's continued to refuse to worship truly the Lord God.

[15:28] And yet now this day comes because it tells us, this is probably one of the clearest descriptions of the sovereignty of God that we can ever find, now a certain man drew his bow at random. Now this is an unknown individual to us.

[15:40] We don't know who he is. But rest assured that this is a certain man of God's choosing. He knows who he is. It was a certain man in particular, the one whom God had appointed at that time.

[15:53] It was a certain man who drew his bow at random, was not shooting at anyone, was not intending to do anything. The command from the king was to only concern themselves with the king of Israel.

[16:05] Now this certain man drew his bow at random. And it tells us, not only did he draw his bow at random, but it struck the king of Israel in the joint of his armor, more than likely where the breastplate and the headpiece are connected.

[16:19] One small little gap. So a certain man, drawing his bow at random, shooting it at random, going into a very exact place. See, neither disguise nor armor could protect Ahab.

[16:30] Why? Because the sovereignty of God had declared that that was his day of judgment. It doesn't matter how much we pretend like it's not going to be. It doesn't matter how much we prepare ourselves for it to be. It doesn't matter how much we try to keep ourselves from it.

[16:42] There can always be a certain man drawing his bow at random. Someone once said, you can do all you want to. But if it is that appointed day, you cannot stop the reality of what God has declared. There is coming a day, the word of God says, where we will stand before him.

[16:57] This is Ahab's day. He had sought to protect himself by disguise. He had sought to protect himself by armor. But yet there was a man who drew his bow at random and it entered into the exact place it needed to.

[17:10] So that, it tells us, that it struck him and he was severely wounded. He props himself in the chariot. He props himself in front of the battle. But it says, and at evening he died. Why?

[17:21] Because that's the day of judgment. The reality is, the sovereignty of God in discipline and judgment overrules every action of man. We cannot stop it.

[17:34] And that's why it's very becoming upon us. It tells us to prepare to meet the Lord our God. The reality is, is that we cannot stop it. Because though we may try, we may give it our best efforts. God does not.

[17:45] He is not constrained to act by normal means. God can act in any way he sees fit. And we see this reality here, Forrest clearly painted. We don't know who the man was.

[17:56] We don't know where the battle or where the arrow came from. But we knew it was a certain man who drew his bow at random and he let it go and it went into the exact place it needed to. Who guided that arrow? It was the Lord God.

[18:08] And we have to understand that and accept that fact. That this was not an accident. And the reason we know this is not an accident is because of the third thing we see. We see the shortcoming of self-preservation.

[18:19] We see the sovereignty of God and discipline and judgment. Number three, we see the satisfaction of the prophetic word. This is exactly what God said would happen. Look at what the word of God says.

[18:31] He says, Then a cry passed throughout the army, close to sunset, saying, Every man to his city and every man to his country. What was the prophetic word? I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep, which have no shepherd.

[18:42] And the Lord said, They have no master. Let them return to his house in peace. The word was that the shepherd would be struck, that the sheep would go back home safely.

[18:53] And at sunset, it tells us that the men cried out, Every man to his city and every man to his country. This is the satisfaction of the prophetic word. See, Ahab tried to stop the word of God.

[19:05] And even though Ahab tried to hide from or deny or to dismiss the word of God, the sovereignty of God overruled the actions of man. And in the sovereignty of God, we see the satisfaction of the prophetic word of God.

[19:18] That is, what God had said actually came to be. And it didn't just come to be in his manner of death. It says, So the king died and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king of Samaria.

[19:29] And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria. And the dogs licked up his blood. If you go back to the chapter, chapter 21, when Elijah meets Ahab at Naboth's vineyard, at the field there, he tells him that the dogs would lick up his blood, just like they licked up the blood of Naboth.

[19:47] Again, the prophetic word is fulfilled. It is a sign of great disgrace. It is a sign of great dishonor for the blood to be licked up by such an unclean animal as a dog.

[19:59] God has said that this same dishonor and disgrace that was shown to Naboth and his sons would also be shown to the king of Israel, who is Ahab. Here again, we find it. See, prophecy and the fulfillment of prophecy is one of the very matters that gives us certainty and security and trustworthiness of scripture.

