“The Real Troublemaker”

1 Kings 18:16-18
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, September 07, 2003
Copyright © 2003, P. G. Mathew

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.”

1 Kings 18:16-18

There are two ways in which a person can be a troublemaker. One is by sinning against the Lord. In that sense, everyone who sins joins Satan, the troublemaker. So if you are a sinner, I want you to know you are in league with Satan. You make trouble for yourself, your family, your church and your society.

But some of us are considered troublemakers in another sense. If you are a father who leads your family in the way of the Lord, your children may look upon you as a troublemaker, because you bring trouble to their consciences. Ministers of the gospel are labeled troublemakers because they give no peace to a sinner. They declare the truth, and people do not like it.

Are parents troublemakers? Are ministers of the word troublemakers? In one sense, they are, because they unsettle the consciences of people. But who is the real troublemaker?

Prophets as Troublemakers

Throughout redemptive history, those who proclaim the word of God have been seen by many as troublemakers. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Prophets especially were seen as troublemakers. They confronted people in behalf of God, demanding that people repent of their sins and conform to God’s law. Jeremiah inquires, “To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it” (Jeremiah 6:10). Isaiah declares, “They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!'” (Isaiah 30:10-11).

Ahab Introduces Baal Worship

The eighteenth chapter of 1 Kings is a famous chapter. In it we see Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, addressing the prophet Elijah: “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, ruled from 874 to 852 B.C. He married the Baal-worshiping Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon and priest of Baal. Ahab introduced Baal and Asherah worship in Israel in direct contradiction and competition with the worship of the Lord of the covenant. A temple for Baal was built, and Ahab and Jezebel and the vast majority of the people of Israel worshiped and served Baal. Because Jezebel was a wicked woman who delighted in absolute power, she killed many of the Lord’s prophets and appointed 850 false prophets who spoke lies to her in unison at her command. You read about this wickedness in 1 Kings 16:28-33.

The dominant deity in Canaanite religion, Baal was the storm god, the god of rain and fertility. In the places of Baal and Asherah worship there were chambers for sacred prostitution, where sodomites and harlots performed all manner of wicked acts. These male and female prostitutes were called qudushu, or holiness. The idol of Asherah, the consort of Baal, was a wooden image of a nude woman bestride a lion, with a lily in one hand and a serpent in the other. These shrines were temples of legalized immorality, where sex and violence were glamorized.

Israel’s Chastisement

Israel was commanded to destroy idols of Baal and Asherah by cutting them down and burning them. Instead, under the leadership of Ahab and Jezebel, Israel forsook the Lord and promoted the worship of Baal. They offered their own children in sacrifice on the high places and committed every abominable immorality, provoking the Lord God to anger. Israel’s sins were a direct challenge to God: “What are you going to do about our sins, God? You are nothing. We do not believe you exist. We do not believe you are almighty and sovereign. Come on, God, punish us all, if you can.”

God did indeed punish them. As he warned them in Leviticus 26:18-20 and Deuteronomy 28:22-24, he brought severe famine on the land. In 1 Kings 17:1 we read, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.'” God cursed Israel by sending a severe drought that lasted three and one half years.

At the end of that time, Elijah came before Ahab with a challenge. He came to demonstrate that Baal and Asherah were nothing but figments of fallen human imagination, incapable of giving rain or fertility. Upon seeing Elijah, Ahab accused him of being the troubler of Israel.

Achan the Troublemaker

This expression “troubler” comes from the story of Achan in Joshua 7. When Israel conquered Jericho, they were told to devote the city and everything in it to the Lord. They were warned, in Joshua 6:18, to keep away from the devoted things, lest they bring destruction and trouble upon the whole camp. Yet Achan coveted, stole, and hid certain valuable things that belonged to the Lord: a beautiful robe from Babylonia, six pounds of silver, and a pound and a quarter of gold.

What Achan did was a crime against Israel, a crime against the state. Because of Achan’s sin, the whole of Israel suffered. Israel was defeated and humiliated in the battle of Ai, and thirty-six people were killed. You see, when a member of a community sins, whether it is member of a family or a member of a church, his sin affects the whole community. The Lord said, “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their possessions” (Joshua 7:11). So, according to the Lord’s direction, Achan and his wife and children were stoned to death and burned up together with their property in the valley called Achor, which means “trouble.” Then the Lord’s anger was turned away, and God gave victory to Israel.

