Clean Transcript

Charging God Foolishly

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

• To 2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 24 through 33. 2 Kings chapter 6, beginning there with verse 24. The title of the message is "Charging God Foolishly." Charging God Foolishly. So, 2 Kings chapter 6, and let's begin reading there with verse 24. "And it came to pass after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king! And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?

  #1 | 0:00 to 1:03 | cleaned

• Out of the barn floor, out of the winepress. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him. And I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him, and the king sent a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head today?

  #2 | 1:04 to 2:00 | cleaned

• Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is it not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him, and he, that would be the king, he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer? Now look at verse 33, the latter part. "Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer?"

  #3 | 2:01 to 2:34 | cleaned

• Sin, rebellion, exasperation, frustration, and ignorance oftentimes motivate us to charge God foolishly and wickedly as the source of our problems, afflictions, and destructions. We seldom think of our own wicked ways and our own sins and our own rebellion as a source of our problems. No, we've learned like Adam to shift the blame. And when God asked Adam, "What is now done?" "It was the woman that thou gavest to be with me." Eve, "What have you done?"

  #4 | 2:35 to 3:17 | cleaned

• "Well, it was the serpent and he beguiled me and I did eat." And so neither one of them willing to confess the fact that they had sinned and violated the law of God. And so like Adam, what happens when we are in situations and circumstances that are beyond our control, and there's no way in the world we could possibly work them out, then we foolishly blame God and charge Him. And we've not sufficiently grasped this fact that to do such is a slap in the face of God.

  #5 | 3:17 to 3:48 | cleaned

• It is a denial of His goodness, His justice, and His wisdom. It is also an attack upon His sovereignty and upon His providence. Obviously and clearly, most Christians today do not have the faith or the patience of Job. You remember the fact that Job lost all of his possessions in one day. And the Bible tells us that Job was the greatest of the men of the East. When you read in the book of Job of all the oxen that he had, and the camels, and the asses, and the sheep, he lost everything in one day, including ten children. So he went from a multi-millionaire in one day to absolutely broke. Moreover, he lost all of his children. And the Bible tells us in Job 1, verses 20 through 22, "Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground in worship and said, Naked came I forth from the womb and naked shall I return.

  #6 | 3:48 to 4:55 | cleaned

• The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And the next verse says this: "In all of this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." When you stop and think about this, the loss of all of our possessions in just one day would be enough to drive the average Christian insane and into absolute denial. And if you added the loss of all of his children and our grandchildren.

  #7 | 4:55 to 5:30 | cleaned

• On top of that, it would be almost an insurmountable grief. But not only was Job then attacked by losing all of his possessions and his children, but also his body was attacked in the fact that he was smitten from the top of his head to the bottom of his foot with sores. And the Bible tells us that he took a potsherd and sat down in the ashes to scrape himself. So evidently, his body was being eaten of worms and he was scraping them off and scraping them out as they would stick their head out. And he was in such misery and such grief, in Job chapter 2 and verse 9, his wife said, "Dost thou still maintain thine integrity?

  #8 | 5:30 to 6:14 | cleaned

• Curse God and die." In other words, get over this. Just curse God and allow God to kill you. Get over it. And verse 10, Job answered and he said, "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and not receive evil?" And then the next verse says this: "In all of this did not Job sin with his lips." So he lost everything and he was smitten and he still did not charge God foolishly.

  #9 | 6:15 to 6:50 | cleaned

• How often have you and I whined and complained about our situation, our circumstances, and our trials? We bellyache. We become sullen, morose, and insolent. And we think, if we have not said it, but we think, well, God doesn't love me. God doesn't care about me. God is not concerned with me because if He loved me and He was concerned about me, He wouldn't let this happen to me. I wouldn't be going through this situation.

  #10 | 6:51 to 7:23 | cleaned

• Woe is me, poor little me. So in one instant, we simply deny the great grace of God, His mercy, His kindness, His love, His providence and His wisdom. And we become like those Israelites in the wilderness who constantly and consistently provoked God. Let me just read this passage to you. God said concerning these Israelites, "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened unto my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.

