Sermons

When the priests let the world and its idols capture their hearts, they lost their fear of God, and the people withheld their tithes. The Levites were driven back to their fields simply to survive, while the people divorced, married foreign wives, turned to divination, and wronged the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger.

What God sought was not money but true faith and a life set on living by his Word. If tithes are brought while justice, mercy, and faithfulness are neglected, the gift is no more than a means of prospering in the world, and not a righteous offering that God will accept.

God told his people to bring the whole tithe and then put him to the test. To those who obey, he promised to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing until there is no room to hold it, and to guard them from the locust and from failed harvests. A life of honest giving, which helps the poor and enables the church to do its work, is itself the holy and living sacrifice God desires.

Over the past two days we have considered how recent events in the Middle East line up exactly with biblical prophecy. If what Scripture records is true, then the prophecies not yet fulfilled will also come to pass just as they are written, without a single one left out.

The world is seeing politics, economics and religion merge into one, while communist systems and technologies such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition are already putting in place the conditions for the Antichrist’s complete control. Yet though the last day will come like a thief, for us who are children of light it is not a day of destruction but a day of hope. God’s patience has its limits, and the time of judgment will certainly come; but within that judgment Christ’s victory has already been appointed.

Not in fear but with joy and anticipation, we must be made ready as the pure bride of Christ. Just as the virgins who had their oil ready waited longingly for the bridegroom, we too need to look forward to the Lord’s return, gladly crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus.” A life that rejoices always, prays without ceasing and gives thanks in all circumstances is where that waiting is lived out.

The animal sacrifices the priests brought could never wash away sin, so Jesus came in person, taking on a body, and offered himself as the atoning sacrifice. When Abram returned from rescuing his nephew Lot, Melchizedek king of Salem came out with bread and wine and blessed him, and Abram gave him a tenth of the spoils.

The bread and wine Melchizedek brought point to the body and precious blood of the Lord. Abram gave a tithe of his own accord, before there was any Law, because he already believed that all he owned, and his very life, had come from God. Jesus became an eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and by conquering death and rising again he forgave the sins of his people once for all.

God’s people are forgiven not through any human being but through the blood Jesus shed, so their offerings and their service are nothing more than a confession that acknowledges this grace. Because God does not change, those who hold fast to his covenant will not be shaken. They must become people who fear God, with upright faith and godly lives.

A man and a woman make their vows before God and become one flesh. Yet the men of Israel abandoned the wives they had married in their youth, who had shared their hardships, and took foreign women in marriage. It was in this way that Solomon set the idols of foreign women beside the temple, and for that sin the kingdom came under judgment and was torn in two.

To put away a wife is not simply a matter of parting; it is a betrayal of the God who joined husband and wife together. That is why God would not accept the sacrifices and offerings they brought. Even so, they could not see what they had done wrong, and demanded to know why the God of justice did not judge.

When God does not punish sin at once, it does not mean he has forgiven it; he is waiting patiently and giving room to turn back. No one should presume on that patience; it must be met with repentance. When those entrusted with a household are faithful in their responsibilities to one another, God keeps that household safe.

As the day approaches for Elijah to be taken up into heaven, he keeps telling Elisha, “Please wait here.” Each time they move on, from Gilgal to Bethel, to Jericho and to the Jordan, he repeats the same words, three times in all. Each time, Elisha swears by the life of Yahweh that he will not leave his master, and he follows Elijah to the end.

The words “wait here” were not telling Elisha to stay where he was. They were a plea to follow to the end with a desperation strong enough to defy his master’s command. Only once Elisha has seen the Jordan part with his own eyes does Elijah tell him to ask for what he wants, and Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit. Only after watching his master go up into heaven, right to the end, did Elisha gain a certainty without a pinpoint of doubt.

The journey of faith also brings moments of wanting to give everything up and turn back, and stumbling blocks that hold a person back and say, “Wait here.” To obey is better than sacrifice. God answers, just as they ask, those who follow to the end. They do this not by keeping up forms, but by coming to understand his will with a heart that sincerely loves him.

A priest works at the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense to make atonement for the people, and at the root of that office is the covenant of life and peace made with Levi. God said that the priest’s lips should keep knowledge and that the people should seek the law at his mouth. But the corrupt priests took bribes, offered sick sacrifices, and did not teach the people the truth.

Because the priest is the messenger of Yahweh, the word he delivers determines whether a soul goes to heaven or to hell. This is because the people do not meet God directly but learn the word through the priest. So God said he would spread the dung of the feast sacrifices on the priests’ faces and cast them away, as if thrown outside the tabernacle.

This judgment falls not on the priest alone but on his family and on all the people. Saying that everyone else does the same is no excuse, and because God does not change, sin is still sin. When the covenant is kept with a faith that says, “If I perish, I perish,” God supplies everything that is lacking.

Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room and lay injured. He sent messengers to Baal-Zebub, a foreign god, to ask whether he would recover. Then, when Elijah brought him word of God’s judgment, he did not repent. Instead, three times over he dispatched a captain with fifty soldiers to seize Elijah and bring him back.

Ahaziah wanted to live as he saw fit, and for him it was easier to consult an idol than to cling to God. The first two captains and their men perished in fire from heaven, but the third captain humbly fell to his knees and pleaded for his life, and he and his soldiers were spared.

Before God there is no middle ground. Ahaziah, stubborn to the end, died just as Elijah had declared, while the captain who humbly sought mercy was given life. Sovereignty over life belongs to nothing in this world, but to God alone.

The priests keep the healthy animals for themselves and bring God only the sick ones. God laments that he would rather someone shut the temple doors altogether.

Israel had learned of God’s greatness through the history of their forefathers and had known his protection at first hand. Yet instead of giving thanks, they despised his name and his law, and as his kindness and mercy continued, they went so far as to answer him back. The Gentile nations, by contrast, had suffered God’s judgment themselves and so feared him more than Israel did; and God foretold that this would one day lead to a work of faith in which the Gentiles would receive Christ.

People may be deceived, but God cannot be. Even when hunted by Saul, with his life hanging by a thread, David trusted God as his Father and held fast to a faith that turns back to him. God’s people must put away the folly of brazenly doing before God what they would not dare to do even before an earthly governor, and by faith in Christ choose the narrow way.

Jehoshaphat was a king who feared God, one who sought the truth even from the prophet Micaiah. Yet although he heard the prophecy that Ahab would die, he went out to the battlefield wearing the royal robes in Ahab’s place. This brought him to the brink of death, and a seer rebuked him for helping the wicked.

Strong faith does not exempt anyone from the hardships of this world. When Jehoshaphat, having received great blessing from God, allied himself by marriage with wicked Ahab, it was spiritual pride: he believed he could hold fast to his faith whatever the circumstances. To rely on one’s own faith is itself the place where a person falls before God.

Later, when Moab and Ammon came against Judah, Jehoshaphat fasted and cried out to God together with the people, and he went out with the choir set before the army. God himself fought for them and drove back the enemy. Yet he did not tear down the high places, and he again entered into friendship with Ahab’s son, so that the same weakness passed down to his children. For this reason, no one must ever put their trust in themselves.

The priests bring defiled offerings to God and still answer back, asking how they have defiled him. They kept the healthy cattle and sheep for themselves and picked out only the sick and the blind to lay on the altar.

This shows contempt for God’s name and his glory. To offer God what no one would accept even from another person, and not to see that it is sin, is what a hardened heart looks like. Sin does not go away simply because God does not judge it at once.

When a priest ministers wholeheartedly, it is the same as serving Christ well. A heart that gives its best to the powerful of this world, yet counts the cost and begrudges what belongs to God, needs to be examined. The message ends here: God is to be served wholly, with honest worship and honest giving.

With war against Aram before them, Ahab and Jehoshaphat inquire of the prophets what God’s will is. Four hundred prophets foretell victory, but Micaiah alone passes on God’s word just as it was given: the king will die in battle.

Earlier, when Ahab heard the warning of judgment, he humbled himself for a time, but he soon forgot that grace and hardened his heart. Though Micaiah was struck and thrown into prison, he did not trim his words to save his life, while Ahab, going into battle in disguise, chose compromise rather than obedience.

In the end Ahab was struck by an arrow and died, and Micaiah’s prophecy came to pass just as he had spoken. Yet God warns of judgment out of love, giving his people the chance to turn back. Just as the intercession of Moses and the devotion of the tribe of Levi turned a curse into a blessing, God’s will is that the word of judgment be set aside and the word of blessing be fulfilled.

Esau could have inherited his father’s estate and lived at ease, yet he treated his birthright lightly. God warned that he would tear down whatever was built, but Esau did not turn back. Insisting that he could live by his own strength, he set himself against God.

A work carved from stone keeps its shape for many years, while one shaped from sand gives way to a single wave. Faith built firmly on obedience to the Word endures like stone, but a faith that is full only on the outside scatters as easily as sand. Edom boasted of its own strength, yet when God took away the hedge of protection, it collapsed of its own accord and in the end vanished from history.

Those who have received God’s warning must not make excuses but must turn back. The prodigal son was welcomed when he returned to his father, and in the same way, when what has been built keeps falling down, it is a sign that God is knocking, calling his people to draw near to him again. Those who live according to God’s will, without pride and without doubt, will receive the very love and blessing that Jacob received.