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

Alright, so in 2 Kings chapter 9, there's a few things I'm going to be focusing on in the sermon tonight. I'll just kind of give you the big overview of what's happening here. So this is after the battle that Jehoram and Ahaziah have with the king of Syria, with Hazael. Right? Hazael is the king of Syria, Jehoram was injured in that battle, he goes to Jezreel to kind of recover of his injury, and Ahaziah goes to meet him. Ahaziah was the king of Judah, Jehoram was the king of Israel, okay, so they're in their buddy-buddy, right, which God didn't want him to be, but you know, Ahaziah was wicked, Jehoram was wicked, and Jehu basically is one of the captains of the king of Israel, one of the captains of the army, right, so he's meeting with, he's just kind of hanging out with some other captains of the army, and Ahaziah sends one of the sons of the prophets to go and anoint him to be the king of Israel. So he goes, he brings oil, anoints him, and then Jehu goes and has to, of course if he's going to be king, he has to overthrow the current king, he has to go and kill Jehoram, because you can't have a contention for the throne, so he goes and kills Jehoram, and he's, we'll get into this a little bit, he's also fulfilling prophecies, fulfilling, you know, destroying the house of Ahab, and he goes and he ends up killing Ahaziah also, the other, the wicked king of Judah, and then he ends up killing Jezebel, right, Jezebel was Ahab's wife. So that, you know, that's basically what happens in this chapter, it's a brief overview of all of the events, right, so now let's dig into this a little bit, I've got a few points, we're going to be covering Jezebel probably for most of the sermon tonight, we didn't really go into a lot of detail in previous chapters, we already were introduced to her in 1 Kings, and now we see her, but we see she comes up again and again in this chapter, so we're going to kind of cover her a little bit, but let's get started here in verse number 1, the Bible says, and Elisha the prophet, called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead, and when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshai, and go in and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber, so he basically said, you know, go to Ramoth Gilead, find Jehu, and then when you find him, you know, speak privately to him, go to another room where no one is, because you'd be hanging out with some people. Verse number 3, then take the box of oil, pour it on his head, and say thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel, then open the door and flee in terry night, saying this is what I want you to do, you go there, you bring the oil, you say hey look, you know, basically in the name of the Lord, God said that you're going to be the next king, God is anointing him to be the king, and we see it's real interesting that God does this, right, I mean, God did this, he took the kingdom, when he took the kingdom away from Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and basically anointed Jeroboam to be king of Israel, he said you're going to be king, these are people who God chooses, and you know who God chooses isn't always who man chooses, right, but God is sending here one of his prophets to anoint Jehu to be king, and basically what he does, he just pours the oil over his head, that's the anointing, that's the blessing, that's the choosing, say well God's choosing you, and then he just goes out and runs away, right, so it's kind of funny, he says just go out and flee then, anoint him, hey God's saying that you're anointing the king over Israel and then go, and that's what he did, so we're going to read here verse number 4, so the young man, even the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead, and when he came behold the captains of the host were sitting, and he said I have an errand to thee O captain, and Jehu said unto which of all us, and he said to thee O captain, and he arose and went into the house and he poured the oil on his head and said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel, and thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel, for the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, and I brought this up in previous sermon about Ahab how you know Jeroboam and Baasha were two really wicked kings just like Ahab was, that God actually said I'm cutting off your posterity like your whole lineage is just going to die off here with you and with your children because of how wicked they were and how sinful they were. We had two examples prior to Ahab so now Ahab has joined this special club of people that are just wiped out by God because they were so extremely wicked. And you know so Jeroboam, Baasha, now Ahab and it says in verse 10 and the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel and there shall be none to bury her and he opened the door and fled. So we see he's a little bit more thorough in what he's telling Jehu than what Elisha had said, but this is all still the word of the Lord. All of this stuff was prophesied previously and he's telling Jehu look this is what you're going to do. You are going to carry out my judgment. You are going to kill Ahab. You're going to kill his house so that no one's left of Ahab that pisseth against the wall basically and he's saying Jezebel too. You got to take care of Jezebel as well. Now keep your finger here, flip back if you would to 1 Kings 21 because all of this was already prophesied by Elijah. Now I could only speculate on this and I brought this up when we looked in chapter 21 in our previous Wednesday night Bible study, but what would have happened differently had Elijah was the one that was told to anoint Hazael king over Syria as well as Jehu and Elisha, but all he did was he anointed Elisha to be after him in his room. He didn't do the other two things because Elisha was the one that told Hazael that he was going to be king over Syria and Elisha was the one who sent to have Jehu anointed to be king over Israel, which means there is that time lapse of just more wickedness, more things going on. I just was pondering this and I'll throw it out there because I'm getting a little bit closer. I have my whole issue with the Ahaziah thing and the 20 years difference that I need to find the exact reference, but I think I could be figured out with the reign of the kings versus the overall time that they were there and I think I could calculate if there was a 20 year time missing or not and if I do that, then that will solidify, yeah, that's exactly what happened and with that 20 year gap, I'm thinking that might be a result of Elijah not anointing those people when he should have done it. It's very interesting, but I'm not solid on that yet, but I'm thinking that might be part of the case, but let's look at 1 Kings 21. We're going to see what Elijah prophesied about Ahab and Jezebel