Tuesday, November 1, 2016
There is a very interesting and instructional story 1 Kings, Chapter 22, concerning the good king, Jehoshaphat, and the wicked king, Ahab. Here is one of it’s lessons: God’s children must be careful not to get too overly involved with those who don’t believe in Him; Jehoshaphat almost lost his life because of it. I’m not suggesting we should isolate ourselves completely from unbelievers, otherwise how can we tell them about Jesus? We just should not join them when they do or are involved in things God is clearly against.
The lesson I want to focus on today, however, is that, as God’s children, we must obey the Lord even when He tells us what we don’t want to hear. That, specifically, is what almost got Jehoshaphat killed. Even after the prophet Micaiah told both kings, by the word of the Lord, that they would not be successful in their joint battle, he joined up with Ahab anyway. Earlier in the story, when Jehoshaphat asked if there was a (genuine) prophet of the Lord in Israel who could come and give them God’s word before they went into battle, Ahab replied:“There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”(vs 8) Can you see why Ahab hated God’s prophet? It was because he told him the truth, unlike his bought false prophets who would only tell him what he wanted to hear.
Many people in the world will immediately dislike you when you don’t agree with them. That is especially true in the current presidential campaign. That someone, in your opinion, may be mistaken or misinformed in their choice of a presidential candidate, should not be reason enough for you to hate them, especially if you call yourself a child of God. Yet, people today hate one another just for that reason alone. To me, this is a troubling matter and it points to a greater unrest and division that is soon coming upon our nation. Let’s not be like that! If we are God’s people we are peacemakers, not rabble-rousers. And if we truly love the Lord, we will honor and obey Him even when He tells what we don’t want to hear. We are convinced that what a great hymn of the faith says is true: “Trust and Obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”
God’s promise for today: (Psalm 32:10) “Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.”
