(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Let's jump right in here to chapter 8. We're going to re-read the first six verses. I know we just read the entire chapter. We'll get in here and get the context. There's kind of different sections where there's multiple things going on in this chapter. So let's start with the first part here. First, number one, the Bible reads, Then spake Elisha unto the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou in thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn. For the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years. Now I'm just going to pause real quick right here because if you remember, last week in chapter 7 was the story where the Syrians had besieged the city and there was a great famine and they were buying an ass's head or a fourth of a cab of dove's dung for all this money. Then the lepers went out to the camp and they saw that everyone had fled. So there was this great deliverance from the famine and from the siege. That whole story just finished up in chapter 7. So basically these are the next events that happen right after that. Everything is returned to normal. The economy is back to normal. People have food and are healthy again. So now we're picking up where Elisha is speaking unto the woman. Now it says here just the woman whose son he had restored to life. That's talking about the Shunammite woman. The woman that made a little place for him to come and stay. Remember she was inviting him to eat while he traveled and passed through and then after a few times she decided, you know what, let's make a place for him to stay, a little bed and a place for him to rest and was being very hospitable towards him. Of course she was blessed with having a child and the child ended up dying. She went to Elisha. Elisha brought him back to life and that's who this is referring to now. So now she's getting some information from Elisha. Elisha being a prophet saying, hey, there's going to be a famine in the land for seven years. So he's like, just get out of here because there's going to be a famine here. Go sojourn, stay temporarily anywhere that you could find that's going to be in a better condition than here and then you can come back. So that's what happened. Verse number two says, and the woman arose and did after the saying of the man of God. Then she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years and it came to pass at the seven years end that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land and the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God saying, tell me I pray thee all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life that behold the woman whose son he had restored to life cried to the king for her house and for her land and Gehazi said, my lord, oh king, this is the woman and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer saying restore all that was hers and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land even until now. It's interesting that we see this woman coming up again in the book of 2 Kings. We already gotten through all these great stories and miracles that had happened involving this woman from her having a child, the child being raised back to life. But here she is again and you see the great fate that this lady had. You see when she was told, hey, there's going to be a famine here. Now, look, it's not easy to just pick up everything and just go and move somewhere else. And she did all of this just based on faith because the man of God said so. Because the man of God was prophesying, hey, there's going to be a famine. So she believed him. And I mean, it worked out great for her, right? She believed him and was able to go off into the land of the Philistines for seven years. But then we see what happens is when she comes back, obviously there's some problems because she has left her land basically desolate. She just picked up and moved with her house and everything else. So she left her property behind. She left everything behind. And when she came back, apparently there was a problem with someone else by taking over her land and cultivating her land and everything else. So she has to go to the king and be like, hey, this is my rightful land. Now, someone else is in here taking it over. I've been gone for seven years, but now I'm back. I need to get my land back. But this shows you these types of events happen and there is no way this is a coincidence. And that's why it's written in the Bible for us today to read is that this is not just some coincidence that the king just so happens to be talking to Gehazi and just so happens to be talking about Elisha. And they're going through these stories and say, tell me some stories about Elisha, about the man of God. Because Gehazi was Elisha's servant, right? So he was traveling around with them. He was around during all these different things. Gehazi was right there when this woman's son was brought back to life. So as he's telling the king this story, I mean, he's literally in the middle of telling the story of, yeah, he brought this, this, you know, this child back to life. In walks the very woman who's looking to get her land restored unto her again. And he's like, and here she is, right? You know, this is, this is the woman. This is exactly who I'm talking about. You know, you'd say, wow, what a crazy coincidence. Well, no, it's not a coincidence. See, this woman is being blessed by God tremendously because of her faith, because