[20:16] Over and over again, we find that what God has declared actually comes about. We can be those people who hear the cry of Micaiah who says, Listen, all you people. We see this as a testimonial evidence to the reality that what God has said is true.

[20:30] And that though man may strive, though man may struggle, they cannot stop the declaration or the declared word of God. Friend, listen to me. There are many portions of scripture which people may dismiss, they may dishonor, and they may try to forget about.

[20:44] There are many portions of scripture which men would try to cast aside. But the word of God is true, and it will be fulfilled exactly how he says it's going to be. We see this here, even to the smallest detail, that God knows exactly how it's going to happen.

[20:59] God does not declare something and it not come about exactly the way he said it would. This gives us confidence when we study scripture. This gives us confidence because we know that the word of God will eventually and finally be satisfied.

[21:11] We know that the word of God is certain and true and can be trusted. Throughout history, time and time again, people have tried to dismiss and discount scripture, saying that it is not right. Science and archaeology and any number of practices of man have done nothing but to ratify scripture rather than to dismiss scripture.

[21:28] Places in scripture and people that we thought all these people didn't exist. Scripture named them, yet man said we have no record of them in history. I used to have a book, and I can't find it anymore, called The Shovel and the Spade.

[21:40] When you dig into the ground long enough and you dig into the ground far enough, eventually you will find something that rectifies itself with scripture. People that are mentioned in scripture, the history says, oh, they're not a people.

[21:50] All of a sudden a coin will turn up and it will have those people's name on it, and we'll find out that those people had an expansive and existent civilization. The Pool of Siloam is just one great one. The Pool of Siloam was said to be non-existent, where the lame man was healed who could not get himself down into the water.

[22:05] You remember that, right? Oh, there's no record of the Pool of Siloam until the shovel was dug far enough into the ground that all of a sudden we found a Pool of Siloam buried in the ground with the same amount of porticos as the Word of God tells us.

[22:16] It's amazing what we find. Scripture is detailed down to the very minutest portion. Even if you're reading through the Book of Acts, some of you are reading through the Book of Acts right now, and it's astounding.

[22:28] You read all these things in the Book of Acts, and you don't know why you're reading it. You have Luke recording there for you the Book of Acts, the journey the ships took, and you say, why is this so important? Why do we need to know that they sailed from Miletus, and they stopped over here, and they went to this place, and they went to this place, and they went to this place?

[22:43] Why does it matter to us? You know, as we look back as historians, and we look back as scientists, people have figured out that what Luke describes for us in the Book of Acts are the very same seed trade routes that were taken through centuries and centuries.

[22:56] They were the exact stops that every ship would have taken. Friend, the Word of God is accurate down to the smallest detail. And we have this certainty that it will be satisfied.

[23:08] If every portion and part can be tested through study, then every portion and part can be trusted. There are portions that we read right now that we say, well, I don't know about that. Well, it will be satisfied one day.

[23:20] Everything will be brought about, and we see it, the satisfaction of the prophetic Word. Every prophecy concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ has been fulfilled. And I've told you this before, there are over twice as many prophecies concerning the second coming of Christ that we're still waiting for the fulfillment thereof.

[23:37] If we can trust it for the first coming, then we ought to trust it doubly for the second. It is amazing what we find in Scripture. It is the satisfaction of the prophetic Word.

[23:51] And then we close what seems to be just some minor details, but these minor details have application to us. Because we see in the closing remarks of this book and of this chapter, starting in verse 41 and going to the end, the similarities of successive rulers.

[24:06] We have the shortcoming of self-preservation, the sovereignty of God and discipline, the satisfaction of the prophetic Word, and the similarities of successive rulers. We are introduced to when Jehoshaphat came to the throne.

[24:19] We'll know more of him when we get into 2 Chronicles. That is where we really study him, right? But it says, Now Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. Okay, what does that matter?

[24:29] Well, look at what it tells us. It says that he walked, in verse 43, He walked in all the way of Asa, his father. Not only did he walk in righteousness like Asa did, but he exceeded that righteousness.

[24:40] He went a little further. He sent teachers and instructors around Judah. And they taught of the Lord God. They taught the things of the Word of God. He did a number of things that even his dad did not do.

