Who you gonna call? 1 Kings 1:51 - 2 Kings 1:18

Some time back the movie “Ghostbusters” got onto the big screen.  The song for the movie became an instant hit and today, 23 years later you can still hear it being played on the radios – “If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!”  Another phrase in the song was, “I’m not afraid of no ghost.” I’m thinking – “you haven’t met the Holy Ghost.”

That question of who you gonna call is one that we have to answer time and time again.  When you’re doing life as a Christian, this is not a strange question – you get to ask God for directions – A LOT!

A few years ago we were driving back from Swaziland, and in the middle of nowhere, our car broke down. It was 31 December and one of the first questions that we had to answer was, “Who are we gonna call?” It’s a long way from anywhere. It was a difficult question to answer some times because of distances and people’s willingness to serve.

This is a very good question for us to ask. That question goes, not just to major inconveniences in our lives, but to every aspect of our lives, even the areas that beyond the physical. It’s a question that we need to think about because it reveals to us more than we realise about the allegiances and priorities in our lives.  

To call, is to respond to offer from someone to become actively involved with us in our lives – to intervene and even rescue.  That’s what God has offered!

Jeremiah 33:3 CSB

3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

As I look at a story like the one that is in front of us today, we see that Ahab is dead and his son, Ahaziah, has become king. I am struck by the wrong calls that he made, and the wrong influences that helped him make those wrong calls and I am challenged by a number of things.

1 Kings 22:51–52 CSB

51 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, and he reigned over Israel two years. 52 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He walked in the ways of his father, in the ways of his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin.

1. Teach the next generation to call

This is the first thing we see as we look at this story.  Ahaziah is new to the scene – been around just 2 years. We are told something terrible and that was that he walked in the way of his father and mother and the generations of kings before him. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He provoked the Lord to anger – just as his father and mother had done.

It’s saying something about his parents! Ahazaiah never had a very good example to follow.

Here is some of the tragedy in this story.  As heir to the throne he had never learnt what it meant to lead in righteousness. He never had an example in his life on how to live or lead in righteousness. He was never taught to call on the Lord. This is one of those stories - like Father Like Son! He did what he was taught to do.

What are your concerns for the next generation:

Education

Safety and security

Comfort and a good start in life

Marriage of the right person

What about their spiritual walk? Seldom - their spiritual condition. Will they serve the Lord?  Will the reject Him? That is a godly parents concern because that is God’s concern. That’s God’s will in marriage!

Malachi 2:15 CSB

15 Didn’t God make them one and give them a portion of spirit? What is the one seeking? Godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, so that no one acts treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Bruce Wilkinson’s Illustrated a challenge for us with 3 chairs – a pattern observed repeatedly:

Joshua/David - Commitment

The elders that outlived Joshua/Solomon – compromise – caring about our own generation

The generation that did not know/Rehoboam and Jeroboam - confusion

So the question is, “how can we avoid the pitfalls of Ahab and share God’s concern for godly offspring.” How can we teach our children to call on the name of the Lord?

The challenge for us:

1.1. Do it intentionally

It’s primarily the parents duty – not just the church’s

Look for ways to pass on a godly heritage - This was ingrained in the law. The Jews were to teach their children about God, when they rose and sat down. When they walked along the road. Life was to be full of object lessons. Have you asked yourself how you can influence your children and pass on to then a godly heritage.

1.2. Shape discipleship Biblically

The Bible does speak about parenting and discipleship

What does God say about the goal of parenting.

God the Father models good Fathering

1.3. Maintain authenticity

Modelling an authentic life worthy of passing on – this isn’t about raising Pharisees. Paul pointed Timothy back to his mother and grandmother

2 Timothy 1:5 CSB

I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and now, I am convinced, is in you also.

1.3.1. Starts with our relationship to God.  You can’t pass on what you don’t have

1.3.2. It challenges our Character.  We need to humbly be at the place where we acknowledge our dependence upon God at all times.  They need the example of godly character. 

