Episode 40: Hebrews and 2 Kings

This week on North Bible Recap, Pastor Rodney and Pastor Christian unpack Hebrews 1–5, 2 Kings 1–11, and Proverbs 13, exploring how Jesus is greater than the angels, Moses, the priesthood, and every part of the old covenant. They also discuss the dangers of drifting from God, the power of spiritual perseverance, Elisha’s ministry and the widow’s oil, the rise and fall of Israel’s kings, and the timeless wisdom found in Proverbs, reminding us that God’s best is found through faith, obedience, and daily surrender. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Good day, everybody. Bible recap. And it's good to be with my friend Christian Velez.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Excited to be here talking about one of my favorite books of the Bible. Every pastor says that every book that they are in in that moment is the is the favorite. Do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_01 0:29

No, I kind of that's one of the questions my son has gathered and asked about what's your favorite story in the Bible or passage or verses or you know, he'll ask kind of that in a lot of people. Yeah. And he'll even ask, but for me, it's always like kind of what I'm reading, preaching, going through right now. What I'm studying right now. Um, but but hey, Hebrews is amazing. Yep. It's an amazing book.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yep. We're gonna be talking about Hebrews, uh, Second Kings, and Proverbs chapter 13. So it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a great podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So obviously, when we go into which we're going into the book of uh Hebrews and the book of 2nd Kings, uh, we lay a little bit of a foundation. That's the main purpose. Um, and then yeah, it's gonna be great. And then actually, I'll do something we we haven't done yet in Proverbs chapter 13. We're gonna read that whole chapter together. I want to read it slowly and go through it. Obviously, you can feel free to you know interrupt. Um, but I hope that as we read through it, man, you're just thinking, I just want God's word. I want us to hear God's word and go through that. Uh, also just want to encourage people, whatever platform that you are using to list this, uh, listen to this or watch this, because we got a variety of them. Uh, just check in, let us know. Um, subscribe if it's on YouTube or what is your preferred preferred method of consuming content?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

You listen, audio, video.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

No, I I more audio. I like to listen to audio. Uh, there's sometimes I want to see the person that maybe I don't know them very well, or I want to just see them and see kind of how they actually, you know, interact, if it's in a podcast setting like this, or if they're preaching or whatever. But more times than not, uh, when I'm listening to things, it's when I'm working out or when I'm driving.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

And obviously, driving is not good to look at video, yeah. But then when I'm working out, I just like to have it in my head and I will work out or a long walk sometimes. I love to pray and walk, and then I'll listen to something that's uh and so for me, uh, I would say probably 90% of the time, uh at least 80% of the time, is just listening versus watching. How about you?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

I like watching. Okay, it's my preferred, but I listen to a lot because I run. And when I have a two, three hour run, I'm listening to books, podcasts, but I'd rather watch. I really enjoy that watching the content like that. So if you're one of those that like to watch, we're so glad that you're here uh with us. Um, also, we encourage you to this podcast goes alongside our scripture reading plan. Uh, we want you to read the Bible, we want to help you understand the Bible. This is a supplement to what you are reading. So don't make this the main thing. We want you to read the word of God uh uh daily. So we're gonna be talking about Hebrews. Let's go. Let's let's dive into Hebrews 1, chapter 1 through chapter 5. Yeah, so one thing that is just right off the bat that is very different uh in Hebrews that than any other book of the Bible, especially in the New Testament, is like we don't know who wrote it. And as you read uh the letters of Paul, you're gonna see I, Paul, a servant of Christ, I Paul, a slave of Christ. You're gonna read things like that in Hebrews, you don't have that. Hebrews uh reads very differently. So I think that trying to understand who is writing this letter, it's important, but we should never spend all of our focus trying to identify who this person is. Now we have some um suggestions that scholars believe who wrote it, and I'm gonna mention some of those. But bottom line is no one knows. I cannot tell you here, say Paul wrote it, and I've hear people they take those strong stands. If it was Paul, uh, we don't know because he didn't write it. Now, um, I don't believe he was, even though I'm telling you that don't it's like I don't believe it was because it just the the writing is very different. Paul was never afraid to talk to to address uh people, he was never afraid to sign off uh the I Paul, a servant of Christ, or I Paul writing with my own hand, or I Paul uh saying these words. Um, you don't have that in the book of Hebrews. So um there is no greeting. So Paul always greets the churches that he is uh ministering to, writing those letters to. Uh, there's no greeting in this in this particular letter. Um, and now Paul never wrote anything anonymously. Did I say that right? Anonymously. Yeah, great. So I always say this like Paul was beat his entire, I would say, ministry Christian ministry career. He would never, I would say that he probably wouldn't never not write his name because he was afraid of more persecution, because that man was persecuted his entire uh life. Now, another uh person that most people believe that could have been the writer of uh Hebrews is Apollos. We meet Apollos in Acts chapter 18. Um, if you have the notes in there, would you read Acts chapter 18, verse 24 on?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures, which, wow, that's pretty awesome to say about somebody. Yeah, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Acheah, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