here in verse number 17. We're going to start reading, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whether he has gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine? And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baash the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city, the dog shall eat, and him that dieth in the field, shall the fowls of the air eat. But there was none like unto Ahab which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. Now, so we see this exact prophecy. I mean, Elijah already spake it against Ahab and against Jezebel, so this prophet, you say, Oh, well, the prophet didn't say exactly what Elijah said. Yeah, but he said what Elijah said. He said what the Lord said. He was bringing him the message of the Lord. This isn't just him coming up with this stuff on his own. Obviously, it's already been prophesied. It is the word of the Lord, and he expounds this unto Ahab. And make no bones about this or mistake about this. It's not a mistake of where he is now, too. Remember, Jehoram was wounded in the battle, and he went to Jezreel to recover. Well, Naboth was a Jezreelite, and his vineyard was in Jezreel, and that is the vineyard that Ahab basically stole from him. He had actually Jezebel is the one that had Naboth killed because Ahab coveted his land. Ahab wanted his land. Naboth didn't want to give it to him. So Jezebel had Naboth killed, and then Ahab goes and takes his land, and this is in Jezreel. So the prophecy is, oh, you murdered a man, and now you're going and stealing his land? And then basically your blood is going to be shed in Jezreel. The dogs are going to be licking up your blood, and the fowls of the air are going to be eating your flesh, and you're not going to get a proper burial. Basically, God's cutting you off, and Elijah prophesied that against him. So now we see Jehu finally coming in and cutting off his posterity, cutting off his sons that came after him of whom Jehoram is born from. So he's coming to overthrow Jehoram, kill him and fulfill this prophecy. Now Jezebel was an extremely wicked woman, and I covered this a little bit when we did this chapter, but we're going to do a little synopsis of the things that we've learned already from Jezebel. First of all, she was the daughter of the king of Zidon when she married Ahab. He married into another king's family. Now Tyre and Zidon are historically wicked cities in the Bible, and she was the daughter of the king of Zidon. That's who Ahab married into. He married into another royal family, as it were, and made affinity with Zidon. Ahab's a wicked person, and he's going into another wicked place. She promoted Baal worship. She was real heavy into worshiping Satan because that's who Baal is. He's a false god, worshiping the devil, and she killed the prophets of the Lord. If you remember when Elijah came across Obadiah, and Obadiah tells him, hey, I hid a hundred prophets of the Lord in a cave by fifties, and that's what you're saying, and that was because of Jezebel who was going after God's prophets, going after and killing prophets of the Lord. That's how much of a reparation. I mean, she hated God. She worshiped Satan and was off in destroying prophets of the Lord. Very wicked woman. And then, of course, this whole thing with Naboth was her doing. She was the one that orchestrated the whole thing. She was the one that got the false witnesses to lie about Naboth and to have him killed so that her husband can then go and take this vineyard. So, very conniving, very wicked. And we see here also in this last verse in 1 Kings 21 and verse 25 that she was the one that was really stirring up Ahab and really kind of pushing him to do even more wickedly. I mean, Ahab was, it said here, basically he was more wicked than Jeroboam and Baasha. But the reason why is because Jezebel was the one really kind of behind him and really controlling and pushing him to do wickedness. We even see Ahab, you know, kind of repenting a little bit later, and God saying, okay, well, not in your lifetime, but in, you know, in your children's lifetime, that all the judgment's going to come down for all the wickedness that you've done. So, without that wicked woman influence on Ahab, he probably wouldn't have turned out to be as bad as he was. Jezebel is extremely wicked. Now, when I read this and I'm looking at this, it reminds me of Proverbs 31. Of course, Proverbs 31 is known as the virtuous woman chapter, but at the beginning of that chapter, it talks about, you know, the prophecy that, you know, the King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. And it says in verse number three of Proverbs 31, it says, give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. This is godly wisdom to a king. It was King Lemuel. Hey, you're going to be somebody, you're going to be a ruler, you're going to be in charge of things, you're going to be in charge of people. So you need to make sure two things here. You don't give your ways to that which destroy things and don't give your strength unto women. Now, this was Ahab's downfall. I believe Jezebel just completely destroyed him here because of how wicked she was. And he ended up giving his ways unto her and allowing her to just kind of push him around into doing more and more wickedness. And men need to, first of all, now look, you may be married to a strong-willed woman, but I don't think anyone in here is married to a Jezebel, okay? That Jezebel is like extremely wicked. But just because she was so wicked doesn't mean that we can't take some of these truths to heart. Because God is ordained, and I've gone over this so many times, but I think it's just so important in our culture today to kind of repeat these things and make sure we understand them. And more importantly, that we apply them in our life about give not thy strength unto women because men are meant to lead the home. Men are meant to be in charge. And this is something that it doesn't go well, it doesn't sit well today, but it needs to be preached and understood and embraced. We see an example here with Jezebel. Of course, she ends up destroying him. Now, like I mentioned, I'm not suggesting that anybody here is married to some wicked Jezebel of a woman, but a strong-willed woman that wants to start to rule your house is still going to cause problems and get you into trouble. There's a reason why, and it's not because women are stupid. It's not because they're any less important than a man, but God has designed us differently. And God has designed men to be leaders and to make decisions. And even the Bible references Adam and Eve, how Eve was the one who deceived and not Adam. And apparently it has something inherent to do with our natures as being men and women and the way that you view things and the way that God has made you and the motion that God has given to women versus to men and the way that we think is different. Anyone who's married knows that men and women think very differently. Everybody should know this. This happens all the time with me and my wife. It's actually kind of comical, especially if you're from the outside looking in. It's not always comical from our perspectives because it could be a little frustrating. But when she tries to explain something to me or explain it like, hey, we need to do this, and maybe neither one of us know how to do it, and we're talking about it, and I'll just be like, I don't know what you're saying. I don't even understand what you're saying. And she's kind of the same way with me. Well, this is what we've got to do. She's like, no, no, why don't we talk about plans to do an addition on the house. And she'll say, well, in this area we should do this and this. And I'm just like, I can't even envision what you're saying at all. We just think differently. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I'm better than her. She's better than me because of the way she thinks. However, there are certain traits when you're leading and making decisions in the house of what you're going to do that God is designed for men to be the leader. And when we go against that teaching and the instruction, and we go against the way that God has made us, and men start to allow the wife to make all the decisions in the household and to push them into doing things that they don't think is right, that they don't think that the family should be headed, you're going to be headed towards a disaster. That's because that's the way that you're going to be going against the way that God made things to be. And when you're going against the way that God has made things to be, then it's going to be a disaster. It's not going to do any good for your life. And what that requires is for women to have humility and to just be humble in spirit and be able to allow your husband to make the choices. There's a two-way street here. Men need to be strong. Men need to be able to rule their house well. And women need to be able to allow their husband to do that. And when there's a problem on either side, when you have a real weak man who's not willing to lead, you're putting your wife in a bad spot to then, I mean, someone's got to run the ship, right? And it makes it that much harder for her to be submissive when you're just being real weak and not making a decision. Oh, I don't care. I don't know. Whatever. Do you just decide everything? Look, husband, you're making it really hard on your wife to be in their role of being submissive. And on the other side, when the husband's trying to do what's right and trying to make the decisions, ladies, when you're really just trying to insert your will over everything, you're making it that much more difficult for your husband to be in his role and to do his job. It's a two-way street and we need to be able to fall in. Look, if the husband and the wife could both fall into their proper roles, I guarantee you marriages would be a lot happier because that's the way that God designed it. And it's as simple as that. When we are in God's will, when we're doing the things the way that God is designed for us to be, when men are masculine, when women are feminine, you're going to be happier. You're going to have more joy because you're going to be doing what's right and things are going to work. God has a design in everything. God has a design in nature. God has a design in men and women. And when we're going according to the pattern and according to the way that He's designed things to work and not going against the way that He's designed things to work, it's going to flow. It's going to go smoothly. Now, we're seeing a little bit more about Jezebel. Let's go back to Jezebel. I just wanted to kind of bring that up about Ahab giving his strength unto women and allowing Jezebel. Because look, if Ahab would have been stronger, I know Ahab was wicked, but I don't think he would have done nearly as much as he would. I mean, he should have been able to stop his wife from killing the prophets of the Lord. She was the one responsible for that. You see, we saw Ahab's dealings with Elijah. Remember when Elijah said, call the prophets of Baal, right? And they had the big sacrifice and they were doing all this. Let's find out right now who the real God is. Elijah stood for the Lord and he had all these other prophets of Baal, right? And obviously when the Lord answered by fire, everyone's like, the Lord, He's the God, right? And how did Ahab respond? Did he get mad or angry or like go against Elijah because he killed the prophets of Baal then? No. I think he recognized that. Yeah. I mean, this is what happened is it was right. But then what does his wife do? Jezebel. Jezebel is going after Elijah right away. He didn't have control over his wife. He didn't, he didn't, he wasn't in charge. And that caused for a lot more wickedness to happen. Now again, like I said, when you're applying it to yourself, I get it. You know, you're not, I'm not calling your wife Jezebel, but she is like a magnification of everything that could be wrong with a woman. And we're gonna see a lot more things that are wrong. So one of it was she was real loud and stubborn and controlling and trying to be in charge within her, within her marriage and pushing Ahab to do more wickedly. In second Kings chapter nine, we're going to jump down here to verse number 22. We're gonna see a little bit more about Jezebel in this chapter. In verse number 22, I know we're gonna, we're gonna come back to where we, what we're skipping, but I just want to take this time to cover Jezebel. Verse number 22 says, and it came to pass when Joram saw Jehu that he said, is it peace Jehu? And he answered, what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. So we see now, now when it says there the whoredoms, I believe it's probably talking about her Baal worship and stuff, but it may be other, I mean, it may be like literal whoredoms. I don't know. I mean, that would just be even more wicked because we know she had her whoredoms with, with Baal worship, but then it's also her witchcrafts, right? So, so she was into all this, this magic and witchcraft and, and being, you know, which, which the Bible again says thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. So she's doing all kinds of wickedness. And then down at verse number 30, the Bible says that when Jehu saw was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So now she hears that Jehu's shown up because he's executing judgment. She knows that he already killed her son. He already killed Jehoram. And now he's coming to execute judgment upon her. So what does she do? It says she painted her face and tired her head and looked out at a window. Now these are some, just some more of the attributes of the wicked Jezebel. And this shows that she was full of pride as shown by her apparel. Now, what do I mean by that? Turn, if you would keep