  #11 | 7:23 to 8:17 | cleaned

• Neither shall any of them that provoked me see it, but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land where he went, and his seed shall possess it." Now, the interesting thing is this: God said these people provoked me ten times. They tempted me ten times. But the Bible also said they saw His glory, they saw His miracles, they saw His power. They knew who God was, and they knew what God could do, and yet in light of all of that, they still bellyache and whine and complain and did not trust God. You see, the truth is this.

  #12 | 8:17 to 8:55 | cleaned

• Most Christians have never ever learned to control their thoughts or their emotions. We've never learned how to reject unbiblical and ungodly thoughts. We've never learned how to live by biblical principles. The truth of the matter is most Christians always give in to their feelings. They get into their emotions. They get under the situation, under the circumstance. And they totally, absolutely forget about biblical principles. Usually you ask someone how they're doing and they will respond, "Well, all right, under the circumstances." Then you must ask them, "Well, what are you doing under the circumstances?" I mean, you should be above the circumstances. In other words, the circumstances and the situations are not to control us. We are to control them now.

  #13 | 8:55 to 9:46 | cleaned

• Unhappily, when we don't, then we end up despising the Lord, denigrating His word and dishonoring Him as well. Now our text demonstrates such a spirit in the king of Samaria. That's why in verse 33 he said, "Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer?" Now, you're going to ask me, who was this king of Samaria? And I'm going to respond, I really do not know.

  #14 | 9:47 to 10:23 | cleaned

• It could have been Ahab, but in all probability, it was his son Jehoram. If you would look back in your Bibles to 2 Kings 3 and verse 1, you'll see Jehoram is beginning to reign. So the Bible says, 2 Kings 3 and verse 1, "Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria, the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned twelve years." So if we take this in the context and just, if everything is in chronological order, in all probability, it would be Jehoram. However, if you look down in your Bibles to verse 32, some have suggested that this may be an answer. In reality, it's not an answer. But if you look in verse 32, where the king of Samaria is called the son of a murderer, the Bible says, "But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him, and the king sent a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head."

  #15 | 10:24 to 11:37 | cleaned

• Well, hmm, it is true that Jehoram was the son of a murderer. Ahab had Naboth and his sons murdered, and probably a whole lot of other people as well. But then also Ahab was the son of Omri. And Omri murdered Tibni and a whole lot of other people as well. So both Ahab and Jehoram were both sons of murderers. Both were exceedingly wicked kings and defied the Lord and they worshipped idols.

  #16 | 11:38 to 12:13 | cleaned

• Now it is true that they tried to worship God under the two golden calves that Jeroboam had built. But in reality, they were worshipping and serving Baal.

  #17 | 12:13 to 12:24 | cleaned

• Now, what has happened in 2 Kings chapter 6 is this. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, has attacked. He has surrounded Samaria. No one can go in, no one can come out. And so it does not take long then for starvation and famine to stalk the city and reduce the city to what you and I would call desperation.

  #18 | 12:25 to 12:47 | cleaned

• Now, when we stop and think about a famine like this, we tend to think today it's impossible for something like that to happen in our land. I mean, look at all the stores that we have and look at all the food that is stored in Walmart and Costco and all these other Sam's Clubs. It's just impossible. What we don't understand is this. Most of our grocery stores, the ones that we see every day, do not have a warehouse stocked with food in it or items of necessity. Most of these grocery stores today have what is called just-in-time delivery.

  #19 | 12:48 to 13:30 | cleaned

• So, if I'm stocking 20 boxes of grits, and I have plenty of grits, when I get down to 5 boxes, my computer kicks in and says, you better order some more grits. And so I order them just in time when those last five are purchased, I've got 20 more to sit on the shelf. And when you stop and think about this, when the trucking industry goes down, when the power grid goes down, the grocery stores are not going to be resupplied and restocked.

  #20 | 13:31 to 14:07 | cleaned

• Look at the food lines that are now in New York, California, Oregon, two miles long, four and five and six cars wide. People begging for food and wanting food to be given to them. So we used to often think and say, well, a famine like that could never happen in this country. All it takes is a drought. All it takes is a flood. All it takes is a failure for the Lord to send rain upon the crops. And yes, we will have a very severe failure of crops in this country, and we would have a famine. Now, the famine was stalking this city, and the people were starving, and they were eating whatsoever they could eat. So if you look down in verse 25, the Bible said, "And there was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver." That's 80 pieces of silver. "And the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." Now, the Bible says an ass's head was sold for 80 pieces of silver.