So we have Apollos, and according to Acts chapter 18, we know that he was a Jew that was a native of Alexandria. Now, a couple of things that are important here. Again, we don't know if it was Paul who wrote it, but there is a strong argument that was probably Apollos. Why? In Corinthians, we know that Paul is writing to the church because there are some people in the church that are saying, We like Apollos because he is Polish, he knows his stuff, he's a well communicator. Uh so in the description of uh Acts, we see that the Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria. Now, Alexandria, it's important because Alexandria, this is in Egypt, was founded by Alexander the Great. In that, in that time of history, anyone that conquered, uh, especially from the Greek world, will conquer a city, will name the city after himself, but in a female uh way. So that's why we have Alexandria. So now, here in Alexandria, it's where most people believe that the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew to the Greek. Now, Alexander the Great was obsessed with the Greek language, so Apollos will most likely was born in Alexandria, was raised as a Jew, and probably with some of the best Greek because of where Alexandria was. So this is important just because the Greek, uh, when people say, Well, Paul wrote it, uh, the Greek of Paul in the letters, it's not that it's terrible, but it's not as good and polished as Hebrew. So Hebrews, it's it's is it's known as the best Greek in the Bible. Luke and and Acts is also very, very good Greek because Luke was a Greek who was a doctor, so he was well educated. So this is some of the things that we know about Apollos, and he could possibly be the writer of this uh letter. Uh, other people throughout history that have been um said that could have been is Barnabas. Barnabas and Paul had many missionary trips. Uh, another one is Luke because of the good Greek, it's similar to the uh Greek in um Luke and Acts. Uh, if you don't know this, the Old Testament was written in in Hebrew and some parts in Aramaic, and the entire New Testament is Greek. Now, one thing that most scholars believe it wasn't Paul because of this one thing is that when the author of Hebrews is quoting the Old Testament, it's quoting the Greek version of the Old Testament, not the Hebrew, like Paul always did. So that was something as I was studying. I didn't know that. I didn't know that Paul always quoted the Old Testament scripture in the Hebrew language. So, um, and one more person that uh some people have made, uh, some scholars have made cases that could have would have been Priscilla. Uh, and often we don't know this, but often they say that the reason why it was anonymous was because she was a female right into a church and they she didn't want the church not to hear because she was a female. Those are theories we don't know if that's true or not. Uh, but from what we know, a lot of people believe that it was Apollos more than Paul, but no one knows. And at the end of the day, what matters is the context of it, uh, which is why we're gonna be spending most of our time today. So, audience is very important every time that we're starting a new book. Uh, and and Pastor, you as a as you have preached everywhere, right? You have preached, I mean, how long you've been preaching? I know longer than I've been alive. Uh I'm not calling him old.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Thanks for reminding me of that. You've been preaching the gospel longer than I've been on this planet, which is true. I've been preaching the gospel now for um nearly 40 years.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Well, well, and I'm sure that when you're preaching, you have to understand the audience that you're speaking. Same message, but you have to adjust according to the audience. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, and that happens even to us preaching on a Sunday morning, to our students, to our children. Very different because the audience is different. It's important to understand the audience of each of the books of the Bible. The audience for the for the for this book of Hebrews, this letter, it's a Jewish Christian audience. So they are Christians and they are Jews, and they have experienced a lot of persecution, and we know that because of the things that the author is dealing with in the letter. Uh uh, most people believe that is the the Jewish Christians in Rome. Um and um the the main issue is that they are wanting to go back to Jewid Judism, Judaism, Judaism, Judism.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Um, they that that's one of the the things that we need to understand about this audience because according to the audience, you will speak in specific ways. Like, for example, if I am speaking to my Latino community, I'm going to speak with authority as a Latino man. Um this person who is writing is a Jewish Christian because you can see how he is communicating specifically about the sacrificial system. So it's someone that knows and understands that world because he is calling, he or she who wrote this, it's calling out um the Jewish Christians because the Jews are wanting to go back, wanting to go back to the sacrificial system. Why? Because there is so much persecution, and often when we are persecuted, what do we want to do? We want to do what we know that is more most comfortable. We want to know, we want to go back to the things that we that that we know that we are okay with. And this author is saying there is no point on going back to uh being Jew and sacrifice. So, date most scholars believe that it was between 60 AD to 70 AD. This is because of their the author is writing about going back into the sacrificial systems, and we know that after 70 AD the temple was destroyed, so it should have been before. Some other scholars believe that if it was after, it was even uh a stronger point where the author is saying, Why would you go back to a sacrificial system that we don't even have a temple anymore? So that's kind of like the date uh on that. There are four major arguments. Um, that the