of her hospitality. The Bible says in 2 Peter 2 verse number 9, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under the day of judgment to be punished. God knows how to deliver godly people out of temptations, out of trials. That's why she got the warning. Hey, there's going to be a famine. She was living godly and righteously and she was a good woman and God decided to bless her and allow, you know, so Elisha can tell her, hey, this is what's going on. So she was able to avoid that. She was removed from that famine. She didn't have to go through all of that trials and temptation. She was delivered from that. And in Proverbs 3 6, the Bible says, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. See, when you live a life where you're completely reliant on God, when you have great faith and you could just trust in what the word of God is, trust the prophet of the Lord here, Elisha, who's preaching God's words, the decisions that you make based on that information is going to lead you the right path every time. So it's all started off with her helping him out, right? Oh, the Bible says this, too. One last place. You don't have to turn there. Very, very familiar passage. Galatians 6, verse number 7. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season. We shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Now it's important to read in context all the way up to verse 10 there in Galatians 6 about reaping what you sow. Because it's easy to stop just after the first verse or two. Yeah, you're going to reap what you sow. But it continues on to say, you know, therefore, so because we know this, let's do good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith. This is exactly what the Shunammite woman did. She was good, especially unto the man of faith. I mean, she took, you know, her own time and resources and energy to help out Elisha the prophet way early on. You know, when she wasn't looking for anything for herself. She was genuinely just trying to help and be a blessing and help the man of God. And as a result of her actions and her heart and her doing good, especially under those of the household of God, she was blessed in return. She ends up reaping years later from what she's sown by doing good unto Elisha. God blessed her for that. There's many challenges in life, right? I mean, we all know this. We face challenges all the time. That's what life is, a series of challenges. I don't know anybody who does not face, you know, hard times, challenges in life. Everybody goes through some things. Everybody. And this woman's no different. This woman actually faced many challenges. And what I like about this is that there's two different ways that you can view the life of this Shunammite woman. There's two ways. There's one way it's presented in the Bible. It's very positive. But think about this. If you look at the stories this way, you can look at this woman. She had no child for years and years and years. She wanted a child real bad and just didn't have a child, right? And then she finally has a son. Then he dies at a young age. Then there's a famine that forces her to leave her home. And then when she comes back, she has to go and try to fight just to get her property back because someone else had taken over. Now, if we just look at the story in terms of just the events that happened, you can look at this and it could sound very depressing. You could see how easily a person might have a really bad attitude about their life and about things that are going on. Well, why does all this stuff just have to happen to me? However, none of her challenges are portrayed as a burden or very depressing in the Bible. Why? Because they're all victories. She faced a lot of challenges. We face a lot of challenges. But don't let the challenge discourage you. Don't let the trial get you down, get you depressed. Look for the outcome. Look for the end of the matter. She went, you know, look, it's never fun going through the famine. It's never fun dealing with the death. It's not fun, you know, wanting something so bad like a child and not receiving that. It's not fun. But you can get through all these things and get through them with a great outcome when you can maintain your faith and the right outlook and the right perspective on things. See, she still had, even when she had no child, she was still helping people out. She was still doing good unto others. She was still helping out the man of God. She was still believing him. She wasn't asking for anything for herself either. Remember when she came to him and when he came to her after she had done all this stuff for him, she was like, well, what do you want me to do for you? Do you want me to speak unto the king for you? No, no, I'm fine. I'm fine living right here. Everything's good. I don't need anything. She never asked him of one thing for herself. And it wasn't until his servant said, hey, you know, she doesn't have a child and she'd really like to have a child. And then that's when she received that blessing. See, she had a great spirit. She had a right outlook. She had a right temperament. And no matter what she was facing, she didn't let that get her down. And she reacted. Remember, even when her son died, she didn't just crawl up in a ball and curl up and just want to die. She went to the man of God. She still went to seek out that help. She still continued to go in the right direction and didn't let that just screw up and mess up her entire life. And we see as a