Day 59 - Don't Veer Off The Path

📖Daily Reading

 1 Kings 13-16

🎥 Video  

Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.

 

📝 Reflection 

 

 1 Kings 13: 18 

    But the old prophet answered, “I am a prophet, too, just as you are. And an angel gave me this command from the Lord: ‘Bring him home with you so he can have something to eat and drink.’” But the old man was lying to him. 

 

Yikes! Well here we go again. Humans at the end of the day are still human and are easily distracted and misled.  First we have King Solomon who eventually marries 700 women and has 300 concubines. 🤷‍♀️ . Evidently the Queen of Sheba was not the only one who was impressed by Solomon. He was a busy boy, and so it is very easy for us to understand how he veered off the path. That is a lot of women to keep happy! Many of these women also worshipped other Gods. So guess what happened, yep… you guessed right. Even the wise King Solomon veered off his mission, lost his clarity and focus, and then his reputation and credibility soon followed. But thankfully God’s reputation doesn’t depend on us humans.  I think my human brain is finally starting to get the need for the constant and ‘seemingly extreme’ discipline that is doled out by God in these times.

In a nutshell, King Solomon’s kingdom is reduced down to 1 tribe. Because he made a promise to David and this allowed him to keep it. Solomon’s son Rehoboam ruled after Solomon’s death, and he ignored the wise counsel of older men who had been Solomon’s counselors and listened to his younger counter parts and became a cruel king in the process.  The people were not happy and eventually rebelled “Down with the Dynasty of David!…” is a quote from chapter 21 vs 16. Meanwhile a man named Jeroboam became ruler of the remaining tribes. He didn’t have access to the the Temple anymore, so he decided to replicate a system that still allowed people to go through the motions of worship. He erected golden calfs, buildings and shrines. He ordained his own priests not from the Levite tribe. He instituted his own version of sacred festivals and created his own altar and burned incense. 

What a mess right?! Well of course God allowed this all to happen so that He would have an opportunity to demonstrate His ultimate faithfulness to His word and His glory. He sends an unnamed prophet “a man of God from Judah’ to tell King Jeroboam that he is way off the path and he needed to repent. Then we have a very dramatic scene unfold. He prophesies that one day a man named Josiah will be born from the family of David and he will punish these fake priests and all that has taken place here on the pagan altars and that human bones will burn on the alter. He then also prophesies that as proof of the prophesy that the altar will split apart, and its ashes will be poured out on the ground. Jeraboam, says to ‘seize this man’ while pointing his finger. His arm gets paralyzed in that position and also as predicted right then the altar cracked and ashes poured out!  Jeraboam then begs the prophet to pray and ask the Lord to release his arm. This happens and then the king is so grateful he invites the prophet to dinner.

The prophet politely declines and repeats the specific instructions provided to him to go deliver the message, don’t eat or drink anything while in the land and then return to Judah by another way. And off he goes. Word of this happening got around and another unnamed prophet goes after him and then devises a plan to see if this was really a message from the Lord. He lies to his fellow prophet and the first prophet, also probably now hungry and tired is more vulnerable to believing the lie, that God has given him permission to not follow his clear instructions, but has delivered new instructions through this ‘fellow prophet’. Sounds true, he relied on another humans reputation and ‘perceived’ credibility, and he ate and drank, instead of staying on his specific path and following the directions that he received directly from the Lord.  He then is very dramatically killed by a Lion on his way out of town. The Lion doesn’t eat him or his donkey. So God even used strange circumstances, unnamed prophets, deceit and  treachery to once again demonstrate that He means what He says, says what He means and follows through on His word even when it seams ‘extreme’ and cruel to our modern human sensibility.  

The older prophet confirms to all that the message that was sent by ‘the man of God from Judah’ is true and reliable, it was tested. In verse 32 he says “For the message the Lord told him to proclaim against the altar in Bethel and against the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”  Still Jeraboam did not get back on the path and turn from his evil ways and this would eventually result in the utter destruction of Jeraboam’s house from the face of the earth.

This is like a scene from a movie right? In the audience and as reader if you are like me you are yelling at the characters going, ‘no don’t do that, get back on track, can’t you see…’. And/But yet when we are the ones in it we can’t see it either. And things seem right to do at the time, especially when we rely on other humans first. Solomon was just trying to keep his wives happy. Rehoboam chose bad advice over wise counsel. Jeraboam saw a need for a religious system and just thought creating a new one would be just as good. The ‘man of God from Judah’ relied on and believed the words of a fellow prophet. Things can very easily distract, deceive and get us to veer off what he has for us, even through other ‘believers’ and advisors. They might have their own vision for you that aligns with their vision but not God’s direction for you.  This is often very hard to discern unless you are really seeking God first and reminding yourself and keeping your self clear. Easier said than done for sure. 

✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt 

What might be happening for you right now that either has you veered off track or that could potentially get you off track. Who are you allowing to speak into your life and into circumstances. Is it wise and trustworthy counsel, do they a conflict of interest or their own agenda or vision of how things should go for you? Even when people love us and want the best for us, they can counsel from a place of fear, judgement or their own reasons. How can you take today’s message and get back the path that God has for you. 

📖Tomorrows Reading

 1 Kings 17-18

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