Transcript
A reading will begin at verse 25 of First Kings 15. But before beginning the reading, there are two verses I want to read from chapter 14. So if you’ll flip back to chapter 14, these words come from the message of Ahijah the Shilonite which he gave to Jeroboam’s wife when she went to see him, and which she was to report back, and no doubt did, to Jeroboam.
In chapter 14 the two verses we want to read are verses 10 and 11:
Therefore behold, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free. I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field, for the Lord has spoken it.
Now chapter 15. And beginning to read at verse 25:
Now Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.
Then Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon. Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.
And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he made Israel sin.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, ‘Inasmuch as I have lifted you up from the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, surely I will take away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.’
Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. Then Elah his son reigned in his place.
Also the word of the Lord came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and against his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed them.
In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Tirzah. Now his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.
Then it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he was seated on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha. He did not leave him one male, neither of his kinsmen nor of his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all the sins of Baasha, the sins of Elah his son, by which they had sinned and by which they had made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their idols.
Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Someone has said that those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat it. Someone else has said the only lesson that history has taught us is that man has not yet learned anything from history. And there is a remarkable truth to that. And certainly it is often exhibited in the affairs of nations.
At the beginning of this century Great Britain was one of the most powerful nations on the face of the earth. And one of Britain’s poets said this. He said, “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” Well that proved almost prophetic for Great Britain. Her wealth had accumulated, but her nation was decaying spiritually and morally. And now as we close the twentieth century Great Britain is a second-class power in the world whose main claim to fame is her alliance with the United States.
We might ask the question, will the United States learn anything from this? As we enter the twenty-first century we are a rich and powerful nation, the richest on the face of the world. And yet we recognize that within our society and culture there is spiritual corruption and spiritual and moral decay. Will we learn anything from this? Well the chances are good we won’t. And it may well be that by the time the twenty-first century is over, if the Lord tarries, then America too will be a weakened second-rate national power.
Men have a tendency not to learn the lessons of history. And that is not only true of nations. It is true of individuals. It is certainly and tragically true that we as individuals have passed through experiences that are devastating too, that are tragic, that are troubling, that are deeply disturbing. And yet having passed through them we can so conduct ourselves that those experiences are repeated again in our lives and in our homes.
And therefore the question that I would like to address to you this afternoon is this. What have you learned from your personal history? May I repeat that? What have you learned from your personal history?
I’m going to begin with a puzzle based on the passage of Scripture that we have read. I want all of you, if you can, to work on this puzzle and see if you can figure out the answer. I’m going to tell you the story of a king whose name I will not mention. And I want you to tell me which king’s story am I describing. I’m not going to give you a name but I want you to figure out what name fits this story.
This king came to power because of the failures of a king who preceded him. But instead of learning from the failures of the kings who preceded him, he repeated his mistakes and involved himself in idolatry. As a result of this a prophet of God sent a message to him and announced to him that because of his sins God’s judgment would fall on his family and that all of his male children would be wiped out.
Despite this warning the king continued to follow the sinful practices that he had before. And this king died in peace. His son came to power and his son ruled for two years. And in the second year of his son’s reign one of his son’s military commanders conspired against this son, killed him, and took the throne himself.
And in order to protect himself from any of the descendants of the former kings rising up and claiming the throne, he wiped out all of the male descendants of these two kings and destroyed their family entirely. Thus fulfilling the prophetic word of God.
I have given you no names here, right? If your answer to this question is I am describing the career of Jeroboam and his son, your answer is fifty percent correct. If your answer to this question is I am describing the career of Baasha and his son, your answer is also fifty percent correct. If your answer is I am describing the career of Jeroboam and his son and Baasha and his son, your answer is one hundred percent correct.
Isn’t this striking? I can tell the story of either king without the names and the places and it fits them both. You see Jeroboam came to power as a result of Solomon’s sin and because Solomon had involved himself in idolatry. But Jeroboam learned nothing from Solomon’s failure. He continued to walk in Jeroboam’s idolatrous path.
Finally Ahijah the Shilonite sent a message back to him through his wife telling him that because of his sin his family would be destroyed and that all of his male descendants would be wiped out. And despite this warning Jeroboam continued to walk in his sins and he died in peace.
But his son Nadab took over and he walked in his father’s sins. And in the second year of his reign Baasha conspires against him. Now we’re not told in so many words that Baasha was a military commander and that’s almost an irresistible conclusion. Baasha maintained warfare during the entirety of his reign. Nadab was engaged in a siege and undoubtedly Baasha could not have taken over the kingdom if he had not already been a prestigious military leader.
I think it’s an inevitable conclusion that Baasha was one of his top military commanders. But he kills Nadab. And in order to preserve himself against any of the descendants of Jeroboam rising up later to claim the throne, he executes all of the male descendants of Jeroboam. And Baasha therefore takes the throne.
