1 Kings 11:37-38 [The Lord’s conditional promise to Jeroboam son of Nebat] “’However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do
whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’”12:26-28 (NIV) Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem,
they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam. After seeking advice, the king made two gold calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
1 Kings 13:15-18 (NIV) So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.” The man of God said, “I cannot eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the Word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.” “The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God ate and drank with him in his house.
Recently I felt that God had impressed me to take a day of fasting in preparation for sharing something He had put on my heart. I did fast until 6:00 p.m. At that time, I asked God if He minded me having dinner. There was no sense of an answer. I asked again. Still no answer. Now, I should have taken that
to mean the original instructions He had clearly spoken to my heart still held true. However, I wanted the answer to be, “Go ahead. Do what you want.” Therefore, I chose to permit those words to masquerade as truth even though I had no deep peace to convince me that they were really from God.
When the young prophet in 1 Kings Chapter 13 listened to what he wanted to hear instead of what God had spoken to His heart, a lion attacked him for his disobedience. God was much easier on me. My food just dumped all over my dress, barbeque sauce and all.
I do not understand why it was so important to God that the young prophet in the passage above should not eat anything on his journey in that region. Nor do I understand why he faced such severe consequences for his disobedience when I was disciplined so gently. The important thing is that God knew exactly why! God knows the condition of each heart, the sphere of influence each individual has, and a whole bunch of other stuff that we may not see.
I do not understand why the old prophet lied to the young prophet either. What was he thinking? Did he suppose that the young man just imagined the instructions from God? Was it something like that? Did the old prophet think he was looking out for the young prophet’s well being? Did he suppose the
young man would be better off with him than he would be in the center of God’s will? If you read that whole story, you will see that the old prophet genuinely cared for the young man. So, why did he lie to him? His manipulative actions only resulted in great harm!
When I read the passage about Jeroboam, I tend to get a bit uppity. I catch myself thinking things like, “How can this guy be so dense?” God promised to build him an enduring dynasty if he would be obedient. What did he do right out of the starting gate? He silently blurted out “I am afraid to obey
God!” Rather than discussing his concerns with God, Jeroboam sought the advice of others. In no time, he led his nation and future generations into sin. Do you know what? We can be just as dense as Jeroboam. Succumbing to fear can cause us to lead others into sin too. Fear will entice us to disobey
God if we do not recognize the toothless growls of the roaring lion for what they really are.
Fear and desire can make me tone deaf if I let them. I strongly suspect that these two culprits are behind the majority of instances when I fail to follow God’s instructions. Desire, or wanting to do things my own way, is the craftier of the two villains in my life. My desire often disguises itself as God’s desire.
If I do not inspect it through the lens of prayer and God’s Word, it will trip me up. Fear on the other hand does not do as well in the disguise department. Oh, sometimes it will dress up as good logic or sound reason and trick me that way. However, most of the time I recognize fear for what it really is.
Therefore, fear resorts to blaring at the top of its lungs and won’t shut up unless I filter out its noise by means of faith.
It is always wise to trust God over any people, including ourselves. So, whom are we listening to?