June 15: Of Slow Learners

1 Kings 14:1-15:24

Acts 10:1-23A

Psalm 133:1-3

Proverbs 17:7-8

When one thinks of slow learners, on has to consider Jeroboam. We recently read that Ahijah, the prophet in Shiloh, told Jeroboam he would be king over 10 of Israel's tribes because of Rehoboam's and, consequently, Israel's sinfulness.  You'd think he'd learned his lesson, that he now knew to follow God's commands.  But he didn't.  

So God punishes him; He causes Jeroboam's hand to shrivel up.  Jeroboam once again acknowledges God, and asks for intercession that he might be healed, and he is. And you'd think this time, he'd really learned his lesson, he'd learned to follow follow God's commands.  But he still hadn't.  Scripture tells us he "did not change his evil ways".

So today we read That God causes Abijah, Jeroboam's son, to fall ill.  Jeroboam knows he needs help, but he still wants it on his terms.  So what does he do?  He sends his wife, in disguise, to the prophet Ahijah in Shiloh, with bread and cakes and honey, to obtain a favorable result.  In other words, he lies, he bribes, and he makes his wife complicit.  Even when his son's life is at stake, Jeroboam refuses to learn.  

It is so easy for me to look at Jeroboam and think "what an idiot.  It would be so much easier to be obedient to God."  But the truth of the matter is, I am Jeroboam.  I sin.  God shows me the error of my ways.  I repent…and then sin again.  And often, rather than confront my sinfulness, I try to bargain or cheat my way to what I want.  

Father, thank You for revealing the Jeroboamic persistence of our sinfulness.  And thank You for the redemption Your Son obtained for us, redemption we could not have obtained for ourselves.  Help us to learn to love You, to be obedient to You, more quickly and more easily than Jeroboam.