But he took the throne because Jeroboam had been judged by God. But Baasha in exactly the same sense that Jeroboam walked in. And finally God sends a message to Baasha through Jehu the son of Hanani the prophet. And the prophet says because you’ve walked in these sins God is going to punish your family. He’s going to wipe out all of your male descendants.
He even uses virtually the same words that were used by Ahijah the Shilonite. Whoever dies of Jeroboam or Baasha in the city will be eaten by the dogs and whoever dies of Jeroboam or Baasha in the fields will be eaten by the birds. And Baasha learns nothing from this. He continues in his sins and he dies in peace.
His son Elah takes over. And in the second year of Elah’s reign, now Elah is not engaged in a battle at the time of his death but unless you want to call it the Battle of the Bottle because the Bible tells us that he was drinking himself drunk in the house of his steward also who was over the king’s household. And one of his military commanders, a man named Zimri, a commander of half his chariots, conspires against him, kills him.
And then to protect himself from any of the descendants of Baasha rising up to claim the throne, Zimri fulfills the word of God through Jehu the son of Hanani and wipes out all the male descendants of this family.
Isn’t that something? Reruns one after the other. How about us? Jeroboam learned nothing and Nadab learned nothing and Baasha learns nothing and Elah learns nothing. What have we learned from our personal history?
Do you know it is a surprising fact that sociologists today tell us that the experiences to which we are exposed, even the unpleasant experiences to which we are exposed in our family and our birth family, have a tendency to be repeated in the families that we ourselves establish.
So for example here are kids that grew up in a home that is split apart by divorce and the kids are emotionally torn apart by the divorce and maybe in their hearts they say I will never let this happen in a marriage of mine. I will never send my children through something like this. And surprisingly often when they grow up and get married they go through divorces and they send their children through exactly the same thing that they went through.
Or here’s a family for example where there has been physical abuse, one spouse abusing the other physically or one or both of the spouses abusing the children. By the way it’s not always the man who does this. I was watching an Oprah Winfrey show the other night and it was featuring battered men, men who had been physically abused by their wives. And these are not recorded as often as the other kind of abuse because the men are very embarrassed and go to the police and say my wife did this to me.
They had a guy or two on there that had been hospitalized as a result of the violence of the wife. And one of the guys was a six-foot guy and he said my father always raised me never hit a woman. But apparently the mother of his wife had not raised her not to hit a man and she did it.
And so kids grow up in homes where this physical abuse occurs and the kid says that’ll never happen. I’ll never strike my partner. I’ll never treat my kids that way. And what happens? The studies show that very frequently abused children or children out of abused homes become themselves abusers. It’s a fact. It’s a solemn fact.
Now maybe the abuse is not physical. Maybe it’s verbal. You know the type of thing where the spouse blows up at the other spouse or at the kids and they scream and shout and throw a tantrum and the kids sit there and watch that and they say you know oh I’ll never never put my kids through that. Guess what they do.
The other side of the coin is what we call passive aggressive behavior. The passive aggressive person is the guy or gal who doesn’t want the confrontation. That’s not how they handle it. They do not explode. They do not cuss. They do not shout and scream. They withdraw. They won’t talk. They go to their room. They go out for the rest of the evening or for the rest of the weekend or whatever it is. You know what I mean.
And the kids say to themselves oh that’s awful. I never do that. And guess what they do. Or here are kids that grew up in a home and they discover that their parents lie to each other and the kids know that the parents are lying to each other or maybe they lie to the government. They don’t report all their income. You know they don’t pay all their bills honestly. And the kids see what a mess that can land them in and when they grow up guess what they lie too.
And on and on and on and on it goes. And you folks have heard me speak frequently about my own parents and by this time after about forty-five years you probably have drawn the conclusion I think I had pretty good parents. But I think I should tell you a case I’ve never told you before.
My parents were not angels from heaven and they would have told you as they’ve been here to do so that their sons were not angels from heaven either. And there were some things about my parents I didn’t like really. And a number of years ago, I won’t say quite how many years ago but a number of years ago, I woke up to the horrifying fact that there were some habits and practices manifesting themselves in my life that were precisely what my parents had done that I didn’t like. I had developed some of my parents’ own bad habits.
Now that’s a shocker when you realize it. As you get older you do get more and more like your parents sometimes and hopefully some of these features are good. But in my case I couldn’t recognize some features that were bad and I had to really turn to the Lord and I had to tell the Lord that I need to get rid of this.
And obviously when you have picked up something that you’ve inherited from your early life and your parental experience in the past, not only is conditioning but also genetics are a feature in that. And so that takes some special grace from the Lord. I can tell you it takes some special grace from the Lord to deal with a thing like that.
