1 Kings 17 – 19 (Re-run)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Goes. Welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add On Education Network. The podcast where we take a look at the weekly Come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I am your host, Jason Lloyd, here in the studio with my friend and this show's producer, producer Nate Pyfer What's up, Nate? [00:00:35] Speaker B: Hey, buddy. [00:00:35] Speaker A: It's always good to be in the studio. [00:00:37] Speaker B: It is always good to be in the studio. I live in the studio, so it's. It's. But even then, it's still always good to be in the studio and not in a cubicle. I know that it's. That's great for some people and it's not for me, so it is always good to be in the studio, Jason. Yeah. [00:00:52] Speaker A: And where I don't live in the studio. It's nice visiting the studio. [00:00:54] Speaker B: You know, I love having you here. [00:00:56] Speaker A: I love being here. I'm sure that's not why you guys tuned in. [00:01:00] Speaker B: No, it totally is for us to talk about the studio. Dude. Living the dream. [00:01:03] Speaker A: Living the dream. Hey, thanks, guys, for listening. Let me give you that shout out. We appreciate you guys listening to the podcast. We appreciate your support, and we appreciate the positive feedback that you've been sending our way. And we'll take any kind of feedback, positive, negative, or random. Just send it to hieeklydeepdive.com. [00:01:23] Speaker B: negative feedback, though. We can't promise that we won't have a little bit of fun with it. Okay, I'm just throwing it out there. I'm just throwing it out there. Sometimes have a little bit of fun with it because life's too short to get too upset over. Yeah, we don't mind, but we also take constructive criticism and take it for what it's worth. But we also are willing to have you help us see our blind spots as well. [00:01:49] Speaker A: And deconstructive criticism? Is that a thing? [00:01:52] Speaker B: Deconstructive criticism? I mean, I've never heard that before, but I like the sound of it. Right? Yeah, I kind of. I kind of really like it, actually. Okay, we'll take your deconstructive criticism, too, and for sure we're just gonna have fun with that. [00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah, roll it our way. Okay, so this week's lesson, we're back to, like, a manageable portion of scriptures that you can read. Okay, first kings, was it chapter 17 through 20? You're talking about a very limited scope. Unfortunately, we skipped, like, all of kings to get there. [00:02:31] Speaker B: Bummer. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Then you go from, like, Solomon to Ahab and you're like, wait a Second, how did we get to Ahab? What happened? The whole kingdom split and all of that history got left on the cutting floor. And not to mention last week, we ran out of time and we didn't even get to Solomon because I was still stuck on David. So there's a lot of material that still needs to be covered. If you guys are okay with it and even if you're not, sorry, because you don't get an input at this point, we're gonna go. I'm not saying that in, like. I don't care what you say going forward. I'm saying that in the sense that right now I can't ask for your input because we are recording. It's too late. [00:03:15] Speaker B: It's too late. [00:03:16] Speaker A: It's too late. Sorry, guys. We're going to do it anyways because Solomon's important. Yeah, we didn't get to touch anything of Solomon. We were talking about David. In fact, if I can even just mention Absalom, is that okay? [00:03:32] Speaker B: We did Absalom last week, but you need to talk about. You need to finish that story. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, we said we were going to talk about him and we ran out of time. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Well, then let's talk about it now. [00:03:41] Speaker A: So maybe we'll do a little bit of Absalom, a little bit of Solomon. I promise I'll keep it brief because today we're talking about one of the greatest biblical characters of all. Bibbledom. [00:03:52] Speaker B: Bibbledom, yes. Okay. [00:03:56] Speaker A: As long as we're inventing words here. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Okay. If that's what we're doing, then that's what we're doing. I didn't realize we were inventing words, but Elijah. Let's talk about the other stuff first, because Elijah is great and we need to spend time there. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to spend a lot of time on Elijah. Guys, this is going to be the meat of our message before we get there. Let's just. Let's just wrap up old King David. Saul. Amen. Not Saul. And move into Elijah. So we talked about David and Uriah last time, and maybe it's worth noting. Uriah, the Hittite. Why is it significant that this guy is a Hittite? Hittites come from a kingdom outside of Israel. They did rule over Israel for a portion of time in their history. But the fact that Uriah is living in Israel and going to war, more importantly to support the Israeli cause, is that he has converted himself and his household to God, to Jehovah, and to the Israeli nation. And I find it interesting that here you have this Outsider, this Gentile that is going to war, and tells David, I can't feel comfortable sleeping in my own bed while the rest of Israel, not even his people, are laying on the ground. And David is Israelite, the king of the Israelites, he should have been on the field with them as well. So it is an interesting point to mention that he's an outsider. But because of what happens with David and Bathsheba, we're going to get to some interesting history. David's son rapes his daughter. [00:05:46] Speaker B: David's daughter. [00:05:47] Speaker A: David's daughter, his sister. Not. Not his son's daughter, his sister. And, and it's. It's kind of a stepsister. David has lots of wives, so it's not. It's not his direct sister, half sister, is that the way you put it? Not step, half, half sister. And Absalom is the sister's full brother. And, and he's pretty upset about what happened to his sister. And he's going to David and crying for justice. And David turns a blind eye to it, obviously. This was something that was horrific. This is something that shouldn't have happened and something that is going unaccounted for. So Absalom takes matters into his own hands and he slays his brother because the king either can't or won't. And not only are we starting to see a weak side of David in failing to execute judgment or justice in this case. And, and maybe it's because of his own sin, knowing that he had taken Bathsheba. And how can he execute his son for taking a woman that's not his wife when he's done something similar? Would he be condemning himself? Maybe this whole judge not lest you be judged or with whatever judgment you judge out, that's what's coming your way. I don't know. In any hand, Absalom rises up and he is going to take over. And for a while he actually takes over the kingdom of Israel. David is exiled and has to flee. Absalom sets up a tent on the roof of the palace and takes David's wife into it or one of his concubines and goes into the tent in front of all Israel because it is a power play. The idea that if you sleep with the king's wife, you are taking on the king's role, you're putting yourself in his shoes and you are stating that you are the next king. We've seen this with Abner before, and the reason I bring it up, even now, we're going to be talking about this with Solomon understanding Some of the things that's going to happen when he takes over in his reign. So he becomes the king, and he is ruling for some time over Israel. David is again on the outs, just like he was in the beginning with Saul. And he's living with men loyal to him in the army. Joab, the same one that slew Abner. And Joab takes an army to go in and fight. This is Absalom and Absalom's army. And they go. And as they're fighting, Absalom flees on a donkey, which actually is the royal animal back in the time a king rode on a donkey. And as he is riding away, he's got these wild, long, flowing locks of hair that get caught up in the lower branches of a tree that he's riding under. And it's enough that it pulls him off of the donkey and he's left trapped by his hair. And David had left explicit instructions to Joab, do not lay a finger on my son. He wanted to repair that relationship and figure things out. Joab, taking advantage of the opportunity, treats him like a pinata and runs javelins through him and kills Absalom. That is the end of his reign. And David takes the throne again. Very sad and distraught. So David, he had kind of a rough life with some of the things that were happening around him. Despite it all, he is counted as one of Israel's greatest rulers of all time. He was able to conquer a lot of territory, maybe second only to Solomon. But again, Solomon's not the benchmark. All of the other kings are going to be compared to David. Anything you want to add there, Nate? [00:09:41] Speaker B: Nope. [00:09:43] Speaker A: Solomon. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Solomon. That's what I want to talk about. [00:09:47] Speaker A: Okay, so David's getting old, and he has promised Bathsheba that he will have her son take the throne. But, of course, you've got lots of different sons here. And some of them, seeing that their dad is kind of weak and unable to. To be as strong or powerful or the influence that he was trying to take advantage of, him still being alive to take the throne and avoid any of the fault or confusion after his death, they get a priest to anoint them and make them king and declare them king. And word gets back. So you have a priest loyal to. In fact, it's going to be Nathan who's loyal to Solomon. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah, baby. [00:10:33] Speaker A: The same one that talks about the sheep story. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah, baby. [00:10:37] Speaker A: And so the word gets back to Bathsheba, and she comes to David and said, hey, you promised it would be my son. What's going on here? And so David calls Nathan and they anoint Solomon and they make a big deal out of it and say he is going to be king. And kind of corrects this to make it clear the path for Solomon. Solomon dies, Solomon dies, David dies. One of Solomon's other brothers asks a favor, but rather than ask it from Solomon, he asks it from, correct me if I'm wrong, Nate, Bathsheba, he says, hey, can I have the concubine that David had at the very end of his life? Because he took a young woman because he was cold at night, he couldn't get himself warm, and he would lay with her, but he couldn't have a kid with her. He wouldn't lay with her in that sense. It was just. He needed some body heat to try to keep him warm at night, and he wanted that young woman to be his. But again, go back to the story of Absalom. Sleeping with the king's concubine wife is paramount to saying, I'm going to be king. And here he is saying, and he knows Bathsheba, she's a younger wife. And here this concubine is kind of taking her place and replacing her role. And she's probably not getting along very well with this. She wants to see she doesn't have the best relationship with this other concubine. Maybe she would be happy to have this girl go to one of Solomon's brothers and to be done with it, right? So maybe that's why he's coming to her. And he says, I don't want the kingdom. I'm not going to make a play for it, but please let me have that wife. But it doesn't matter if you do or you don't. This is the image, this is the symbol. And if you're doing this, you're going to have people supporting you and wanting to put you in that cause if there's any disagreement or concern or worry that Solomon's not going to be adequate. So when she comes to Solomon and makes the request, Solomon has his brother executed for asking. So his reign starts, kind of an interesting little reign. Solomon starts reigning at a very young age, some say 15, some say 20. He was a fairly young king and he's got a very interesting life. And. Nate, you want to talk about this? Don't let me forget anything here. If there's anything you want to add, you know, make sure you jump in on this. [00:13:11] Speaker B: I have a couple things, but I'm going to let you do your thing first, okay? Because you'll probably get. You'll probably talk about the stuff I want to talk about. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Well, and you got. You got Solomon, who has dreams and he communicates with God at night. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Would that make him a seer? [00:13:28] Speaker A: A lot of people count him as a prophet and maybe even a seer in that sense. Because he is seeing things, he is treated as a prophet. Solomon is credited for writing three books in the Bible. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Do we talk about David writing some books in the Bible or. [00:13:42] Speaker A: No, we haven't, but we should. David also composed the psalms. Okay, so you see, almost every psalm begins with a psalm for David or a psalm of David. And David was a musician and he composed. And he composed all of these psalms. And so we credit psalms with David and proverbs with Solomon. Solomon also wrote Ecclesiastes, which gives us an interesting peek into his life. And he wrote Song of Solomon. He's also written some other books that are non canonical, canonical, canonized, canonized. They're not in the Bible as we have it today. The Odes of Solomon, the Wisdom of Solomon, and a lot of writings of Solomon actually accredit him with a lot of casting out of demons and different spells. It's just kind of interesting, the occult following with Solomon. So we'll talk about psalms when we get to psalms. Maybe with Solomon. Let's circle back around to Ecclesiastes as we talk about maybe the end of his life, because I feel like that's an interesting summation of where he got. And maybe let me just throw this in. I do not think, in fact, I know that Song of Solomon is not in the Come follow me curriculum. [00:15:11] Speaker B: What? [00:15:14] Speaker A: You sound surprised, Nate. [00:15:16] Speaker B: What? [00:15:16] Speaker A: Sarcastically surprised. [00:15:18] Speaker B: What? How? [00:15:22] Speaker A: And I know, I think Joseph Smith made the remark that you could seal that portion of the book shut and skip it and be just fine. And I don't think he had a very high opinion of it. [00:15:34] Speaker B: Come on, brother Joseph. [00:15:35] Speaker A: But I will say that among the rabbis, when there was disagreement about what books in the Old Testament to be kept to be canon, to be part of their scripture, as they would dispute about the different books and what deserved to be there and what didn't, after tensions got high and they were kind of hot, finally one of the rabbis stands up and says, pas, Pas or peace. Okay, we can at least all agree on this. The Song of Solomon is the most important book of the Bible. And I don't think he was being sarcastic. They actually hold that book in high regard because they look at that intimate relationship and they feel like it really syncs with the intimate relationship that God has with Israel. This idea that there is intimacy with that covenant relationship and how God loves us and how we should love him. So there was a lot of treasure with that book. That being said, I feel like there is a bonus episode down the road where we can treat this book with some level of decorum and respect and. And maybe give you guys some. Some insight into it and maybe appreciate some of the poetry that's in there with. Without. I mean, I. I still feel like there's a reason that it's in the Bible, and I feel like we can handle it and. And do it in. In a. In a good way. [00:16:59] Speaker B: We'll see. [00:17:00] Speaker A: We'll try. [00:17:01] Speaker B: We'll try if we could. That's a. That's a lofty goal to be able to, like, have. Find really amazing, deep meaning and appreciation out of that book. That is kind of considered a little bit just funny at this point. Yeah, we can do it, though, Jason. You and I, we're gonna pull it off. [00:17:17] Speaker A: In fact, one of my favorite verses of all the scriptures in Song of Solomon, just for the poetic brilliance that it has, the Janus parallel, and you guys have probably heard me talk about that before. If not, I think Janice, parallel is one of the most brilliant tools or pieces of writing in the scripture, but we'll get there. Okay, let's go back to Solomon dreaming at night and communicating with the Lord. The Lord asks him, and here you have a young Solomon, what is it that you