Read: 1
Kings 13
When God sees His people straying, He sends them
opportunities to return to Him. These opportunities may come in the form of a
friendly face, a tragedy or the inner nudges of a person’s conscience. In the
time of the kings, God often provided these opportunities through prophets. In
this story, Jeroboam, ruler of the Northern Kingdom, is worshipping at his
false altar. A man of God from the Southern Kingdom comes to Jeroboam and
prophesies against the altar. He foretells of King Josiah who will destroy the
false altars. Josiah ruled about three hundred years after Jeroboam. God gave
the Northern Kingdom three centuries to repent before raising up Josiah to
cleanse the nation of idols. This prophecy can serve to strengthen our faith in
the reliability of God’s spoken and written Word. When God says something He
will follow through.
After his encounter with Jeroboam at the false
altar, the unnamed prophet continues on his way. He refuses to eat the food
offered to him by Jeroboam. God had forbidden the prophet from eating or
drinking anything while he was in the Northern Kingdom. To become comfortable
in the sinful nation would leave the prophet at risk of being influenced by the
sins surrounding him. An old prophet lived in the area. He hears of this man of
God and sets his resolve to invite this man into his home. The old prophet lies
to the new one, tricking him into breaking his vow not to eat or drink. The old
prophet claims God told him it was okay for the new prophet to eat in the old
prophet’s home. It would be easy to make excuses for the new prophet’s
disobedience. He was lied to, tricked into believing God was speaking something
different. However, the new prophet was responsible for following God to the best
of His conscience’s ability. Even if God had spoken to the old prophet, the new
prophet believed that God had spoken to him. It would have been better for the
new prophet to follow his conscience, even if he was incorrect, than to
disregard it and fall into sin. We are told nothing of the new prophet
inquiring of God personally on this matter. He did not ask God to confirm the
old prophet’s words; he simply took these words as truth. The consequences of
the new prophet’s disobedience are dire: his punishment is death.
Prayer and
Journaling
1. Ask God to speak to you about your future today.
Record what He says, big or small, in your journal. You may understand what God
reveals to you immediately or it may be hazy. Tell God that you trust Him to
fulfill what He has shown you. Pray that, when He fulfills this word, He will
remind you of this devotional time and build your faith.
2. God forgives our inability to hear Him
perfectly. He expects us to follow Him to the best of our ability and gives us
mercy and grace where we fail. Have you ever thought you were hearing God and
it turned out it wasn’t Him speaking after all? Reflect on this time of hearing
Him incorrectly. Ask God to show you why He allowed you to misinterpret Him.
What does He want you to learn from this?
3. Thank God for giving the gift of prophecy to His
Church. God gave prophets to encourage the Church where she is faithful,
strengthen the Church where she is weak, speak to the Church where she has not
been able to hear and warn the Church where she has been disobedient. Pray that
churches across Canada would learn to love God’s voice. Pray that believers
would seek His will when making decisions and turn to Him when they need
wisdom. Pray that Christ’s bride in Canada would earnestly desire to hear His
voice.
