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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