result of that, these victories that come, the challenges are going to come no matter what, but it's how you deal with those challenges that's going to really determine the outcome. This woman wanted to have a child, didn't have one, but she still did her best. She did what she could. She did good, especially to Elisha, the household of faith, as I mentioned already. And as a result of her sowing righteously, she was blessed with a child. She had him revived when he died. She was warned about the famine, and then she received all of her goods back upon her return. There are so many things that could have been really bad, they turned out really good. And I believe it's all completely a result of her faith and her doing right and just walking the right path the best way that she could. And there is no coincidence here. It's not just some random thing that they happen to be talking about, Elisha and this child being raised back to life, when he's like, hey, this is her and her son. I mean, the son that was still with her then when she came back, like this is the kid that was brought back to life. And it made a big impact. And that's why this story doesn't really seem to fit in with everything else that's going on, but it's brought in here to teach us a lesson. It's brought back. We're familiar with this person. We know the stories that happened. She faces even more problems, but God worked everything out in the long run. God made everything work because of her faith, because of the way that she was staying true and consistent to God's word and keeping that faith in God's word. Let's keep reading here now. We're going to move on to the next section. Verse number seven, and Elisha came to Damascus and Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was sick. And it was told him, saying, the man of God has come hither. Jonathan, sit down. Verse eight, and the king said unto Hazael, take a present in thine hand and go, meet the man of God and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus. Forty camels burdened and came and stood before him and said, thy son Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying, shall I recover of this disease? Now, this is real interesting that Elisha ends up in Damascus and Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, remember, Syria and Israel have been at war a lot, especially through these times. Syria is the one who had besieged the city, and here we see Ben-Hadad is seeking out counsel from Elisha, and he's like, go to the man of God, because, and see, here's the thing, whether he even believed or not, Elisha was known to be, I mean, the other nations knew who Elisha was, just because of his works, because of, he was able to tell the king, hey, here's where they're gonna be, here's where the enemies are gonna be, here's where the armies are gonna be located, and they all knew it's Elisha doing that. They'd heard about the miracles that he performed, they heard about all these great stories of Elisha, the man of God. So even the unbelievers, even the pagans were going, hey, it doesn't take much when you're involved in a pagan religion, especially the older you get, you start seeing like, there's nothing happening, it's all just a bunch of superstition, but this man has a great power of God. So when he went to ask anybody anything, he's like, go ask Elisha. That guy at least has some, that guy is evidently has some power with God. And of course he sends them then with like those great praises, take a present in thine hand, and it says he brought him 40 camels, so remember, loading up a camel, 40 camels, all kinds of stuff, all kinds of goods, it's just this gift in order to receive just to hear whether or not he's gonna be healed, whether or not he's gonna recover, and looking to gain favor with Elisha that way. And Elisha answers him, you know, he sends his one of his officers, Benhaddad's the king, Benhaddad's in charge, and he sends his ale. And verse 10, Elisha said unto him, go say unto him, thou mayest certainly recover, howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die. So basically what Elisha is saying is that, yeah, this disease that he has is not gonna kill him. He'll recover of that disease, except he's gonna die. And then he goes on to clarify that, verse 11, and he settled his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed. And the man of God wept, and his ale said, why weepeth my Lord? And he answered, because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And his ale said, but what? Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. So he departed from Elisha and came to his master who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? And he answered, he told me that thou shouldest surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow that he took a thick cloth and dipped in water and spread it on his face so that he died and his ale reigned in his stead. So Benhaddad's real sick. He receives word from Elisha, yep, you'll recover. But Elisha tells his ale that he was gonna be king. If you remember, Elijah was told to anoint his ale king over Syria way back earlier at the end of the book of 1 Kings. We'd gone through the Bible study on that. And he was told to anoint Jehu and to anoint his ale and to anoint Elisha. Now we saw him anoint Elisha that came and carried on the torch and kind of carried the mantle of Elijah. But we didn't see these other two things happening because Jehu, we're gonna see Jehu in the next