[24:50] It says that he did these things. The one stain, as I said, is that we can find that he made peace with the king of Israel. But then when we go over, we see that Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king, in verse 51, over Israel and Samaria in the 17th year, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

[25:05] He reigned two years. That is, at least portions of two years. But look at what it says about him. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth.

[25:17] So we see here the similarities of successive rulers. Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of his father, and he did righteous. Ahaziah walked in the way of his father, and his mother, and Jeroboam, and did wickedly.

[25:29] Most assuredly, what we find in Scripture is that most often, the ones who come after the kings reign just like the king. Sure, we have some who break that mode and standard.

[25:40] We will have some not good kings in Judah. We never have one good king in Israel. But what we find is we find the grand influence of individuals upon another.

[25:51] That is, we must be careful who we allow to influence us, and we must be careful how we influence those around us. And we see this in Scripture because they are reigning like their father, are reigning like their father and mother, either doing good or doing wicked according to those who went before them.

[26:09] We must see that influence is a grand matter in Scripture. who we're allowing to influence us, and even how we are influencing those around us.

[26:21] It is probably one of the saddest realities that I see in our society today. And I don't say this to belittle anyone, and I don't say this to make light of any of these matters.

[26:33] But for a number of years, I spent a lot of time coaching, not because I necessarily love sports, but coaching because I felt a responsibility to be an influencer in my children's life and to be an influence in the lives of others.

[26:47] Thankfully, the Lord has not led me to coach anymore. I have a son who's doing that. I don't have any desire to go back to that. I still enjoy sports, and I think they have their place. But one of the saddest realities that I see is not only that we're losing our influence as a church with the generations that come after us, but the influence that's taken to place is not necessarily the best.

[27:07] And our children are still being influenced. And at times, we sit oddly by, and we allow the world to continue to influence them. And it's not me casting stones at all. But my friend, how we present ourselves and how we live among the people around us is going to be influential.

[27:26] And who we allow to live in such a manner around our kids is equally influential. And it is absolutely important. We need to pray for those who are influencers and those who are being influenced. Because the reality is, is there is a grand similarity between those that come after us.

[27:46] We should not be surprised by the things which we have seen in our world, the things which we allow to take place. We should not be surprised by the matters that take place, not only in our sporting worlds, but in our church lives and things.

[27:58] Because we have allowed those influences to continue. And by allowing them, sometimes we allow it in our passivity. By not taking action and by not being influencers of others.

[28:08] This is what scripture calls discipleship. We need these matters. And we need them in a grander way. Because one thing that tells us in the book of Kings is you really don't move far away from that which influenced you in the past.

[28:24] We see similarities of successive rulers. And it's an event that takes place in our own life. We see these matters recorded for us in 1 Kings 22 as we end this book.

[28:35] And we see the rendered judgment of Ahab. It's certain. It's sure. God knows what he's doing. If 1 Kings does anything, it tells us that God is still on his throne no matter how many people are on the throne.

[28:48] God is on his throne. He's still in control. He's never taken off guard. He's never taken by surprise. These matters have happened. The northern kingdom has went south quickly.

[28:59] The southern kingdom is still walking in righteousness. When we get to 2 Kings, we'll focus the majority of our attention upon the southern kingdom. Because the northern kingdom will quickly fall.

[29:10] It will fall to the Assyrian Empire. But God is still in control. And we see it recorded for us time and time again through the word of God. Let's pray. And then we'll be dismissed.

[29:21] We'll be through early tonight. So let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. I thank you for your faithfulness. I thank you for, Lord, your leading and your guiding of us. And I pray that you walk with each one of us in the days ahead.

[29:35] I pray as we leave here this evening, Lord, that we would be people for purpose. People used by you for your glory and honor. Lord, where we have the opportunity, let us speak and live into the lives of those around us.

[29:48] And may it be for godliness. And may it be for purpose. Lord, help us to be careful about what we allow to influence us. And Lord, help us to be certain about how we influence those around us.

[29:59] Lord, help us to walk circumspectly in the days ahead. And help us to walk with our eyes and hearts fixed on you. And may it be for your glory alone. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would use us today. You would use us in the week ahead.

[30:11] That we would be a fragrant aroma of you unto God. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, guys. Amen.

[30:59] Amen.