desire? And the Lord is almost like a magic lantern type deal, like you rub the lamp and genie's going to grant you whatever. And we have a couple instances of this happening in the scriptures, right? You've got the. The apostles that were asked, what would they like to receive after they died. And the Lord is giving them this opportunity to ask whatever is in their heart, and he is going to grant them this desire. And asking Solomon, what is it that you desire? He could have asked. I mean, here you have a king. He could have asked for dominion, that his kingdom be established forever and his sons after him, and that they get to rule the world. Or he could have asked for wealth, that he is the most famously wealthy king, that he has all of this. But he asks instead for wisdom. And God says, I will grant you wisdom. And you can kind of see this. If you are a young king and you are not sure exactly how you are supposed to be king or what you are supposed to be doing, you don't have that experience. Teach me how to be king. Help me to be the kind of king. And if I can be that person. Then the rest of it can follow. And God grants not only that he will have wisdom, but because he is wise enough to ask for wisdom, that he is also going to grant him wealth and power and dominion as well. That is going to be something that he is going to accumulate as well. And so Solomon becomes extremely famous for his wisdom. When he writes the book of Proverbs, he is trying to record a lot of his wisdom for his sons to help them be wise. And by the way, Proverbs is one of my most favorite books in the Old Testament. I used to read that a lot as a kid. All right, so we know the story of the two prostitutes that both end up having a baby. And one of them oversleeps her baby and kills it, and the other one doesn't. And the one that kills her baby in the night takes the dead baby and swaps it with the live one. And so on the next morning, the mom of the live one knows that the dead one's not her. So it creates this disagreement, and they have to take it to the king to settle this issue. Whose baby is it? And they don't have paternity tests. And, boy, I mean, we see this discussion even today. Who is the daddy? Well, I guess it is not who is the daddy, but whose baby is this? [00:20:29] Speaker B: You are not the father. [00:20:31] Speaker A: You are not the father. And they take this to Solomon, and we know the story. He says, cut the baby in half. And the mom, who is the mom of the baby says, no, she can have the baby. And I find the wisdom in this. And even if she is not the biological mom, she is most certainly the better mom, caring more about the life of the baby than the situation that she's in. Right. And I think that's the wisdom of Solomon. Finding a test or a way to see who's truly going to care for the baby's best interest. Not the mother's best interest, not what's fair on the surface, but who's truly going to have the baby's best interest in mind? [00:21:25] Speaker B: Let's keep going. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Everybody knows that story. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Everybody does. [00:21:30] Speaker B: So let's talk about the downfall of Solomon. [00:21:34] Speaker A: That's a good point. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Are you not ready to get there yet? [00:21:36] Speaker A: Let's do it. I mean, he builds the temple and he has the dedicatory. [00:21:39] Speaker B: I know, but let's talk about that. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Did we. [00:21:43] Speaker B: I don't think we've talked a lot about the. About him building the temple, but. And again, correct me if I'm wrong. [00:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Hit us up on the temple, Nate, [00:21:51] Speaker B: correct me if I'm wrong, I know where it's coming about the amount of years on this, but let's hear it. So I'm glad you brought up the story about this baby being cut in half, because it's kind of a. It's kind of a foreshadowing of the heart, I feel like, of David. It's kind of. David's downfall is his. Is his heart and his allegiance, Solomon's heart and his allegiance and his devotion became more and more split throughout his reign as king. Something I find interesting, and I kind of just want to throw. Throw some. Throw this to you in a couple ways, is what is the significance of the time that it took him to build the temple, which I believe was seven years, but we could probably check. I'll probably check just to make sure. Versus the time that he spent building his palace and his house, which was unnecessary, which was. I think even. Which was like 13 years or something. Or I might have the dates that I was wrong. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Well, and that's the thing. Because David, when the reason he's building a house is because Hiram, the King of Tyre, is bringing all these cedars to Lebanon and he's receiving all of these gifts and he is being gifted this palace, this mighty fine palace, which [00:23:11] Speaker B: he should have been using for the temple. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Well, David feels bad because he says, how can I dwell. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:23:16] Speaker A: David, David, David, David, David. How can I live in a home when the Lord still sits in a tent? [00:23:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:23:24] Speaker A: And so I am going to build the Lord a temple. And then he's told, you know, this is great because of this desire and because you were thinking of the Lord, we're going to establish you, and it will be your family that rules over Israel in perpetuity here. But you're not going to build it. Your son is. Now, David, on the other hand, but builds his palace. So Solomon inherits a palace already. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Yes. [00:23:56] Speaker A: But he's still going to take time to build on his palace. [00:24:00] Speaker B: A lot of time. And dedicate. A lot of time. And in furnishing the two. [00:24:06] Speaker A: And the time he spends. This is where you're heading on this, Nate. The time he spends on his palace, which is already built, versus the time he spends on the temple, which hasn't been built yet. You would think he would spend more time on the building that hasn't been built yet, but it's the opposite. He spends a lot more time on his house than the house of God. And so you look at that dividing, and it is a Good. Interesting image, this idea of cutting the baby, how he splits his time. [00:24:35] Speaker B: Let's look at some of the other things in life too. You know, he. And we've talked about this before how there's always. It just seems like in the Old Testament especially that there's always a connection between idolatry and fornication. Right. Or, or, or lust or basically things of the flesh. Right. And when you look at the life and the marriages and the. Just it's like the multiple, multiple like wives and concubines. It's he. Solomon begins to even like worship their idols as well as his God. It's like he almost has kind of one foot in each of the camps. Right. And whether that be just to appease these women that he was, you know, lusting after and in love with and, and again in relationships that weren't appropriate completely. I don't know. Is there, is there something even there too? It's like that's almost a heart divided as well. I don't know. But, but I guess what's interesting is all of this is basically going to lead to the division of Israel, right? [00:25:46] Speaker A: Yes. Solomon is the last king of united Israel and it is going to split. [00:25:51] Speaker B: So I'm just saying it's like there is just this interesting kind of through line that the, that the story that everybody knows of Solomon is cutting the baby in half. And then the idea of just Solomon himself being cut in half and then the kingdom eventually being cut in half. [00:26:07] Speaker A: He couldn't love with all of his heart like the mother needed to. And as a consequence, things split with Solomon. Well, right after Solomon. And it's interesting because my least favorite book in the Bible was probably Ecclesiastes. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Really? Why? [00:26:28] Speaker A: It was just so depressing. Oh, it was. Proverbs was my favorite. Ecclesiastes was my least favorite. And it's interesting that both are written by the same man. But I have a new appreciation for Ecclesiastes because as I go and I read it and what he's saying is everything is worthless under the sun, right? And he talks about. So I think Ecclesiastes is being written towards the end of his life. So Proverbs, he's writing to try to guide his sons. Ecclesiastes, he's writing in kind of a reflection and it's a very interesting perspective, as depressing as it is. He says, I tried to find happiness from a source other than the Lord. And it talks about how he would try to find happiness in first seeking wisdom. He thought, surely I'm going to find happiness here. I'm going to learn everything I can and be as smart as I can, and that's going to bring me happiness. And he does. And after he's dedicated so much to wisdom, he feels hollow. He says he feels like he's chasing the wind. It's a senseless endeavor. He says, okay, if that's not going to bring me happiness, what will? And so he turns to lust. And you mentioned it. He has. And maybe I have these numbers reversed. It's a thousand. He had either 700 wives and 300 concubines or 300 wives and 700 concubines. Either way, 1000 women that he was connected with as king of Israel. A lot of these, as you say, are political relationships. And he is marrying women outside of their belief system, which is also bringing in different gods to worship. And he's turning towards different things. So it talks in Ecclesiastes how he's going to pursue lust. Maybe lust will make me happy. And after chasing all these women and all the desires of the flesh and not finding happiness there, he says, again, it's foolishness under the sun. I wasted my life. It was like chasing the wind. It didn't fulfill me. So I turned to wealth, and I tried to amass as much wealth as I could, and I did not deny myself any pleasure. And so he would just. And you can almost see in Solomon. Oh, go ahead, Nate. [00:28:54] Speaker B: I was gonna say he's moving from one idol to the next. He is the idol of the flesh, the idol of gold. The idol. It's like he's just chasing an idols. And again, that is what an idol is, right? Is a false sense of something, of meaning. Right? It's the cheap version of something of [00:29:13] Speaker A: value, man, is that they might have joy. God's whole purpose is to make us happy. When we turn away from God, that happiness is impossible to find anywhere else. It's just like a drug addict chasing the next high or any other thing that we use to try to replace God with as a form of happiness. And that's the great lesson that Solomon learns. And so I kind of have maybe in my adult life a better appreciation for Ecclesiastes than I did. I don't just see it as a depressing book anymore, but rather an addict's lesson. Having chased happiness in wisdom and knowledge and learning and not finding it there in sex, in relationships and women, and not finding it there in wealth and power and then building projects. This guy was a builder. He built the temple. He built his house. And as you say, he dedicated a lot more time on his house. He had harems and women and he thought anything that would make people happy, I am going to include, I'm going to put it in here. And he had building projects all over the kingdom and he's accredited. This is like the golden age of Israel history. They're united and they're flourishing and prospering. And he's doing all of these projects. He's not an idle man sitting by wasting away doing nothing. You know, you look at King Noah in his wickedness and you talked about this Nate, this idea of art maybe flavoring or tainting our image of a bad king. And you think of him just, you know, this heavy set king with a wine glass in his, in his hand. Yeah. Who's just kind of lazy. [00:30:51] Speaker B: It said he was lazy. [00:30:53] Speaker A: It said he was lazy. Solomon is not lazy. He is maybe even obsessive compulsive. Chasing happiness in all the wrong places and it's right. Doesn't work make us happy. Don't we find joy in what we do? But at the end of the day, he says all of these things that I constructed with my hands, all of these waterworks, all of these buildings and all of this, whatever, it was like chasing the wind and there is no joy under the sun. It was for naught. There was no. It never made me happy. How does that work? How do you not get happy accomplishing these things? [00:31:37] Speaker B: It, I mean, I have answers to this. I don't know though. I don't want to jump in if you're. [00:31:43] Speaker A: No, do answer away because that's the [00:31:46] Speaker B: whole, that's the whole lie. That's Satan's lie. Even in like when we're, when he's going through opposition in the temple, right? That good, evil, whatever, whatever pleasure and pain. It's like those two things, I don't know. I don't know if those are direct opposites. Right. I don't know. Like, it's almost like Satan is always trying to kind of twist the thing like pleasure and pain. I don't think that those, I just don't. I don't think that those are necessarily even two necessary things. I don't know. It's just those, those two things always stood out to me. Right. But it's, it's, it's idolatry. It's, it's the idea that again, you have something that you feel either even great about in the moment or you think, oh, big picture, this is going to be something fulfilling. But if it's. If you're not doing something, I don't know, with the right intent or the way that God wants you to do it, or. I don't know, it's like, even in this life, we have fun doing stuff, right? Like, I'm. Dude, I love. There are a lot of fun things that I enjoy doing. I like golfing, I like playing video games, all this stuff, right? And I can also go, hey. But as soon as those things start to take time away from the important things that are actually lasting, not only in this life, but the next life, then does that become one of these things that you're talking about, right? A building project that's unnecessary and taking time away from the temple that you should be building? [00:33:15] Speaker A: Yes. And I look at this, I think it's something very common in our culture, this idea of a midlife crisis when you've had time to accomplish something and you're starting to get a little bit older, and you look back on your life and say, what have I done? And you've had a lot of fun, right? Maybe you've played around with golf here and there and played video games, or you've created a great job and you've built your own little empire or whatnot. But maybe you start to question your value and say, am I going to have a lasting impact? Is this really bringing me happiness? Or was the happ I was seeking all this time fleeting? And what can I do to chase that happiness? And Solomon's capturing this so very well. And you can see as he turns away from the Lord and starts chasing his happiness in all of these different places. Very industrious, very prosperous, and he was blessed and he did a lot of great things, but it left him feeling hollow and empty. And Isaiah, I think, says it so well when he talks about dreaming, right? And you're trying to eat, and you wake up and you find out that at the end of the deal, it wasn't anything. And maybe the best way to sum this up is no amount of success can compensate for failure in the home. This idea that if we build this whole idea of happiness in an empire outside of. Of where it should be and dedicate all that time to our own house and not God's house, we're going to find that it's kind of a hollow, fleeting image in the night that wasn't what we thought it was all going to be. It wasn't cracked up to what it should have been. Awesome. [00:35:03] Speaker B: I think that's good for Solomon. Should we keep going? Yeah. [00:35:07] Speaker A: And that's really kind of a good segue into Elijah, because Elijah is going to address that very same issue with Israel, because he's going to say, how long Israel are you going to be worshiping the Balaam, the Baals, the false gods, and the Lord at the same time? And you're trying to split your time thinking that you're going to make both happy and it's not going to work. But as good as a segue as it is to Ahab, I feel like we would be doing injustice if we just skipped Solomon to Ahab. Like, there's a lot that happened between A and B. And maybe it's worth mentioning that at this point in time, the kingdom is going to split in two. After Solomon's death, you have his son who's going to take the throne. And let's. [00:35:57] Speaker B: Let me. As I'm flipping around here, Ahab is in the captain of the Pequod. Pequin. Pequin. Pequin. I don't know. What's the name of that boat? And Moby Dick. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say Moby Dick. I didn't read that book, Nate. [00:36:12] Speaker B: I tried a lot, I think. I think I'm gonna give it another shot, though. I like the idea of Herman Melville just trying to show off how brilliant he is with the English language, but I was always an Ernest Hemingway fan. I'm like, man, let's go hunt some whales, bro. Like, I don't need all the details of the. The pulpit that the preacher's standing behind for seven chapters. Like, let's go kill some whales. Don't judge me. I might give it another shot now that I am older and can probably understand it a bit better. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Maybe I should give it a shot, too. [00:36:43] Speaker B: Ahab. [00:36:44] Speaker A: Ahab, the captain. Okay, so I'm going to pick this up in Kings, chapter 11, very end, verse 43. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, his father and Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his stead. Now, Rehoboam, he's kind of an inexperienced king, and he's got all of his father's counselors that are on standby. And this is an interesting time, the transition from a king here. And all of the princes of Israel are coming to him a little hesitant, like your father. This guy amassed a lot of wealth and a lot of power for Israel, but he did it on our backs, so to speak. He had high taxes, and he used those for all of his building projects. It's great. But this burden has been heavy to Bear, how are you going to reign Israel? Next? They're not terribly happy with how things finished with Solomon. So he goes to his counselors, and Solomon's counselors are telling him, look, you've got to kind of tread lightly here. You don't have the same clout and establishment. You've got to give a little bit here and work with them and be passive. And then he goes to his friends. And I think there's some wisdom in what we learn here. Verse 10. And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, thou shalt speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it light. Excuse me, trying to read here. Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us thou shalt say unto them. So hear the people saying, the yoke's heavy. Please make it lighter. Tell them my little fingers shall be thicker than my father's loins. That's [00:38:44] Speaker B: slam. [00:38:46] Speaker A: That's a crude way of saying you thought you were getting it bad, it's going to get a lot worse. [00:38:56] Speaker B: But it's also a dope diss track. Keep going. [00:39:01] Speaker A: And here he is faced with two options, the foolhardy guys I grew up with or the wise counselors to the previous king. And unfortunately for Israel, he chooses his friends and he says, hey, I've got a name to make for myself. You thought my dad's yoke was heavy? Higher taxes, more. We're going to have. Israel's going to have. We're not even to our glory days yet. It's going to be more powerful, it's going to be bigger, I'm going to be better. And it did not go well for Israel. And the kingdom fractures. This is where we get a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. So for you guys who are talking about, like, if you don't understand Israel's history and story, this is a very critical, defining moment. The northern part is going to be headed by the tribe of Ephraim. In fact, it's often called Ephraim. And you've got the 10 tribes up there. When you're talking about the lost 10 tribes, this is where this is kind of coming from, the southern kingdom that supports Rehoboam, because Rehoboam is from the tribe of Judah, just like Solomon and David before him. It's going to be supported by Judah in the south. And so the southern kingdom is Judah, northern kingdom is Ephraim. And the Bible that we have is told from Judah's Perspective where the northern kingdom, we don't have a lot of writings or sayings of their prophets. So we talk about the stick of Judah, the stick of Ephraim, that's the stick of Joseph. That's where we kind of have this split. So you now have a divided Israel, the southern Judah, the northern Ephraim, and sometimes also the northern you call Israel, while the southern you call Judah. That's where this dividing moment happens. Then we have a whole series of kings that are trying to hold it together, the north and the south. And the north is a little bit worried that the south and the north are going to reconcile because the north, the temple is in Solomon built it, it's in Judah, it's in Jerusalem. So if they have to worship, they have to go to Jerusalem to worship. And if they keep going to Jerusalem to worship, and that's where the center is, that's where God is, they feel like the north is going to reconcile and rejoin the south and unite behind them like they did David. Because originally David, if you remember, was a split Israel in the north and Judah in the south. And Judah supported David, while the rest supported Ish Bosheth or Ish baal. To prevent that, the king in the north created a temple like setting in the north for the people to worship at. And he did it by building these golden calves. Take this back to the story of Moses in the Israel in the wilderness, these golden calves. And they would worship these. He created these places of worship in the north so that they could worship without having to go to the south. So this is kind of an interesting critical moment defining history. Fast forward, we're going to get to Ahab now. That's going to take us into Elijah, where we want to have the heart of this today. And finish with Ahab marries Jezebel, and Jezebel worships the Baalim, baal, and not only baal, but Ashtaroth. So BAAL being the Lord, this Jehovah character, the God, and then Ashtaroth being his consort, his wife. So kind of this heavenly father, heavenly mother type thing. And she introduces this practice to Ahab. And Ahab introduces this to Israel. And Elijah is the prophet here at this time, called to be the prophet. And he goes to Ahab and talks to him and says this, this is not acceptable. Ahab's not very happy about it. And it gets to the point where Elijah is going to seal up the heavens and cause it so it won't rain and that there'll be a famine in Israel. And Ahab is ticked and so he orders this, the. That Elijah be executed, that they take him into captivity and they execute him because he is the bane of Israel. Elijah runs and he's kind of hiding out next to a stream of water underneath a bush. And it says that ravens are feeding him morning and night. They bring him meat and bread and he drinks water from the brook until it dries up. The word for Arab is the same way you spell the word for raven. I am just going to float this out there. So when you are translating this, it is just as valid to translate it as the Arabs were feeding him in the morning and the evening, being these Gentiles on the outside that were taking care of him when Israel rejected him. You could also translate it as raven. I don't know why they went with raven. It's. It's. You spell Arab the exact same way, [00:44:25] Speaker B: but maybe it makes for a doper story. [00:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't. I don't know that I'd be a huge fan of roadkill being dropped off every morning and night with some. And how is the ravens like, are they stealing bread from bakeries and bringing it to them? Because they don't bake. [00:44:45] Speaker B: Wait, ravens don't bake? [00:44:48] Speaker A: Not these ones. Which in my mind once. [00:44:53] Speaker B: Do any ravens bake? [00:44:54] Speaker A: No. [00:44:55] Speaker B: Okay. [00:44:55] Speaker A: Unless it's like the Baltimore Ravens. [00:44:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, baby. Ray Lewis. [00:45:00] Speaker A: So in my. In my mind it makes a little more sense to translate it as ravens. Sorry. Yes, as Arabs for sure. But I don't want to take anything away in so doing by saying that God can't cause miracles to happen. Very likely he could have commanded the birds and the beasts to be taking care of and providing for his