the author is arguing um that the Christianity is better than Judaism. Judism, am I saying it right? Judism. Um, so now one thing that why most people believe that it was probably a Apollos, the writer of this letter, is because it reads like a sermon. When Paul's letters really read like a letter, they will have it, they will have a uh kind of like a welcoming, it will have a different type of closing. This one, even the intro and the outro of the letter reads like a sermon. Uh, so there are four arguments. Um, and you can find these um the these arguments in chapter. Uh I'll break them in a second. So the author um again has strong uh arguments about being a Jew. Um he's saying, if you turn back to Judaism, you're turning away from God. Strong language. Um, and this is a major issue, issue throughout the whole letter. And the major theme of this book is don't go back, don't go back. Um, which is what we need to do as Christians often. Uh, the Lord has delivered us from sin, from relationships, from from things. And what do we tend to do? We and we tend to drift back, which is that's in chapter two, something that the author talks about. So uh the four arguments you can find the first one, chapter one and chapter two. Uh, and and the argument here is that the new covenant, so Jesus is better than the old covenant, and he uses angels. Um, and we're we're gonna talk about those in a in a minute. Chapter three to chapter four, Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus provides a better promised land than the one that Moses was supposed to take the Israelites, that Joshua took them because that promised land was taken away from them. But this new Moses, this this Jesus is better than Moses because his promised land is forever. Um, and that the also had to do with he was the giver of the law. Jesus gives a new law and one that is actually attainable because of his sacrifice. Chapter 5 to chapter 7, Jesus is better than the Levitical priesthood. Um, chapter 8 through 10, Jesus is better than uh the tabernacle, and this is why his point is that Jesus' sacrifice is better than the sacrifices of the tabernacle, because sacrifices in the tabernacle, you have to go day after day and offer more sacrifices, and he is portraying Jesus that his sacrifice was done once for all. That's the power of God. Any thoughts before I keep going? Tori, I talked quite a bit. No, I'm enjoying this.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I'm I'm enjoying Hebrews, it's so good, and of course, the term that you'll be using a little bit later too is greater than, he's better than, he's greater than. Yep, uh, he's more superior, yeah, uh, than any of this other stuff. Yep, yep. That that oftentimes that we get wrapped up in, we get wrapped up into all the uh things um that really is not significant when everything is said and done. And he's calling back to what's the main thing, and that is Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yep, yep. Purpose of Hebrews, the author is writing to show that Jesus is superior to everything in the old covenant. So here he's coming hard, strong towards his people, the Jews. It's saying Jesus is better than the prophets, better than the angels, and greater, better, greater depends on what scripture, the what translation it would be either better, greater, or superior. Um, Moses, uh, Moses was probably the biggest Hebrew character. Absolutely, and now you have someone telling me, Wait, hold on. This Jesus is better than Moses, the one that delivered us from the land of Egypt, that we crossed the Red Sea, that we were in the desert and into the promised land. Jesus is better than that guy. He's making the case, yes, he is better. Uh, Joshua talks about Aaron, the Levitical priesthood, even the temple sacrifices. Um, another purpose is to encourage perseverance. Uh, so he says often to hold fast, to remain faithful, to endure suffering, um, and to keep your eyes on Jesus. And then the uh the other purpose is to explain the new uh covenant and how Jesus is the fulfillment. So uh going into a little bit of uh each of the chapters, uh, chapter one and two again, uh, he's talking about how Jesus is better than the angels. Why is this important? Angels were a way how God communicated with his people. We have angels that appeared to Abraham, they appeared to Moses. Uh, the law was given by God in Mount Sinai, but it was actually uh the the angels pretty much gave it to him. It wasn't like God's hand into Moses, talks about how the angels were the mediator. That's the word, and this is the word that he uses in here. Uh, so angels were a key, important figure. An angel is who appears to Mary, who appears to the to the to the shepherds. So an angel was like a representation of God, and now some of these Jews believe in in Jesus, and and and and he's making they're making the argument. Let's go back to being a Jew, and he's saying, No, Jesus is better than the angels. No, Jesus is better uh than uh Moses, and in chapter two, verse uh one, I'm gonna read this and and we can talk about this as therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it, for since the message declared by angels provided to the uh reliable in every every transgression or disobedient receive a just uh retribution. So, author is saying that we need to pay attention not to drift away. How would you explain drifting away, Pastor Rodney? And just not necessarily spiritually, but like in in life.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Oh, yeah, just um I can expect this from firsthand experience. When I was a kid, one of the things that I had a habit of doing, my mom would go to the mall, and I had a way of losing track of my mom. My mom would be looking at stuff, and I just wandered off. I would be distracted by something, and I would start walking over. I can't tell you how many times that somebody had to take me and they would announce over the intercom system uh Janice Fouts, Janice Founts. If you you have a son, uh at you know, it's come to aisle number two, because I would drift away.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

