Micah McCormick: 2 Kings, and we'll not be focusing on one passage only in 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: We'll be doing some soundings from different parts of this book as we continue on through the 66 books of the Bible.
Micah McCormick: Last week, if you were here last week, bob did a fantastic job with 1 Kings, and in the original Hebrew collection of books, samuel and Kings were.
Micah McCormick: Samuel was one book, kings was one book.
Micah McCormick: It's got split up later on.
Micah McCormick: So this is really to think of 1 and 2 Kings as one book, one story.
Micah McCormick: We'd anticipate that what we read in hear in 2 Kings is very much in line with the theme and the progress of 1 Kings.
Micah McCormick: So, as Bob brought out last week, when we come to the reign of King David in Israel's history, when we come to the reign of Solomon, in one sense, we're coming to the zenith of Israel's history.
Micah McCormick: You've got God's people in God's place, under God's rule and blessing.
Micah McCormick: You've got them at rest in the land.
Micah McCormick: Partially, solomon, as great as he was, goes against Deuteronomy, as Bob brought out.
Micah McCormick: Multiplying horses, multiplying wives yes, there's peace, and then the sons come and there's conflict and there's bloodshed.
Micah McCormick: There's a divided kingdom of north and south.
Micah McCormick: The failures of the kings, though, and the deaths of all the kings and the imperfections of the kings remind us that there's an anticipation of a greater king to come, jesus Christ, who is the one who is God in the flesh, who's come to provide rescue.
Micah McCormick: He's come to provide true and lasting reconciliation for his people, rest for them and a future inheritance.
Micah McCormick: And so we would expect second kings to continue on that theme, and it does.
Micah McCormick: There's a lot of partial kings and failed kings in the book of second Kings.
Micah McCormick: There's a little bit of a seesaw.
Micah McCormick: Not all the kings are as bad as possible.
Micah McCormick: Bob mentioned this last week In the northern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: Pretty much all those kings are described as bad, 20 of them.
Micah McCormick: About 20 kings of the southern kingdom, that's the tribe of Judah, centered in Jerusalem, coming from David.
Micah McCormick: So even there is an interesting geography that the kings that are all bad are farther removed from David geographically, but then also in their hearts.
Micah McCormick: And yet even those southern kings, there's a lot of seesawing, and that's true of both north and south.
Micah McCormick: I'll give you a few examples.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 12, verse 2.
Micah McCormick: Joash did what was right in the Lord's sight, hooray.
Micah McCormick: Yet the high places were not taken away, boo.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 13, verse 2.
Micah McCormick: Jehoahaz did what was evil in the Lord's sight.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 14, verse 3.
Micah McCormick: Amaziah did what was evil in the Lord's sight.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 14.3,.
Micah McCormick: Amaziah did what was right in the Lord's sight, but not like his ancestor David.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 15.3,.
Micah McCormick: Azariah did what was right in the Lord's sight, yet the high places were not taken away.
Micah McCormick: You see, that seesaw back and forth effect.
Micah McCormick: So where's the real king?
Micah McCormick: Where's the eternal son of David is going to rule with perfect justice and wisdom from the river to the ends of the earth.
Micah McCormick: There has to be a greater coming king, and there is.
Micah McCormick: But what are the people supposed to do in the meantime?
Micah McCormick: Jesus comes onto the scene hundreds of years after the events of 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: So what was going to sustain the people's hope, and particularly for the faithful remnant?
Micah McCormick: I mean, it's all well and good that someone's coming eventually.
Micah McCormick: What about what's happening now?
Micah McCormick: Okay, we see this guy was kind of a failure.
Micah McCormick: This guy was mostly a failure.
Micah McCormick: This guy had some good things, like, okay, not so great, not so great, imperfect king, imperfect king, weak king, bad king, like it seems kind of this continuing pattern.
Micah McCormick: The people had their hope.
Micah McCormick: The faithful remnant and a God who speaks God's word was meant to be their sustaining hope and God's word is our sustaining hope as they were waiting for the coming Messiah.
Micah McCormick: And we see that theme of God's word as the sustaining hope through another set of characters in the book of Kings, particularly second Kings.
Micah McCormick: Those are the prophets.
Micah McCormick: First Kings begins with a bunch of Kings, it ends with Kings and there's some Kings in the middle.
Micah McCormick: Right in the middle of first and second Kings we have a lot of pages that are given over to prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha.
Micah McCormick: The prophets are the people who carry God's word.