chapter. And then his ale here finally, Elisha's basically anointing him king and he's telling him he's gonna be the king. And again, we don't know. You can't play an armchair quarterback here on what would have happened if Elijah had gone and anointed him earlier. But we see wicked things now coming from his ale. And Elijah starts crying. He starts weeping. And his ale's like, why are you crying? Because he knows all the evil things that he's gonna do. You see, he's gonna dash their children. He's gonna kill the children. He's gonna rip up the women and basically come in and destroy Israel and do it very brutally. And be a very, very gruesome slaughter of the children of Israel. And his ale's like, of course, he's sitting there going like, what do you think I'm a dog? Like, I would never do that. Like, why are you saying these things? I would never do that. And then Elisha tells him, well, you're gonna be king over Syria. So the Lord showed me. Elijah goes back home, or excuse me, his ale goes back to Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad, hey, well, what did he say? Oh, yeah, you're gonna recover. He didn't tell him anything else after that. Oh, yeah, you're just gonna recover. And then he murders them. He kills them the next day. Before we continue any further, I need to make a note. This chapter and these chapters, the events that happen in history get pretty complicated. I've been spending quite a bit of time getting everything clear and trying to get my head wrapped around all these events. One of the reasons being, I don't know if you remember months ago, hopefully you remember, it wasn't that long ago, I preached a sermon on supposed discrepancies in the Bible. And I went through all these different things that the atheists like to say. People say there's errors in the Bible, and they come up with all these various things. And there was one that I've mentioned, because I was just going through a list that I had found online. And there was one that I found that I didn't really feel like I had a good answer for. So I've been trying to figure this thing out for a while. I wish I could tell you I have the right answer tonight, but I don't. And see, the reason is because there's a lot of stuff going on here. Now, one of the things that gets confusing to try to get everything clear in your head on what's going on here is that there are names, there are two names used, sometimes even more, for the same person. And at this particular time, you have two kings that have the same name. So you have a king of Israel and a king of Judah that both have the name of Joram or Jehoram. When you read Joram or Jehoram, those names are used interchangeably. And it's not one referring to one king and one the other. No, that would be too easy. They both are basically the same name, Joram, Jehoram. But then you also have to make sure when you're reading it which king is it referring to, because they reign essentially around the same time. One came up first, but then you have them both reigning. So trying to get your timelines together and you're comparing the books of the kings with the books of the chronicles and trying to get all of the information that you can, it makes it a little bit confusing. And there is a lot of stuff going on here. So I'm going to do my best. I'm going to share with you everything that I've learned so far. And you know the stuff that gets a little bit more complicated, in my opinion, I love this stuff the best because you end up learning stuff that's like super awesome in Scripture when you really dig into this and start to get to learn everything. Another reason that makes this somewhat confusing is that from the time that the kingdom was split into two, there were two distinct lines of kings. I mean you had, you know, David's line. You had King Saul, but Saul was replaced with David, right? Then you had David, Solomon, Rehoboam. And then during Rehoboam's reign is when it split. Judah and Israel. In Israel that's when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, began to reign. And we've been going through a lot of the stories and in Israel that line doesn't stay true because you've had other people coming in and committing conspiracies. You had Omri come in and kill other people. So there's various things going on here. But at this point when it comes to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, remember Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Ahab king of Israel. Ahab's a wicked king. Jehoshaphat made affinity with Ahab. Remember that? It was a few weeks ago we were talking about that. And what that means is he married into Ahab's family. So now you start to get a merger of the two kings' lines through the children that are a result, a real resultant through that marriage. All the way up to here where we have Jehoram who was also a son-in-law. So not only his mother was Athaliah. Athaliah was of the house of Omri, that king of Ahab from Omri is where Ahab came from in Israel. Athaliah was a daughter of Ahab who is the mother of Joram or Jehoram in Judah. And his fatherly line goes through Jehoshaphat. So he's born of these two kings' lines. And I think that might be one of the reasons why we have that discrepancy. The discrepancy that I'm referring to, I haven't mentioned it yet, is Ahaziah, his son, when he begins to reign, in 2 Kings it says he was 22 years old and then in 2 Chronicles it says he was 42 years old. So you say, wait a minute, how old was he? And