1 Kings 12-13
God promised Jeroboam the bulk of the kingdom of Israel – 10 of the 12 tribes – after Solomon’s death. And God fulfilled His promise, as He always does. God also promised that if Jeroboam would commit himself to God fully, as David had, He would “build [him] a sure house” (1 Kings 11:38), just as He had done for David. But as soon as Jeroboam received his promised kingdom, his thoughts turned away from God. It occurred to him that the people were still required to go to Jerusalem, which did not belong to him, to offer sacrifices to the LORD. And so, “Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David’” (1 Kings 12:26). No wonder Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9)!
God made a two-part promise to Jeroboam – part of it conditional, the other part not. God kept the non-conditional part of the promise, but then fear gripped Jeroboam’s heart. So instead of choosing to trust God and act on faith, Jeroboam listened to his heart and acted on fear. Who can understand the heart, indeed! This makes no sense at all! He was as fresh on the heels of God’s provision as he could be. Yet he doubted that God would follow through on the rest. As a result, he did the very thing that nullified the promise straight out of the gate!
Jeroboam’s behavior makes no sense, yet how often do I listen to fear, or doubt, or greed, or any other desire rather than trusting a God who has been nothing but faithful to me? Jeroboam ultimately created his own ‘copy cat’ religion. It was complete with idols, temples, priests and feasts, “that he had devised from his own heart” (1 Kings 12:33). I must be diligent in letting God rule my heart so I know that what is coming out of it is from Him and is not my own.
The story of the prophet who spoke out against Jeroboam and his altar in 1 Kings 13 is another story I just don’t understand. This man was faithful to follow God’s command to the letter. At least he was until an older prophet came and told him that he received a word from the LORD that was contrary to that command. I guess that should have been his clue that something wasn’t right. But he chose to believe the older prophet, who had outright lied to him. In doing so, he disobeyed the command he had received from God. Unfortunately, his poor choice cost him his life.
Why on earth did this old prophet go and lie to this man? Surely he knew from his sons that the man was not to stop to partake of anything until he got out of the land of Israel. Was he intentionally trying to trap the man? Was he testing him for some reason? Or did he get a little star-struck and let his desire to break bread with the bold, young prophet overrule his better senses? It was to him, as they ate at his house, that God revealed the younger prophet’s punishment for the disobedience. When he heard it, he “cried to the man of God” the word he received from the LORD. That, along with his response at hearing of the man’s death, make me think it wasn’t intentional sabotage. But why did he do this? And why did the man from Judah listen to him?
I suppose the lesson for me is that if I am convicted that God has given me a specific command, I should not be so quick to believe if somebody else tells me that God said I should do something contrary to it. Does God direct us sometimes through others? Yes, I believe He does. But discretion matters, and it is important that we listen for truth and not for what we want to hear. If I am to believe that God is making changes to something He has commanded me, it better come straight from Him – like when He told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, then gave the ram as a replacement – and not from any other source.
Acts 11
Ah! Another perfect example of God’s making changes to His command! Peter knew the law. He knew what was clean and unclean and that it was unlawful for him to eat with the uncircumcised. But God made it abundantly clear – quite personally – that His command had changed. Technically, in both this case and with Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, it wasn’t so much that God changed His command, but more that the command was fulfilled.
Abraham did what God asked by unreservedly offering his son, Isaac, to Him. Killing Isaac wasn’t necessary. And here, God was not saying it was now okay to make yourself unclean. God’s message to Peter was that what once was unclean was now clean and so would no longer defile him. So that’s another clue in discerning truth from lie and finding the path of obedience. That God would just arbitrarily release you from a command, as the prophet from Judah seemed to think, is highly unlikely.