So when we're we drift away when we don't have an anchor. So, like, you know, in a in a my my dad, when I go to Puerto Rico to visit him, he has a jet ski that we go to the beach and we and he is make sure that when you get back, because you know, I don't I don't do that all the time. So I get there in the jet ski at the beach and I just hop out. But if I if it's not anchored in the anchor of the jet ski, it will drift away. I will have to go chase it down the water. This things can happen spiritually as well. I'm sure you have seen that many times, even sometimes in our own personal life. Like, I don't know how I got here. Yeah, it's it wasn't a one decision or one time, it was something over time. How can we spiritually can make sure that we don't drift away from the things of God?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

I think what you just said there is very important to understand. I can't tell you how many times that I have personally realized, oh no, I gotta get back and anchor myself into what's important. But I've seen that with people like they'll come to me, like my marriage, and that's they're ready for divorce, and like they'll say, I don't know what happened. They didn't get there overnight. It wasn't like that they were had this wonderful love relationship, passionate for each other, and then wake up the next morning, like, oh, I don't want to be with you. No, it happened over time. It was the little things, and then how do we stay grounded? Again, going back to the framework of our faith that we talk about as a church, those are the things. It's the word of God in it for ourselves, not just listen to it when we show up for church. Not just listen to this podcast, but again, but you emphasize the beginning read God's word for yourself and let this be extra, you know, support and all that stuff, and then engage in it with other people and then the spirit of God, hearing the spirit, learning to listen for ourselves, learning to obey the spirit and the people God. We need community and then living that life of surrender every day. And we we never get to a point. It's like you can ride the jet ski all you want. Every single time, though, you've got to anchor it. Yep. Yep. If you don't, it's going to drift off. Yep. It's not like, oh, I've ridden it so many times, now it's going to it knows to stay there. No, our flesh does not know to stay there.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

I often hear people, you know, I've read the Bible three times in my lifetime, or like I used to read that, you know, like it when I hear is like that sense of like, I'm good, I already did that. Like what determines if you're a good or bad Christian is not if you read the Bible or not, really, is what your faith in Jesus, but thinking that I did it, and you think that I'm gonna be anchored forever, that is not true.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

