Readings for today: 1 Kings 12:20-13:34, Acts 9:26-43, Psalms 132, Proverbs 17:6
Today’s reading contains another difficult story. The people of Israel sinned a great sin. Their new king, out of fear of losing his newly won kingdom, created two idols and set them up in Dan and Bethel. He called his people to worship at these temples rather than the Temple of God in Jerusalem. He failed to trust God and brought judgment on himself. God sent Jeroboam a prophet. A man of God from Judah who confronted him on his sin. Rather than repent, he tried to have the prophet killed. God intervened. Jeroboam’s hand withered. The altar he had just made was torn down. Ashes poured out of it. Jeroboam realized he was in the presence of a true prophet of God. But he refused to repent and instead tried to co-opt the prophet for his own purposes. The prophet refused. God had told him not to eat or drink while he was in the northern kingdom. But on his way home, he met another prophet. An older man who lived in Bethel. He pursued the prophet from Judah and lied to get him to come back to his house. The prophet from Judah disobeyed the command of God and returned. The result was judgment on the prophet and he is killed on his way back home.
It’s a confusing story on a lot of levels. It feels like we don’t have all the information. Why did the prophet from Judah trust the words of the older prophet from Bethel? Why did he turn aside after being so bold with the king? Why did he not trust the Word the Lord had given specifically to him?
These are good questions to ponder. Especially that last one. I meet with people all the time who fall into this same trap. God gives them a vision. A dream. A special Word designed specifically for them and their life. But they struggle to obey. The people they surround themselves with sow seeds of doubt. Their own feelings of anxiety and fear cause them to turn back. They run into obstacles or hardships along the way and they abandon the cause.
Trusting God is hard. It’s been said that God won’t give a person more than they can handle. Not true! God often gives us more than we can handle so we will learn to rely on Him. He calls us out of our comfortable spaces. Out of our homogeneous bubbles. Out of safety. Out of security. So that we can serve His purposes in the world. He calls us to sacrifice. To surrender. To submit every area of our lives to Him. He calls us to do things we wouldn’t normally choose to do. He calls us to go places we wouldn’t normally choose to go. He calls to have conversations we wouldn’t normally choose to have. All to further His Kingdom on earth.
Most Christians I talk to can point to examples in their lives where they felt prompted by God to do something totally beyond them. Totally out of the ordinary. Something that felt a little crazy at the time. The people around them wondered what was going on. Some of them tried to convince them to turn aside. They struggled with their own feelings of fear and anxiety. They wondered themselves if this was really God or some other voice they were listening to. But then they stepped out in faith and met God in a profound way.
I think about a friend of mine in South Korea. His name is Pastor Chun. He runs a ministry called Durihana which focused on the rescue of North Korean refugees. Recently, CNN and other news stations have been running stories on him and his work. He is incredible. He is in his sixties and still risks his life to cross the border. He primarily focuses on young girls who’ve been sold as sex slaves. He’s established an Underground Railroad through China into Thailand where he can apply for asylum in South Korea. Many would call his work crazy. Impractical. Even impossible. I am sure he has feelings of anxiety and fear that he battles from time to time. I am sure he’s been tempted along the way to pack it in. And yet, he perseveres. Why? Because he trusts God’s Word. He trusts God’s call. He trusts God’s will for his life and even though it has cost him dearly and may cost him his life one day, he considers it an honor to suffer for Christ.
How has God spoken to you in your life? What fears or anxieties hold you back from pursuing God’s will? What temptations have you given into along the way that have turned you aside from pursuing God’s call? What voices are drowning out God’s voice in your life right now? Trust God. Trust His Word. Trust His Spirit. Turn neither to the right nor to the left. Let Him lead and guide and meet you in a powerful way.
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 14:1-15:24, Acts 10:1-23, Psalms 133, Proverbs 17:7-8