Micah McCormick: They speak God's word and they stand as something of a counterpoint to the kings.
Micah McCormick: The earthly hope, but that's not so fulfilling.
Micah McCormick: But God's word is there all the time and God's providing his word to his people through the prophets.
Micah McCormick: So I'm going to give us some encouragement, I hope and trust tonight about how God's word is our sustaining hope through the lens of these prophets, especially in 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: First, god's word always comes to pass.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 1.
Micah McCormick: Turn there if you're not there yet.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 1.
Micah McCormick: Verse number three the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, the Tishbite, that's the prophet Elijah.
Micah McCormick: Go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them.
Micah McCormick: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Baal Zabub, the God of Ekron?
Micah McCormick: Therefore, this is what the Lord says you will not get up from your sickbed, you will certainly die.
Micah McCormick: Now look down to verse 17.
Micah McCormick: Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.
Micah McCormick: You see how God's word is so much more certain and powerful than the fluctuating kings.
Micah McCormick: The word of the Lord comes.
Micah McCormick: The prophet speaks it and it happens.
Micah McCormick: God's word always comes to pass.
Micah McCormick: We can rely on that.
Micah McCormick: Second.
Micah McCormick: God's word overturns human expectations.
Micah McCormick: I want to keep us in chapter 1 for a little bit here.
Micah McCormick: So when that message comes to Elijah in verse number 3, we read that.
Micah McCormick: Then verse number 7, the message gets delivered to the king.
Micah McCormick: And look what the king says in verse number 7, 2 Kings 1.
Micah McCormick: The king asked them what sort of man came up to meet you and spoke those words to you?
Micah McCormick: They replied a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.
Micah McCormick: That's how they describe Elijah In the Bible.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't describe people's appearance that often you notice that.
Micah McCormick: So when it does, it's like you want to think about it.
Micah McCormick: Like was this guy?
Micah McCormick: Like you know, when we hear that hairy guy, leather belt, we're thinking like that's a man's man, like he's a.
Micah McCormick: He's a Paul Bunyan.
Micah McCormick: That's not really the point here.
Micah McCormick: Remember someone else in the Bible that was described that way John the Baptist.
Micah McCormick: Coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, he wore camel's hair, I guess he didn't have the natural hair so he had to go camel and he was out in the wilderness and listen to how Jesus describes John the Baptist.
Micah McCormick: What did you go out to see?
Micah McCormick: This is Matthew 11.
Micah McCormick: What did you go?
Micah McCormick: Got to see A man dressed in soft clothes.
Micah McCormick: See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces.
Micah McCormick: What did you got to see?
Micah McCormick: A prophet?
Micah McCormick: Yes, the kings have luxurious clothes.
Micah McCormick: They have wealth, they have power.
Micah McCormick: Elijah was kind of a blue-collar nobody.
Micah McCormick: He's almost like kind of this weirdo out in the wilderness Doesn't have the king's clothing, he just has what he has.
Micah McCormick: But what he has is the word of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Even if it's sort of not the human expectation of what a great leader would do or call armies to himself, he's got the word of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Even if it's sort of not the human expectation of what a great leader would do or call armies to himself.
Micah McCormick: He's got the word of the Lord and that's what's most important.
Micah McCormick: That's so much better than human pomp.
Micah McCormick: God's word overturns human expectations.
Micah McCormick: Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.
Micah McCormick: Go to chapter two, and I'm going to speed up as we go.
Micah McCormick: I'm not going to go chapter by chapter the whole way through 2 Kings, but the way even the book starts sort of brings us into some of these themes.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 2, verse number 4.
Micah McCormick: Elijah is going to hand off the mantle of prophecy to Elisha, his successor.
Micah McCormick: Verse number four Elijah said to him Elisha, stay here.
Micah McCormick: The Lord is sending me to Jericho.
Micah McCormick: But Elisha said as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
Micah McCormick: So they went to Jericho.
Micah McCormick: What happened at Jericho?
Micah McCormick: Remember?
Micah McCormick: God's word spoke and the walls came tumbling down.
Micah McCormick: Look down to verse number six.
Micah McCormick: Elijah said to him stay here, the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.
Micah McCormick: What happened at the Jordan?
Micah McCormick: The people of Israel crossed over the Red Sea.
Micah McCormick: Look over at verse number eight.
Micah McCormick: Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which parted to the right and the left.
Micah McCormick: Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
Micah McCormick: Where's the water parting and people crossing over on dry ground.
