June 20, 2017
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, requested that Ahab, king of Israel, would inquire of the LORD before they united to go to war against Syria. Ahab gathered his 400 prophets and they all affirmed the Lord’s support. However, Jehoshaphat was a righteous king and he took note that the prophets were not worshipers of the LORD (In most English translations, all caps “LORD” is used to translate “Yahweh,” while “Lord” is used to translate “Adonai.”). He asked whether Ahab still had a “Yahweh” prophet. Ahab did, but he said that he hated him because the prophet never spoke good for him. Sure enough, when the Yahweh prophet was brought before the kings, he prophesied Ahab’s death, which in fact, came to pass.
The modern reader may consider Ahab foolish for preferring to surround himself with preachers that only encouraged him with lies, while rejecting the one who called him to repentance with the truth. Yet, Ahab’s generation is here today and Ahab’s prophets too. For as the apostle Paul warned, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (1 Tim. 4:3-4).
June 19, 2017
Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, thought he had picked a fight with Ahab, king of Israel, but in fact, he had picked a fight with God. Ahab was one of the most wicked kings in Israel’s history, so it seems surprising that the Lord would protect him from the armies of Syria. But the Lord was not defending Ahab. He was defending His own Name. He wanted both Israel and Syria to recognize that He was not some local man-made deity, but the only true God and Creator of all.
His desire has always been that “you shall know that I AM the Lord.”
June 18, 2017
God directed Elijah to anoint a prophet from behind a plow. He didn’t send him to a school for prophets, but to a farm where Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. His father must’ve been wealthy to have so many servants plowing with twelve teams. Yet, when Elijah came by and threw his mantle upon him, he left everything to follow. Elisha even made a barbecue of his own oxen team, using the wooden plow for fuel, and fed his father’s servants before leaving. This showed not only his joy at answering God’s call, but also the total relinquishment of his former life, as he left behind plow and primogeniture to follow as Elijah’s servant.
The calling of Elisha is similar to the calling of Jesus’ disciples. They too left everything to follow Jesus and to become His servants. Have you butchered the oxen and burned the plow of your former life, so that you are free to fully follow Christ as His devoted servant?
June 17, 2017
Jesus had instructed His disciples that they were to be His witnesses to the “end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), yet it wasn’t until after the persecution in Jerusalem that they truly began to fulfill His call. As they scattered throughout the Roman world, great numbers of people turned to the Lord, especially among the Gentiles. Persecution had actually resulted in proliferation. The gospel went out across the world!
Are you going through a season of trouble? Perhaps the Lord is moving you out of your comfort zone to a place where the gospel can spread. Sometimes the Lord scatters us, in order to scatter the gospel seed to those whose hearts He has prepared to hear.
June 16, 2017
The Roman centurion, Cornelius, had sent for the apostle Peter and upon hearing that he was on the way, he “called together his relatives and close friends” to meet and hear him. Cornelius wanted everyone he cared about to hear the gospel. Have you invited your relatives and friends to hear the gospel? Have you “called” them to come with you to follow Jesus?
June 15, 2017
Not uniformity, as some would see it, but unity. The first demands outward conformity, but the second is oneness of heart that allows for diversity. For “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:4). This “good and pleasant” unity cannot be accomplished by human means, but is the work of the Holy Spirit. As the apostle Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). This unity comes from having a new spiritual identity in Christ.
June 14, 2017
The Judean prophet had clear instructions from the Lord to maintain his fast and return a different way home, but he was deceived by an old prophet’s claim that the Lord had said he could stay and eat with him. He had resisted King Jeroboam’s invitation, but he fell prey to the old prophet’s lie. And while returning to Judah, he was killed by a lion along the way.
This is one of the stranger episodes in the Bible, yet a clear principle might be seen. Obey the Word of the Lord even when a another believer tells you that he has had a fresh revelation on the matter. Especially, when the so-called new word from the Lord makes it easier to give in to your fleshly appetite. Better to fast and live, than to eat and die.
June 13, 2017
Saul the persecutor became Paul the preacher. Within days of his Damascus road experience with Jesus, Saul was preaching Christ in the synagogues. His passion for killing Christians had been replaced with a passion for making them. Why? Because he had encountered the risen Christ and believed. And he wanted everyone to know what Christ had done for them.
Are all believers immediately called to making disciples for Jesus? Paul certainly thought so.
June 12, 2017
After Solomon had completed the Temple, the Lord appeared to him a second time. In this appearance, the Lord repeated the promise that He had made to his father, David, concerning Israel’s throne, namely, that one of his sons would always be king. However, the promise was conditional on Solomon’s integrity and obedience to the Lord. And as Solomon grew older, his many foreign wives “turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4).
With the death of Solomon the kingdom fell into two parts. The ten Northern tribes rebelled and established a new Northern kingdom of Israel, which was later conquered by the Assyrians. And the Lord let Solomon’s son keep Judah and the Southern Kingdom for the sake of David, yet even that kingdom eventually fell too.
Solomon’s reign represented the peak of Israel’s power and prestige. Yet, it is a picture of the disappointment that every human government, no matter how promising its beginnings, always ends up bringing. For all humanity longs for the ultimate fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to David of an eternal kingdom established by the Lord. This is the kingdom that was inaugurated by Jesus, Son of David, Son of God, and its fulfillment awaits His return. Until then, we pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
June 11, 2017
Repeated twice for affect, the psalmist called those ascending the Temple Mount to reflect on the many times that Israel was “afflicted” from the time of its “youth,” even to their present day. Yet, Israel still stood. The Egyptians, the wilderness, the Amorites and Philistines –– none had “prevailed” against them.
Christ took up that word, “prevailed,” in His response to Peter’s confession, saying, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not ‘prevail’ against it” (Matt. 16:18). Certainly, through the centuries many have thought to prevail against the Church, and even in that time, they thought to prevail against Christ, yet He arose, and the Church has not only survived, it continues to thrive.
All who would follow Christ will know affliction. From the time of their new birth until the time of being called home to heaven, there will be trouble. But the promise of Jesus sustains us, for He has said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).