There's Something Here - Day 239 Month 8-26 Week 35-1
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
1 Kings 13, Proverbs 24:1-12, Ezekiel 35, 2 Corinthians 2
There’s Something Here
“Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water”; your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.””
The prophet who lied to the man God had given specific directions to, then prophesied this to him as he was eating a meal. The man finished his meal and headed off towards home, only to be attacked and killed by a lion.
This is a strange story.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a gangster movie in the making. A good cop, after doing what the chief told him to do, stops to get a bite to eat with another seemingly friendly cop who is actually being paid by the mob. His boss had told him to come straight back without stopping. The seemingly dirty cop tells him he shouldn't have stopped because he has stepped into a trap. The good cop finishes his meal, gets into his car and heads back to the precinct, only to be killed in an unexpected accident. The dirty cop realizes that his actions contributed to the death of the other cop. He collects the body, mourns his death and buries him in his own burial plot. Then he tells his family, “When I die, bury me with him.”
We don't know why these things happened, but the story is clear about what happened. We wonder why God told the prophet not to eat or drink on his mission. We wonder why the older prophet would lie to convince the younger prophet to stop at his home. We wonder why the younger prophet listened to him. The older prophet should have known better than to claim that God had given him different instructions when God had already given the younger prophet specific instructions. These are all questions we'd like answered, but Scripture doesn't give us those answers.
What we do know is that when God gives clear instructions, He expects us to follow them. Jesus gave us some very clear instructions about how we are to live. He told us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, to love our neighbour as ourselves, and to make disciples of all nations.
When we adjust those instructions to suit our own perspective or put conditions on them, we aren't really following what Jesus asked us to do. We won't necessarily experience the same consequences as the prophet in this strange story, but we can learn from his experience. When we recognize that we've strayed from what Jesus has asked of us, we can repent, turn back and continue following Him.
Have a great day!
Steve
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