Ahab is saying that Elijah is an Achan, a troubler of Israel. Ahab is saying that Elijah sinned against the state in prophesying drought, and that he deserves to be put to death so that Baal, the god of rain, may send rain upon Israel.

Ministers as Troublemakers

Let us see how this applies to us. If the father speaks the word of God, the children see him as as a troubler. When ministers counsel people to live according to the word of God, they are seen as troublemakers: “These preachers go too far! They tell me how to raise my children and how to order my family life. They tell me that I must love my wife, work hard, and support my family. They tell me my children are disorderly and ought to fear God. They tell me that I should train my children and not let them grow up defiant and wild.

“These preachers tell me that I should repent of my sins. They tell me there is no salvation outside of Christ, and that the Bible is the infallible word of God. They tell me I must have daily family prayer, worship God on the Lord’s day, and not go to church for mere entertainment. They tell me there is a hell and that stubborn sinners may go there.

“These preachers always tell me what to do! They tell me I should not spend more money than I earn, and that money cannot buy true happiness. They tell me God hates divorce, and that Christians should not marry unbelievers. They tell me that pornography, premarital sex, feminism, and abortion are bad.

“Every time I come to church they preach the word, and I am sick of it! Why don’t they tell stories? Why don’t they speak of current events? Why don’t they have rock music and fun things? It’s just word and word and more word! Who wants the word? Who wants theology?

“These preachers are the troublemakers. We are in deep trouble only because of these preachers. All our problems stem from the fact that they are preaching to us. So away with them! Stone them! Then we shall be free and happy.”

For this same reason, Ahab is unhappy. He does not like Elijah preaching against his covenant-breaking idolatries. Elijah told Israel to repent of their Baalism and return to covenant faithfulness. None of us likes to be told to repent. None of us likes to be reminded of the true and holy God and his sole demand upon our lives. So we look upon those who represent God, the ministers and prophets of God, as troublers and troublemakers. We ask, “Is it you, Pastor, troubler of my happiness?”

Ahab the Troublemaker

Elijah’s reply to King Ahab is interesting. You see, Ahab is king, but Elijah is ambassador of the King of kings, the Sovereign God. He will not be intimidated. He is full of the Holy Ghost, and thus he is fearless. Yes, Ahab and Jezebel killed hundreds of God’s prophets, but Elijah knows that he is invincible. He is sent by the eternal God to confront Ahab and the sinful nation.

So Elijah says, in essence, “I am not the troubler of Israel in the sense you think I am. I am not responsible for this severe drought upon the nation. I have not committed a crime against the state. But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands in the Bible and have followed the Baals. And for this sin, God has cursed you and your nation.

“Not I, but you, Ahab, are the troubler of Israel. You are the criminal. You are the apostate. You are the Achan who, together with Jezebel, brought trouble to Israel. I serve the true God, but you serve the false, impotent gods of your sinful imagination.”

Let me tell you, when anyone abandons the word of God, he automatically serves false gods. That is a given. We have no idea what grace the word of God imparts when we hear it. When a person does not show up in the church regularly to worship, that person gets harder and more defiant. Such a person becomes an apostate. He becomes an antinomian and delights in autonomy. He opposes God and his ministers. He glories in his “freedom” and hates God who restrains him by his word.

Elijah challenged the false gods of Israel to demonstrate their reality. He said, “Call out all your prophets. Let’s have a demonstration. The one who answers by consuming the sacrifice with fire-he is the true God!” Of course, Baal and Asherah failed to answer by fire. But the Lord of the covenant did. Elijah was proven right, all the false prophets were killed, and the people confessed, “Yahweh, he is God.” Then the Lord in mercy gave them rain and prosperity.

