Title: Ex 15:11, "Who is like Thee among the gods, O LORD
Author: Theodore S. Enke
Last saved by: Theodore Enke
Company: Conejo Koinonia Church

Sunday, September 13, 2026

1 Kings 13:4, Now it came about when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." But his hand which he stretched out against him dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. 
	We are in the process of discovery that looking to signs and wonders on the earth are not necessarily the means of God to communicate His plan and His purpose for us. So often, mankind will become enamored or enthralled with those expressions of magical or transcendental happenings that are fully amazing in their own right. However, they often serve only as distractions of the power of this age from the precepts and commandments of God. This age, with all its effort and illusionary powers will put forth a semblance of spirituality in the guise of miracles and wonders, and yet without any basis in that which is to be to the glory and the praise and the honor of The Lord God Most High.
	This is some of what we are taking before Jehovah as we look to His Word with the desire in our hearts to trust and to obey Him Alone! As we will witness, there are those times when God uses signs and wonders to validate that which He is doing. They will, however, always serve to honor and uphold God’s Word. 
Our reading in the scripture to this point brings us to that warning that was issued to Eli, the Prophet of God, who was to judge the people rightly. Yet he was allowing his sons to defame and abuse their position as priests of Jehovah before the tribes of Israel. Please open to 1 Sam 2:27-35 so we can read the word that God sent to this shameful representation before the nation.
	1 Sam 2:27-35, Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? 'And did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me; and did I not give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? 'Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?' "Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares, 'I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever'; but now the Lord declares, 'Far be it from Me — for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed. 'Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your house. 'And you will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all that I do good for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever. 'Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar that your eyes may fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life. 'And this will be the sign to you which shall come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both of them shall die. 'But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always. 
	What a tremendous warning, as well as promise, that was put forth by this man of God, speaking those words which should have shaken to the core the prophet and his posterity. As well, it should stand firmly rooted in our hearts as that which is inherent in this whole process of the study and the discipleship of Christ that is fully indwelling our hearts. …for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed. 
	As we know, throughout the Word of God, Eli’s heritage came to nothing, while the establishment of Samuel brought forth the lineage of David to sit upon the throne of the people of God forever and forever. We know that the human line of David was fraught with those who did not honor God. They paid with the consequences that brought dishonor and shame upon them through the mighty and working hand of Jehovah. However, we also know that God did maintain that lineage, though so very weak at times, with the plan and purpose of bringing into place the Sovereignty of Jesus, the Only Begotten of The Father forever and forevermore.
	In Isa 7:10-16, we have the account of King Ahaz with regard to the attack on Judah that was being plotted by those kings of the north. Rather than fearing that onslaught, Ahaz trusted in the power of Jehovah to protect and to guard that which was to bring forth the Savior of the Nation and the world. This is an amazing passage when we consider what was being proclaimed by this king to the nation of Judah that was so afraid of the armies arrayed against this small nation of God.
What was foretold by King Ahaz, as the nation of Judah was being threatened by the gathered forces seeking to destroy the testimony of God Almighty, highlighted the fact of the eternal Sovereignty to come. 
Ahaz was a faithful king who wanted to please Jehovah in the manner in which he reigned over the nation of Judah. It was a small and very insignificant country in the scope and sequence of earthly powers of the region. Yet, it stood apart from the rest, under those kings who would so seek to please and honor God. This was the remnant of that people who put His Holiness and His Righteousness and His Honor and His Praise and His Sovereignty on display for the rest to observe as witness to the Glory of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
	From the mouth of Ahaz is spoken the triumphal sign that is for all of us the promise of God in the salvation so declared. This was not just from our enemies, but from ourselves and our sin and our shame and our trespasses against the Holiness and the Righteousness of The Lord God Almighty. To honor Jehovah, and in the honor of His name, King Ahaz actually chastised those who would put God to the test. His faith and his trust in Jehovah brought forth that which stands for all of eternity as the foundational Hand of God in full operation.
	Isa 7:10-16, Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, "Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!" Then he said, "Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. "He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. "For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.
Let us back track in our scripture, in a sense, to one of those kings in the lineage of David who was, as well, very much after the honor of God. This was King Hezekiah. We have several passages which show the delight of The Lord in this king, as well as the honor for Jehovah that was set before God by this Hebrew sovereign. Please open in your Bibles to 2 Kings 20, verses 8-11 where we have that seeking after the sign from God that was fully in line with the honor and the dedication and the magnificence of Yahweh being at the heart of what was taking place. Hezekiah honored The Lord and The Lord made evident His honor of this king of Judah.
