And please turn with me in your Bibles to the letter to the Hebrews where we will find our New Testament reading, Hebrews chapter 10. And the reading will be verses 24 to 31. Hebrews 10, 24 to 31. And let’s give careful attention to this because this is the very word of God. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And then for our Old Testament reading, let us return to the book of 1 Kings chapter 20. We’ve been several weeks in 1 Kings 20. We come to the end today. So the reading will be verses 35 through 43. 1 Kings 20. 35 through 43.
And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the Lord, strike me please. But the man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down. And as soon as he departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down. Then he found another man and said, strike me, please. And the man struck him, struck him and wounded him.
So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, your servant went out into the midst of the battle and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, guard this man. If by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life or else you shall pay a talent of silver. And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.
The king of Israel said to him, So shall your judgment be. You have decided it. Then he hurried to take away the bandage from his eyes. And the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. And he said to him, thus says the Lord, because you have let go out of your hand of the man whom I had devoted to destruction. Therefore, your life shall be for his life and your people for his people. And the king of Israel went to his house, vexed and sullen, and came to Samaria.”
Thus far, the reading of God’s word. Let’s ask him to bless it to us now. Father, again, the scriptures were written for our instruction, and we look to you for the help of your spirit that we might be instructed from your word. Bless this. this passage to us, to the instruction of our souls, to the building up of our faith. And above all, we pray that our Savior Jesus Christ would be honored and glorified. And we pray in his name. Amen.
So with this backpacking trip in the works for late July, early August, I think of One of the activities of backpacking and camping, that’s lighting a fire. And sometimes that’s not so easy, especially for someone who’s inexperienced and isn’t very good at lighting a fire. I can remember many times as a younger person, even trying to light a fire in the fireplace. And if you didn’t have the assistance of gas logs, and you’re just trying to set up the fire and then light it with a match, I can remember on many occasions, getting everything set up, the kindling and the tinder and the logs, lighting a match and putting it to the wood and start to catch a little bit. I was hopeful that it’d soon have a blazing fire and then it would just piddle out.
In a way, that’s what happened to Ahab in 1 Kings 20. There was a glimmer of hope that he might do the right thing, that he might rise to the occasion, that he might mend his ways and repent and be a good king. But then that little flicker of hope faded away, as we see in today’s text. The events that we read about, the way they’re reading, sort of abruptly introduces us to this man of the sons of the prophets and his very odd request.
But these events follow right on the heels of Israel’s second consecutive victory over Syria. The Syrians had invaded, and God enabled Israel to repel their enemies. And then the Syrians came back again the following year. And for a second time, the Lord gave his people victory, delivered them from their enemies. And just before our reading tonight began is when Ahab, the king of Israel, encountered his enemy, Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria. And instead of bringing him to justice and executing the vengeance of the Lord on Ben-Hadad, Ahab let him go.
That’s what happened immediately prior to this. And then the events that we read about just this evening have a lesson for us from the Lord. And that lesson is simply that there’s great danger in disregarding the word of God. It’s really that simple. There is great danger in disregarding the word of God.
So we’ll look at this passage in three sections under three headings. The first is we’ll see the fate of a disobedient prophet. The second is we’ll see the fate of a disobedient king. And then finally, we’ll examine Ahab’s hypocrisy and his ill temper. First of all, the fate of a disobedient prophet.
The text says there was a certain man of the sons of the prophets. And that phrase, sons of the prophets, is biblical language that probably refers to a school of the prophets. There were these collegiums, we might say. And Elijah himself headed one up, and then later on, Elisha also. So this was something like a school for prophets, sort of an association of prophets. You can almost think of it maybe as a seminary where a prophet would teach other men.
And if you glance ahead to verse 41, you see that the king of Israel recognized this man. Once he took the bandage off of his eyes, he recognized this man as one of the prophets. So the sons of the prophets were were a group of prophets in some sense.
Now, there is a rabbinic tradition that this unnamed man of the sons of the prophets in our text was Micaiah. And we’re going to see Micaiah, and he’ll be referred to by name in the next chapter. We don’t know for certain that this was Micaiah who did this sort of object lesson with being struck and wearing the bandage and calling out the king. That is apparently a rabbinic tradition. This was Micaiah. And what we’re going to see is, later on, Ahab is going to complain that Micaiah never prophesied good against him, good about him, but only evil.
And so this might be part of what he was referring to. And the text makes reference to one of the, the sons of the prophets saying something to his fellow. In other words, the word means comrade, partner. So this man was probably also a prophet. So both of these two are prophets.
