Introduction
Approximately three sundays ago, Jackson, the preacher of the day, prefaced his sermon with a narration of his earlier funny-not-so-funny post-landing experiences in this land that some refer to as stato. In many ways Jackson’s story is our story. The summer whather definitely catches one off-guard. As one of my dear Kamba friends would exclaim in reference to the summer weather in Texas “the hair is so so ot.” A listener who is oblivious of the idiosyncracies of tribal accents would be baffled by the mention of hair as in nywele or sungura in a sentence that seeks to describe the whether.
As regards our own experience upon arrival, none of the contacts we had been given and whom we telephoned upon arrival at DFW, none of them were available to pick us up. That’s understandable, it was in the afternoon and someone was probably napping. So our only viable option was to hire a taxi. Back at home I was used to bargaining with the taxi driver. And since I was still mentally logged into the home page, I approached this Nigerian taxi-man determined to bargain to the lowest price possible. I showed him the address we needed to get to. Then I engaged him in a bargain speech. I tried using the line about him being black and me being black and why he should give a fellow blackman a fee break. The moment the Nigerian sensed my bargaining efforts , he just burst out laughing. Later I came to understand why my bargaining was so funny to him. You see here the taxis are metered. The meter determines the price, not the taxi-man.That’s why it was humorous to him that I was attempting to bargain the Nigerian in the context of metered taxis.
And he did ferry us to our address. Right away we settled into the routine of seminary life–studying and working at the library. My wife, of course , being an F-2 stayed at home watching “As the world turns.” Little did she know that our world would soon turn for the worst and it really did. Three or four semesters into our stay, we came face to face with a crisis. The funds we had carried along with us from Kenyan and which we thought was a hill of a money–that money began to quickly dissipate. The hill, if you like, grew smaller and smaller. And by our projection, the minimum wage I was earning from my library work was not going to stop the hill from becoming a hole. The solution was to get a better paying job. That meant working off-campus. But I had no permit. And so as a family we came face to face with what I would call a Work Permit crisis!

It would not surprise me at all that there are some in this room who are facing that exact crisis–a Work permit crisis. Others may be facing some other type of crisis– may be a pregnancy crisis or a Status crisis or a Social security crisis or you-name-it crisis.
How ought we to respond in moments of crisis? More importantly, how does God expect us to respond in moments of crisis?

Sermon Proper

Sermon Thesis
In moments of crisis, God’s will for us is that we desist from engaging in ungodly and thus punishable horizontal strategem and instead express vertical trust in the form of earnest supplication for God’s intervention.

Subpoint #1: In moments of crisis, God’s will for us is that we desist from engaging in ungodly and thus punishable horizontal strategem

Turn with me guys to the first chapter of 2 kings (2 kings1)

[2Kings 1:1 ¶ After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2Kings 1:2a Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself].

Any kenyan who has ridden in a bus in Kenya at peak hours which is anywhere between 7 and 10 in the morning and 3 and 6 in the evening–if you have ridden with those sets of time frame, then you know experientally that securing a seat in a KBS is not a right. It is not even a priviledge. Finding a seat in a Kenya bus at rush hour is sheer manual labour. Forget about the job you are going to or coming from. Securing a seat is a job by itself– a 13 dollars per hr manual job. For those of us who were agile enough, to ensure that we secured a seat, we used to employ a move. Does anyone remember what we used to call that move? “kudandia basi”. As you know “kudandiaring” had its own risks. You could miss one of those staircase steps, trip and fall. When I was a young kid, i observed this guy dandiaring a bus. He “dandiared” at the front door. He missed a step, fell off and found himself positioned under the bus. The scarery part is the driver did not see him fall and kept on moving. I leave the rest to your imagination.

King Ahaziah may not have fallen off a moving bus. Nevertheless the injuries King Ahaziah sustained followng the thud were just as worrisome. King Ahaziah came face to face with a health crisis.
I ask again “What crisis are you facing today?” Since Scripture is meant for application, feel free to substitute Ahaziah’s crisis with your crisis.
If I were to read my own crisis in the place of Ahaziah’s, the verse would read: “Five semesters into our stay in America our family came face to face with a work permit crisis.”

Now how did King Ahaziah respond in the midst of his crisis?
That’s a significant question to ask: How did King Ahaziah respond in the midst of his crisis?
The answer is in v.2b
(v. 2b So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.” )
Let’s analyze Ahaziah’s response.

Who was Baal-zebub? The name literally means “Lord of flies.” But that doesn’t tell us alot. What would be the other components of his biography??We know that Baalzebub was a Philistine god.–specifically the god of Ekron . Ekron was one of the five cities termed the Pentapolis–these five cities constituted the Philistine country.Ekron was one of those cities.More pertinently Baal-zebub was considered a god capable of predicting outcomes.(“Go and consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”). If Baalzebub had a website, the webpage would look something like this:

The no 1 psychic site. Know tomorrow today. Unlimited access–no per minute charges. Call 1-800-god-zebub if you prefer to pay by visa, masterCard, American express or checking account billing. For Direct billing where charges appear on your monthly bill, call 1-900-ask-fate. International callers, for guaranteed access, please dial 011-67-87-toboa. Signed Miss Cleo for Baal-zebub, the outcome predictor.
Given two possible responses–(1) vertical trust in God and (2) ungodly horizontal strategem– which of these two responses best describe Ahaziah’s response? His decision to consult with Baal-zebub was clearly not an expression of trust in Yahweh. it was not a vertical trust in God. What we have here is a classical illustration of an ungodly horizontal strategem.

