Discover His heart: He wants us to do what He wants us to do
My 10-year-old granddaughter talks a mile a minute and has me wrapped pretty tightly around her little finger. This adorable little girl is intelligent beyond measure and carries enough charm to bring the world to her feet – all facts that are irrelevant to the point I am making but needing to be shared. I’m sure you understand.
Our reading today reminded me of something she said when she was just two years old. If you remember, two is the year of the terrible when our precious, cooing little bundle of joy discovers its own will. When asked to do something by her mother, our ordinarily compliant little girl responded, “I don’t want to do that! I want to do what I want to do.” I had to turn my head away to hide my smile because her mother was doing a little reaping at the moment. But just as the commitment to training helped transform our daughter through her terrible twos into the beautiful Godly woman she is today, her instructions and disciplines are doing the same for her daughter.
Today’s reading is about a nation that did not want to do what God wanted them to do and wanted to do what they wanted to do. God sent someone along who helped them understand who really was in charge so they would be without excuse when discipline for this attitude came to them.
The nation of Israel was now a divided Kingdom – the ten tribes of the northern Kingdom, ruled by rebel leader Jeroboam and the two tribes of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, ruled by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Neither of the kings served God, and both led the people in worship of other gods. What a sad state of affairs.
Idolatry is a self-serving form of religion that has the mentality, “If it feels good, do it!” The Israelites chose to leave the restrictions of the law and decided to worship gods that offered no restraint on their physical, social and personal passions. They wanted the freedom to do as they pleased without fear of punishment, an attitude that sounds very…current.
After years of idol worship, Israel was now led by wicked King Ahab. Like a good parent, God sent the hand of discipline through the prophet Elijah who declared to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” (17:1)
1 Kings 18
“So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?” (17) asked Ahab when Elijah returned for a visit after his prophecy of no rain. Elijah replied, “I have made no trouble for Israel…You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead.” (18) The showdown on Mount Carmel proved that Baal and Asherah were no match for the true and living God, and Ahab’s 850 pagan prophets were useless against Him. Apparently, Ahab did not know Who he was dealing with, but Elijah knew His God, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel…Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench!” (36,38) I love it when God shows up BIG to defeat the false gods of this world.
These false gods promise freedom from restraint and appeal to our fleshly passions to do what we want to do, but they are no match for the fire of God. The only requirement is that we submit to His discipline and call on His fire to come down and burn us up entirely with the Fire of Holiness. He will show up BIG in our lives and bless us with His grace and wisdom to do what He wants us to do. We will be the men and women of God that He desires us to be!
Moving Forward: My heart cries, “Burn me up, Lord, with your Holiness that I may stand in your Holy place.
Tomorrow @ Psalms 72-74
Phyllis Benigas 