And the main character in our narrative here makes a rather odd request. How long does somebody go around asking someone else to strike them? It just seems so peculiar. And the peculiarity of it sort of takes our attention, steals our attention, distracts us from a very key point.
And that is that when this man said, strike me, please, he said it at the command of the Lord. It was very peculiar. It was a very strange way for God to teach through actions and through sort of a living, acted-out parable. But it was God himself who commanded this son of the prophets to ask another son of the prophets, strike me, please. So let’s not lose sight of that. It came at the command of Yahweh. And so God himself was behind this.
And that’s why it was such a serious problem that the man’s comrade, his fellow, refused to strike him. What would you do if a fellow Christian came up to you and said, strike me, please? Could you bring yourself to do it? I don’t know if I could. And this man did not. Just out of human kindness, especially to a friend, an associate, why would I strike someone I know and care about and like? But you see the response of the prophet to the man who would not strike him. He didn’t thank him. Oh, thanks for being a nice guy and not striking me after all. No, he rebuked him.
He rebuked him for refusing to obey the word of the Lord. And he found out to his own demise that there is great danger in disregarding the word of God. Chapter, verse 36, because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down. So as judgment against his disobedience, a lion kills this prophet’s fellow.
The ESV very, correctly and carefully translates the word there, strike. It’s the same word, different forms of the same word, four times in those first two verses. Actually, if you include, yeah, in verse 37, three more times. But you see the deliberate, it’s not parallelism exactly, but it’s, there’s a correlation there, because the prophet, the man wouldn’t strike the prophet, so as consequence, the lion struck him. some you know you see the point you see how that word is used um and that too was by the command of the lord it was according to god’s word that this lion came and uh and slew the disobedient man.
He’s not the only prophet in the book of First Kings that got slain by a lion either. If you remember some time ago, we saw a prophet who disobeyed the Lord and God sent a lion against him. Thanks be to God that God doesn’t send a lion to devour us each time we disobey him. We wouldn’t have much of a risk of overpopulation if that were the way things worked.
But he does this from time to time as an example to show What a dangerous thing it is to disregard the word of God. So the prophet found another man, it says, and he makes the same request of him. And that man complied. He struck him. Hit him pretty hard, apparently, because he inflicted an injury. And there’s a worthwhile point of application I think we can make at this point.
And that is that That God is not disadvantaged by our disobedience. God wants us to obey his word, but when we don’t, it doesn’t set him back. It doesn’t disadvantage him. God is going to accomplish his will with you or without you. With me or without me. He’s displeased with our disobedience, and our disobedience is injurious to us, and it may very well be to others, but it won’t disrupt God’s plan.
So this one man would not strike the prophet. God found someone else who would. And we might ask, well, was God’s judgment against this one who didn’t strike the prophet? Was it a little severe? It was a little too much. I mean, after all, why would one man want to strike his friend? Well, there are a couple of ways to answer that. First of all, is it a light thing to disobey the word of God? When the man said, strike me, please, as ridiculous maybe as it sounds or odd.
He said it by the word of the Lord. And there’s great danger in disregarding the word of the Lord. Secondly, this man was one of the sons of the prophets as well. He knew better. He must have known that it was by the command of the Lord. And he obviously, as a son of the prophet, knew that God’s word must be obeyed, and he didn’t do it. And so let’s not be inclined to think that the punishment that he incurred was too severe. And again, it’s rare that a person is slain by a lion for disobeying God.
But when it does happen, it’s an example of what every sin deserves, isn’t it? Question number 84 of the Shorter Catechism says, every sin Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and in that which is to come. In other words, the big headliner sins, the really egregious things, but also the little things. Little. Things there are no real little sins. There are sins that are more heinous than others, but no sin is little because every single sin deserves God’s wrath and curse in this life and in the next. And the fact that in this life God doesn’t always and immediately inflict his wrath and curse is sheer mercy.
So this incident with the prophet provides a multifaceted object lesson. And with respect just to the interaction between the two men, We see, first of all, that this fellow, he wouldn’t strike the prophet, although God commanded it, and as judgment, he was stricken dead by the lion.
Again, that’s the fate of the disobedient prophet. And commenting on this, Matthew Henry said, if a good prophet were thus punished for sparing his friend and gods when God said smite, Of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy who spared his enemy and God’s enemy when God said, smite.