God Brings Trouble on Troublemakers

In 1 Kings 21, we find the story of Naboth, a true believer who only wanted to obey the Lord by keeping his property within his family. Ahab and Jezebel killed Naboth and his sons, and confiscated his vineyard. So God sent word to Ahab that real trouble was about to come upon him:

“Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?'” Then say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood-yes, yours!”‘

“Ahab said to Elijah, ‘So you have found me, my enemy!'” (Notice, he still considers Elijah to be the troubler.) “‘I have found you,’ he answered, ‘because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel-slave or free. . . . And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel'” (1 Kings 21:17-21, 23). Each one of these horrible prophecies was fulfilled. First Kings 22:31-38 describes the ignoble death of Ahab. In 2 Kings 9:30-37 we are told that Jezebel was thrown out of a high window to her death; then dogs devoured her, leaving just the skull, feet and hands. And in 2 Kings 10:6-11 we read that seventy princes, Ahab’s male descendants, were beheaded and their heads were put in two baskets.

In one sense, God is the biggest troubler. He brings trouble to those who are troublemakers. This very truth was spoken to Achan when he stole what belonged to the Lord: “The Lord will bring trouble on you today” (Joshua 7: 25).

Don’t tangle with this eternal, almighty God. If you give him trouble, he will give you trouble from which nobody will be able to rescue you.

An Interpretive Problem

Sinful people cannot interpret reality. They always interpret it falsely. That is why they say the world came out of nothing, that life came out of non-life, that rationality came out of non-rationality. What is the problem? The human heart is sinful; therefore, man is incapable of interpreting anything correctly.

Everybody in Israel understood that there was a great drought. The question is, how did they interpret this fact? Sinful Ahab interpreted this fact, not as God’s judgment upon his idolatry, but as Baal’s judgment upon Elijah’s supposed sin. Elijah alone interpreted the drought correctly. It was God’s judgment upon Ahab’s apostasy.

Sinful believers like to blameshift. It is always the fault of the father, the mother, the teacher, the pastor or the elder. It is always somebody else. In Proverbs 16 we read, “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (v. 2); and “There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are ways of destruction” (v. 25). But there is a better way to go than blameshifting. That is to say, “It is me, O Lord. I am the problem. Have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

Micaiah the Troublemaker

In 1 Kings 22 we read about another prophet, Micaiah. The wicked king Ahab wanted to go to war, so he called four hundred of his court-appointed prophets and they in unison said, “Go and be victorious.” Jehoshaphat the king of Judah was also there, and he asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord around?” He still had some idea of who was a true prophet and who was a false one. He knew that these people were telling lies.

Ahab replied, “Oh, yes, we have one. Only one. His name is Micaiah. But let me tell you, Jehoshaphat, I hate him. He never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is no good. He is a troubler.”

And so here comes Micaiah. He prophesies by the Holy Spirit and predicts what is going to happen: “You are going to be killed and Israel is going to be defeated.” Concerning the troublemaker Micaiah, Ahab instructed, “Put him in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I come back. And when I return, I will prove to him that he is false.” But he did not return. Micaiah’s word was fulfilled. (PGM) Ahab was killed and his blood was licked up by dogs in Naboth’s vineyard.

Amos the Troublemaker

There was another prophet, named Amos, who was sent to the north to prophesy in Bethel against the sin of Israel. In Amos 7, beginning with verse 10, we read, “Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: ‘Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel.'”

He is making trouble! He has come from the south and he is prophesying. He is preaching against our sin. We had peace here until he came. He is a troublemaker. “The land cannot bear all his words.” Oh, how many of us have said, “This word-I cannot bear it! I like the worship, and I enjoy the singing, but this word-I cannot endure it!”

That is exactly what is being said here: “The land cannot bear all his words. For this is what Amos is saying: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’ Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.'”

True preachers of God’s word are seen by many as troublemakers.

Zechariah, Hanani and Paul-Troublemakers

Let us consider another prophet, Zechariah, whose story is found in 2 Chronicles 24. The king of Judah was Joash, who began his reign doing everything right. But then he changed his mind and began to do wicked things. Zechariah told Joash, “You cannot do that! That is against God’s word.”

You can read what happened to Zechariah-the king ordered that he be stoned to death. Jesus cites this incident in Matthew 23:35. Don’t be surprised when people hate you and want to stone you because you love God and proclaim his word.