1.3.3. It asks searching questions. Is your life the right example for the next generation? We are not just moral influences but concerned about the heart. Do I need to break responses or habits learnt from my parents? It might be in reply to their legalism or licentiousness. Sometimes we need to break the patterns that we have learnt from our past so that we can lead future generations with faithfulness.

Our kids learn from us and our responses and we need to be aware of that. Get priorities in place. Is God first?  Is he really first? Can they see that?

2. Be clear on who you are gonna call

2 Kings 1:1–4 CSB

1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 Ahaziah had fallen through the latticed window of his upstairs room in Samaria and was injured. So he sent messengers, instructing them, “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.” 3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? 4 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.’ ” Then Elijah left.

He is king of Israel. Israel is the people of God, to whom God gave His law, whom God had led from Egypt and given them a land that was their own.

Now, they had rejected God and followed their own way.

But a crisis happens and decisions need to be made. In many ways, in trouble times, our true allegiance is shown.

Beware of forbidden territory for future reality!

He was going where he wasn’t allowed because he wanted to know something that he didn’t need to know. He got his answer! 

God had made it clear that His people were not to worship other gods, they were not to be enquiring of other gods not mediums (Deut 12:29-31).

Yet that is what he does.  He bypasses YHWH and sends servants to consult Baal-zebub – the god of Ekron (Philistine territory - his enemies) – that was the Lord of the flies. This derogative term later became a name for Satan, the prince of demons .

The question is, “can we be guilty of this?” Then answer the question, “Who do you call first?”

Relection on the prophetic - spiritualised fortune telling.

I have heard Christians speaking of their star signs.  Some read them.

People who only affirm us - Sometimes we are okay with worldly things and seeking answers from wrong sources to their questions. 

Our competence - srelial on self. Questions like, “What should I do” are often answered by what will benefit me in the standards that I am looking for.

How often is God as our first point of reference?

This was evidence that Ahaziah had rejected the Lord because to inquire about the future from another “god” was to deny any faith in the one true God. Because of this, God has a word for Ahaziah. He rebukes him for rejecting the God of Israel, and then proceeds to inform him that he will never leave his bed, but that he will die.

Ahaziah’s first response was not to repent, but to question his messengers so he might discern the identity of the bearer of these bad tidings. He asked his servants to describe the man who had spoken these words. Their description of this hairy man with a leather belt around his waist left no doubt in Ahaziah’s mind as to the identity of this prophet—it was Elijah for certain. He seems to have already guessed as much from the message itself.

3. Our egos expose our need to call

God says, “Call to me…”, and still Ahaziah goes somewhere else. It is almost as if he deifies his own history and logic.

At this point he should have been recognising that God was saying something to Him. But instead, he sends a squadron of 50 men to Elijah.  I think His motives and intentions are clear. He sends 50 men because he wants to get rid of this man who has troubled his family for so long.  Fire comes down and consumes them. He sends anotrher 50 and it happens aggain. He sends a third and God speaks to Elijah. Elijah can’t be bought!

The Bible constantly calls us to be aware of the pitfalls of arrogance and pride – egotistical Christianity – the kind that says, “I okay by myself!”

Isaiah 66:2 CSB

2 My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word.

But Elijah is concerned with self-preservation, but with the glory of the God that Israel had rejected.

He recognises the unbelief in what these men have been saying as well as God’s hatred for this rebellion and says, “If I am a man of God let fire come down.”  And it does.

Ahaziah sends another 50 who demand that he come quickly but meet the same end. Finally one comes with a fear of God and God responds by allowing Elijah to go.  It doesn’t change Ahaziah’s fate though.

Let’s lern to call on the God of grace who is ready to show mercy.

3.1. To call requires faith. 

You have got to start with this, believing that God exists and rewards those who earnestly seek Him. It’s not a challenge of religious experience, but an expression of Biblical life.

3.2. To call is to access the privilege of sonship

3.3. To call requires humility

It is a humbling thing to admit that we need help.  We need to learn to check our ego’s in at the door.

3.4. To call requires obedience

Are there aspects in your life where you have needed to call on the Lord but chose alternatives?

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

Jeremiah 33:3 CSB

3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

Until we meet next time, remember...The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not, the darkness will not, the darkness cannot overcome it.