So you see where this is going with Ahab’s disobedience. Ahab didn’t strike down Ben-Hadad, a man who was devoted to destruction. Therefore, Ahab’s life was forfeit, which brings us to point number two, and that is the fate of a disobedient king. We saw the fate of a disobedient prophet. Now the fate of a disobedient king. This wounded prophet waits, waits along the road for Ahab to pass by.
And we’re told he disguised himself, covers his eyes with a bandage, disguising himself. And part of the reason for that is, as we discover in verse 41, Ahab knew who he was. Because when he takes off the disguise, takes off the bandage, Ahab recognized him as one of the prophets. So the disguise was partly to prevent Ahab from recognizing him right away. Because if he’d been waiting by the roadside and Ahab had come by, and it was obvious just from his initial sight of him that he was one of the prophets, it’s very likely that Ahab would not have been inclined to listen. or even give him any kind of an audience.
But secondly, the wound itself that he had suffered and then the bandage and covering up his eyes were sort of props. They were like a costume, in a sense, for this living parable that the prophet is going to enact. And he enacts it by making this fabricated story that we find in verse 39.
The king passed, and the prophet cried to the king and said, your servant went out into the midst of the battle. Remember, there had just been this mighty battle. And Israel had routed the Syrians. And he says, your servant went out into the midst of the battle. And behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, guard this man. If by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.
And he’s going to use that story to trap Ahab in his words. Very strong similarity in what he does here to what the prophet Nathan did when he confronted King David. Nathan came in, told a story about the rich man who took the only lamb of this poor man. David was incensed, and he swiftly pronounced judgment against that man. In fact, he kind of went overboard. He didn’t say, surely that man must repay tenfold, not just fivefold. No, he says, that man deserves to die for taking the poor man’s lamb.
So this prophet is approaching Ahab in much the same way, telling a story to get the king to issue a judgment that really he himself deserves. When he cried out to the king, it’s under the pretense of seeking a pardon. Yeah, he let the prisoner go. The prisoner escaped. But he’s asking Ahab for an appeal. He’s asking Ahab for clemency. But how does Ahab respond? There’s no compassion there. Just says, you’re getting what you deserve. That’s justice, my friend. And then right away the mask comes off. And the king recognizes him as a prophet.
And the prophet announces and declares that Ahab had not done God’s will. Verse 42, thus says the Lord, because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life and your people for his people. So even though it wasn’t explicitly spelled out for us previously, we see that Ahab had been marked out for destruction.
He’d been devoted for destruction. You see that idea, that concept throughout the Old Testament when something is devoted, when it’s devoted to the Lord. That sounds like an exercise of piety. But in many cases, It was an exercise of piety, but not like a gift or devotion, like a tithe or an offering, but something that is devoted to the Lord to be destroyed. And so the way that could actually more literally read is that Ben-Hadad was under the ban.
Remember when the Israelites first went in to the land and they took Jericho in their first conquest, they weren’t supposed to take any spoil from Jericho. It was all under the ban. It was all to be devoted to destruction. And Israel encouraged sin because of that man Achan, because he took a few things and nobody was supposed to take anything. They weren’t supposed to take any spoil from Jericho. God was going to allow them to take spoil later in other conquests, but not this one. Everything in Jericho was to be devoted up to destruction.
And that was what God had declared against Ben-Hadad. He was under the ban. And according to the law of God in Leviticus 27, verse 29, he said, no one devoted who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death. So you couldn’t decide, well, I’ll spare his life. I’ll just take a ransom for him. Those cities he said he’d restore to me. That’ll be sufficient. And I’ll let him go.
No, Ahab had no right to do that. Because he had disobeyed God, Ahab receives the same sentence that he pronounced upon the prophet. And in the way he responds to the declaration of the prophet, we see Ahab’s hypocrisy and his ill temper. And that’s our third point, Ahab’s hypocrisy and ill temper. Look with me again at verse 43. After the prophet makes his declaration to Ahab, it says in verse 43, the king of Israel went to his house, vexed and sullen, and came to Samaria.
Now, again, to draw a parallel between Nathan going to the king, David, how did David respond to Nathan? Nathan told his little story, which at first David thought was an actual case, but it was a parable by which Nathan was leading David to utter his own verdict, his own condemnation. And when Nathan lifted his finger and said, you are the man, how did David respond? David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. He confessed.
And that is a picture of what in second Corinthians is called godly grief. David had sorrow over his sin. He was struck. instantly and powerfully with grief over his sin. He was brought to a position of contrition of heart, hatred of his sin. And godly grief is the kind of grief that produces repentance that leads to salvation.
