Today is Palm Sunday. I hope you take the time to contemplate the bravery and compassion of Jesus Christ. Jesus foresaw his own crucifixion (see Matt 16:21-23). Even though He knew this, and that we would be sinners (see Rom 5:8), He still entered Jerusalem with festivities. There was no attempt to slip into town unnoticed.
Today we finish looking at 1 Kings. The final two chapters focus on three topics: Desire, Deceit and Discernment.
Desire
King Ahab had his palace. Servants attended to his needs and provided food for him. Through his inheritance, he had land and all public land was his.
He saw Naboth had a nice vineyard, and it was close to his palace. His desire for the land caused him to devise a scheme to get it.
Coveting is a sin. When we covet what someone else has, it becomes an obsession. We conceive ways to get what they have.
This can involve getting others to help us plan (v21:6) how to bring this to fruition.
They may even get others to help execute the plans (v21:13).
Sin always escalates. Therefore, coveting becomes deception, which leads to murder.
Coveting is an internal emotion. God knows our hearts (see Jer 17:10).
People may think, what harm is there in wanting what someone else has? This is the first step in disobeying God.
Deception
When you get outside of His will, the next step is easier. Lying, in this case telling someone else to bear false witness and claim “Naboth cursed both God and the king” (v21:13), may seem insignificant.
I always taught my son he would get in more trouble for lying about something he did than he would for whatever the deed was. The only spanking I ever gave him was for lying.
When someone lies to you, they lose trust. This damages relationships.
Here the lie leads to stoning, and the theft of the property (v21:19).
We may wield power to escape earthly retribution, but God’s judgment is inescapable.
Ahab humbles himself before God and avoids the immediate punishment. But his son will have to deal with those consequences (v21:29).
As we move into chapter 22, peace has existed for three years between Aram and Israel (v22:1). Because of coveting, or greed, possibly boredom, the kings of Israel and Judah decide they want to fight Ramoth Gilead.
We don’t have reason to believe they needed the land, or what it contained. There was no sign of provocation of any kind.
Jehoshaphat has the discretion to first seek the Lord before going into battle (v22:5).
We should always see God’s will in all we do. This has been a practice at our house for decades. I will not say we are perfect in following this practice.
When we are planning on a large purchase or a life-changing move, like when to retire, we always pray about it.
The problem is when it seems like a day-to-day decision; do I buy this pair of shoes? What program should we binge on Netflix tonight?
We leave God out of the conversation. Assuming He is too busy to bother Him with such mundane things.
God loves us and wants to be a part of all our decisions. By seeking Him at all times, we avoid letting things into our lives which shouldn’t be there.
We watch a TV show and then have images of evil in our hearts. Those shoes become an obsession and an idol.
Therefore, we must always seek God first in all we do (see Matt 6:33)
Discernment
These kings seek God, but they don’t want an answer which opposed their plans. They call on the 400 false prophets who will lie and tell them what they want to hear.
People choose religions and churches in this same way. If a pastor is always preaching about sin, they choose the one who only preaches on hope.
A Gospel which does not address sin is not the true Gospel of Jesus Christ (see 1 John 1:8).
Ahab didn’t want to hear from Micaiah, because he didn’t like the truth (v22:18).
True to form, Micaiah foretells of Ahab’s death, which happens in verse 22:22:35.
We must seek God’s direction, and then we must heed the advice. When we don’t, the circumstances can be fatal.
Too many times, even when we prayed first, we still went with our original plan. When it failed, we could only blame ourselves.
If we thought God was too busy to bother him with minor aspects of our lives, how do we expect Him to have time to clean up our messes?
