Sermon Tone Analysis

Context

This book of 2 Kings is originally part of the Book of Kings.

Meaning 1st and 2nd Kings was formally one book.

The book of 1st and 2nd Kings is really an account of the Kings of Israel and in a real sense Judah.

the beginning of the Book of Kings starts with King Solomon and then immediately begin to chronicle the divided Kingdoms.

Meaning the Kingdoms of Israel and of Judah.

There were 10 tribes that made up ISRAEL.

They were named Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun—all sons or grandsons of Jacob.

Judah consisted of Judah and Benjamin.

Judah, by and large were the people who did right, for the most part and Israel were the problem children.

Pretty much, the moment Solomon died, the children of Israel started to worship other gods and Judah remained true in their worship.

Chapter 13 chronicles some of the problems we find with the Kingdom of Israel.

Verse 1 records:

2 Chr 13

This is background information for our text, but I do want you to take note of how the measure the reign of the Israeli King.

He is measured against the King of Judah.

Just take note of this.

In verse 10 this will mean something to us.

Now right away there is a problem.

The King, did what was evil and followed the sins of Jerobaom.

The issue here is that he worshiped other Gods.

Jeroboam, in order to prevent the people of Isreal from going back to Jerusalem and worshipping the true God, erect to Golden Calves.

according the scriptures in , he reasoned that if the people were to go to the house of David and worship God, they would kill him.

He said to the people, Jerusalem is too far.

So we will worship these two gods.

The same gods we brought up out of Egypt.

He even had the nerve to set on in Bethel and the other in Dan.

Bethel means the House of the Mighty God.

Imagine, just to convince people, he is making Israel Great again, he convinces the people to not worship the truth, and the people of Israel did it.

They did again under the reign of Jehoahaz.

So the leader, by stressing the is no collusion between him and Jerobaom, caused Israel to sin.

So God was angry and he gave them over to rival Kings.

Meaning, they in bondage because they worshiped false gods and angered the true and living God.

What does it feel like to be in captivity because of Bad Leaders?

Let’s unpack that for a minute.

You are a slave to another nation, not because they were better then you, but because you worshiped the wrong gods.

You are strong enough to fight for you freedom but your freedom is not an issue of strength but of judgement.

You are controlled by another group of people that don’t look like you.

Don’t like you, actually they hate you.

They erect laws to hinder you.

Last week, it was in the news that Jehoahaz in the white house sent out a decree that he plans to make a law that would encourage schools to stop considering race and end affirmative action in consideration for enrollment in universities.

So this means, you can be qualified to get into college or university, but Jehoahaz wants to follow they ways of Jeroboam and go back to them conveniently excluding anyone who looks like you in any college or university.

Could it be that our current leaders are there because we refused, as a people, to turn to God?

We have accepted the gods that have been erected for us as approved, state sponsored gods.

The god of inclusion, the god of ‘it doesn’t matter’.

How about the god of “it don’t take all that”.

We know what the true and living God demands and we engage in this putrid false worship we have in America now.

Could it be that we serve the god of ‘my vote don’t count’ and we are watching everyone worship these gods and behave as if we are helpless?

They are slaves because the refuse to worship God.

Worship, or their lack thereof, changed their citizenship.

Worship, or their lack thereof, changed their citizenship

Who do I blame when I followed my leaders in this false Worship?

Do you not realize that we are culpable for the dire situation we find ourselves in.

Racists have been emboldened by our King.

Our King recently went to Europe and made an utter fool of himself.

After that sorry display, 85% of Republicans still support him.

What do you when have no one to blame for predicament but ourselves?

2 King 13:

So the King prayed and even though he started this foolishness, God saw the suffering of the people and made a way of escape for the people.

Things changed so much they were let go from captivity and were able to return to their homes.

How amazing is our God?

Because he sees your suffering.

Your suffering is not unknown to God.

That’s worth a shout right there.

Even if I am not where I am supposed to be, God still sees my suffering.

And when he sees it, it is reason enough to free me from it.

Hang in there.

God says, I am sending someone to rescue you.

You will not have to suffer for the rest of your life.

But here is the thing:

2 Kings 13:

This is a problem we have today.

You prayed to God to get you out of the mess you were in.

He delivered you, he brought you out and when you got home, were you wanted to go, you turn your back on God again and go right back to the false gods.

We do the same thing.

Get delivered, then stop coming to church, because it does not look right going to church and drinking at the job.

Your co-religionist at the job would not approve.

Family would not approve.

Your friends you used to get high with would not approve.

Now, because of your false worship, your ability to protect yourself has been decimated!

Imagine, Israel is made up of ten tribes, and in this context that is millions of people and you have been left with an army of fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand footmen.

That’s straight up sad.

You used to run things from Egypt to Canaan, now look at you.

2 Kings 13:10

Now see how they measure the reign of the Israeli Kings.

Stability happens among the praisers!

King Joash does the same mess.

Causes Israel to sin, and they go back in captivity because Gods allows rival Kings to concur them.

Notice that in verse 12, as it was was done in verse 8, they make mention of the might of the King of Joash.

This makes it clear that Israel did not become captives because the King was a poor leader, or because he could not fight, or was a coward, or had a bad strategy or because he was unlucky.

They were slaves because they worshiped other gods.

The King dies in verse 13.

But in verse 14-19, they writer takes us back in time to consider an event the we need to consider.

The Prophet Elisha, was on his death bed.

The King Joash, obviously revered him as a great man.

This is evidence to two things, first the King came to him.

One could posit that the Prophet was sick and that is why, but it is Kings summon, they do not make house calls.

By virtue of the fact that God made him King.

Secondly, the phrase, my father, my father.

According to the scholars, Joash regarded Elisha as greater then him.