No, this book is alive. Our lives are in constant flux of wanting to go back to its old ways. It's kind of like what you talked about here. The he's telling the um Jews that you're tempted to go back. And there's our flesh in us. We've got to acknowledge that. My flesh has always wanted to go back to the world, it always wants to fulfill its desires. Yep. Through whatever thing that I'm my vice, whatever thing I want, it always wants to go back there. But I've got to continually go back and be grounded, anchored in the things of God.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Be intentional about that. Like that you you talked about, you know, word of God, people of God, spirit of God, and surrender to God. And we have to seek ways to do this uh daily. So um then it goes on in chapter three. Again, Jesus is greater than Moses. As I said earlier, Moses was one of the greatest, if not the most important character in the Hebrew uh faith. Um, and so here kind of what I have right. So, why go back if Jesus is greater than the greatest figure in history, like in their history? Uh, so why go back to the sacrificial system? Jesus is better than all of these things, and and yes, I I I do agree, like the this Jews were facing extreme persecution in Rome. And I don't know what that's like because I'm grateful that I live. I always say this don't matter what we think of the state of our nation, we live in the best country in the planet. We have freedom of religion, we can practice our faith and not be not like the people are not gonna make fun of you, but not I'm not gonna be persecuted because of my faith, especially where we are here in Oklahoma, that most everyone is a Christian. That is not what's the rest of the world. So I uh it's just a big blessing that we have, and but I don't know what it's like to have this type of persecution. But one thing you have talked about this before, that where there is persecution, the kingdom of God actually spreads quicker.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Absolutely. No, that that is 100% the case. Um, do I want persecution? No, I do not want persecution, but where the church is persecuted, it becomes the hot place, the seedbed for the gospel spreading.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

You were in Jordan, is that one of the places that you were that it was illegal and you saw great things happening in those?

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Absolutely. The church is exploding. A great example of that is is the story of uh China. Basically, you you got missionaries going from uh parts of Europe, mainly England, uh Germany, various other places back in the early late 1800s, early 1900s, and then uh the communist regime began to take over China, the clamps began to come down on Christianity. Um you got people like Kasia on staff with us, whose mom fled China as a Christian to live because people were being killed whenever she was a young uh lady. Wow, and that's her great her uh grandmother, uh great-grandmother, and she fled uh to find a place that she could live and practice her, and she found that in Indonesia. And but Kasia is Chinese descent, but has a Christian heritage. Well, think about that. And so the clamps came down on China, and at that time they there the estimates were that there was somewhere in the few thousands, like maybe uh anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 uh believers in China. Wow. This was in the early 1920s, 30s, when they had these fine these numbers that they feel like that they had. Coming out of it, you know, getting into the 1980s, a lot of the American businesses were opened up. China was opening up to do trade and um with America and other Western countries, and businessmen began to go in there, and then they would begin to find people talking about, hey, do you have a Bible? These Chinese people asking for Bibles and stuff, and they're like, What? And so word began to get out in the 1990s, it began to increase with businessmen coming in. Then you begin to have a lot of smuggled Bibles in. Things begin to then it was you know, now we have you know things like U version and stuff digital, which is much more harder to uh you know clamp down on, but um, but even still they're trying to do that. Um, they just begin to increase. Well, come to find out, going into the 2000s, um, the Chinese government began to even allow, like, okay, you know, you can have legal churches, but you gotta they begin to find out instead of having, you know, maybe they've dwindled from 100,000 down to almost nothing, that literally there's a hundred million plus. Wow. Now they say they're a hundred to two hundred million Christian. Think about that. Wow, think about the incredible growth and the explosion that has happened there in that country, and not because they've just been growing numerically with Christians moving in, it's because of evangelism, it's because they've been sharing the gospels because of during the persecution, there was a spread of the good news of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

And here we have the author of Hebrews reminding them there's no point going back at this point. If you go back, you're actually turning your back on Jesus. Then kind of what I want to end in Hebrews is that Jesus is superior uh or better or or or or greater than the priest, the high priest. Um, now the high priest was a very important uh person because the high priest was will be the was the one who offered the sacrifices. Uh, but when we look back even on the high priest throughout the history, many high priests were not holy. They did not keep God holy. We have Aaron that when he had the first opportunity, uh, the people turned on him and he gave them a golden calf. We have this uh Eli did not uh had great sons, uh, wasn't a really good father and kept that place holy. So what is happening here is that he's showing Jesus is greater than the high priest. Why? Because this human uh high priest have failed. Now we have a high priest that have not failed, will never fail either. So that is just an overview, a couple of things in the first few chapters of Hebrews.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