Micah McCormick: When Israel comes out of Egypt, god's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption the king's.
Micah McCormick: It's almost like Elijah and Elisha, almost like retracing the steps of Israel.
Micah McCormick: And it's almost like Elijah and Elisha are almost like retracing the steps of Israel, like to Jericho, to the Jordan, striking the water at parts.
Micah McCormick: Those were mighty acts of God's deliverance through his word, and the kings don't get to do it.
Micah McCormick: It's the prophets that get to take those steps and remind people of God's past redemption through our record of what they did here, of God's past redemption through our record of what they did here, number 11.
Micah McCormick: As they continued walking and talking, this is Elijah and Elisha still.
Micah McCormick: That's it, number 11, verse number 11.
Micah McCormick: Sorry, chapter 2, verse number 11.
Micah McCormick: Number 11.
Micah McCormick: Now we get caught up in the like that must have been amazing to just kind of skip death and get to go on a personal escort ride to heaven.
Micah McCormick: And it is amazing you have chariots and horses when you're a king with armies.
Micah McCormick: They didn't have that, but God gave it to him.
Micah McCormick: And there's a contrast here with the first chapter.
Micah McCormick: I didn't go into the detail of the first chapter, but what's happening in the first chapter is when the message comes and this guy comes.
Micah McCormick: They said who's the hairy guy?
Micah McCormick: Elijah.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, go get some troops and bring him in, I'll talk to him.
Micah McCormick: And a captain goes out with troops and chariots and Elijah calls down fire from heaven and they all die.
Micah McCormick: And the second comes out.
Micah McCormick: He calls down the fire from heaven and they die again.
Micah McCormick: And finally the guy's pleading for his life and God says all right, go with him back.
Micah McCormick: So there's already a contrast of the king and his power and this weirdo out in the wilderness just has the word of God and he's just ripping through these soldiers.
Micah McCormick: Now it's the army of the Lord coming to bring Elijah up to his reward.
Micah McCormick: He's, in a sense, not himself somehow this great person, but he's got God's word and he's got the acts of redemption of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: God's word is personal, it's number four.
Micah McCormick: If you happen to be taking notes, god's word is personal, it's number four.
Micah McCormick: For if you happen to be taking notes, god's word is personal.
Micah McCormick: Go over to chapter four.
Micah McCormick: So so much of this book is taken up with events that relate to the whole of the nation, or the northern kingdom, of the southern kingdom, and yet there are these episodes within the book, these stories.
Micah McCormick: They're individualized and they don't seem to have any obvious referent to the progress or success or not of the nation as a whole.
Micah McCormick: And there's a widow in chapter 4.
Micah McCormick: And look what happens here as we just I'll look at verse 14 of chapter 4.
Micah McCormick: I'll look at verse 14 of chapter 4.
Micah McCormick: So he asked her what should be done for her.
Micah McCormick: Gehazi, this woman has helped out.
Micah McCormick: Elisha Gehazi answered well, she has no son and her husband is old.
Micah McCormick: Call her.
Micah McCormick: Elisha said Sounds a little bit like Abraham and Sarah when the word of the lord came, call her.
Micah McCormick: So gehazi called her and she stood in the doorway.
Micah McCormick: Elisha said at this time next year you will have a son in your arms.
Micah McCormick: Then she said no, my lord, man of god, do not lie to your servant.
Micah McCormick: This son doesn't grow up to become the king of the southern kingdom or northern kingdom.
Micah McCormick: It's just a sign, just a boy, just a story.
Micah McCormick: But God's word is personal.
Micah McCormick: God doesn't just care for the group he reaches into this widow, just care for the group he reaches into this widow's life through the prophet.
Micah McCormick: Even though God's word is personal, it's also universal.
Micah McCormick: Go over to chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: And just look at if you've got a Bible that has maybe a heading over chapter 5, you'll see something about Naaman.
Micah McCormick: You might remember that story.
Micah McCormick: But notice how chapter 5 begins Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, this is not one of David's right-hand men and yet God's word comes to this outsider and he experiences cleansing.
Micah McCormick: Bob brought out last week how the kings are built off of this promise in 2 Samuel 7 that God's going to bring a descendant of David to rule and reign from his throne.
Micah McCormick: And God says it's instruction for mankind.
Micah McCormick: It's not only for Israel, it's going to eventually be for all kinds of people.
Micah McCormick: And we see hints of that here, where God's word comes not just to those that are right, near and dear to David, but those that are even outside.
