Something to Remember, Something to Learn (1 Kings 15:33-16:5)

Text: 1 Kings 15:33-16:5
Title: Something to Remember, Something to Learn

Introduction

Now, in our reading from the book of Kings, the nation of Israel is divided into two nations, Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Of the 12 tribes of Israel, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin are left in the southern kingdom of Judah, and the remaining 10 tribes are in the northern kingdom of Israel. The first kings of both nations were Rehoboam in the south and Jeroboam in the north, and now their sons take over. So the book of Kings alternates between the story of the southern nation and the story of the northern nation, and then in 1 Kings 17 through 2 Kings 13, the story centers around Elijah and Elisha. So before we look at the story of Elijah and Elisha, let's take a look at the story of the king of the northern nation, Baasha.

Who is Baasha?

First, let's take a look at who this king named Baasha is. In 1 Kings 15:25 and 27, it says: "In the second year that Asa was king of Judah, Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king of Israel. For two years, Nadab reigned over Israel." Then verse 27 says, "Then Baasha the son of Ahijah, a man of the tribe of Issachar, betrayed Nadab. When Nadab and all Israel were attacking Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines, Baasha killed Nadab there." What this means is that Baasha wasn't royalty to begin with, but he betrayed Nadab, who was king, killed him, and became the new king. So he was someone who usurped the position of king by force.

Secondly, he was an evil king. Verses 33-34 say this about Baasha: "In the third year after Asa became king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king of Israel. Baasha reigned in Tirzah for twenty-four years. But Baasha lived wickedly in the eyes of the LORD. Before him, Jeroboam had caused the people of Israel to sin, and Baasha did all the sins that Jeroboam had done." So Baasha was not a good king in the eyes of God because he did all the sins that Jeroboam had done during his 24 years of reign.

So what made Baasha such a bad king?

The reason is found in chapter 16:1-2: "The word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani, and Jehu said to Baasha, 'You were nothing, and yet I exalted you and made you leader over my people Israel; but you, like Jeroboam, caused my people Israel to sin, and you made me angry because of their sin.'" The first reason is that Baasha has forgotten that God exalted him and made him king over Israel when he was nothing, and he no longer remembers that favor, so he thinks he's king because he's good or because he's outstanding. Many of us are like that. If we look back at our lives, there are many times when we've been graced by God, when we've been helped by God, and we're where we are today because of those moments, and we don't remember them, and we forget them, and so we think that I'm so successful because I'm good, or because I'm capable, or because I'm hardworking, and that's not the truth.

The second is failure to learn from past mistakes. The Bible says, "Like Jeroboam, I caused my people Israel to sin." Also, the end of verse 34 says that Baasha learned the ways of Jeroboam. He learned Jeroboam's faults, mistakes, and sins. In fact, Jeroboam had already been punished by God for sinning against God. Baasha has seen it all, he's seen the consequences of all of Jeroboam's sins, and he's been made king, with a new dynasty being established as a judgment for his sins. So what Baasha is supposed to do is learn from the past, but he doesn't learn anything from it. Rather, he learns from Jeroboam's sins, and he learns from Jeroboam's mistakes.

We get frustrated when we hear stories like this, because when we hear them through the Bible, it's so clear that idolatry is wrong, and we would never act like that, and yet so many of the characters in the Bible live that way, and so we think, "Is it that hard to give up idolatry?" But when you actually live it, it's different, because all you hear around you is the way of Jeroboam. The path of Jeroboam that the Bible talks about was already embedded in the culture, economy, and politics of northern Israel. So Baasha doesn't know that the sounds are wrong, because he's seen the way of Jeroboam since he was born, and the whole society has recognized it, accepted it, and followed it, because the society has been shaped by the way of Jeroboam, and the people like it, and so he's been listening to the sounds of the world all his life.

He doesn't realize it's wrong because he's been listening to the world all his life, and it's telling him that it's okay not to worship God, not to remember God, that he needs to believe in the gods of Baal and Asherah in moderation in order to eat well and live well in the land of Canaan, and that he shouldn't believe in God alone because God can't do everything for him, because he's been hearing it on TV, on social media, at school, among his friends, in advertisements, and in books. You are living in a postmodern society. What is the most characteristic feature of postmodernism? Deconstruction. It's deconstructing authority, it's deconstructing uniformity. So postmodernism doesn't like the same thing, or similar things, or conformity, and it especially doesn't like when any one person gets the spotlight, because everyone is important.

But just a few decades ago, that is, before postmodernism came along, people liked it when one person had authority, gave orders, made decisions, and was exalted. People felt comfortable and secure in that. So people exalted the king and followed the king. So what if you were born in a postmodern society, what if you were born in a modern society? Do you think you would have had a different voice? No, you would have had the same voice as people born in a modernist society, because that's the voice that was heard in the society at the time.