If you have anything else that you want to add to that, no, I do want to add one thing, and um, I told you before we started this that I may add one thing, is that one of the emphasis that you find in chapter three, specifically chapter four, is this encouragement and reminder of God's people are invited into God's rest. Okay. So what does that mean? They're invited into God's rest. Well, you go back to what Jesus talked about. He said, My yoke is easy. My burden is light. He's still saying that it's a yoke. And the yoke, it it's it what defines that is what it weights, how big it is. And so basically, what he's emphasizing here in Hebrews is that they missed out on the promised land and all that God had really intended, you know, and many of them died in the in the wilderness because they did not take the yoke of God. What was that? Obedience. It was to believe God's promises and then just to obey him. So the yoke of Jesus Christ and that rest, that spiritual rest, is not some weight on us, it's actually if we just obey him. And obedience is incredibly hard to some degree because it requires incredible sacrifice of surrender. Your will, your way, his kingdom, not my kingdom. But it's really simple. Yeah, it's really easy. And then if we just learn just to obey him, yeah, he's got anybody who has kids, you understand how that they will fight for their right. But you know, as a parent, like if you just obey me, yeah, you're gonna reap blessings, yeah, and it's gonna go well for you. And it's the same way with us in our lives, and that's what he's inviting them into this rest, this spiritual rest. Um, look, Hebrews chapter four and verse number 11. So let us do our best to enter into that rest. That rest is just understanding that God's grace and mercy is not something to be earned and strive for. It's to just enter into just by faith in God and obeying Him. Good. So good. Which is one of the great hard things, but it's also simple. Just obey.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

I was just having a conversation with uh one of our one of our former students. Uh, he's now a young man, about to get married. I'm officiating his wedding. We're talking about marriage. Um, that would we're just talking about the wedding ceremony, and we're just telling them, you know, like, you know, you're gonna hear often that marriage is hard. And marriage is hard, but it's because we make it hard, because we are difficult. But marriage is actually it's actually a blessing from God. So blessings from God, not that it requires work, but a blessing for God, it's good. But I think it's I think my marriage with my wife, what makes it difficult, it's me. And when it comes to our spiritual relationship with God, too, it's like we all often overcomplicate things. You were talking about this earlier about how sometimes we overcomplicate things, uh, we overcomplicate things because we want to be in control of them. Yeah, when I'm not in control, I just make things a lot harder than they need to be.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