Micah McCormick: Someone like Naaman to David, but those that are even outside.
Micah McCormick: Someone like Naaman.
Micah McCormick: Interestingly, naaman's servant inherits his leprosy because he's greedy for silver and gold, which is the problem of a lot of the kings.
Micah McCormick: They're greedy for money and prestige and fame.
Micah McCormick: They're not willing to accept simply God's word and his blessing.
Micah McCormick: Number six God's word brings judgment to mockers.
Micah McCormick: Let's go back to chapter two, verse 23.
Micah McCormick: From there elisha went up to bethel.
Micah McCormick: As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting go up baldy, go up baldy.
Micah McCormick: He turned around, looked at them and cursed them in the name of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the children.
Micah McCormick: From there, elisha went to Carmel and then Mount Carmel.
Micah McCormick: Then he returned to Samaria.
Micah McCormick: Now I hesitated to give this story.
Micah McCormick: I don't want to be distracting.
Micah McCormick: I knew we would have like tons of visitors here.
Micah McCormick: They would have been like taken aback by that.
Micah McCormick: But I don't think we have tons and tons of visitors here tonight and it's not a personal thing, so don't think I'm going at it from that angle.
Micah McCormick: But don't lose the fact.
Micah McCormick: The prophet is the man of God.
Micah McCormick: He's the one that has the word of God.
Micah McCormick: It's not about being nice to people or not.
Micah McCormick: Fundamentally, it's about when you disregard the word of the Lord embodied in this prophet.
Micah McCormick: Judgment's coming.
Micah McCormick: That's what happened scoffers.
Micah McCormick: In Noah's day, peter talks about scoffers who will come again.
Micah McCormick: It's part of that pattern of God judging people who simply don't have respect for his word.
Micah McCormick: Go over to chapter 9, 2 Kings, chapter 9.
Micah McCormick: And while you're turning there.
Micah McCormick: So the prophets are not just counterbalances to the kings in some kind of American political sense, like well, there's the president, he's in charge, but you got to have the Congress to kind of keep checks and balances on them.
Micah McCormick: You got like the kings, ahaziah and them, but the prophets kind of keep a check on them.
Micah McCormick: It's not really.
Micah McCormick: They're not meant to balance each other out.
Micah McCormick: There's both prophetic elements in both offices, but the prophets are a confrontational rebuke in many ways to the king and they're the ones that actually bear the word of God.
Micah McCormick: That's going to push things through.
Micah McCormick: So in 2 Kings 9, we see the death of Jezebel.
Micah McCormick: She doesn't even get a proper burial, even being a queen, and yet what happens is it fulfills God's word.
Micah McCormick: So if you just turn over to chapter 10, look at verse number 10.
Micah McCormick: Know then, that not a word the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab will fail, for the Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.
Micah McCormick: So Elijah had prophesied about this in the past.
Micah McCormick: Given God's word, now it's coming to pass.
Micah McCormick: Verse 17 of chapter 10.
Micah McCormick: When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained from the house of Ahab in Samaria until he had annihilated his house.
Micah McCormick: According to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah, verse number 19,.
Micah McCormick: Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, all his high priests.
Micah McCormick: None must be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal.
Micah McCormick: Whoever is missing will not live.
Micah McCormick: However, jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal, because that's what God had said would happen.
Micah McCormick: Over to chapter 19.
Micah McCormick: Go to chapter 19.
Micah McCormick: So we're going back and forth just a little bit Chapter 19, and we're actually introduced to Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: So Elisha and Elijah are the two main prophet pillars in the kings.
Micah McCormick: But Isaiah comes out 19, verse number 20.
Micah McCormick: Then Isaiah, son of Amaz, sent a message to Hezekiah.
Micah McCormick: The Lord, the God of Israel, says I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib.
Micah McCormick: This is the word the Lord has spoken against him.
Micah McCormick: So who's going to prevail, isaiah or Hezekiah?
Micah McCormick: Prophet or king Got to be the prophet, because the prophet actually has the word of God.
Micah McCormick: One of the best kings that's described in this book of 2 Kings is Josiah, your namesake, and he gets a lot of good mentions in this book.
Micah McCormick: He's one of the best perhaps even the best, depending on how you read it after Solomon.
Micah McCormick: But he gets hold of the word of God and he has it read.
Micah McCormick: He consults the prophetic word.
Micah McCormick: That's what makes him such a great king.
Micah McCormick: And when you get to the end of the book of second kings, there's exile and judgment.
