Highlights of Life

It’s been a while since I’ve set aside a chunk of my time to actually read the bible on my own. I mean, no bible study, no group, no church to cause me to crack open the book, but just me and God, all by ourselves. Time is so precious these days, that life can start crowding you in, till you forget the most essential things to do.

Last week, I started reading the old testament. Opened it up, and started reading from 1st Samuel, and continued to 2nd Samuel, and then 1st Kings, and am on 2nd Kings. It’s always so amazing how no matter how many times you reread something, there is always something new to discover, and wonder.

For instance, what truly struck me was that in 1st Samuel, it starts off with the story of Hannah. Hannah, who is unable to bear children, it is the grief of this one woman over being barren that is captured as the beginning story to this amazing chapter. Interesting really, given that the story ultimately leads onto amazing and great stories of wonderful characters such as King David, King Saul, Jonathan, and Elijah. And the amazing part is that her story is so closely detailed out. We find out she is tormented by the other woman. We see that she is loved by her husband, who gives her a double portion of meat simply because she is barren. We see that she has true faith in God, and driven by absolute grief and sadness, she prays at the temple, where words are not heard, but only a seen. Wow. And my heart goes out to this woman. How sad she must have been. And my heart rejoices as the story turns to one of joy as she bears Samuel, one of the greatest prophets there ever was.

The other thing that truly struck me as I read the book of Samuel and Kings is what a powerful and awesome God we have. I often read and remember the New Testament God, who forgives, and loves and is tender and gentle of heart. And I had forgotten, that our God is a God to be feared. A God, with whom we should be in awe of. There are stories in the old testament, where either Saul or King David disobeys God. Not too much, but just a little. A little compromise. Not a big deal right? NOPE. Not at all.

Instead, we see that even in little things, or large things, compromise can be seen as disobeying. You can’t simply sin a little. Sin is sin is sin. And for that, God becomes angry, and ultimately judges. For instance, King Solomon compromised in the later stages of his life. Wise, and blessed as he was, it says that his whole heart did not fully follow God. Instead he compromised. He built and allowed worship of other gods to occur, including detestable gods such as Molech. In fact, when I looked up Molech in wikipedia, it was an idol that was worshipped, and human (infant/children) sacrifice was made by burning them at the alter. Awful. And for those compromises, Solomon was judged.

So it made me reflect on my life as well. In what areas have I compromised myself or caused others close to me to compromise. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to remember our God is an awesome God, and that I wanted my heart to wholly follow His, and not compromise. To follow God as David did till he died, for that in and of itself, has many blessings.

And the passages oddly enough gave me an incredible sense of peace. For the other thing the passages highlighted to me was that judgement over sin is not mine to dole out. Revenge is not my duty, for our God is awesome and just. That in good time, and in God’s time, he will pass judgement. And it is simply my duty to forgive, and to love. It’s tough.. this forgiving and loving thing really. So much easier to harbour hurt and anger over something or someone. But the reality of it is, is that the only one it ultimately hurts and eats away at is the person who harbours the anger and hurt.

Last night I read about a man of God who travelled from Judah (the Southern end) to where Jeroboam (the Northern tribes’ king) had made alters and false idols for the Israelites to worship at. (A purely tactical move to ensure that the people would not have to travel south to Jerusalem for sacrifice and prayer on special occasions). Well, this man of God obediently traveled north to Israel, and made a public proclamation against King Jeroboam about his sin (causing worship of idols), and his punishment in front of many witnesses. When King Jeroboam in anger stretched out his hand toward this man of God in anger, his hand shriveled up. At which point this man of God even interceded on behalf of Jeroboam, which aided in the healing of Jeroboam’s shriveled hand.

Now God had commanded “this man of God” (who remains nameless) to not eat or drink while in Judah or return by the way he came. Well long story short, an old prophet heard about this man of God and what he had prophesied against King Jeroboam, and hurried and met this man of God on his way back to Judah (Southern part). This old prophet then asked this man of God to come to his home and eat and drink before he went on his way. The man of God initially refused, saying God had told him not to eat or drink while he was there. But then this old prophet LIED to the man of God, and said that he too had received word from an angel of God, and that he was to provide food and drink to this man of God.

So this man of God, deceived by the old prophet, went to the old prophet’s home and ate and drank. At which point the old prophet then truly did receive a prophesy from God, and said that the man of God had defied the word of the Lord, and because of his disobedience, he would not be buried in the tomb of his fathers. And sure enough, on the way back to Judah (after his meal with the old prophet), man of God was killed by a lion.

Huh! Why did the old prophet lie? If he too was a prophet, shouldn’t he aid another man of God, and not hinder him? And wasn’t his sin more terribly worse than the man of God’s, for the old prophet intentionally lied to the man of God. The man of God was simply deceived by a lie, and didn’t intend to disobey God. Yet it was the deceived man of God who was killed by a lion after the meal, while the old prophet continued to live. Doesn’t that seem unfair?? What a baffling scenario.

But as I think about this… I started to realize a number of things.

1. What ever God asks or commands us to do, it is best to obey. There are no mixed messages and conflicting messages God will send.

2. There are adverse consequences that come out of disobeying God’s commands. The blessings and riches athat come out of obeying his commands are much more than even we can ask for.

3. Simply because someone says he or she is a man of God, truly doesn’t mean too much. That should not be the jumping point of taking absolute blind faith and listening to their advice or suggestions. Ultimately it is between you and God. Not you-the other person of God – and God.

4. a sin is a sin is a sin. There are no excuses for sins. One can’t simply say, “the old prophet deceived me into disobeying your command and committing a sin”

One can’t look at the 10 commandments and say, “oh, there is good reason for me not to obey commandments 3, 5, 7 and 9.” It simply doesn’t work that way.

So I guess no matter how unfair it may seem, ultimately the choice to disobey was the man of God’s choice, not the old prophet’s choice. And regardless of excuses of being deceived, or just cause, or reasonable doubt… or any other legalistic reasoning of why it could be OK to disobey God’s commandments, there are none that could ever excuse us from disobeying His commandments.

I guess even the story of Adam and Eve, where Eve blames the serpent, and Adam blames Eve… no matter that Eve was deceived by the serpent… ultimately it was her choice to disobey God’s word to not eat fruit of that particular tree.  And it was Adam’s choice to eat the fruit offered to him by Eve.  There are no excuses, and no humanly possible reason to excuse us from picking and choosing what commandments of God that we will follow.

Ultimately, in the end, the people we can blame are ourselves.  For we are the ones that choose to disobey the commandments.