Now, contrast that with Ahab’s response. When the prophet declares his pronouncement, the Lord’s pronouncement against Ahab, Ahab turns away from God’s messenger, from God’s servant. And he went to his house. And he becomes the poster child for worldly grief. And worldly grief, in contrast to godly grief, produces death.
Because with Ahab, there was no sorrow over his sin. There was just sorrow over what he was suffering because of his sin. There wasn’t any grief over his iniquity. There was just grief over the fact that there was going to be a penalty. The unpleasant consequences, that’s what made him sorrowful. And then we see Ahab’s hypocrisy and his ill temper. We see his hypocrisy in the fact that The wounded man was coming to him for a plea of mercy, and he dismissed his plea, rejected it. He called for justice upon a man for careless negligence. Verse 40, your servant was busy here and there, and he was gone. He should have been paying attention. He should have been guarding. He should have been keeping him. And he lost sight of him, and the guy got away.
And Ahab is saying, your life for his, strict justice. But he resented being held accountable for his own willful disobedience, by which a man who was devoted to destruction, he actually entered into a covenant with him, made a treaty with him, and let him go. So there you see his hypocrisy. But then we also see his ill temper. There are terms here describing Ahab’s attitude and mood.
And it may stick in your mind because these terms are used more than once in scripture with reference to Ahab, the way our ESV puts it as he went to his house, vexed and sullen. That first word just means dejected, resentful, Bitter. The actual Hebrew word there is only used three times in the Old Testament, and all three times in reference to Ahab. They’re a special word just for him.
And then the second word actually relates to storms, a raging, storming kind of anger. But in the case of Ahab here, what might otherwise have been a storming rage, is suppressed by his dejectedness and his bitterness, and the fact that he had already spoken his own condemnation.
Those exact same character flaws, being sullen and vexed, are described by the same terms in the next chapter. We’ll see them, but you know the story of Naboth’s vineyard. And when poor Ahab couldn’t acquire Naboth’s vineyard, he was sullen and vexed and lay down on his bed.
This vexed and sullen king of Israel showed some promising signs at the beginning of chapter 20, just like sometimes my fires in the fireplace showed promising signs, like they might light up. Because in the first part of chapter 20, he listened to the Lord. He did what the Lord said. He even showed a measure of courage, and he went out to battle. But that was just a weak and temporary display of kingly deportment. And in the end, Ahab showed his true colors. Dale Ralph Davis, pastor and scholar and author, asserts that these final verses, the ones we’ve been looking at tonight, are really the main section of chapter 20 of 1 Kings.
They set forth the main lesson, namely, that it is not safe to ignore the word of Yahweh. God is the master teacher. And he teaches This very lesson throughout his word, he teaches it by precepts. He teaches it in Proverbs. He teaches it through prophets. And in this passage, he dramatizes it for us. It’s acted out for us first by a prophet who disobeyed and then by a king who disobeyed.
Brothers and sisters, may we daily seek to carefully and wholeheartedly live according to the word of God. because there’s great danger in disregarding the word of God. But before we close, how does this text point us to Christ? Can we find Christ in this text or can it show us Christ? I think it can. First of all, we’re reading about prophets and kings. Jesus Christ is our great prophet. He’s our great king.
So we read of a prophet who refused to obey the voice of the Lord. And we can thank and praise God that Jesus, our great prophet, always obeyed the voice of the Lord. In fact, he even spoke with the very voice of the Lord, and he never shrank back from proclaiming to us the will of God for our salvation. He was a faithful prophet. He is our faithful prophet.
Secondly, we have heard about a wicked king, a wicked king who would not strike down the enemy of God and of God’s people. But Christ, our great king, will not fail to destroy his and our enemies. That’s one of the things he does as he executes the office of king as our Redeemer. He subdues us to himself, he rules and defends us, and he destroys all of his and our enemies.
Well, finally, we saw a prophet who, in the fulfillment of his calling, was willing to be struck. How can we fail to think of Christ who was stricken, smitten, and afflicted for our sake? How can we fail to think of Christ who was wounded for our transgressions, not merely injured even, but suffered death for our sake? His life for your life. His life for my life. Ahab went home sullen and vexed.
May we go home joyful that we have such a savior. Let’s pray. Father, as the sun sets and this Lord’s Day comes to a close, thank you so much for Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest, and king. Thank you, Lord, that He underwent pains for our poor sake, that he was willing to say to you, strike me, please, that these may have life. Thank you for life in him. We give you praise. And we pray this in his name. Amen.