I'm going to explain that. Let's go through a little bit now. One of the reasons that I've heard, and I'm not sure if this is necessarily true, is that they're saying, oh well that 42 years is referring to the time of Omri's line. Now I don't really buy into that necessarily, but it's an interesting theory. But here, because of these things and you're trying to get your timeline straight, there's even a portion I think I have in my notes where Jehoshaphat is referred to as the king of Israel. But he wasn't the king of Israel, he was the king of Judah. So there's all kinds of stuff going on about it. And look, try to stay with me because this is, I know a little bit, it's a little bit dry, but I just recommend you guys going home and studying this stuff out and try to get this all, because you want to get these people clear. It's going to help you have a better understanding of everything that's going on and get some extra insight into these stories. Let's keep reading here though. I'm going to read, I wanted to mention that you know Joram and Jehoram, don't let that confuse you, they're both the same name. So let's keep reading here. Verse number 16, and in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. So you see Joram of Ahab, Jehoram of Jehoshaphat. 32 years old was when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem, and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. So Jehoram, and that's who is referring to here, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, reigns for eight years, and does very very wickedly. Keep your finger here, I want to turn to 2 Chronicles 21. We're going to see a little bit more insight on how wicked Jehoram actually is for these eight years that he reigns. And one of the reasons it gives for him being so wicked is that he married one of the daughters of Ahab, who was extremely wicked himself, and followed after the ways of the kings of Israel, the wicked kings of Israel. 2 Chronicles 21, keep your place in both places. We're going to flip back and forth a little bit between 2 Chronicles 21 and 2 Kings 8. Verse number one, the Bible reads, Now Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead. And he had brethren, the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariah and Michael and Shephathiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, and their father gave them great gifts of silver and of gold and of precious things with fenced cities in Judah, but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and slew all his brethren with the sword and divers also of the princes of Israel. So we see Jehoram doing some extreme, I mean he killed his brothers, his own flesh and bone, his own fleshly brothers. He didn't want anybody to challenge his right to the throne. Jehoshaphat had many children. After Jehoshaphat's dead, he gets the kingdom because he's the first born. So he really didn't have anything to worry about anyways because that's typically what happened is the firstborn son would would then succeed the king. But he's so wicked, he decided to just, it says he strengthened himself, he slew all his brethren and it says also of the princes of Israel. So he's killing people on Israel's side and on Judah's side. Go back if you would to 2 Kings chapter 8. Keep your finger there because we're going to go back to 2 Chronicles verse number 19 of chapter 8. Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David, his servant's sake as he promised him to give him alway a light and to his children. So even though Jehoram is extremely wicked, God says well I'm not going to just completely destroy Judah because David was right. Again this goes back to show you how how much one person's life can impact so many other people even after your passing. If you have a reason to live right and live faithfully and do great things for God in this life, think about it, it's not only what you do in your own lifetime that you'll have an impact on, you could have impact on future generations by you being a man after God's own heart, by you doing what's right and just saying I'm going to live my life to fully serve the Lord. You do that, you can have impact on generation after generation after you. It's possible. We see that with David. It's for David's sake he didn't destroy Judah. Why? Because he made a promise unto him. He made a promise unto him because he was um anyway so again all that. So God decided not you know he's going to let him even though Jehoram is extremely wicked he's going to let him go. Verse number 20 in his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves. So Jehoram went over to Zare and all the chariots with him and he rose by night and smote the Edomites which compassed him about and the captains of the chariots and the people fled into their tents yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time and the rest of the acts of Jehoram and all that he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. Now flip back if you would to second chronicles 21. We're going to read a little bit more about Jehoram or Joram and we get a little bit more information in second chronicles 21. As a result of his wickedness that's why these other nations now are starting to revolt. They had control over them. They had peace in the land and you know they were they were controlling all these different lands and now Edom is revolting. Libnah is revolting. You know people are are not wanting to be ruled over by this wicked king and of course that's of God. Let's keep reading here verse number 11 of second chronicles 21 verse number 11. Moreover he made this is again talking about Joram. He made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compelled Judah thereto. This is more of the wickedness of Jehoram and this is extremely this is a great nugget here in the bible verse number 12. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet saying thus saith the lord god of David thy father because thou has not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah but has walked in the way of the kings of Israel and has made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab and also has slain thy brethren of thy father's house which were better than thyself behold with a great plague will the lord smite thy people and thy children and thy wives and all thy goods and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. This is a message from a lot now look Elijah was already taken up in a whirlwind by this point because Elisha's been doing all these things remember Elisha wasn't off on his own until Elijah was already taken up and if you're not paying attention you can miss that and see some people will point to this and say oh see look the bible's got another problem with there's another contradiction here how could Elijah write him a letter when he's already dead he's already gone well because it says that it says there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet doesn't mean that Elijah sent the letter right on that day right at that time he had already prophesied this he had already set up for the king to receive this letter after he was already going to be gone i mean that's amazing that's the only way this could have happened i think that's amazing that's incredible to have this prophecy already lined up Elijah knows he's going to be gone and he's like okay here's what we're going to do you need to to give this letter to to such you know at this time it kind of reminds me of um i don't know if you guys saw the back to the future i think it was like part two or something like that where the guy comes and he delivers a letter like i don't know i was told just to come here at this time and deliver this letter here because you know they've been traveling back and forth through time but see that's a movie that's fiction that's talking about time travel i mean the scenario makes sense when you think about time travel but see god knows the beginning from the end which is why he's actually able to make something like this a reality and make this happen because i mean that's why that's why you have people like daniel prophesying about times that haven't even happened you know haven't even come to pass yet because god has revealed unto them he showed it to them and you know in a sense you could say we got a letter delivered unto us from daniel we got a letter delivered unto us you know it's joharim had a letter delivered unto him from elijah the prophet outlining how wicked he was going to be outlining hey this is what's going to happen here's your curse because god knows the beginning from the end and he's he's given these plagues and he's told he's going to have this great sickness and disease until uh and he's just going to die by that disease verse number 16 says moreover the lord stirred up against joharim the spirit of the philistines and of the arabians that were near the ethiopians so it wasn't even just the edamites or and the um and libna that revolted there's also the arabians you've got the philistines it says they came up into juda and break into it and carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house and his sons also and his wives so that there was never a son left him save jahoa has the youngest of his sons now here we would have to infer that jahoa has is a haziah this is the only time you see jahoa has in the bible uh in this in this lineage as being the only son left of joharim and after all this verse 18 the lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease and it came to pass that in process of time after the end of two years his bowels fell out by reason of his what a what a horrible way to die for two years having that bowel problems until their bowels just fall out but that's what happened it says uh you know i mean he was so wicked he was he was cursed of god for this so he died of his sore diseases and his people made no burning for him like the burning of his father's 32 years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned jerusalem eight years and departed without being desired you know what that means no one really everyone's kind of glad when he left no one cared no one made a big deal about him dying they're like oh joharim died yeah well let's move on with our lives now with no lamenting no sorrow he departed without being desired howbeit they buried him in the city of david but not in the sepulchres of the kings so he wasn't even being considered to be worthy of being buried with the other kings of judah even though he was i mean he was a king and all of these little bits of information that we pick up go back if you would keep a finger here in second crowd we'll go back one more time go back to second kings eight these little bits of information are important to kind of retain when we get to this issue of how old was a haziah when he began to reign and why is that 42 years even mentioned because he had he was definitely 22 years old when you're talking about his age there's no