Another example is the prophet Hanani, whose story is found in 2 Chronicles 16. The king at that time was Asa. He also did everything right in the beginning. But, as we know, when power comes and everything goes well-we make more money, buy better houses, own shinier cars-something happens to us and we say, “Hey, I don’t really need God.” In the same way, Asa began to move away from God.

“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: ‘Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. . . . Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison” (vv. 7, 10).

Would you like to be a preacher? If so, be prepared to be put in prison and even stoned to death.

The apostle Paul affords us yet another example. Wherever he went, people accused him of stirring up trouble: “They brought them before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice'” (Acts 16:20); “But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus'” (Acts 17:6-7).

All prophets were troublers of sinners.

Jesus Christ, the Troublemaker

The greatest troublemaker, from the world’s point of view, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He was God/man. He was holiness. There was no sin in him. Yet people hated him with a perfect hatred. Why? Because he was light, but they were darkness; he was righteousness, but they were wickedness. Jesus faithfully proclaimed the word of God, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” But they would not repent or acknowledge their sins. They claimed to be righteous and to have kept the whole law. The words Jesus spoke to his own brothers applied to these people also: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil” (John 7:7).

The Bible says Jesus went about doing good: healing the sick, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, giving sight to the blind, and preaching good news of God’s favor to the poor. He made the comfortable very uncomfortable, the self-satisfied miserable, and the complacent anxious and worried. Jesus called them hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools, whitewashed tombs, snakes, brood of vipers. Therefore they took stones in their hands to get rid of him.

Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied that “it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:50). The idea is that Jesus is the Achan, the troublemaker. He has committed a sin against the nation. If we get rid of him, then we shall be free.

Luke 23:5 tells us they took him to Pilate, who found no basis for a charge against him. “But they insisted, ‘He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teachings.'” He stirs up trouble, man! We need to get rid of him, then all will be well.

So they crucified Jesus. But we are told the Father handed him over to death according to his own determinate counsel. And we are told Jesus himself willingly laid down his life for the sheep. He who knew no sin became sin for us.

Jesus Christ -Troubled in Our Place

We are the sinners. We are the Achans and Ahabs. We are the real troublemakers. Yet Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was troubled in our place. There are several places in Scripture where Jesus expresses the trouble he endured: “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27); “Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me'” (John 13:21); “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death'” (Mark 14:33-34). Most amazing of all, in view of his substitutionary death, Jesus comforts us sinners when he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1).

In Christ the wrath of God against us is turned away. In Jesus Christ, God is gracious to every Ahab and Achan who would repent and believe in him. Jesus gives the rest of forgiveness and eternal life to all who call upon him. He became Achan for us. He was troubled in our place. Calvary became Christ’s Valley of Achor because he was punished there in our place. The Scripture says to believing sinners, “I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope; there [you] will sing.” (Hosea 2:15).

Jesus didn’t sing. He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” so you and I can sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” May the gospel of grace cut our hearts, that we may cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus troubles us first in order to comfort and heal us.

The Final Trouble

Behind all of fallen humanity there is Satan, who is the evil troublemaker. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. He deceives us into thinking, “My father is the troublemaker; my mother is the troublemaker; my teacher is the troublemaker; my pastor is the troublemaker; and, above all, God is the troublemaker.” No! We are the real troublemakers, we who follow Satan’s ways. But praise be to God, Christ has come and defeated Satan, sin, hell and death. He is the Savior. And if you believe his gospel, you will be saved.

You may say, “I don’t believe what you are saying. I believe that you, pastor, are the troublemaker, Jesus Christ is the troublemaker, all prophets and apostles are troublemakers.” That is your choice. But let me tell you, at the end of time you will see the Lord Jesus coming down from heaven with great glory and power. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7, “He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.”

You haven’t seen a troublemaker like this One. He will be the Judge of all on the last day, and he will deal out the biggest trouble, sending all troublemakers to eternal hell.

But now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Bow your knees before the Lord Jesus Christ who died in our place on the cross for our sin. By his work, the Valley of Achor has been transformed into a door of hope. Look to the crucified and risen Christ. Go through the door of hope, Jesus Christ, into eternal life. Look to him and be saved. Amen.