your finger here and turn to Isaiah chapter three. Now you can understand what it means when it says she painted her face, right? Now I've heard people preach against just makeup completely and they'll turn to this verse and they'll say, you know, women shouldn't wear makeup because of Jezebel, because Jezebel painted her face. Now, I don't take that strong of a stand on this. Now it does say something when basically this is like the only example we have of makeup in the Bible. Anything that could be considered that. And I'm going to get into this in just a minute, a little bit further, but I don't take the strong saying like all makeup is just wicked and bad. What we're going to see here is a pattern from Jezebel. It says, and she tired her head. Now you'd be like, what in the world does that mean she tired her head? Like it doesn't mean she, her head was sleepy or weary. That's not what the tired that it's talking about. It's actually talking about a tire, like, like a round tire. But, and I know it's like, well, we put tires on our cars and our bikes. Isaiah chapter three goes into this a little bit, and this is the, uh, the cross reference that we could get a little bit better understanding of what type of a tire this is and the type of person Jezebel was. Cause I think she fits Isaiah chapter three perfectly. Isaiah three verse 16, the Bible says, moreover, the Lord Seth, because the daughters of Zion are haughty. They're lifted up with pride and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet. So it's describing their whole attitude, right? They're, they're, they're proud. They're prancing around, making a tinkling with their feet. Verse 17, therefore the Lord will smite with a scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day, the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments. And that's important too. They have more boldness, right? It's their bravery found in what they're wearing. Jehu shows up and what does she do? She paints her face and puts on her tire on her head and gets this bravery to confront Jehu and say, Oh, did Zimrai have peace when he went against his path? You know, so let's keep reading here. The bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their calls and their round tires like the moon. And this is why I believe it's referring to when she tired her head. It's referring to an article of clothing, the round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantels and the wimples and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen and the hoods and the veils. And it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell, there shall be stink and instead of a girdle, a rent and instead of well set hair, baldness instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth and burning instead of beauty. See, this is a rebuke in Isaiah chapter three of the women who are more concerned about their outward appearance and being vain, having people look on me. I mean, look at all the various things that it mentions. I mean, I don't even know what all these things are. But these are all things that are that are forms of apparel or jewelry and things that they're wearing and things that they're they're they're they're putting on themselves to be lifted up more with pride and kind of lifting their necks up in the air and and looking down on people. Why? Because it's all about how they look. It's all about this outward, flashy appearance. And, you know, look how much money I have and walking around like there's something special. And this is wickedness. And this is where I think is when you apply this to Jezebel. Jezebel obviously is full of pride. Obviously, she's full of herself. She comes from a royal family, a wicked royal family already and marries a king and is making all these decisions, putting people to death. And and we see here the evidence she's painting her face and tiring her head and having this bravery to confront Jehu who's executing judgment. Now, turn if you want to first Peter chapter three, first Peter chapter three, because this is the exact opposite of how godly women should be. Now, any one of these things in particular that we read in Isaiah chapter three, I'm not I'm not necessarily saying that any of those things are bad in and of themselves by themselves. But what you see here is this compilation of all this stuff where it's like, yeah, you're you're drawing attention to yourself. And that is the that is what is literally the definition of being immodest. Modesty and humility go hand in hand. Modesty is when it's not all about you. Modesty is when you're not trying to draw attention to yourself. So when women are told in the Bible to wear modest apparel, it means you're not drawing any attention to yourself. And there's many ways you can draw attention to yourself. Typically, when we hear the word modest clothing, you're thinking, okay, well, it shouldn't be really low cut and, you know, exposing a lot of skin and flesh that's going to be appealing to men. Yeah, that is a form of being immodest. Because what you're doing is you're drawing men's eyes on you by revealing a lot of your flesh and enticing men to lust after you. That isn't modest. But that's not the only meaning of being immodest. It's also decking yourself out with chains and rings and jewels and you know, in everything else we see here listed Isaiah chapter three is like they got the change the bracelets, the mufflers, the bonnets, the ornaments of the legs, the head bale, all of this stuff you what are you doing you're at that point you're drawing attention to yourself. That is immodest. So it's not you can't just say, well, I'm not showing skin therefore I'm modest. It's not exactly the way it works. Because the whole point of modesty is not drawing attention to yourself. So if you wear earrings, is that wicked as a woman? No. I mean we see, you know, women wearing earrings that are godly as a godly example and Abraham's servant remember giving putting jewels on Rebecca when she's getting him to be Isaac's wife. That's not, you know, that I don't think that was a wicked thing to have a piece of jewelry or to put a little bit of makeup on your face, right? But not just overdoing it and drawing so much attention. There's a big difference between a woman who puts a little bit of makeup to kind of maybe cover up a few blemishes or something on their face. Maybe they're embarrassed about something and the hooker that puts the big blue, you know, whatever eyeshadow on and the big black, you know, and is drawing the attention to their eyes and to all these other features and stuff. That's a big difference and I think that's wicked and wrong. I don't think any woman should be doing that, you know, that putting on that type of makeup. Just like any other flashy thing or something that's gonna be drawing so much attention to yourself. But putting a little bit on, you know, so that's if you're curious about