  #21 | 14:08 to 15:24 | cleaned

• Of course, asses or donkeys were unclean. Therefore, such a food item would only be eaten as what you and I would call the last resort. The head of the donkey had to be not only the worst, but also the cheapest part. How much meat could you get off the skull of a donkey's head? Stop and think about that. Hardly any at all. And yet it would cost 80 pieces of silver. And the truth of the matter is, donkeys were unclean. I mean, breedless.

  #22 | 15:25 to 15:58 | cleaned

• The book of Leviticus, chapter 11, verse 3. The clean animals parted the hooves and chewed the cud. A donkey may chew the cud, but he didn't part the hoof. And so now you're paying 80 pieces of silver for something that is not only unclean and unwholesome, but probably not very nourishing either. Now, secondly, they talk about the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung that was sold for five pieces of silver. First of all, a cab, in our text, is a unit of measurement.

  #23 | 15:59 to 16:31 | cleaned

• It is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible except in this passage. But based upon historical writings, a cab is a dry measure, and it was called the sixth part of a seah, which was about a third part of an ephah, or in our language, a fourth part would be equal to about a pint. So you are paying four pieces of silver for a pint of dove's dung. Now, you're going to ask, what in the world was dove's dung? Sometimes it was called sparrow's dung. There have been certain commentators who tried to say, well, dove's dung was a type of very sorry pulse. Pulse was nothing more than peas.

  #24 | 16:32 to 17:24 | cleaned

• Like a wild field pea or something like that. You remember Daniel, when he was fasting, he did a partial fast. He ate nothing but pulse and drank water. Well, the pulse that he ate happened to be peas. That's all. He just had a meal of peas and drank water. Well, some say that it was a pea. But the answer is, I believe it was real, genuine dung from birds, whether it was doves or sparrows or pigeons.

  #25 | 17:25 to 18:00 | cleaned

• And the record of sieges show that both animal and even human excrement were used as food under the most extreme circumstances and necessities. In fact, in 2 Kings 18, verse 27, Rabshakeh was threatening the people of Judah for the king of Assyria. And he said, if you don't surrender, he said, every man on this wall will be eating his own dung and drinking his own urine. That's what he was saying. That was the threat.

  #26 | 18:01 to 18:37 | cleaned

• In other words, it was going to be a real difficult siege. Now, John Trapp, the old Puritan, said this on this verse. Listen carefully. He said, "An ass's head sold for fourscore pieces of silver, for four or five pounds or ten, some would say," talking about English pounds. Now, listen to this. "When Hannibal besieged Cassilene, one mouse was sold for 200 pence." One mouse. You say, I've never eaten mice. I've never eaten a rat. Really?

  #27 | 18:38 to 19:15 | cleaned

• Years ago, we had Harlan Popov in our home. And our girls were young and the twins came running out and said, "Look, Mr. Popov, look at our gerbils." Well, Popov was in a Romanian prison for, what, 14 years. And when he saw those gerbils, he said, "Rats." "No," they said, "Mr. Popov, they're gerbils." "Rats," he said, "I know what they are. I had to eat them for 14 years just to stay alive." Yeah.

  #28 | 19:17 to 19:50 | cleaned

• So he is saying that in this siege, one mouse sold for 200 pence. And then he goes on to say this. Listen carefully. "Puddings made of dogs' guts were dear bought at the siege of Skrodra." Can you imagine eating a pudding of dog guts? Well. Let me tell you why I think that when he talks about dove's dung, it is indeed real dung from birds. If you will skip down to verse 27. When these women asked for help, look what he says in verse 27. "And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?

  #29 | 19:51 to 20:35 | cleaned

• Out of the barn floor or out of the winepress?" The dung of roosting birds would be on the barn floor. It doesn't matter if it's a pigeon, a dove, or a sparrow. It would still be the dung of a roosting bird. And so obviously it's talking about real bird dung there and not some type of pea.