mistakes in the bible but his his dad joharim so he was 32 years old when he began to reign he reigned eight years so that puts him at 40 years old so there's no way that his son could be 42 years old when he begins to reign right so it's extremely obvious that his literal age can't be 42 years old at least when he first comes in to be the king there's a theory out there and i've heard this i've actually been trying to study this out is that the reason why it gives two different years is because there's basically a 20-year gap so he when he first came to reign he first comes into power then the syrians come and take over so that nobody's reigning in judah and then when he comes back into power again he's 42 years old so i'm throwing that out there and there's there's there's actually some good reason for that when you think of um no i'm not convinced on this just so you know i'm throwing it out there because i think this whole situation is extremely interesting i love digging into this stuff and i want to give you some homework to look into for yourself but um oh there it is but you remember when elijah prophesied all the things that his ale was going to do i mean he was really going to do a lot of destruction to israel and to judah and and he was going to be getting victories over them so it's entirely possible he did get in and what we see here also is that ahaziah goes to battle with the king of israel with jehoram and they lose and jehoram well let's read it second kings chapter eight look at verse number 24 and joram slept with his father so that just again this is the joram that's the the son of jehoshaphat the king of judah and joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of david and aaziah his son reigned in his stead in the 12th year of joram the son of ahab king of israel did aaziah the son of jehoram king of judah began to reign two and 20 years old was aaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in jerusalem and his mother's name was athaliah the daughter of ramrai king of israel and he walked in the way of the house of ahab and did evil in the sight of the lord as did the house of ahab for he was the son-in-law of the house of ahab so again in order to be a son-in-law he would have had to have married into that house as well so he's the son-in-law of the house of ahab and he went with joram the son of ahab so this is the other joram the king of israel aaziah yolks up with joram the king of israel son of abh to the war against hisale king of syria in ramoth gilead and the syrians wounded joram so the syrians were able to to wound the king the king of israel and it basically gone and and essentially were taking over ramoth gilead so verse 29 says and king joram went back to be healed in jesrael of the wounds which the syrians had given him at ramah when he fought against his ale king of syria and aaziah the son of joram king of judah went down to see joram the son of ahab and jesrael because he was sick now flip over if you would to second chronicles 22 in order for this theory to make sense that there's a 20-year gap because i'm not saying that i subscribe to this but it's a very interesting possibility you would say at this moment his ale has defeated israel and judah enough to the point to where you could consider them not really reigning anymore that he's ended their reign because he's now controlling or has dominion over them to one what you know one degree or another to where now they've become the head right whether even if they don't have them completely in domination they've they've defeated them sufficiently to be considered that they are no longer king the kings of of their sovereign land right so then joram has to retreat and goes to jesrael because he's wounded but the only way i can see is fitting is is halfway through this verse 29 when aaziah goes to visit joram in jesrael it says because he was sick and that sickness being different than the actual wounds so that the time has has gone by where he was wounded and then you know years later he comes because at this meeting is when jihu comes and kills joram and aaziah they both are eliminated at that essentially at that meeting so in order for them both to be killed at this meeting there would have had to be 20 years going by for then aaziah to to come back into into reigning in in syria not having control over them anymore second chronicles chapter 22 verse number one and the inhabitants of jerusalem made aaziah's youngest son king in his stead for the band of men that came with the arabians to the camp had slain all the elders so aaziah the son of jehoram king of juda reign four and this is where it says 40 and two years old was aaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in jerusalem his mother's name also was athaliah the daughter of amrai he also walked in the ways of the house of aab for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly so this is where you could get that theory of 20 missing years and possibly because syria was reigning over israel and juda after losing in battle at ramoth gilead after after israel and juda lost that battle something to consider right i mean obviously for me and for many other people i know you come to realize there are no contradictions and errors in the bible they're just not there i've been i've been confronted with so many different errors and then when you actually under see you know read and understand say oh okay that's actually not an error at all it's just people's