profit. Absolutely. I just think it makes more sense that it would translate it as Arabs. I think it's a miracle enough that you have people coming and supporting him that are outsiders, that aren't even Israel, that care enough about the prophet of God to take care of them. You don't need to make the miracle even more fantastic by saying birds did it. And I hope at this point in the Old Testament, you guys have noticed how common a theme it is. Uriah, the Hittite, Rahab in Jericho, Ruth and Boaz, and now the Arabs taking care of Elijah. This is not just a one off mention. There is a very significant problem with Israel turning away from the Lord, rejecting him, and the Lord sending his prophets to the outside. You're going to see it with Jonah going to Nineveh. We'll talk about that later this year. This is Very prominent in the Bible. When the brook dries up and he has no more water, he has to move on. And he goes to another outside city. The Lord says that he'll have someone there waiting for him. He meets this widow at the gates. And the widow is out at the gates going to gather two sticks together to create the fire, to bake a cake, a last meal for her and her son, and then they're going to die. Elijah meets her and says, do you have any bread? And she says, I'm going to make some. It gives them the situation. And he says, okay, please take me in and feed me first. Which is kind of a demanding thing to ask a widow who has nothing left. Give me your mites too. And she does. And the interesting thing about this, even though he's not in Israel, she recognizes him as a prophet. And she worships the Israelites God. She swears by Jehovah and she says, by the Lord, all caps. And every time you see Lord, all caps in the Bible, this is the divine name by the Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, your God. And she calls him your God, not our God or the God of Israel, because she's an outsider. By the Lord your God, I believe these things, I will do these things, or I will swear unto you. She is a believer from the outside who can recognize the prophet of God when Israel itself can't. And she makes this final mill and Elijah blesses her. And so that the meal never perishes. And when they say perish, the Hebrew word mean here never runs out, it never disappears. She always has it until the Lord's going to send rain again. And it is a miracle. The coolest thing in my mind about this miracle, Elijah was such a great prophet. The name Elijah, his full name is Eliyahu. Eli means my God. Yahu is Jehovah or Yahweh, My God is Jehovah. That's what his name is. And as he comes into this place, the coolest thing is Israel after Elijah. They believed that the Lord would send Elijah again before the coming of the Messiah. And they associated this with Passover because it would be a time when he is going to lead the people out of Egypt out of bondage and save them. So Israel every year at Passover sets a place at the table for Elijah. If you have six people in your family, you are setting seven places and you leave the seventh place empty for Elijah to come in the door and to share that meal with you because they believe that he is coming back. And in The New Testament, Christ mentions this story about Elijah and says, there were many widows who were starving in Israel, but to none of them did Elijah go, but to this outsider, to this Gentile woman. And a famine of food is synonymous in the Bible with apostasy. A famine of the word of God. Man does not live on food alone, bread alone, but also on every word that proceed with the mouth of God. When you don't have food, you're not having revelations. The reason why the heavens are sealed is because God had them shut up. If you're not going to listen to my word, if you're going to shut me out, then I'm going to shut my water upon you. And the rain is often associated with revelation. If you're not going to receive my revelations, you're not going to receive my rain. And your crops are going to perish. You're not going to have food, you're not going to be nourished, you're not going to have the word of God synonymous. This story is very prophetic because on Passover in 1830, April 6, Jews all over the world had set their setting for Elijah to come and unto none of the widows. And it's also significant that it's a widow, because what does it mean? A widow is somebody whose husband is dead. Israel is the widow. Why are they the widow? Because their husband was crucified on the cross. Their husband was dead. And in a time of apostasy, when Israel had gone astray, unto none of these widows did Elijah come, but to the Gentiles, to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple. On April 6, Passover, Elijah came and gave him the keys, a forerunner in the restoration of the Gospel. It's just a fascinating story to me that fits so well with this. This idea that an outsider, a Gentile, is going to receive this. And not only they received it, but with the promise of the restoration of the gospel was the promise that this gospel would never again be taken from the earth. The mill would never perish, the oil would never run out. The gospel will never be taken away from the earth again. We will not see another apostasy until the Savior comes. So I love this story. [00:51:54] Speaker B: Fantastic symbolism in that. Great insight. Seriously, it's great stuff. [00:52:02] Speaker A: And yeah, I mean, powerful story. And we can recount, you know, later her son dies. And it's interesting because she has this guilt complex because she says, surely God is punishing me for something she did. It doesn't say what she did. It doesn't matter what she did. For some Reason she feels it's her fault that her son is dead. She asked the prophet to raise him. The only reason I bring this story up is I think it's fascinating. It says that the breath had gone out of him. He wasn't breathing anymore. This kid was dead. And so Elijah asked the Lord to bring this kid back. And it's not just enough that you say, okay, command that his spirit's in there and the kid's going to live again. Instead, Elijah lays on top of the boy. So he takes the boy, lays him up in the bed, and then he lays and spreads himself out over the boy three times. And then the life comes back into the boy. And the reason I bring this up, we're going to see this again with Elijah later on when the rain comes back to the earth, is when God is going to do something. It's not that I asked the Lord to do it, and he doesn't. The Lord acts on faith. And as the Scriptures say, doubt not, because you see not, for you receive no witness until after, after the trial of the faith. How does God try our faith? Faith is the principle of action. He can't try it unless he asks us to act on it, to do something. There is a physical action that is accompanying these miracles. Anoint your eyes with clay in the spittle, or go and wash yourself in the Jordan, or in this case, lay on the boy three times. And it's not until you act and do those things that you're proving that you have faith, that the miracle then follows and the boy is risen from the dead. And so I, I felt like it was interesting enough to mention that and talk about it because this is going to get interesting in the next story of Elijah. And I'm sorry, I'm probably running us way, way on time. Let's get to the next story. [00:54:09] Speaker B: Is there any symbolism in that at all of, like being buried for three days? Or does that, Is that too much of a stretch? [00:54:17] Speaker A: I don't think that's too much of a stretch. [00:54:19] Speaker B: I think there's, there's. It's even interesting, though, how the son was alive, was buried for three days, and then breath was returned to him or whatever. [00:54:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's. [00:54:31] Speaker B: I like the subtle hint in there [00:54:33] Speaker A: because you see the same thing with Lazarus, who was dead for three days, and you're gonna see the same thing with Christ when he dies. [00:54:41] Speaker B: I just, I love that the Old Testament continues to have just a treasure trove of signs all pointing to Christ. And I hope that when Jesus comes back, it will be not the hardest thing in the entire world for the awesome Hebrew people to accept. [00:55:04] Speaker A: I also don't think it's a coincidence that you see that message in Malachi, the last scripture in the Old