  #30 | 20:36 to 21:05 | cleaned

• Now, when the woman asked the king for help, what really set him off was verses 28 and 29. He said, "If the Lord do not help thee," in verse 27, "whence shall I help thee out of the barn floor or out of the winepress?" And the king said unto her, "What aileth thee?" The Lord said, "What are you griping about? What are you hollering about? Everybody's suffering." And she answered, "This woman said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him. And I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may eat him, and she hath hid her son."

  #31 | 21:05 to 21:52 | cleaned

• So here, these two women were engaged in cannibalism. Now, cannibalism often occurred during times of famine and military sieges. You must remember that such a practice is the judgment of God upon an individual, upon a society, upon a people, upon a nation. Let me show you. I want you to hold 2 Kings, but turn in your Bibles, first of all, to the book of Leviticus, chapter 26. Leviticus, chapter 26.

  #32 | 21:52 to 22:30 | cleaned

• And notice, if you would please, beginning there with verse 27. Leviticus 26 and verse 27.

  #33 | 22:30 to 22:33 | cleaned

• Look at the Bible. Leviticus 26, beginning there verse 27. He said, "And if you will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Now watch this judgment. And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat." So God said, if you walk contrary to Me, if you violate My law, I will judge you. And one of the judgments is you will eat the flesh of your own children. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 28, you will see this curse expanded beginning there with verse 49. We'll read through verse 58. But here you have Deuteronomy 28, verse 49. God says, of course, all of this is curses for disobeying Him.

  #34 | 22:42 to 23:56 | cleaned

• Verse 49, "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far and from the end of the earth as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustest throughout all the land. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all the land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, here it is, thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee."

  #35 | 23:57 to 25:04 | cleaned

• Now watch verse 54. "So that the man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground, for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear. For she shall eat them, for want of all things secretly in the siege, and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in the gates, if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the LORD

  #36 | 25:04 to 26:16 | cleaned

• thy God." So God says, part of the penalty that you're going to receive for rejecting Me, for refusing to walk in My law, is you're going to end up engaging in cannibalism. You will be eating your own children. If you will turn over in your Bibles to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations, right after Jeremiah. And look in chapter 2 and verse 20. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Lamentations 2 and verse 20. Notice, if you would, what Jeremiah asked.

  #37 | 26:16 to 26:57 | cleaned

• "Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?" That's the little newborn child. "Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?" And then if you'll skip over to Lamentations chapter 4 and look in verse 10. Lamentations 4 and verse 10. He says, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children."

  #38 | 26:57 to 27:31 | cleaned

• "They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." So during the siege of Jerusalem, women killed, cooked, and ate their own children.

  #39 | 27:32 to 27:42 | cleaned

• Now, all I can say is horror of horrors. How could such a thing happen? How could a man kill his own son and eat him? How could a woman kill her own child and eat that child? You see, what we don't understand is this. How desperately low people can sink when they refuse and reject God and His law. Do you understand, without God's law, anything goes. Anything. And thus, here you have the curse of God and the judgment of God.

  #40 | 27:43 to 28:21 | cleaned

• Now, you can read about cannibalism in the Old Testament. But unhappily, cannibalism was certainly not confined to the Old Testament. Everybody's heard of Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a modern-day murderer and cannibal. There are many other people who've engaged in cannibalism, and not just people from Africa and all some of the other foreign countries. No. Do you know about the Donner Party in 1846 and 1847? The wagon train that got snowed in in the Sierra Nevada mountains? They turned to cannibalism to survive that fierce winter there. And what about the 1972, the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which was later known as the Andes flight because it crashed into the Andes mountains. Some were killed instantly. Others died a short time later. They did not find the wreckage and the survivors until 72 days later.

  #41 | 28:21 to 29:29 | cleaned

• Remember, this was high on a mountain full of snow. And the 16 survivors ate their dead compatriots.

