1 Kings, Chapter 22 (part 2) - God Doesn't Forget | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is part two of First Kings chapter 22. [music] Congratulations, this is the chapter that completes the entire book of First Kings. I'm Jeremy Gimpel here with my dear friend and Chavruta Ari Abramowitz. And this series, this book, all that we've done here at the Prophets of Israel Daily has been brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. And of course, I want to thank all the sponsors that have really been the wind in our sails carrying this ship all the way to the finish line. And so, part one, we watched the fall of Ahab, the king who hated the truth, who tried to outsmart the prophecy with a disguise, was struck down by just a random arrow that found the one gap in his armor. And so, now we watch the aftermath. And the book turns its gaze south to a really different kind of king. But first, the death of Ahab is finalized with a detail so precise, it's just poetic. Ahab lays in his chariot, propped up facing the enemy so his army wouldn't lose heart. The blood ran down, and when it was over, they brought the chariot back to Samaria, washed it out. In verse 38, "And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken." >> Yeah, and Jeremy, that verse, "The dogs licked up his blood according to the word of Hashem," is one of the most, I think, vivid prophetic fulfillments in in the entire book. It's one of those verses I remember from when I first read it when I was in Yeshiva in 1997. I still remember it from that. And and really to feel its full weight, you have to remember where that prophecy came from. Go back two chapters to when Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard. Naboth didn't want to sell it, which put Ahab into this sulky sort of depression, and Jezebel wasn't having any of that Israelite nonsense where kings too were held answerable to a law greater than their whims, and she had Naboth framed and murdered so Ahab could seize it. And the prophet Elijah came to Ahab and delivered God's sentence. In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood, too. And now here it is, years later. Ahab thought he'd gotten away with it. The vineyard was his, the murder was buried, life had moved on. Kings do these things, and the world forgets. But Hashem does not forget, and the word spoken over a murdered innocent came true to the letter. Down to the dogs and the blood, years after everyone else had stopped thinking about Naboth. And there's a a sobering justice in that, which I feel like I personally needed to be reminded of, because we live in a world where it is so often looks like the powerful get away with everything. Even in a democracy, you know, so often it feels like the innocent are crushed, the guilty prosper, and no one seems to pay. Ahab is the proof that the delay is not the same as an escape. Hashem's justice may operate on a different time scale than our minds may understand. It may take years, it may seem for a long time like nothing is happening, but it is exact, and it is certain. Not one drop of Naboth's innocent blood was forgotten. And Jeremy, that also cuts both ways. It's a warning to anyone who thinks that their wrongdoing has been safely buried. Like the time that my dog killed your chickens and I didn't really pay for it. And it's a deep comfort to anyone who has ever been wronged, like when you had your horse relieve itself in my backyard and you didn't seem to seem to pay the price for that either. Here at our farm, we experience the truth of this. No, really though. We we we worked all that through, I think. The point is that if you ever think you really got away with something or you were deeply wronged, then you know, even if even if you see with your eyes that that evil person that has wronged you walk free, we must remember that Hashem keeps accounts. The point is that if you ever think you really got away with it, you know, just just know that nothing is forgotten, nothing is lost before him, no act of cruelty disappears because enough time has passed, and no injustice becomes justice simply because the world has moved on. And that means that our job is to take responsibility for what we've done and to trust Hashem with with what what has been done to us. >> You know, that really is the principle of me da connect and me da. That's the exacting precision of divine justice. And the book ends with Ahab gone and the book turns south to Judea. It's like away from the wicked north to the kingdom of Yehoshafat and it's like stepping out of darkness into light. Because after chapter upon chapter of Ahab and Jezebel and the Baal, listen to how the text describes this king. Verse 43. And he walked in all the way of Asa's father. He turned not aside from it, doing what was right in the eyes of Hashem. He did what was right in the eyes of Hashem. He made peace. In verse 44, Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel, ending generations of war between these two Jewish kingdoms. >> And Jeremy, I love that the book gives us Jehoshaphat right here. Right after Ahab, because the contrast is the whole point, and it teaches us something about what faithfulness actually looks like. Notice the language. Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of Asa's father. He did not turn aside from it. His greatness is described not as some dramatic new revolution, but as continuity. He stayed on the good path that his righteous father had walked, and he didn't veer off. And that's a different type of heroism than Elijah calling down fire, but it's just as real. Cuz think about it. In a world where we just watched the kings of Israel murder their way to the throne, each one doing worse than the last, here is a king whose whole legacy is he stayed faithful. He didn't turn aside. He kept walking the white the right road. So sometimes the greatest spiritual achievement isn't a blaze of glory. It's simply not abandoning the path. It's staying steady and faithful across a lifetime. But the Tanakh is also beautifully honest about him, too, and it's important that we don't skip over it, because in the very next verse it says, "But the high places were not removed. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places." Jehoshaphat was genuinely righteous, and there was still this one thing that he didn't fully clean up. And I find that is just so real, and it's also so encouraging, because the Tanakh refuses to give us cardboard heroes. Even a good, faithful king had an unfinished corner, something left undone. And the lesson for us is twofold. First, that Hashem credits and honors real faithfulness even when it isn't perfect. I mean, the proof is right here. Jehoshaphat is remembered as one of the good kings despite the high places. And second, that even the best of us always has a high place that we haven't fully torn down. Some area still left for us to grow. Faithfulness isn't perfection. It's staying on the road and never stopping the work of clearing what's left. >> Yeah, I really think that's a beautiful reading, Ari. And you know, that the chapter gives us one more window into Jehoshaphat. It's a moment of I I it's seemingly failure and I guess humility because Jehoshaphat in his prosperity built a great fleet of ships to sail to Ophir for gold. But verse 48, the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. They never sailed. The grand venture failed. And then Ahaziah, Ahab's son, offered to send his own sailors to join Jehoshaphat. This partnership with the wicked house of the north. But this time Jehoshaphat refused. And then the book makes its final turn. Verses 51 and 52, Jehoshaphat sleeps with his fathers and is buried in the city of David. And his son Jehoram reigns in his place. And up in the north, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, becomes becomes king over Israel. And he reigned. And of course, he did evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of his father and his mother and in the way of Jeroboam who caused Israel to sin. >> And Jeremy, that is really it's it's it's striking and it's a it's a sobering note to end the entire book on because after everything we've just witnessed, the book of Kings, the first book of Kings, closes with a son of Ahab climbing onto the throne and walking right back into his parents' sins. Think about what this boy, Ahaziah, saw with his own eyes. He watched his father Ahab defy God and die from a random arrow, his blood licked by dogs exactly as the prophet foretold. He grew up in the shadow of Mount Carmel where fire fell from heaven and proved to the whole nation that the Lord is God, that Hashem is God, Hashem Elohim. He had every possible warning. And what does he do the moment he takes power? He does evil. Just like his father, just like his mother, just like Jeroboam ben Nebat. He learned nothing. And that is one of the most haunting truths about the human heart and a fitting note for the book to to leave us on. Right? Because we might think that if we just saw enough, a clear enough miracle, a clear enough judgment, we would surely change. But the first book of Kings shows us again and again that seeing is not the same as changing. Ahab saw Carmel and stayed wicked. Ahaziah saw his own father's prophesied death and repeated his sins anyways. The heart that refuses to turn will explain away even fire falling from the heavens. And the challenge the book leaves ringing in our ears is this: Don't be someone who witnesses the truth and walks away unchanged. Let what you see actually transform you. >> You know, and I think that that's really the right way to end the book of First Kings. And well, what a journey it's been. I mean, you think about the arc of this whole book, it opens at the very summit of Israel's glory, an old King David handing over the throne to Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. He builds the holy temple in Jerusalem. It draws fame from around the world. The Queen of Sheba from the ends of the earth, they come to hear the wisdom of the king. Israel is united, at peace, every man under his vine and under his fig tree. That was the beginning. And then you look at where the book ends. It's like the kingdom is torn in two, the north spiraling through coup after coup into Baal worship, and the son of Ahab climbing to the throne to repeat every sin his parents committed. And the book of First Kings is, in one sense, it's like the story of this magnificent house of a united Israel slowly cracking. And how people given everything can generation by generation drift away from the God who gave it. And you know, that's not the note that we want to leave on because woven through all of this is another story, the one that it never breaks. Through every wicked king, Hashem kept sending his prophets. Through the darkness of Ahab, he raised up Elijah the prophet and called down the fire. Through the treachery of the north, the house of David endured in the south. And exactly as he had promised, and in the middle of all the failure stands Jehoshaphat, the faithful people who simply refused to turn aside from the good path. The kings failed, the kingdom fractured, but the world Hashem never failed, not once. And every prophecy in the book came true, and that is the real message of First Kings. And it speaks to us really in two directions, first in our own lives. Hashem's justice is clear, it's certain, and his word is something we can rely on. What we bury doesn't stay buried, but what he promises does never just fall to the ground. And the quiet heroes of this book, they're not the ones with the crowns. They're the ones that are like Obadiah. They're like the King Jehoshaphat that just kept on walking the right way and didn't turn aside. That steady, unglamorous faithfulness, that's what Hashem truly treasures. Faith practiced with loyalty and trust. And for Israel today, the book of First Kings is the story of a people who forgot who they were. And it's a warning that we carry until this very day because we know where that road leads. But it's also a story of Hashem who never forgets Israel. He kept his covenant with the house of David through every up and every down, and he's still keeping it in our own generation back on these very hills. And the kingdom in this book is fractured, but the promise underneath it, the eternal throne of David and the redemption that it points to, is still standing. It's still moving toward its fulfillment, and we're all still moving toward the ultimate final redemption. And so, may we be the Jehoshaphats of our generation who never turn aside from the road home. Hazak u'matz, my friends, and with that we complete the entire book of First Kings. Hazak, hazak, v'nithazek. Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened. And before we go, I just want to thank all of our sponsors that have really been the engine that has been pushing this project forward, and I want to thank everyone at Land of Israel Network that just tirelessly, they just continuously, every day were putting out another chapter. It's not easy for Ari, it's not easy for me, it's not easy for everyone at the Land of Israel Network, but we see what an impact it's happening, and so I want to give recognition where recognition is due, and that is to the entire team at [music] the Land of Israel Network. And of course, thank you for joining us on the journey, and we're going to take a short break for Sukkot, and we will [music] start up again after the holidays, and then we can't wait to go into 2 Kings together. So we'll see you then.