So it would have been difficult for Baasha to remember the grace of God in that, to learn from the past and create something new, because everyone was going the way of Jeroboam, and that would have been comfortable for him. So even in that situation, it would have been difficult for him to go a different way than everyone else.

Our Reaction

So what is it that we need to do to remember what we need to remember and to learn from the mistakes of the past? It's to listen to a different sound, not the sound of the world, but the sound of the story outside of the world, not the story of the people of the world, but the story of the one who made the world, and to use that story to set our direction and our goals, and then we can go in a different direction than the world, and that's why we read, meditate, and listen to the Bible. For example, when northern Israel was under King Baasha, southern Judah had a king named Asa. Like Baasha, Asa was born into a situation of idolatry. The sounds of the world give him the sounds of idols. But out of those sounds comes Asa's choice to make a different choice: to fix his religion and return to God. How did Asa get there?

2 Chronicles 15:8 says, "When Asa heard all these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the disgusting idols from all Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities he took from the hill country of Ephraim. Asa repaired the altar of the LORD in the porch of the temple." Asa was not listening to the world, but to a voice from outside the world that came through God's prophet. And then there's Josiah, the king of Southern Judah, who also reformed in the midst of idolatry, and the Bible tells us why. "Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, "Hilkiah the priest gave me a book." Shaphan read the contents of the book to the king. When the king heard the words of the book, he was so sad that he tore his clothes. He gave orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people who are left in Israel and Judah about the words of this book that have been found. For great is the anger of the LORD that burns against us because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book. Our ancestors did not follow the words of this book, which we should have kept."

After hearing from God, Asa and Josiah walk a different path from the world and from other kings. So don't just listen to the sounds of your world, listen to the sounds of God, the sounds of the Word. We don't do it because we're going to hell if we don't do it every day. You're not going to hell if you do it every day. Your faith is not going to be shaken if you miss a day. But why do you want to do it? Because you don't know what's right or wrong by the sounds of the world, you know what's right or wrong by the sounds of God. So I encourage you to open your Bible, read it, meditate on it, and listen to it. Reading the Bible, listening to a sermon, it's all about listening to God. So listen for it.

But do you know why this is important? Because God evaluates us by it, and that is whether we have listened to God or not, whether we have obeyed God or not. Baasha, we're told in verse 33, reigned in Tirzah. Now, when King Omri bought Samaria, the capital of Northern Israel became Samaria, and up until then, Tirzah was the capital, and Tirzah is a very beautiful place, it's got lots of water, it's a good place, it's got a lot of trade, in other words, it had everything you need for a capital city. Secondly, chapter 16:5 says, "All the other things that Baasha did, and the stories of his victories in battle, are written in the books of the history of the kings of Israel." So what it's saying is that Baasha was a strong king who made the nation strong. So Baasha may have been a good king in the eyes of the people. Isn't that what people expect from a king? To make the country strong and keep the people well-fed and well-housed?

But what is God's judgment on Baasha? As we saw in chapter 15:34, he "lived wickedly." So why did Baasha live wickedly? Because when God judges Baasha, He doesn't judge him by how much money he had, or how many wars he won, or how big a nation he built, but by whether or not he listened to and obeyed God. So what I'm saying is that you and I need to listen to that.

Conclusion

Do you know what happens to our lives when we don't hear it? It's Proverbs 28:2: "When there is rebellion in a nation, its rulers change often, but when a man of wisdom and knowledge rules, the nation endures." It says that when there is rebellion in a country, rulers change frequently. This means that if you don't listen to one person, you will eventually have multiple kings. If you listen to one person and follow them, the kings don't change, but if you don't, the kings keep changing. So in northern Israel, there are nine dynasties in 19 kings. There's rebellion, there's killing, there's suicide, so you have people who are king for just seven days and then they die. The application of this to our lives is that if we don't listen to the voice of the one person, God, our lives are in flux. We go here, then we go there, then we go there, then we go here. At any given time, money becomes our king, a man or a woman becomes our king, success becomes our king, travel becomes our king, and life becomes complicated.

But what happens when a country is ruled by a man of wisdom and knowledge? That country lasts. In other words, if you listen to one man of wisdom and knowledge, your life will be unshakable and long-lasting. Folks, we live our lives by setting the masters of our lives. The driving force of our life is the master of our life. If you live for money, money is the master of your life, if you live for marriage, marriage is the master of your life, but if you live like that, the master changes frequently, and your life is shaken. We don't remember, we don't learn, and we end up moving toward a life of failure, just like Baasha. But if we listen to one person, God, our lives will be different, so let's listen to that voice.