  #42 | 29:29 to 29:41 | cleaned

• Now, I'm going to be honest with you, I do not know how anyone could ever escape the mental, emotional and spiritual horror over such an act. Whether it's your own children or not, whether it's just some dead body that you find somewhere, I don't know how you could ever, ever overcome that. And so when the king of Samaria heard that these women had engaged in cannibalism, he went into an absolute rage.

  #43 | 29:42 to 30:14 | cleaned

• If you'll go back to 2 Kings chapter 6 and look, if you would please, at verses 30 and 31. Watch carefully. 2 Kings 6 verse 30, "And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, and he passed by upon the wall. And the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day." In other words, the king said, I'm going to kill Elisha today. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill him.

  #44 | 30:15 to 30:59 | cleaned

• I will take his life. Now, here is a very important question. Why did the king want to kill Elisha? Elisha had nothing to do with the famine. Elisha had nothing to do with the cannibalism of the women. In fact, the truth of the matter is, Elisha was in the city suffering with the rest of the people. He had a house there. So why does the king want to kill Elisha?

  #45 | 31:02 to 31:35 | cleaned

• Well, look at verse 32 again. "But Elisha sat in his house," so he had a house there in Samaria. "And the elders sat with him, and the king sent a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto them." And of course, they held the messenger. And then the king came in and the king said, "Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer?"

  #46 | 31:36 to 32:24 | cleaned

• First of all, let me point out several things. First of all, Elisha knew that the king was coming for him. He was seated there with the elders of the city, and he knew that this foolish, wicked, raging king would send a messenger and seek to take his life as well. The second thing that I want you to see in this passage is the wickedness, the impetuosity, the unbelief and the impatience of the king. When the king made this statement, "Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer for?" I'm going to point this out just momentarily. Third, the king acknowledged that this evil is from the Lord.

  #47 | 32:25 to 33:16 | cleaned

• Let me spell this out for you. The king said God sent the famine. The king understood that in one sense of the word, it was the judgment of God. He understood the extremity of the famine when these two women were eating their own children. You know the Bible says in the book of Amos chapter 3 and verse 6, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? And shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?" So God is a just God. God does judge and God does send that which is afflicting, that which is chastening, that which is destructive upon individuals.

  #48 | 33:17 to 34:07 | cleaned

• Because of their sins and their wickedness. Now, here's what I want you to look at. Look at the bottom part of verse 33. So the king says, "Behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer?" Now, here's what he's saying. God has sent this famine. I know that God has sent it. Why should I temporize with Him? Why should I submit to Him? Why should I wait patiently upon Him?

  #49 | 34:07 to 34:44 | cleaned

• Why should I pretend to believe? This famine is going to get worse and worse and worse, and I'm weary with waiting, and I'm not willing to wait any longer for things to get better. I do not think it's going to get better. I do not think it's going to end. I think it's going to get worse and worse. God sent it. So God must be evil. Why should I be waiting any longer on Him?

  #50 | 34:45 to 35:10 | cleaned

• So let me paraphrase this in modern day vernacular. Here's what the king is saying. Summing up. To hell with God. That's what he was saying. I don't need Him. I don't want Him. I don't believe Him. I don't trust Him. I mean, He is the one responsible for all of this. So to hell with God. That's exactly what he's saying.

  #51 | 35:10 to 35:37 | cleaned

• Now, so let's ask this question. Why then was the king coming after Elisha? The answer is very simple. Because he could not strike at God. He could not smite God. He could not take God's life, but he could take the life of God's servant. So what he's doing is he's showing his disdain, his impatience and his distrust of God by seeking to murder the servant of God.

  #52 | 35:38 to 36:07 | cleaned

• Here's what is actually being done. Here's what is being said. I can't get my hands on God. But I can get my hands on Elisha. And if I could get my hands on God, I'd do to Him what I'm going to do to Elisha. I'd kill Him too. That's exactly his attitude. Now. I want you to mark something down in your mind and I want you to remember it. Any attack upon one of God's children or one of God's servants is an attack upon God Himself. The Scripture said, God said, "He that toucheth thee toucheth the apple of my eye." And the apple is the pupil in your eye.

  #53 | 36:08 to 37:02 | cleaned

• It's a tender spot in your entire body. So when I say any attack upon a Christian is an attack upon God, it does not matter if that attack is verbal, physical or violent. It is still an attack upon God.