First of all it’s hard to recognize them. We often slip into them when we follow the way our parents behaved. We conduct ourselves in situations where our parents conducted themselves. We picked up all sorts of the things and sometimes we fail to recognize that it’s even there. But when we do recognize that it’s there then sometimes there’s a very significant spiritual struggle to deal with it.
So that’s why I’m asking you the question this afternoon. What have you learned from your personal history? What things could you have picked up from your home and background that are still a part of your life but God Himself would like to see dramatically changed?
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Jeroboam had come to the throne and said you know I’m on the throne of the ten tribes of Israel because Solomon got involved in idolatry and I’m not gonna touch idolatry with a ten-foot pole. And then when he went ahead and did it folks got that message from Ahijah the Shilonite. Wouldn’t it be nice if he said oh my I’ve done what Solomon did. I’ve got to turn to God in repentance and ask for His forgiveness and mercy.
And by the way in a few chapters we will meet a wicked king who did exactly that and got mercy from God. Wouldn’t it have been nice if Jeroboam had done that? Wouldn’t it have been nice if Baasha had come to the throne and said you know I’m on the throne because Jeroboam was involved in idolatry and I’m not going to touch it with a ten-foot pole. When he goes ahead and touches it then he gets his message from Jehu the son of Hanani. And wouldn’t it have been nice if he had then said you know I’ve done what Jeroboam did. I need to turn to God. I need to repent. I need to ask God to give me His forgiveness and mercy.
Wouldn’t that have been nice? And isn’t it astounding that neither of them did it?
Now you know sometimes we get older. We get to the phase where we say you know I’ve done this all my life. I don’t think I’ll ever change. I think I’ll always do this. I guess I’ll just have to take the punishment that God’s going to give me for it. We get kind of hard-headed then. Well they say you know I’m sorry that’s me. I am what I am. Can’t change that. So you know if God’s going with me let Him quit.
But wait a minute. Neither Jeroboam nor Baasha could have afforded to say that because God hadn’t just said I’m gonna get you because I’m gonna wipe out your family. I’m gonna wipe it out. Both Jeroboam and Baasha died in peace but their sons did not die in peace. And if they had other children they did not die in peace. And if they had grandchildren by that time they did not die in peace.
I think one of the most solemn Scriptures that there is, is one that is repeated a number of times in the law of Moses talking about God being merciful and gracious but He will by no means clear the guilty. And He visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and the fourth generation.
Think about that for a minute. He visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. That means father, son, grandson, great-grandson. Why is that? Because the children repeat the sins of their father and sometimes they pay a more disastrous penalty than their fathers did.
What am I trying to tell you? I’m trying to tell you that if there are things in your personal history that need changing it’s not for your own sake alone which you should change them but also for the sake of your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren.
On the Oprah Winfrey show that I was referring to there was a woman, an Anglo woman, who admitted that she yelled and screamed at her husband. She figured her attitude was that her husband didn’t pay attention to her when she talked and therefore her method of getting his attention was to, you know, go into orbit and she did this. And she was admitting that it was awful.
But as the program progressed she also mentioned the fact that she had two girls who by the time were almost grown and she assured Oprah and also the psychologist who was on the program that she never yelled at the girls and that therefore what he was saying to Oprah was the girls were not hurt by them.
And Oprah and the psychologist would not allow her to get away with that. They said oh yes they were. Oh yes they were. Every time parents fight in front of their children it subverts the self-esteem of the child. That’s the modern psychological way of describing it.
But the biblical way might be to say this. It helps to teach the child how to cope in the future. It is not a bad bet that this woman’s two daughters will someday marry and scream at their spouses because that’s what they saw their mother doing. That’s the way their mother coped with the relationship.
So what about it? What have you learned from your personal history? Who are you imitating? And if you’re imitating wrong people may I suggest that the right person to imitate is the one that we’re here this afternoon to remember, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the gentle, gracious, loving, compassionate, forgiving Jesus.
That’s one of the reasons we’re here. We’re here to learn to follow Him. We’re here to learn to become more and more like Him. And that may take some very direct dealing with habits and practices that we have in our lives which we have not expunged from our lives because they’ve been there for so long.
The songwriter said, “O teach us more of Thy blessed ways, Thou holy Lamb of God, and fix and root us in Thy grace as those redeemed by blood.” That’s a good prayer to pray. O teach us more of Thy blessed ways, Thou holy Lamb of God. Lord Jesus Christ teach me to be more like You.
Teach me to react to my spouse. Teach me to react to my children. Teach me to react to my fellow Christian. Teach me to react to the people I work with as You would react, more and more.
The Apostle Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
It takes faith to live this kind of a life. But there’s no need for us to imitate our forebears. No need for us to imitate our parents and our grandparents or the other members of our family because we now have a Savior who will lead us into imitation of Himself. And as He does so it will change us and transform us so that we are more and more like Himself.
Okay, I’m innocent. Question?