Sunday, June 14, 2015

Sunday, June 14, 2015

The message from the Old Testament reading for today told me that it would be wise to check with God before following the words of another. Jeroboam had been doing just about everything he could to defy God. He made priests of anyone who raised their hand and said they wanted the job even though God had set aside the Levites only to fill that role. Jeroboam made golden calves for the people to worship because he was afraid they would return to Judah to worship the Lord. Jeroboam thought if they did that then they would kill him.

A man of God came from Judah to Bethel, where Jeroboam was about to make an offering to the golden idols and spoke words of prophecy about what would happen to the 'priests' and to the altar itself. Jeroboam stretched out his hand against the man of God and as he yelled, 'seize him', he watched his own hand shrivel up. The king asked the man of God to intercede and ask God to heal his hand. This was done but when the king invited the man to his house to eat, the man of God refused, saying that the Lord had told him he must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way he came.

As he went on his way, an old prophet heard the story of what had happened and set out to find the man of God. When he did, the prophet also invited him to come to his house to eat. The man of God repeated what he had told the king and said that he could not. Then the old prophet lied to the man and said that God had spoken to him and instructed him to bring him home for a meal.

So the man of God went with him.

This was his mistake. It seems to me that his first response should have been to seek the Lord and find out if God had really changed his mind about the dinner plans. But he did not and God rebuked him for defying the Word of the Lord. The man was killed by a lion shortly thereafter and was buried away from his family as God had said would happen.

Lesson learned.. If I am following God's guidance and someone gives me advice that contradicts his Word then I need to check it out thoroughly before I take one step in another direction. I will pray about it, see what the Bible says and seek Godly wisdom from an elder or pastor.


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