  #54 | 37:02 to 37:19 | cleaned

• Now, you'll remember when the king of Assyria was trying to get Hezekiah and the people of Judah to surrender without a fight, he sent Rabshakeh, and Rabshakeh was absolutely trying to destroy Hezekiah. Then he told the people, "Trust not in Hezekiah. Don't listen to his words." I mean, he would say, "Hezekiah's not going to defend you. He's not going to deliver you." And he not only attacked Hezekiah, he attacked the people of God. And in essence, he attacked God as well. But I want you to listen to what Hezekiah asked Isaiah to pray for the remnant. But listen to what he said. "It may be the Lord God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, who the king of Assyria, his master, had sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." Now, notice what Hezekiah said. He said the king of Assyria has sent Rabshakeh to reproach the living God. How did he reproach the living God?

  #55 | 37:20 to 38:26 | cleaned

• By reproaching Hezekiah and the people of God. So, obviously, he is now attacking God.

  #56 | 38:27 to 38:37 | cleaned

• Now, the average Christian never thinks of such a thing. I'm not going to reproach God. I'm not going to attack my Heavenly Father. Really? Let me show you something. Hold 2 Kings, but look in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 5. And notice if you would please beginning there with verse 21. Matthew 5 verse 21. Look at what our Lord says. Matthew 5 verse 21. Our Lord said, "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you," I'm clarifying this, He said, "But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, you stupid, ignorant empty head, that's basically it, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire."

  #57 | 38:37 to 39:48 | cleaned

• You just stop and think of the Christians and brothers and sisters in Christ that we have called names. We've doubted their integrity. We've doubted their honesty, sometimes even doubted their salvation. And we never stop to think that when we attack a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ, that we are attacking God Himself. We're attacking our Heavenly Father. And the way we're attacking Him is this. We're displeased with His providence in their lives. We're displeased with their ignorance, with their lack of understanding. We're displeased that they do not grasp what we grasp. And consequently, now we're grumbling at the providence of God in their lives. And so we are actually taking a proud and haughty and arrogant stance and elevating ourselves above God.

  #58 | 39:48 to 40:45 | cleaned

• So let me give you an illustration. Suppose I looked at Marshall and I said, "Marshall, why don't you raise your children the way I raised mine? Why don't you teach your children what I taught mine? Why are you doing this?" And I just go on and on and on and on and just really tear him apart.

  #59 | 40:46 to 41:06 | cleaned

• Now, first of all, let me tell you something. I am not the standard. God is the standard and His Word is the standard. But if God gave Marshall 15 children, how he educates them, how he instructs them, how he disciplines them is his business. It is between him and the Lord, and he's going to answer to the Lord. Now, as a pastor, yes, I could say, "Marshall, look at the Scripture. Here's what the Scripture says." But just as a natural man, just as a normal everyday man, I have no right to come up to him and say, "Look, Marshall, you need to raise your children like this." They're not my children. They're his children. He's responsible. He's accountable.

  #60 | 41:07 to 41:52 | cleaned

• So the point I'm trying to make is this. When we start attacking our brethren in Christ, here's what we're doing. "God, why don't you educate these stupid children of yours? Why don't you discipline them? Why don't you give them the understanding that I have?" You see what I'm doing? We're elevating ourselves. It doesn't matter whether it's physical or whether it's violent. If it's verbal, it's still an attack upon God.

  #61 | 41:53 to 42:19 | cleaned

• Let it settle in your mind. We have no right to tell God how to educate, how to instruct, and how to discipline His children. That's His business. That is why the Bible says in Romans 14 in verse 4, "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand." And certainly God is able to make you stand. That is for sure. There's a proverb.

  #62 | 42:20 to 42:56 | cleaned

• That not only fits the king of Samaria, but it also fits Christians as well. Proverbs 19 and verse 3. The Bible says, "The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord." So the foolishness of man perverts our way, and it causes our hearts to fret against God. So, let me give you another specific truth here. The king of Samaria was willing to blame Elisha. He was willing to take his rage out on Elisha when Elisha had absolutely nothing to do with it. He was just the messenger of God. He was just the servant of God.