So good.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Okay, we're gonna continue it next week. We're gonna uh talk about uh second kings now, and we're we're just gonna touch on a few things of 2 Kings. Uh, 2nd Kings is a continuation of 1 Kings. So in our Bibles, we have 1 Kings and 2nd Kings. Uh, it was this actually was one book, just like it was uh 1 and 2 Samuel, and also 1 and 2nd Chronicles. This this uh scrolls were actually just one long uh scroll. Uh in the book of Samuel, we have uh 1 Samuel, it was about Saul and then David coming into it, and then 2 Samuel is about David being the king. Kind of something similar happens here, but with the prophets. 1 Kings, you have Elijah, and then in 2 Kings, you do meet Elisha, but it's in 2 Kings that Elisha is actually like the prophet of Israel. So we have kind of like that that that scene again. So it's a continuation of that. Um, and now what is happening is that God promised David that the king was going to come from his lineage, and this whole book is a long line of kings that come after David. Now, the problem is that none of them live lived up to it. And as you read Kings and Chronicles, you're gonna read about some of the same things. I I remember one of the first time that I was reading uh Chronicles, I was like, wait, I feel like I just read some of this story already. It's because they are um they they are talking about some of the same things uh in there, but you will have a little bit more um things in either of the books. So uh 2 Kings, uh God has called uh his people to be faithful. Um, and this is why David is telling uh King Solomon uh to be obedient, to have integrity. This is in his deathbed, and Solomon beginning of his ministry, beginning of his kingship, he was a great king. After the the build of the temple, he just kind of went crazy, went rogue because he did what he wanted to do, and not he didn't do what was right in the eyesight uh of the Lord. Um, so 2 Kings again, we have that transition between Elisha, Elijah and Elisha, uh, chapter one and two. You're gonna see that transition in ministry. Uh Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion. Uh, and this is something I grew up listening to this sermon, to sermons on a double portion of God, a double portion of God. He also had double the trouble a lot of the times. Uh, and and and that comes with when God gives you something, there comes responsibility with it. Uh, but this prophets, their their their role was uh to prophesy and speak on behalf of God. So prophecy is not like like sorcery or anything like that. A prophecy is actually I hear from God and I and they were the spokesperson uh for God. Now they were prophesying to the kings, bad kings, most of the times there were a few of them that were good, but they were the people who were speaking to Israel, to the kings, to the people. So the job of a prophet, I remember as a kid, I used to see we'll have prophets so and so will come into our into our into our church. We'll get excited because we're gonna hear from God. The reality is we hear from God every time that we read his word. Uh, but the the the purpose of of of of this prophets, they were not popular. Like I remember I wanted to be like one of those prophets because I feel like they were the ones that had the key to talk uh from God, which I was young and immature, and I didn't understand that. But being a prophet was not a job that people wanted to sign up for. We have Jonah in the old testament, there was a prophet, and every time that he had when he received the message, he went the opposite direction. This was not popular, this was not fun because often you will be hated by your own people. Uh, so we have that chapter one, chapter two is the transition, chapter four. Can I want to focus in this uh this particular story? And this is the when Elisha uh in the widow's oil. Uh, Pastor Rodney, what can you kind of like give us a quick summary of what's happening in this story and the importance of that story?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Well, put me on the spot and just reminding the audience that we're not rehearsing this thing. So no, it's it's one of the great stories. Matter of fact, uh each one of these chapters have some incredible stories. The chapter one is the the story of um uh you know the king sending a group of 50 men to get, and he's like, and he says, If I'm a prophet, may firefall from heaven, die. And he sends the second group of 50, and he says the same thing. Well, if I'm a prophet, let firefall, you know, and he they die. The third guy comes and he's like, Please don't kill me. And and Elijah goes with him. In chapter two, the you know, the mantle being passed and the chariot of fire coming, and just great stories. Chapter number four is one of my all-time favorites. And I think I know what you're talking about, but it's where basically a lady who feared God, her husband had died, and he feared God. And you know, stuff happens in life. We don't know why, we don't have all the answers, but obviously a man who feared God dies and leaves a widow with the responsibility of her two sons, and apparently they owed money, yeah, and they owed you know their creditors, and um she did not have the net of social security or the structures of affluence and prosperity that we have today. And and literally, when somebody owed somebody something, they would come get their children and they would go pay off their debt. Um, and which some of you may be thinking, can somebody go pay off my discover card debt? And you may be like, Hey, I'll send my kids. But that's what would happen back then. Yep, they would go and then they would become slaves to those individuals to work what in their field, their business, whatever it is, until that debt was paid back. And so here's this woman, lost her husband, about to lose her two kids. She calls out to the man of God for help. And the man of God just says to her, says, What is it that you have in your house? And her first response is what a lot of us respond with, is I have nothing. That was her first response. And then she kind of downplayed what she did have when she acknowledges, she said, I do have a little bit of oil, but basically what she's saying is, What is that? What is a little bit of oil to the real issues that I have here? And then what did the prophet do? He said, You got enough there. And he says, Go and borrow vessels from all of your neighbors. Get as much as you can. And she goes and she begins to gather vessels from everywhere, vessels like it'd be pots, pans, cups, jars, whatever it is that she could find. She brings in her house after borrowing it from them. And then he says, Now take that oil and begin to pour it. And the oil never did run out. Matter of fact, she kept pouring until every container, every vessel was filled. And then it says the oil stopped. And then the prophet says to her, Now take that because you can that's a product to sell. And so go sell that product, pay off your debts, and then live off of the rest. Isn't that awesome? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tommy Barnett used to preach, and I don't know if you know Tommy Barnett, he's one of the great uh preachers of the faith for the last few years, and he's up into his 80s now, 90, we're close to 90. And um, he used to preach a message that I remember as a kid hearing, and I got the book. You need to read this book. Yeah, no, it's it's terrific. It's just you got to go back and read some of these old guys. I mean, they they have some good stuff. And it it was the miracle is in the house, and that was about this story. She did not realize that the miracle is right there. And I'm telling you, every single person listen to me, the miracle is in your house. What is it you're facing right now? The miracle is in the house. God has given you what you need. Believe, have faith, and then offer it to God and the miracles on the way.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