my stand out, because I've heard this preached on before. Like I said about from this one verse that that it's just all completely wrong to wear makeup as a woman. I don't believe that but I do think you got to be very careful with how it's applied. Just like you got to be careful with what you wear. You got to be careful with how much jewelry put on. I mean all these things you got to make sure you're not getting to this point of being immodest and drawing all this attention to you because it's gonna go to your head. And look, ladies like to receive attention. Guys, it's not as big of a deal. But again, that's another difference in the way that God made us. Ladies like to receive attention. My wife likes to receive attention, especially from me. And that's natural and that's normal and that's good and there's nothing wrong with that. But when you start dressing a certain way and then you start getting attention from a lot of people, that could go to your head. And we all know the women who dress immodestly and do it and they love all the attention that they're getting from the guys. And it goes to their head and then they start being real snobby and thinking that they're better than everyone else. It's what happens. And that's why the Bible warns against that. And that we're supposed to be humble anyways and it's not all about us. So look at 1 Peter chapter 3. We get a good admonition on what a way a godly woman ought to be thinking about, not about all these jewels and all these things to put on. But look at verse number 1 here. 1 Peter chapter 3, the Bible says, Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. Well they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning, now this is talking about what they wear. The adorning of a godly woman. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair and of wearing of gold and of putting on of apparel. And again this is talking about getting like real fancy with all the things that you can do with your hair and putting on gold and fancy clothing. You know you're saying that's not what the godly woman is all about. That's not what you're concerned with. Verse 4, But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. Even the ornament, because all these things you can consider ornaments, putting on jewelry as an ornament. You're decking yourself with something to make you look good. But the way that you ought to be looking good has nothing to do with the outward stuff that you're putting on yourself. It has to do with the meek and quiet spirit. Which is in the sight of God of great price. God values that. God has no value for the $10,000 diamond necklace that you're putting on your neck. Which I don't know what in this church is going to be wearing anyways. So you don't have to worry about that. But look, God looks at that and it's just it's nothing. I mean God created a diamond is just another rock. I mean God made all kinds of sedimentary rocks and you know all these various rocks. Doesn't mean anything. But what God does value is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. And that's what a godly woman ought to be concerned about. And I'll tell you this much. If you spend more time on your outward appearance, ladies, if you spend more time on your outward appearance in the morning, in the day, then your inward appearance, you're not right with God. It's not right to be spending hours in front of the mirror decking yourself out and then spending five minutes in your Bible doing a little devotional or something. It's not right at all. It's wickedness. You need to be more concerned about your inward person than the outward. Now look, there's nothing wrong with looking nice, with being presentable, with being respectable, with caring about the way that you look. I care about the way that I look too. We should care about the way that we present ourselves and the way that we look. I mean you shouldn't just be some slob, right? You shouldn't just just get to some point where it's just like God looks on the inside and not the outside and just let yourself go and stink and have no caring at all about taking care of your body. That's not what I'm saying. But it should be minimal to say, okay, this is acceptable. This is good. If I go out like this, we're good. And it doesn't require very much time and you're not drawing a whole bunch of attention to yourself. So let's get back into the chapter here. 2 Kings 9. So we're going all the way back now. I know we kind of jumped around, but that was the bulk of what I wanted to preach on here because we have Jezebel coming up in multiple places here. And we're not going to see her again. And that was kind of a big point on who she was and how wicked she was. But we're going to go back to verse number 11 here. So now the prophet basically anoints Jehu and then he leaves, right? So now Jehu comes back out where his buddies are, where the other captains are. Verse number 11. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his Lord and one said unto him, Is all well? Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man and his communication. So basically they're like, what happened? Like, is everything all right? And I think this is really interesting too. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? When I say he's mad, they don't mean angry. They're saying this crazy guy, you know, like this guy is mad. This guy is crazy. Like what? Why in the world? You know, this guy just comes in with his box and then he just runs out the door and like, what in the world? But I see this and I go, you know what? This prophet obviously is preaching the word of the Lord and this is someone who's peculiar. Peculiar people. This is someone who's doing what's right. This is someone that that's a good example. I mean, this is what God has called us to be. A peculiar people. People who are different from the world. People who look at this guy and they're saying, this guy is crazy. This guy is nuts, right? Like what is this guy thinking? This guy's real zealous about something. I don't know what the deal is with him. Hey, he's walking right. He's doing right by God because the world's looking at him and going, what's the matter with this guy? He's different. And then of course, Jesus tries to play downplay. He's just like, yeah, you know the guy in this community. You know how he is. You know that guy. And they're like, no, like we don't. Tell us. Like what do you say? Verse number 12 says, and they said, it is false. Tell us now. And he said, thus and thus fakie to me saying, thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then they hasted and took every man as garment and put it under him on the top of the stairs and blew with trumpet saying, Jehu is king. Now these guys didn't even hesitate. As soon as they heard that, they're like, you could tell they had a lot of, first of all, they had a lot of respect for Jehu. He must have been an upstanding