you know misunderstanding of what it what it's actually saying and it's easy to get you kind of twisted off on the wrong path in many of those cases and i'm not gonna re-preach that sermon but you can see how like if you if you insert a certain thought or a certain way of thinking about it it could seem to contradict it could seem to be a big problem i mean james too is a perfect example of that you know can faith save him oh faith without works is dead you're trying to say oh well see look this bio this is worth saying you have to have works and everything else in order to be saved and when you got someone really trying to spin it in this sense of you have to believe in a workspace salvation it can mess with your head a little bit until you actually take the time to say no no no let's just get exactly what this is saying read the whole context look up all the examples we're talking about abraham what's this talking about and then you realize no no no it's not talking about your soul being saved because of your works at all it's just people spin it and it's not a so it's not a contradiction either it's just people who don't understand what it's saying i got my notes screwed up here what did i have returned back to uh second kings chapter eight so oh yeah that was that was the end of the chapter so i'm not missing it i'm not like where's my where's my last page of notes that was my last page of notes so let's wrap this up and summarize here when you you know this this deals with one of those issues with aaziah how old was he or one one account says 22 years old the other account says 42 years old when you go back and look through and i do recommend you studying this out and look at how the lines get blurred between the kingly lines and then you also there's so many other things that are interesting about this when you look through um i believe it's the the matthew genealogy and look at the people who are left out in the in the line to jesus christ you know lion of david these people here are left out it's uh i think joram's left out you know from jehoshaphat it's you know i don't know oh no joram's there joshaphat begat joram and joram begat azaias all right i'm getting screwed up now on the there's a there's a few other places that that have references to to these men and and uh or actually lack of references to their to their account and them being the chronology and being considered kings and um what i i didn't have that theory the last time when i preached a sermon about the possible contradictions about the 20-year gap but it is a possibility because you have both kings then they reigned for their eight years or for their 12 you know for their um their one year and their 12 years and then that's it and then both of them are dead and and jihu and uh athaliah start reigning after that moment so it's really important to study you know study the words don't let people trip you up um but dig in and get to know the characters get to know who these people are do the comparisons between chronicles and the kings it gives you a much fuller picture of everything that's going on here and honestly this has gotten me to want to to even study more history ancient history about the the syrians and about everything else that was going on during this time because this is all this is all real history this is all things that actually happened it'd be interesting to see what else is going on in the world around them at this time and how powerful syria had really gotten to be and how and i think what's going to happen is you'll see when you go that route how much more amazing it is when god protects them and god delivers them out of the hands of these kings that had so much power and had so much to be able to just wipe out a kingdom like israel or judah because ultimately they didn't really have that much power and influence in many of the their years of their existence when these great nations came up against them and god was able to deliver them so let's power eyes have a word of prayer dear heavenly father lord thank you so much for all these these various nuances and things we can learn from your word dear god i pray to you please help us to have the faith that the the woman of shunem had lord to be able to just deal with all the challenges that arise in our life and to just trust in you and to and to do what's right and to sow good things so that later on we could we could reap good things your lord and i pray to please just uh help us to study to show ourselves approved unto you dear lord that we can study your word not just read the bible or we all ought to be reading the bible every day we ought to be getting into your word and hearing from you dear god i pray to please help us also to study and to and to receive more wisdom that you would open up our understanding to some of these things especially some of the the the deeper wisdom and knowledge that we can learn through through our studies dear lord i pray to please help us to get a proper full understanding of everything that's going on in scripture dear lord and that we would especially get the stuff that's you know a lot of these things are pretty cool to recognize and to see but lord help us to to ultimately make the applications that we could have knowledge and wisdom that's going to be useful in our lives that we could just serve you better and be able to answer any of the the the critics and and be able to provide a reason for our faith your lords in jesus name we pray amen