God multiplies what we already possess. What a great story! What a great, great, great story. So I'm gonna run through a little bit of the the so from chapter one through chapter 11, they are things eight. Let me count that one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight kings. Uh, and these kings were not good kings. Some of them reign for two years, others reign for 12, 25. Some of them overlap. Now remember that the kingdom is split. We have the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, southern kingdom being Judah. Uh, and there are some kings who have some good, um, but some of them did not work faithful to the Lord in all things. Some of them will uh turn down some of the idols, some of them didn't take them down. Uh, and you see that a lot in Kings and also in Chronicles. Um, this books, like first second kings, first second chronicles. I just want to encourage you, don't just skip them. You know, at minimum, listen to them, play them on the on the on on the on your app. But these stories are so important because you're gonna read that they did what it was right on their own eyes. And every time I read that, especially when you're reading Chronicles and Kings, I'm like, Lord, please don't ever let me do what I think that it's right in my own eyes. You know, my favorite uh scripture, I have many, but the one that I always go back to is Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 through 7. Uh, that is lean not in your own understanding. You know, I don't want to do what is right in my eyes, but I want to do what is right in the will of God. And with that, we're gonna read Proverbs chapter 13.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Let's do it, let's let's go there. Um man, what what great, great stuff. The Bible is wonderful, it is not boring. We are boring. Yes. Uh so let's look at Proverbs chapter number 13, just pulling it up here in the scripture right now, and let's kind of just start at the top and let's kind of read through this. And feel free to interrupt me anytime you want. And if you want to just make a comment on something or let's discuss so verse one A wise child accepts a parent's discipline, a mocker refuses to listen to correction. Wise words will win you a good meal, but treasured people have an appetite for violence. Those who control their tongue will have a long life. Opening your mouth can run everything. Lazy people want much but get little. But those who work hard will prosper. The godly hate lies, but the wicked cause shame and disgrace. Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin. Some who are poor pretend to be rich, and others who are rich pretend to be poor. The rich can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won't even get threatened. The life of the godly is full of light and joy, but the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. Pride leads to conflict those who take advice are wise. Wealth from get rich schemes quickly disappears. Wealth from hard work grows over time. Hope deferred makes a heart sick. But a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. People who despise Us are asking for trouble. Those who respect a command will succeed. The instruction of the wise is like a life-giving fountain. Those who accept it avoid the snares of death. A person with good sense is respected. A treacherous person is headed for destruction. Wise people think before they act, but fools don't. And even brag about their foolishness. A reliable messenger stumbles into trouble. But a reliable messenger brings healing. Excuse me, an unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing. If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace. If you accept correction, you will be honored. It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them. Walk with the wise and become wise. Associate with fools and get in trouble. Trouble chases sinners, while blessings reward the righteous. Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren. But the sinner's wealth passes to the godly. A poor person's farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it all away. Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them. The godly eat to their heart's content, but the belly of the wicked goes hungry.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

By the way, what a great voice you have to read this. Um there's not much explanation needed in when you read Proverbs. Yeah. It's like there's so much wisdom, it's as simple as uh uh as you can get it, you know. I just love here verse 18. I'm reading from the ESV. It says, poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction. So it's very, very, very, very um uh simple language. You want to be wise, you gotta listen to people. You have to um you have to put in practices, you know. You probably have said this. I used to tell students, hey, a prover read a proverb of a day. That's why the Lord give us 31 proverbs for you to read one every single day. But if we commit to read the word of God daily, we're gonna gain so much knowledge and so much wisdom. Uh, and it's things like this that remind me, like this proverb like, I I need I need other people around me. This is why the word of God is so important.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

So absolutely, absolutely. Christian, thank you very much for today. What an incredible time. Any any words for the audience?

SPEAKER_00 47:08

Help us by sharing this, liking it, leaving us a review if you're on Spotify, if you're on Apple, if you're on YouTube, make sure you like, subscribe, comment, Facebook. Make sure you're sharing this with someone else. Let us know if this was helpful uh to you. So grateful for you, for you guys to tuning in every single week and for your time, Pastor, to do this.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Great. Five star reviews, okay? All right. Hey, thank you very much. We'll look forward to seeing you next time on North Babel Weekend.