Testament, that I will prepare my messenger and send my messenger before my face to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, that Elijah will come. And you see that as the very end piece to the Old Testament. And then the New Testament Christ comes. And of course, you also have Moses on the Mount Transfiguration, Elijah coming to the apostles there before Christ performs his ultimate work in Jerusalem. They're very closely associated, Elijah, with the keys and the coming of Christ. Elijah is a very powerful figure in the Bible. [00:55:46] Speaker B: He was an awesome prophet. [00:55:47] Speaker A: He was. And we're going to see some of his personality in the next deal because now he's going to go back to Israel. You would think that these years of famine would maybe cause the king to soften his heart a little bit. Ahab, on the other side, on the other hand, is actually trying to get all of the neighboring kings to look for Elijah and send him back to him. Like, he's got a bounty on his head and he's looking for him. So Elijah goes to Obadiah and says, hey, I'm ready to talk to Ahab. Have Ahab come and meet me here. And Obadiah is like, not a chance. If I tell him to come, and then the Lord carries you off with a spirit somewhere else. And then. And then he's going to look at me and like, where's Ahab? And then I die. That's not cool. And so Elijah has to promise him, like, I will be here. The Lord's not carrying me off. I'm not running away. I will meet with Ahab. Ahab shows up. And Elijah's words here are very powerful. He says, go and get all of Israel and all the priests of BAAL and gather them together in this valley. And this place on Mount Carmel, it is the best place for this. It is surrounded by a wall on three sides, and you've got this platform on the fourth where all of Israel can see what's happening. And this is also the place where the altar of the Lord had been built and had been destroyed later when Israel turns and starts worshiping false gods. So he's going to take people back to their roots and create an audience where he can perform the miracles and try to reinstate the correct worship among Israel. And I don't know how he talks Ahab into doing this. But Ahab goes and he brings Israel, at least a large portion of Israel, and the priests of BAAL with him. For some reason, the priests of Ashtaroth that he asks him to bring as well are left out. And I don't know if it's just Jezebel says, no, they're not coming or what, but they don't end up showing up for this deal. And Elijah says, how long, Israel, are you going to limp? And it's cool that you don't see it in the English. The Hebrew word here is limp. How long are you going to limp on both sides, BAAL and the Lord? Because you're trying to pacify the BAAL and do what he wants, and at the same time, you're trying to not upset the Lord and do what he wants. But it says, I, the Lord God, am a jealous God. You shall not have any other gods before me. The very act of worshiping the BAAL and the Baalim, you can't worship God and worship them, too. You can't walk in both worlds. And so that's why I love that he says, limp. How long are you going to limp in both worlds? So taking that back, Nate, to how you're saying, dividing the baby. Israel's dividing the baby. The baby can't live. This is impossible. You can't please God by worshiping both on the same time. And I think today, in today's world, how many times are we limping in [00:59:12] Speaker B: two worlds, especially as members of the church. Yeah. [00:59:17] Speaker A: And sometimes maybe we're ashamed of the church and we try to limp in that other field. [00:59:21] Speaker B: Yep. I think that it's the easiest thing in the world to try to do whatever we can to convince everybody that, oh, no, we're just normal like everybody else. Well, we're commanded not to be. We're commanded to be a peculiar people. We are set apart, and we're supposed to be. Right. [00:59:41] Speaker A: And we try to blur that line a little bit. [00:59:43] Speaker B: I think we do. And, I mean, I know that. I know that I am just as guilty of it as everybody else, but I'm just. [00:59:49] Speaker A: Oh, me too. [00:59:50] Speaker B: It does make you think, though, right? It makes you think specifically of this. And it's like, are we. What. What are we doing to. To not be afraid to stand up for what we believe, you know? [01:00:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, he catches them speechless. They don't say anything. And. And he's like, either BAAL is correct, in which case stop offending BAAL by worshiping Jehovah or Jehovah's Correct. In which case, stop worshipping BAAL to offend him. You've got to choose. You got to pick sides. And it's interesting how he sets this up, because remember, this actually goes back to the very beginning when Moses consecrates the priests, the sons of Aaron. And you remember, fire came out of heaven onto the altar. And. And then Aaron's sons, not in the morning and not in the evening when the time of the offering was, but at an odd time of the day, they offer their own fire and they're struck dead. Remember that. So going back to that moment, here is the same spot they're building this. Elijah is going to rebuild the altar using 12 stones, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And he's going to lay the wood in order. He's going to. You listen to the language. He's doing everything how it was originally commanded to be done. And he's going to have it, the offering, in the morning or in the evening. And he gives the first spot, the morning, to the priests of baal, the Baalim priests. He says, okay, choose two oxen and you pick whatever one you want to sacrifice and give me the other one and I'll offer it as a sacrifice. And you set up your altar and you put it on here. And you can go first, you can take that morning spot to offer up fire and to offer this up to your Lord. But you can't light the fire. You have to have your gods do it. Because when Israel was first established, the fire came from heaven. I don't think that's what people realize here. This is him going back to their roots. When Israel was founded, this is what happened. Is this really the God that brought Israel out from Egypt across the Red Sea and established him in there? If so, let's worship him. I'll give you your chance. Have him repeat that miracle. So the priests of baal, the Baalim, the priests, they're cutting themselves, they're doing these rituals and they're dancing. And it says it takes it all the way to midday. So from the morning to midday, they're trying to get fire to spontaneously erupt onto the altar and burn up their offering that's on there. And Elijah, after midday passes, starts to ridicule them. And I love it because he says he does. He says, perhaps your God is away, or maybe he's pursuing. And the Hebrew word here, pursuing is maybe he's in the bathroom and can't hear you. Yeah, maybe your God had to stop by at the bathroom. So maybe you should call him a little bit louder. You know, maybe he's just one of those gods that has to spend a little bit longer in the bathroom to avoid his kids or something. Like, maybe. I don't know, See what you can do. Make. Make more ruckus. So he ridicules them, and they can't. For whatever it's worth, they try. They try. They try in nothing. Now, to make matters worse, when the evening time comes, this is Elijah's spot, right? The morning he gave to the priest. Now it's the evening time when the offering should be done. So he's doing it in accordance with the law of Moses. Remember that they are in a time of famine and it hasn't rained for several years. And he requests barrels of water to be poured all over his sacrifice. Here's this water that you want so bad that you need for your crops, that you need. And douses it all over and enough that he builds a trench around the altar. And they pour this water a series of times to the point where the water flows over and fills this trench to where it becomes a moat around there. And then fire comes from heaven and consumes the sacrifice, consumes the stone of the altar, and goes all the way out to the bridges of the water. And the interesting thing, when they first met Elijah and Ahab, Ahab says, you are the bane of Israel. You were the cause of this drought. You were the ones that sealed up heaven. And Elijah says, no, no, no, no, no. The reason the heavens are sealed is on you. It's your fault. And so here's this contest to show it. It is the heavens that are consuming the water in the land. It is the heavens that dried up all the water because they were worshiping the wrong God. So he makes this message clear to everyone. You worship the wrong God. And this. [01:05:02] Speaker B: What happens also not to be lost is the. We've talked about this, and there's kind of the parable of how to make your. How to overemphasize your point. How to set up. How to set up a moment for a spiritual, you know, like, understanding for other people. It's. I don't think that it's by coincidence that he let the BAAL priest take the morning. Because even had it happened, I guess, in the middle of the day, it's still probably not as spectacular of a thing as at nighttime, fire coming when it's dark. That's what I mean. Because everybody can see it. Like, you'll see that from everywhere around, right? Yeah. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Even if you're not there. [01:05:47] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. You're making a point. You're making a point to make sure that you are over emphasizing to everyone around. See this? And I like, I do like the idea that he saved the headlining spot for himself when it was dark and he could really overemphasize the miracle. [01:06:09] Speaker A: Well, and then he executes. He has them round up all the priests. [01:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's the grand finale. [01:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And executes him at the water. And it's weird because he's telling Israel, not only have I made my point, like, you worshiped a different God, this is the God you're supposed to be working. Go back to your roots, rebuild this altar, turn back to the Lord so that this dearth can end. But then he tells his servant, this is worth reading, Nate. This is worth reading. Let me give me a second to turn here. Okay. Okay. So right after he executes the priests of Baal, I'm in verse 41, First Kings, chapter 18. And Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So he says, this dearth of rain is about to end. Go eat and drink, because it's coming. So Ahab went to eat and drink, and Elijah went to the top of Carmel. So he climbs to the top of the mountain and he cast himself down upon the earth. And not only does he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. So I'm just thinking about this with all the superhero movies that we got up here, after he had the fire come down from heaven and consume it, and after he executes all the priests, he climbs to the top of a mountain, jumps off the mountain down into the valley below, and lands with his head down in a kneeling position. And you're like, what kind of superhero. [01:07:47] Speaker B: This is the ultimate grand finale. This is the show of a lifetime for all of the people around the area. [01:07:56] Speaker A: And this is where his servant comes in. And he says to his servant, go up. Look now towards the sea. Okay, so after all of this traumatic, he's got his dramatic entrance right at the end. So it's almost an entrance exit. Go look now at the sea now. And he went and looked and said, there is nothing. You're like, well, that's kind of anti climatic. And then he says, go again. And he comes back, still nothing. Okay, go again. Still nothing. And he does it seven times. And so when he comes back the seventh time, he says, well, there's a little cloud. It's about the size of a fist here, not that big. He's like, yeah, it's time. It's coming. And it came to pass the seventh time. He said, behold, there rises a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. It's coming. So then he prophesies that the rain is on its way and that the Lord is the Lord. And so Ahab has to go and. And ride out before he gets caught in the mud to return to Israel. And the weirdest thing about this to me is Ahab just witnessed this miracle, this phenomenal miracle. Here he is, the king of Israel. What do you do with something like this? And he comes back and he tells Jezebel, and Jezebel says, are you kidding me? I will not stop until Elijah is dead. May God destroy me if I don't make Elijah like the priests of BAAL that he destroyed. How dare he destroy these priests? And Ahab must not have had much of a backbone to, at this point, still not support Elijah and still not stand behind the Lord. And we get one last story about the story of Naboth. And I've talked a lot, so I'll just kind of sum this up and just finish off with the story of what happened to Ahab. And maybe, Nate, you can finish us off with. Give us a little insight. [01:10:03] Speaker B: We're way out of time. If anything, we'll do it in a bonus thing, I promise. Okay, [01:10:11] Speaker A: this guy named Naboth, by inheritance, by lot, by Israel, how it works, he has this property, this nice vineyard, and. And Ahab and his wife, they want it, Jezebel wants it. And so Ahab, kind of this guy without a lot of spine, keeps bowing to whatever his wife says. And she concocts this plan to falsely accuse this man, to kind of set him up and to get him executed so that they can take his vineyard. So you almost have the story of David taking the one wife away from this guy, but it's not wife in this case. It's their setting things up to steal this land and take it away from Naboth. And because of what happens, that's the final straw. And they prophesy of the death of Ahab and his wife and his family and how they're all just going to get wiped out. And in the end of the deal, they kind of get their justice, if you will, in the story of Ahab. So that's. That's that's not the end of Elijah, but it's a very powerful introduction to Elijah and who he is and the kind of run ins that he has with the king and kind of the situation with Israel as they've decayed and let their kings lead them astray from worshiping the Lord and just, I don't know, powerful section. [01:11:34] Speaker B: Awesome, man. Let's wrap it up. Okay. [01:11:36] Speaker A: Any. Sure. There's nothing you want to add? [01:11:38] Speaker B: I mean, the only thing that I was going to say is interesting. As we were talking about it, I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump on and look at some stuff real quick. And it is interesting a lot of the people for Moby Dick, you know, because in Moby Dick, it talks a lot about Jonah and the whale, especially early on the Leviathan. But as we know, spoiler alert. Ahab becomes just obsessed with the one thing and that is killing this whale that already took his leg. And it's this whole thing. But it's interesting because if, if you look at the story that we just got done talking about, it's that, you know, Ahab even in this case is just solely obsessed with trying to take out Elijah. And in a lot of the symbolisms in, in Moby Dick, you know, God is kind of the whale, right? It's like this unbeatable force that this man, who is insignificant to this thing, becomes so obsessed with still trying to conquer. And so it's kind of interesting if you look at the. For those of you familiar with Moby Dick, I just liked the idea that Elijah in this case is the whale, that even though he kind of has to hide out for a little while, when he comes back, he comes back basically, and lays waste. [01:12:58] Speaker A: Well, you look at the crew like Israel, right? That because of the captain. [01:13:02] Speaker B: And that's the thing is the crew all ends up, they suffer with him. And it's funny because in the book, you know, the crew on multiple occasions were like, hey, are we sure we want to do this? Hey, are we sure we want to do this? And then, you know, especially if you've ever seen the movie, there's the famous scene where, where Ahab's like strapped to the side of Moby Dick and the rest of the crew is like, I guess we, let's. We gotta go, dude. We gotta follow the captain, man. So they all to their own peril as well. So it's kind of a funny story. [01:13:33] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:13:34] Speaker B: But I, I, for those of you Moby Dick fans, have fun. Have fun going down that, that thought. Yeah, Lane. All right, what are we talking about next week? More. [01:13:46] Speaker A: More kings in Israel. [01:13:48] Speaker B: Sweet. Well, then, until next week. [01:13:50] Speaker A: See ya, [01:13:57] Speaker B: Sam.