  #63 | 42:56 to 43:39 | cleaned

• So here's what we've got to learn. We have to see how normal and natural it is to lay the cause of our sufferings and our afflictions on anything and on anyone other than ourselves. Do you realize most of our suffering, most of our affliction, we do bring upon ourselves? It's our sins, it's our disobedience, it's our ignorance, it's our stupidity. I mean, we do it to ourselves. But it's so much easier to say, "It's Gary's fault."

  #64 | 43:40 to 44:17 | cleaned

• "Steve should have known better. Steve should have helped me. Steve should have told me." It's easy to blame. And very difficult at times to assume responsibility. I want you to look in the book of Lamentations chapter 3 at the question that is asked. Lamentations 3 look in verse 39. Lamentations 3 verse 39. God asked, "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" In other words, if we have sinned, if we've done wickedly, if we've been disobedient, why should we complain about the punishment? We know we're going to reap exactly that which we've sown. Why should we bellyache and gripe when God punishes us for our sin when we understand that the wages of sin is death? And so he asked that simple question, "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?"

  #65 | 44:19 to 45:27 | cleaned

• See, both Ahab and Jehoram had sufficient iniquity and sins in and of themselves to bring the judgment of God not only upon them, but also upon their nation as well. And the king of Samaria never thought at one time of assuming responsibility and saying, "I forsook God, I forsook His law. I've been worshiping Baal. I led the people to worship Baal." No, no, no, no. He never assumed any responsibility and never assumed any accountability. It's God's fault. And there's Elisha. I'll make Elisha pay because I can't get my hands on God. That was it. You remember, it was Ahab was on the throne.

  #66 | 45:28 to 46:12 | cleaned

• When Elijah, the man of God, said, "As I live, thus saith the Lord, there shall not be rain or dew these years, but according to my word." And there was a drought for three years and six months. And afterwards, God sent Elijah back into the land. And when Ahab met him in 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 17, the first thing Ahab asked Elijah was this, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"

  #67 | 46:12 to 46:41 | cleaned

• Or aren't you the one that brought all this on us? Look at the drought. Look at the hunger. Look at the suffering. Well, Elijah gave him a classic answer. He said in verse 18, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed Baalim." In other words, politely speaking, he said, "It's not me, you stinking reprobate, it's you and your wicked household. You're the ones that are the troubler of Israel." Well, Ahab was not willing to accept responsibility.

  #68 | 46:42 to 47:21 | cleaned

• You see, the truth of Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 is still relevant for us today. The Bible says there, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. His ear is not heavy that He cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you." So God says, the problem is not with me. The problem is with each of us.

  #69 | 47:21 to 47:51 | cleaned

• So what we have to learn is not to shift blame, but learn to accept responsibility and say, "I'm willing to do that for my life, my actions, my words, my deeds, and I will hold myself accountable. I'm not going to blame shift." Now let me try to make some applications and show you really and truly the impact of this passage. First of all, we must learn not to fret against the Lord no matter what our situation, no matter what our circumstances. And I know some people today that are in some very dire situations and some very dire circumstances. And the tendency is always to fret. When evil, afflictions, temptations and testing occur, we must learn to patiently wait upon God and we must also learn to patiently accept whatever God sends our way.

  #70 | 47:52 to 49:00 | cleaned

• You remember, Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were wicked, wicked men. And he restrained them not, the Bible says. And when little Samuel was coming along, God spoke to Samuel and he said, "I'm going to do a thing in Israel that's going to make everybody's ears tingle." He said, "When I begin with the house of Eli, I will make an end." In other words, God said, "I'm going to finish what I start. And Hophni and Phinehas are both going to die in one day. And I'm going to take the priesthood away from Eli and his clan." And so the next day, Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, you better tell me what God said to you.

  #71 | 49:01 to 49:44 | cleaned

• Don't you withhold anything from me?" And so Samuel told him, told him exactly word for word what God said. And when Eli heard that his sons were going to die and the priesthood was going to be taken from his clan, here's what he said. "It is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good." You know what he said, "I'm willing to accept responsibility for my sins and my failure. If I'm going to be chastened, if I'm going to be judged, let God do what He will."