Micah McCormick: Go ahead and turn over to chapter 25.
Micah McCormick: It's the punishment is delayed in one sense through Hezekiah's prayers, but eventually God allows the kingdom of Babylon to come in and destroy Jerusalem, to destroy the temple, to take people captive Chapter 25, verse 21,.
Micah McCormick: The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.
Micah McCormick: So Judah went into exile from its land.
Micah McCormick: Why does god's word of, why does god's judgment come on the people?
Micah McCormick: It wasn't because babylon's military was greater than israel's military, wasn't because their kings were greater than israel's kings.
Micah McCormick: It's because they didn't grab hold of the word of god.
Micah McCormick: They, by their actions, by their idolatry, including the kings, by their dismissal of the word of god, they, by their actions, by their idolatry, including the kings, by their dismissal of the word of God, they were in one sense like those young people, foolishly mocking the prophet, foolishly mocking the word of God.
Micah McCormick: He said no, think about it later.
Micah McCormick: And judgment came.
Micah McCormick: And judgment rightly came for God's, zealous for his own name and his own character.
Micah McCormick: Now you might be saying, well, wait a minute.
Micah McCormick: Here you said God's word is our sustaining hope.
Micah McCormick: At the beginning I mean there was some hope in there, but I'm hearing a lot of heavy things about God's word.
Micah McCormick: If there's hope, where does hope come in?
Micah McCormick: And there is hope in 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: Despite the canopy of imperfect kings, despite the people and the kings not always really grabbing hold of the prophets and the word of God like they should, there is still some hope here.
Micah McCormick: So if you look at the way this book ends verse 27 of 2 Kings 25.
Micah McCormick: On the 27th day of the 12th month of the 37th year of the exile of Judah's King Jehoiakim in the year of Evel-meradach, in the year he became king of Babylon, he pardoned King Jehoiakim of Judah and released him from prison.
Micah McCormick: Why?
Micah McCormick: Just because there's hope even amidst exile, there's mercy even amidst exile and there's really hope sprinkled throughout the book.
Micah McCormick: And this is last point for tonight.
Micah McCormick: So if you're kind of tracking along so far, god's word always comes to pass.
Micah McCormick: Number two God's word overturns human expectations.
Micah McCormick: Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.
Micah McCormick: Number four God's word overturns human expectations.
Micah McCormick: Number three God's word brings us to God's great acts of redemption.
Micah McCormick: Number four God's word is personal.
Micah McCormick: Number five God's word is universal.
Micah McCormick: Number six God's word brings judgment to mockers.
Micah McCormick: And number seven God's word brings resurrection life.
Micah McCormick: And if you've got, if you're holding on to that, that'll sustain you, go back to chapter 4.
Micah McCormick: We'll just trace this theme as we start drawing towards a close for tonight.
Micah McCormick: 2 Kings 4.
Micah McCormick: That child that the widow had, he dies.
Micah McCormick: Verse 32 of chapter 4,.
Micah McCormick: When Elisha got to the house he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed.
Micah McCormick: The king didn't, really isn't, going to be able to do much about that.
Micah McCormick: So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Then he went up and lay on the boy.
Micah McCormick: He put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.
Micah McCormick: While he bent down over him, the boy's flesh became warm.
Micah McCormick: Elisha got up, went into the house and paced back and forth.
Micah McCormick: Then he went up and bent down over him again.
Micah McCormick: Then the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
Micah McCormick: Resurrection life.
Micah McCormick: Verse 40, same chapter.
Micah McCormick: They served some for the men to eat to pot a stew.
Micah McCormick: But when they ate the stew.
Micah McCormick: They cried out there's death in the pot, man of God.
Micah McCormick: I don't know how they knew.
Micah McCormick: Somehow they knew what it was.
Micah McCormick: They ate was poisonous and they were unable to eat it.
Micah McCormick: Then Elisha said get some flour.
Micah McCormick: He threw it into the pot and said serve for the people to eat.
Micah McCormick: And there was nothing bad in the pot.
Micah McCormick: Here's a newsflash.
Micah McCormick: The prophets don't go to culinary school.
Micah McCormick: All right, he wasn't somehow able to concoct.
Micah McCormick: He's the man of God.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, there's death in the pot for you, but God's word is life, it's not death.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 13 of 2 Kings.
Micah McCormick: Flip over there.
Micah McCormick: Strange little story in the middle of second Kings, second Kings 13, verse 20,.
Micah McCormick: Elisha died and was buried.