man in their eyes and someone that they could look to as a leader. I mean, he was already a captain. But even among the captains, they didn't, as soon as they heard that, they might, I mean, we don't even know if they believed in the Lord or not. I mean, they're from Israel. They probably didn't. So just here, just that little bit was enough for them to say, you know, which also shows you that they had no respect for Jehoram. And people who are really wicked and wicked rulers, they're not going to get respect. I mean, how many people really respected Obama? I mean, even Democrats. He was pretty much hated. There's a lot of people that'd be glad to just have seen him gone and were glad. Now, I mean, obviously I'm not going to talk too much about our current politics because the whole thing is just a big mess. It's not like we're doing that much better now. But in any case, we see these guys are just, they're real quick. Yeah, Jehu's king and they're all behind him. And verse 14 says, so Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshai, conspired against Jehoram. Now Jehoram had kept Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of his ale king of Syria. But King Jehoram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given when he fought with his ale king of Syria. And Jehu said, if it be your minds, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel. So he's saying, okay, if you guys are with me now, here's what we need to do. You can't, you know, we got to make sure nobody's going to go out and just let him know and warn Jehoram that I'm king, right? Because we got to go and get him and don't give him a chance to flee, don't give him a chance to build up a defense and cause a lot more problems. We got to go and take care of this. Verse 16 says, so Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah, king of Judah, was come down to see Joram. And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel and he spied the company of Jehu as he came and said, I see a company. And Joram said, take an horseman and send to meet them and let him say, is it peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him and said, thus saith the king, is it peace? And Jehu said, what is thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, the messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them and said, thus saith the king, is it peace? And Jehu answered, what is thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. So basically what's happening is Joram, he doesn't know who's coming and say, send people out. Are these guys coming to attack or is he coming peacefully? So he's sending out a messenger. The watchman's watching him. He's saying, okay, I see the messenger come to him, but then he just keeps on going. And of course, when they come to Jehu, he's saying, what have I to do with peace? Basically, get out of here or you're going to die too. You're just letting him go. You just keep going. So then verse 20, he says, and the watchman told saying, he came even to them and cometh not again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshai, for he driveth furiously. Another interesting aspect of Jehu says he's able to tell how he's driving the chariot. It says before he driveth furiously. And this is something that's known about Jehu. This is something that's known about him because why? He takes his job seriously. He's in it. He's zealous. And I think this is one of the reasons why the other captains were quick to say, yeah, Jehu will be king. Why? Because he was a great leader. He drove furiously. When he had a job to do, he didn't do it slack. He didn't kind of stroll in there. He didn't do it subtly. He came in full steam ahead. He said, let's get this done. And we're going to see in the next chapter, I believe it is, when he takes someone up in the chariot with him and he goes, come see my zeal for the Lord. That's what I love about Jehu in his stories. He's a man who's, when he's committed to do something, man, he's driving furiously and he's going to go get it done. Verse number 21. And Joram said, make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out, each in his chariot. And they went out against Jehu and met him in the portion of Naboth, the Jezreelite. Again, this is no coincidence. The Bible throws that in and you say, okay, right where he goes to meet him is literally on Naboth's land that Ahab stole from him. That is the point where they end up meeting each other. Boom. Right at Naboth's land. Verse 22. And it came to pass when Joram saw Jehu that he said, is at peace, Jehu? And he answered, what peace, so long as the hoardings of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands and fled and said to Ahaziah, there's treachery O Ahaziah. And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and smote Jehoram between his arms. And the arrow went out at his heart and he sunk down in this chariot. Now, look, that alone is another feat. I don't know how many of you have shot bows before. It's not easy. I have a bow. And being able to draw back says that full strength. So he pulled it all the way back. He's also on a chariot. Jehoram's also running, you know, running away. He's fleeing, hitting a moving target. Boom. Right through the heart. Jehu was a mighty man. Verse number 24. And I mean, you know, there's nothing necessarily spiritual about that. This guy's cool. I mean, the guy's obviously a hard worker. Right. Verse number 24. And Jehu drew a bow. And look, being a hard worker, you know, this isn't in my notes, but when you are giving yourself all and you actually, you know, are known, I mean, he was known. He's a mighty man. He cared about what he did. He excelled at what he did. He worked hard at what he did. To be able to do this is just evident. He worked very hard. When you work really hard and give something your all, you will be blessed. And I mean, he wasn't expecting, he wasn't going, seeking to be the king. He wasn't seeking this extra job, but you know what? God blessed him with it. God saw, Hey, here's a man who's already a hard worker. And look, if you want to be put in positions, especially by God, if you want to be one day leading a church of yourself, you want to be a pastor, you want to get into some other position, you want to, you want to hold a position. And especially in this church, you have to show yourself to be a hard worker and to be faithful, to show up on time and get things done and to be a really hard worker. And then once you're already found faithful, you're gonna be a lot more likely to be blessed with these positions proven. You already proved that you're the hard worker. Jehu proved that he was, that he was a man of his word. He's going to do what he says he's going to do. And, and he was going to get things done. And then he was anointed to be a king. Even when he wasn't seeking it, he received that blessing. Verse number 25. Then said Jehu to Bidkar, his captain, take up and cast him in the portion of the field Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember how that when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord. And I will requite thee in this plat, which is this, this ground basically, saith the Lord. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground according to the word of the Lord. So even Jehu is saying, look, do you remember? He's talking to his Bidkar, his other captain. He said, remember when we were working for Ahab? Because they've been in this for a long time. He's a captain. So do you remember when we were in this with Ahab and Ahab stole this land from Naboth? And, and basically God said that this, you know, this judgment was going to come upon him. So that's why he said, just cast them, cast this guy off, Jehoram, into this plat of ground right here, right in Naboth's vineyard, right here. This is, this is where we're going to let this guy out because we were there when this, this was prophesied against Ahab. We heard that. Verse number 27. Now in verse 27, we're almost done. This is like pretty much the last point. Yeah, one other, one, one, one other point besides this one. So let's read verse 27. The Bible says, but when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house and Jehoram followed after him and said, smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Ger, which is by Iblium. And he fled to Megiddo and died there. Now this is just, I'm going to bring this up really briefly. Turn if you would to the second Chronicles 22. Keep your finger here. We're almost done. Second Chronicles 22, because this is another place that people like to, there's a lot of places in the kings and the Chronicles that people like to turn to and claim that there's some contradiction there. So as I come across the ones that I've heard of or the ones that I've seen, I like to point it out and just kind of give you an explanation just so it doesn't shake you at all. And hopefully it doesn't. I mean, I'm beyond, I'm well, if I wasn't well beyond being shaken in my faith in God's word, you know, I wouldn't even be pastoring, but you know, hopefully you aren't easily troubled or bothered by certain things that might appear to be a contradiction. I've been proven so many, I've proven, I've seen the evidence and the proof so many times that I know, even if I don't understand it like the Ahaziah thing, I don't completely understand that. It is not even a thought of being, oh, maybe this is an error because there's just something that I'm not quite understanding. This has been the case before where I've come across things and I didn't know how, I didn't understand it. And I thought maybe, and I thought maybe it is a mistake. You know, I started to think, well, maybe, you know, because you can't see how, how it could not be an error, but then time goes by and then I realized, oh, the answer is actually really simple. And for some reason I was, I just couldn't see it. I wasn't, you know, my, I just, and, and again, I'm not talking about just, just some stretch of like, we're just wanting so bad to make it work that I'll just come up with anything. No, I mean, legitimate, like, oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. That's exactly why these are, these statements are both true. And I've seen that so many times now, as I said, it doesn't even bother me for a second to see something that I don't quite get, because that's really all it boils down to is I just don't understand something. Verse number, so in second Chronicles 22, so second Kings 927, basically the point that there, that people might point out to you is what happens when they're killing Ahaziah, right? Just kind of the chain of events and things that go on. So in second Kings 9, it says that they, you know, that Jehu said that, hey, smite him in the chariot, right? So, so basically get him while he's still in his chariot. And it says they did so at the going up to Ger, which is by Iblium, and he fled to Megiddo. He ended up dying in Megiddo. And these statements are all true. Now look at second Chronicles 22, verse number seven. It's the same story, same account of the story, basically. Different account, same story. Verse number seven, and the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram. So, and this is, this also provides more clarification. I didn't do this for the sermon that much at all until right now, but you can say, well, wait a minute, Jehu is only commanded to kill Joram. So why is he going after Ahaziah? Well, we see in second Chronicles, it doesn't tell us in second Kings 9, but it tells us in second Chronicles 22, and the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram. It was God's will for him to kill Ahaziah also. God, you know, he was, he was totally acting out what God had, had wanted him to do. So it says, for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu, the son of Nimshai, who the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. Verse number eight. And it's basically because, I mean, this is what it is saying is because, because he was yoked up with Jehoram and he came out against Jehu. Like he's, he's buddy buddy with Jehoram, so he's out there going out with Jehoram, like as a defense. Look, if you're going to side with the wicked person and someone's coming out to execute judgment, well, guess what, that judgment could just fall upon you too, because you're taking the wrong side. So verse number eight says, and it came to pass that when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab and found the princes of Judah and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them. And he sought Ahaziah and they caught him, for he was hid in Samaria. So now this is saying, well, wait a minute, I didn't see anything about Samaria in second Kings chapter nine. And then it says, and brought him to Jehu. And when they had slain him, they buried him because said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom. So this is what people say, oh, well, which is it then? Is it Samaria or is it Megiddo, right? Well, it's all of them. So basically what happens, Jehu comes up and his primary task is to kill Jehor, which he does right there in Naboth's vineyard. He takes care of that. Well, while this is going on, he warned Ahaziah, he said it was treachery. He goes off and gets killed. Ahaziah sees this and he takes off. So he runs, he gets out of there and he doesn't die right there in Naboth's vineyard with Jehor. He actually gets away, but Jehu and his company are chasing after him. So he goes to hide himself in Samaria and then he gets hit in his chariot when he is going up to Ger, it says, which is by Iblium from second Kings nine. And then he ends up ultimately at Megiddo and dies there. So they're going after them. They caught him. They found him. They caught him in Samaria because he was hiding out there, but he was still