  #72 | 49:44 to 50:22 | cleaned

• You know, I still think it would be best if we memorized the words of Job in Job chapter 1, verses 20 and 22, where the Bible said, "So Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all this Job sinned not with his lips, nor charged God foolishly." You know, the Bible says in James chapter 5, "Take, my brethren, the prophets, as an example of suffering and patience." In other words, He said, look at the prophets and everything they've gone through. And yet they did not fret against the Lord. They just simply endured and said, "Lord, we will wait upon You, we will trust in You.

  #73 | 50:23 to 51:17 | cleaned

• You will have to work it out." So we have to learn not to fret against the Lord, but rather to wait on Him. I'm going to explain just shortly, but here's the second application. That is this. We must learn not to look to man, but to look to God for our needs. I got tickled and I still get tickled reading this. When the woman said, "Help, O King!" And the king, not just a normal man, but the king said, "If the Lord do not help thee, from whence can I help you?

  #74 | 51:17 to 51:55 | cleaned

• Out of the barn floor or out of the winepress?" What the king was saying is, "I'm just as helpless as you are. I don't have anything." Do you know what the middle verse of the Bible is? You'll find it in Psalm 118, verse 8, and I want to add verse 9, where it says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." And the next verse says this, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." So he says, don't trust in government. Don't trust in man. You trust in the Lord. So we need to learn to seek, first of all, from God and not from man. Here's the third one. It is an unreasonable thing to be weary of waiting upon God. For God is a God of judgment.

  #75 | 51:55 to 52:45 | cleaned

• And He has decreed over and over in Scripture, blessed are those that wait upon Him. Let me just give you some verses. Psalm 27, verse 14, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." And then in Psalm 37, verse 34, "Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.

  #76 | 52:46 to 53:14 | cleaned

• When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." In Psalm 69, verse 6, "Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed." Then he says, "Let not those that seek thee be confounded." So if you wait upon the Lord, you're not going to be ashamed. You're not going to be confounded. And then in Proverbs 20, verse 22, "Say not thou, I will recompense evil, but wait thou upon the Lord and He shall save thee." So it's far better to wait upon God. I would encourage you.

  #77 | 53:14 to 53:46 | cleaned

• I would challenge you just to go through the Bible. Look up the word wait, wait upon the Lord and see how many times that phrase occurs in the Bible. So it's easier to wait upon the Lord than to charge Him foolishly and blame Him for things that we don't understand, and oftentimes, things that we've brought upon our own selves. The author of the book of Hebrews said it very plainly. He said in Hebrews 10, verse 36, listen to this, "But you have need of patience, that after that you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise." But you have need of patience. Most of us are like a woman who realized she was impatient.

  #78 | 53:46 to 54:38 | cleaned

• And her impatience was sin. So she went to the Lord in prayer and she said, "Lord, I'm impatient. I want patience. And I want it right now." Well, that's the way we are. But He said, you have need of patience. And you just stop and think of the situation that we're in in this country now. We have need of patience and we have need to wait upon the Lord.

  #79 | 54:39 to 55:09 | cleaned

• And we cannot charge God foolishly. The one thing is for sure. The Lord Jesus Christ sits upon the throne of this universe. Working everything out after the counsel of His own will. And whatever happens, it's going to ultimately end to His honor and His glory. And we need to be patient and wait upon Him and not charge God foolishly. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to You this day.

  #80 | 55:11 to 55:49 | cleaned

• We thank You for Your Word. Lord, help us to apply this to our lives. Each of us have situations. Each of us have circumstances. Each of us have afflictions and testings. Each of us, Lord, have trials and temptations. But, Lord, may we not charge Thee foolishly. May we learn to accept responsibility for ourselves, our lives, our words, our actions, our deeds, and learn to wait upon Thee.

  #81 | 55:49 to 56:20 | cleaned

• Thou art God and Thou art sovereign. And we bow before Thee and give Thee honor and glory. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen. All right, any questions or comments?

  #82 | 56:21 to 56:36 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T19:56:57Z