Another question–just as important.
Q. How did God take Ahaziah’s decision to consult Baal-zebub? God did not take it kindly
Look with me at v.4 ( Skip v. 3 for now) [ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’]. God punished Ahaziah. Ahaziah was already in trouble. God allowed the situation to worsen. God allowed the injury Ahaziah had sustained during the fall to turn fatal
Lets summarize what we’ve observed so far. A king comes face to face with a health crisis. The King consciously and deliberately resorts to a strategem–he engages in an ungodly horizontal strategem. That response so maddens Yahweh that He activates a punishment.

This discharge of divine punishment against those who engage in ungodly horizontal strategem, where else in the Bible do we find it replayed?

There are at least three enactments of the pattern we have seen played out in our text (the pattern of crisis, ungodly horizontal strategem, and punishment)

The first reenactment involves Moses. In Num. 20 we come across a wilderness community faced with a water-related crisis. The taps were dry. People were thirsty. So the community approached Moses and inundated him with all these complaints and moanings [Num. 20:3 … “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Num. 20:4 Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Num. 20:5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”]
Now Skip to v.8. There God reveals his will to Moses as to how he should respond in the midst of the water crisis [Num. 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink”]. God’s will was that Moses trustingly speak to the rock. That was the vertical thing to. But what did Moses opt to do instead? You know the story! Holding the staff, he raised his arm in v.11 and struck the rock instead. Therein lies another example of an ungodly horizontal stategem.
How did God take Moses’ response? Not kindly. Did He punish Him. You bet! Look at v. 12. God denied Moses an entry visa into the promised land [Num. 20:12 ¶ But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them”]. A discharge of divine punishment against one who had engaged in an ungodly horizontal strategem

The second reenactment involved Saul. The crisis in 1 Sam 13 is war-related.The humongers Philistine army was right at Israel’s door step ready to wage a war.
Back in ch 10 of 1 Samuel God had already revealed his will to Saul through the prophet Samuel as to how he should respond in the midst of the war crisis [1Sam. 10:8 ¶ “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do”]. God’s will was that Saul trustingly wait for Samuel’s arrival at Gilgal. That was the vertical thing to do, just wait!
But what did Saul opt to do instead? [1Sam. 13:9 So he (Saul) said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering]. He opted to offer sacrifice even though he was not a priest Right there is another example of an ungodly horozontal strategem.
How did God take Saul’s action? Not kindly. Did He punish him? You bet! He stripped him of the presidency and handed it to a turk– a young turk alright but a turk after God’s own heart [1Sam. 13:13 ¶ “You acted foolishly,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 1 Sam. 13:14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command”]. A discharge of divine punishment against one who had engaged in an ungodly horizontal strategem.

The third ocassion involved King Ahaz. The crisis in In Isa 7 is again war-related. The Syrians and the Israelites formed a coalition to fight Judah. In v. 4 of Isa 7 God reveals his will to King Ahaz through Isaiah as to how he should respond in the midst of the war crisis: (Isa. 7:4 … ‘ keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood — because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.). God’s will was that Ahaz trustingly keep his cool. But what did Ahaz opt to do instead. Elsewhere in the book of Chronicles we are told that Ahaz sought the aid of Assyria. There is yet another example of an ungodly horizontal stategem. Trusting in the arm of flesh and not God. How did God take Ahaz’s ungodly act? Not kindly. Did He punish him? You bet! He curtailed the cooperation between Assyria and Judah and turned Assyria into an enemy. [Isa. 7:20 In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River — the king of Assyria — to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also].
Enough examples of characters who were guilty of and were punished for engaging in ungodly horizontal strategem in the midst of crisis.

How about us? Are we guilty of engaging in ungodly horizontal strategem in the midst of crisis?

In moments of crisis, God’s will for Upendo is that we desist from engaging in ungodly and thus punishable horizontal strategem.

If the will of God is that we desist from engaging in ungodly horizontal strategem, how then does God expect us to respond?

Subpoint #2: In moments of crisis, God’s will for us is that we express vertical trust in the form of earnest supplication for God’s intervention

Look with me at the verse we had skipped, v.3 of 2 kings 1 [2Kings 1:3 ¶ But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’].
As it is the question “ Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’” exposes God’s disappointment with Ahaziah’s decision to consult Baal-zebub. The question exposes God’s feelings of sadness and betrayal. Posed today to us by God, the question would expose similar feelings of disappointment, sadness and betrayal. Posed to us by God, the question would go something like this: Is it because there is no God in our environs that faced with pregnancy crisis, we abort? Is it because there is no God in our environs that faced with a work permit crisis we ….” ? Is it because there is no God in our environs that faced with status crisis we ….? Is it because there is no God in our environs that faced with Social security crisis, we….?
If you turn that same question on its head, it reads as statement of affirmation. implicitly God was saying to the King’s messengers, “there is a God in Israel after all, therefore consult Him. God is saying to us today, there is a God in our environs after all , therefore consult Him instead.

Very early in our marriage, my wife came up with this fancy idea of keeping record of our supplications and answered prayers. I went back and looked at some entries. Jan 23rd 1998– Pray about the work permit; Feb 8 1998–pray about the work permit; March 8th 1998–pray about the work permit; March 21st 1998– pray about the work permit; April 5th–pray about the work permit; April 26th 1998–pray about the work permit; them May 10th 1998–thank God for the permit.

In moments of crisis, God’s will for Upendo is that we express vertical trust in the form of earnest supplication for God’s intervention.