	2 Kings 20:8-11, Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?" And Isaiah said, "This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?" So Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps." And Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. 
	This sign was one that signified that what was taking place would be to the honor of the Lord in the healing of this king. It was not just for the capturing of the feeble imagination of the peoples watching. As a matter of fact, it would be for Hezekiah’s and Isaiah’s eyes alone. It was not something that would create general mass public admiration or fascination or hysteria, as so often happens when there is an event beyond the usual and expected occurrence. 
	Rather, this was the manner of the grace and the mercy and the comfort of Jehovah to envelop the heart and mind of this king who was apparently considered to be on his death bed. It was the gentle, yet significant assurance that God would heal as was the promise from God so that this king could reign for 15 more years since he had so honored the Word and the Commandments of the Almighty. 
	This account is replayed for us in Isa 38:5-8, as an important episode in the witness of God before those whose eyes would see, whose ears would hear, and whose hearts would be set upon Him above all else. Isa 38:5-8, "Go and say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David," I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. "And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city."' "And this shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: "Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps." So the sun's shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down. 
	After the capture and destruction that the Babylonians wrought upon Judah for the idolatry and the adulterous actions of the people as led by a number of the faithless kings who did not honor or obey Jehovah, the Prophet Jeremiah was given the message that God wanted relayed to those Hebrews who had fled to Egypt. These Jews were once again putting their trust in that far country with all its gods, rather than in absolute obedience and trust and reliance upon Jehovah. This is recounted for us in Jer 44, verses 26-30. It was not a pleasant message for the prophet to proclaim, but it was necessary and vital for those faithless Hebrews to hear.
	Jer 44:26-30, "Nevertheless hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, 'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the Lord, 'never shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying," As the Lord God lives." 'Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by the sword and by famine until they are completely gone. 'And those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs. 'And this will be the sign to you,' declares the Lord,' that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.' "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I am going to give over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of Judah to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.'" 
	As much as those Hebrews counted on Pharaoh and Egypt to save them, so would God bring forth the destruction of that hope by the overthrow and death of that Pharaoh. There would be no more hope in him than in any other human being. 
Only in God, is found the peace and the security and the release from fear and anguish that grips the known world. We have read, over and over again about how Nebuchadnezzar overran all the nations of the area of Israel. As brutal and ruthless as Nebuchadnezzar was in the conquest of the Middle East, so also would God work to bring him into that recognition that God reigns on high from Heaven and no one and nothing can stop the Hand of The Lord in operation to do as He wills on earth. No matter how powerful or humanly sovereign a monarch may be, he or she is nothing in the realm of the Lordship of God when Jehovah decides the ebb and fall of the most mighty of human governments or nations. 
	This all came to the fulfillment of the sign that was spoken forth by King Ahaz all those centuries earlier as Jesus of Nazareth, the Only Begotten of the Father, born of the virgin was walking on this earth. He was bringing into place that Kingdom of God over which He will reign forever and forevermore. 
In His discourse with the scribes and Pharisees who were there to test and discredit Him, Jesus proclaimed that which is the very heart of this consideration concerning man’s craving after signs and wonders that only God can truly manifest. Please refer to Matt 12:38-41 as Jesus spoke forth the truth of Who He is in all His manifestation before the sons of man. He declared what would happen after He was crucified and then resurrected in the Omnipotence of God Almighty.
	Matt 12:38-41, Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. "The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 
	This He further declared to those doubters and accusers as detailed in John 2:18-22. They would try to destroy His earthly life by nailing Him to a rough hewn cross, but after three days, God would raised Him up in Glory and Splendor to seat Him on the throne of Heaven and earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
	John 2:18-22, The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, seeing that You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.
	The Apostle Paul, then in 1 Cor 1:21-25, sums up everything for us in the reality that we need nothing else as witness to the expressed power of God except for the death and resurrection of Jesus Our Christ, Our Savior, and Our Lord. All the signs and wonders of God are focally established, seen in, and fulfilled by His awesome and glorious working power. 
1 Cor 1:21-25, For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 
The reality of Jesus brings forth the full measure of what is needed and proclaimed for all of eternity. In Him and by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is brought shalom and healing and restoration and salvation to any and all who will but believe upon Him! Our physical beings receive everything necessary for His spiritual life to be manifested and to be glorified on earth as He is in Heaven! So be it now and evermore!
Now it came about when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." But his hand which he stretched out against him dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Deut 5:33. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. Amen.