Micah McCormick: Now, moabite raiders used to come into the land in the spring of the year.
Micah McCormick: Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party, so they threw the man into Elisha's tomb.
Micah McCormick: When he touched Elisha's bones, the man revived and stood up.
Micah McCormick: The word of God brings resurrection, hope, just like Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, where what causes the bones to come together and have sinos and bands?
Micah McCormick: It's when God says preach over the bones, prophesy over the bones, speak, prophet of God, and there's resurrection, life.
Micah McCormick: And then last story this is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, actually 2 Kings 6.
Micah McCormick: Not as well known, but I really enjoy it.
Micah McCormick: I'm just going to try to summarize it.
Micah McCormick: It extends from 2 Kings 6, 24, down into chapter 7.
Micah McCormick: This is Northern Kingdom.
Micah McCormick: There's a terrible famine and it's so bad that they're selling donkey's heads and dove's dung, trying to just survive off of it.
Micah McCormick: And it's going for a high rate.
Micah McCormick: And the prophet comes and says you know, tomorrow barley and wheat is going to be cheap.
Micah McCormick: And the king per the kings in this book, king's kind of like.
Micah McCormick: Well, I'll believe it when I see it.
Micah McCormick: I don't know about that.
Micah McCormick: King's attendant, his representative, does that.
Micah McCormick: And then the story shifts to these lepers that are at the gate of Samaria, and they're very logical lepers.
Micah McCormick: They say everyone's starving, we're starving, we're going to die.
Micah McCormick: There's an army there that's sieging in the city.
Micah McCormick: Let's go out and throw ourselves at the mercy of the army.
Micah McCormick: They might kill us.
Micah McCormick: What difference is that going to make?
Micah McCormick: We're going to die anyway.
Micah McCormick: So they wander out and they find tents that are abandoned, supplies and food, and God had miraculously caused this sound like many chariots and armies.
Micah McCormick: And the troops thought oh no, they've hired the Egyptians to come help them.
Micah McCormick: We're in trouble, we got to get out of here.
Micah McCormick: And they just leave all their supplies and their food and everything.
Micah McCormick: So you've got these lepers who are as good as dead.
Micah McCormick: Well, they're starving, but they're also lepers, so they're outside of God's covenant people.
Micah McCormick: They're insufficient of themselves.
Micah McCormick: They're like stumbled on buried treasure.
Micah McCormick: They're just having a ball out there.
Micah McCormick: And then they say you know what?
Micah McCormick: This is a day of good news.
Micah McCormick: We've got to go back and tell everybody else.
Micah McCormick: And they do.
Micah McCormick: And just like the word of God said, barley and grain flowed freely, but out of the city that's bound for starvation and death, out of lepers that are having their own skin eaten away, all of a sudden God's word comes and there's hope, there's life, and so that's happening.
Micah McCormick: All throughout this letter, as we think about our own lives, we can look back at Jesus's first coming, just like the faithful remnant could look ahead to Jesus's coming.
Micah McCormick: But he's not present.
Micah McCormick: He's not visibly present with us.
Micah McCormick: We're still, as we heard this morning, we're still awaiting his second coming.
Micah McCormick: But God's word is our sustaining hope.
Micah McCormick: We don't just wait kind of apathetically.
Micah McCormick: We grab hold of God's word, and we know that you know what the kings of this world.
Micah McCormick: That's not, ultimately, where our hope is.
Micah McCormick: Our hope is in resurrection.
Micah McCormick: Our hope is that God can do things amazing in our midst.
Micah McCormick: He can bring dead sinners to life, and he can do amazing things among us, and then what's to come is eternal life and glory.
Micah McCormick: So be encouraged.
Micah McCormick: Tonight.
Micah McCormick: God's word is our sustaining hope.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray Lord.
Micah McCormick: So much is in scripture, so much is valuable and profitable for us and we're so thankful for it.
Micah McCormick: Oh Lord, give us a hunger to know and see all the stories of your word and how they bring us to Christ, who is indeed the living word from heaven, who is the very prophet of God, who has spoken to us in the grandest and greatest sense.
Micah McCormick: Lord, don't let our hearts be so easily disturbed or troubled by death and, in a sense, exile around us, but we know that, having the Word of God, we have the seed of the gospel that springs up and gives fruit and life and mighty trees.
Micah McCormick: Lord, give us this resurrection, hope through your Word.
Micah McCormick: Thank you that our Christ reigns and rules as all the things that we so desperately need.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name, amen.