Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Year 1, Day 361: 1 Kings 20

1 Kings 20 gives us a good picture of underserved mercy as well as the rejecting and compromising spirit of mankind.  Let me spin out the story in this chapter a little more concisely – because personally I had trouble following the story amidst all of the details in the chapter.

Retelling the Story

The king of Syria comes to Ahab and demands to loot the nation.  Ahab agrees.  The king then demands to loot Ahab’s personal residence and Ahab will have no part.  The king of Syria comes to meet Ahab in battle, but through an unnamed prophet God announces to Ahab that he will deliver Israel.  God delivers them, but the Syrians convince themselves that if they fought on the plains – where their gods are stronger – that they could beat the Israelites.  So they come again to battle and God delivers the Syrian king into the hands of Ahab.  However, Ahab comes to a compromise with the Syrian king and they agree to his release.

Grace

Now, clearly we can see the grace of God.  There was no reason for God to step in and save the northern kingdom – especially Ahab!  God steps in and saves them because of His grace – purely because of His grace.  Even in the Old Testament – a testament that we typically think of as legalism and sacrifice and “earning” the cleansing of our sinful nature – we are reminded that grace is still the primary operator.

Judgment

However, it is not only grace at work in this story.  With respect to the Israelites, it is solely grace.  But with respect to the Syrians the time of their judgment has come.  God uses the Israelites as his weapon of judgment against the Syrians.  Now, this doesn’t at all negate the grace of God.  God could have brought judgment upon the Syrians however He desired.  The fact that he chose this moment to accomplish His will and simultaneously spare the Israelites from the Syrians is still amazing grace.

But it does remind us that God has other agendas in the world.  God is not solely focused on the Hebrew people; He is the God of the whole world.  While most of our scriptures involve stories from the Hebrew people, God is watching over the rest of the world.  I think this is important for us to remember – or at least I need to remember it!  Too easily I allow myself to think of myself as the center of the world.  Too easily I allow myself to focus on what God desires to do through me.  But really I should be focused on what is God doing in the world, and how I play a part of what God is doing in the world.  I am not the center of the world; I am merely a player on the stage of God’s design.

Condition of the Human Heart

Having seen God’s grace and His omnipotence, we also get a chance to see the despicable, compromising, and corrupt nature of the human heart.  Ahab has just been the recipient of undeserved grace.  God came and saved him when he didn’t deserve it.  God says that he will deliver Syria into Ahab’s hand, and what does Ahab do with Syria once the king is delivered into his hand?  The king turns around and seeks for a compromise with the Syrian king so that Ahab can benefit.  Ahab has no desire to explain to the Syrian king why God is the most powerful and why God delivered Syria into the hands of the Hebrew people.  No, Ahab ungraciously takes God’s grace and turns it into his own advantage.  What God intended for the judgment of Syrians or even as a demonstration of His power so the Syrians could recognize His omnipotence, Ahab turns into an opportunity for personal profit.

How guilty of this dynamic am I?  Practically every moment of my life I am no better than Ahab.  How gracious has God been to me?  Look at all the things that God has delivered into my hands.  And what do I do with them?  I turn them into my advantage.  I don’t use them to promote God.  I don’t use them to tell other people why I rely totally upon God.  I take the gifts of God, use them to my advantage, and then discard them when they are no longer useful.  So much of my life is spent without acknowledging God’s grace to me.  In this respect, I am no different than Ahab.

I think of this fact especially in reference to my blog post yesterday.  We are supposed to be about making disciples.  Am I doing this?  Sure, I am.  I cannot deny that there are a handful of people in this world that I am actively in the process of discipling.  But could I be doing better?  Could I be doing more?  Could I be using more effectively the resources that God has offered to me?  Could I give more of my time to the discipleship of others?  Could I make it more the focus of my life?  The answer to all these questions is yes.  I could do better.  I should do better.  I should be more responsive to the grace that God has given me in this life.

Let’s ponder the lesson we have from Ahab today.  God is gracious when we do not deserve it.  We need to think more about turning God’s grace into God’s advantage rather than our own.


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