able to, you know, it says they brought him to Jehor, but I don't think they necessarily, you know, physically like laid hands on him and brought him to him. Jehor was, I think behind, you know, the other guys went out and found him and Jehor was coming to meet him, which they were driving him towards Jehor. They kill him in the chariot by Iblium and then he flees to Megiddo. And when you look at this stuff on the map, because I looked this up, you have Samaria, Iblium, Megiddo, like all like in a line, like because he's going from one and kind of running towards that and going here and then ending up at that last location and dying there. And then they bring them back and bury him. It's not that difficult a concept. It's not some big error. It's just different information that we're receiving. It's more complete. See, now we have a much more complete picture of everything that happened because we have the two different accounts and they're both true independently of each other because they're both complete true statements, but they do fit together. It's not a problem. And this one isn't some big problem. It's not like I've seen this really thrown around a whole lot, but people try to just find every little thing they possibly can say, Oh, see, this is an error. So let's go back and finish up. Second Kings chapter nine verse 28 and his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in a sepulcher with his fathers in the city of David verse 29. And in the 11th year of Jorm, the son of Ahab, began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. And when Jehu has come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and she painted her face and tied her head and looked out of the window. We read this already. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, had Zimrai peace who slew his master. And he lifted up his face to the window and said, who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trode her underfoot. So basically he shows up and he's like, all right, who's on my side? And we see this, you know, a few times in the Bible where people say, you know what, choose you this day whom you're going to follow. There comes a point in your life where you got to decide whose side are you on anyways. Don't be a middle of the road guy. Don't be one of these people that wants to be friends with everybody. Whose side are you on? Choose a side and get on it. Now we ought to be on the Lord's side. That's the right side. Choose you this day whom you serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now men may go on opposite sides. They might switch sides somewhere midstream. So we got to make sure we always stay on the right side and follow whoever's doing what's right and not get sucked away with someone even if they're doing wrong. Let's stay on the right side. Let's stay on God's side and see sometimes you have to be bold in your service, in what you're doing. He was asking them to throw her out the window basically. Who's on my side? Well show it. Prove it. Step up to the plate and do something about it. It's one thing to say you're on my side. Why don't you actually do something about it? Phineas was on the Lord's side when he picks up his javelin and he thrust through the people that were committing the formula that were just in blatant disregard to God's commands in the camp. There's a lot of people who have done very bold things because of their zeal for the Lord and wanting to do what's right. So he called out here these two or three eunuchs. They're like yeah we're on your side and they throw out the windows. This is a big mess but look this is where this wickedness all leads to. I think this is a proper end. You could say oh but she was a she was a princess. She was a queen. This is what her wicked life resulted in. She was being thrown out a window and being trampled by horses. Not only that it says in verse 34 when he was come in he did eat and drink and said go see now this cursed woman and bury her for she's a king's daughter. After he is trampled on her everything else he's like you know what we should at least bury her because she's a king's daughter. He's trying to you know he's getting a soft spot now for for treating her with some level of respect but God says no. Look at verse 35 it says and they went to bury her but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Can't even bury her. Wherefore they came again and told him and he said this is the word of the Lord which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite saying the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. Then he came back to his mind again oh yeah yeah we're not going to bury her. Why? Because the word of the Lord says she's going to be eating my dogs and you know and this is all that's left of her. She lived a wicked wicked life and in the end that's what she gets and it says verse 37 the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field and the portion of Jezreel so that they shall not say this is Jezebel. I think there's a two you know a dual meaning here that one she's not going to get any type of recognition of like this is Jezebel you know like no burial anything like that because there's no body to bury but I also think that she was popular. I think she had a lot of influence on people whether it be because people were scared of her but you know there's a lot of times where people just even with wicked rulers have a tendency to still give a lot of respect towards them and will honor people way more than they ought to because you know she's a daughter of a king because she was a king's wife or whatever. And God's saying no I don't want anybody lifting her up at all and saying oh this is Jezebel. She's not going to have that honor at all because of how wicked she was. That's the way her life ended up. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for for all the instruction in your words your god I know in our society and in the way that we've been brought up and and the way that the world is God it can be easy to not have a proper heart to not have the right attitude and to not be able to easily receive your words just because of all the wicked influences that we've had in our life. God I pray that you please soften our hearts. Pray that we could all have a very sincere heart and attitude to do what's right according to your words whether or not we understand them. Dear God help us just to to be faithful enough to do them. Help us to to to get to gain the understanding and help us also to just have the humility in all of our hearts to make changes where they're necessary to be more conformed under the image of your son. Dear God help us have the right spirit and to to fight the good fight and to be on the right side dear Lord to be on the side of truth and and righteousness. Lord I pray to you please just bless our church and help us all to continue to grow through your grace in Jesus name we pray.