June 19, Day 26 - Part A

1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 4:7

OK, so I get really confused when reading this. Who was a "good king" and followed God and who was a "bad" king and did evil in the Lord's sight? Not only that but were they the king of Israel or of Judah. Was their peace in the land at the time or not? Who was fighting whom and were they being judged for their rebellion or blessed because of their obedience? This is not easy stuff to relate to today... but yet it doesn't take too long for me to gain some application.

So there were kingdoms... they were ruled by kings. Kings were not God's idea in the first place... but yet because the people demanded a king like all other countries God gave them what they asked for. (Lesson #1 - be careful because He may give you what you ask for even if it is against your best interest.)

Good kings = following God, Bad kings = disobeying God (or worse yet, failing to recognize He even existed.) Following God yielded blessing and peace. Disobeying God resulted in being removed from power personally (perhaps even death) and also curses upon the people. (Lesson #2 - we best be careful who we elect as our "king" because their decisions have lasting implications on us)

In the middle of all of this we read in 1 Kings 17 about Elijah the Tishbite. We were reading about good kings and bad kings and here all the sudden we read about this guy whom "the Word of the Lord came upon" and birds fed. What is that all about? From here on we read more and more about Elijah (and later Elisha) and less and less about good kings and bad kings though they are still in the background. As I was reading this, I recognized this for myself all over again... God is sovereign and will use average people to spread His message and to help call others out of their sin. Surely God was using the Kings too to accomplish his purpose, but he was always using these prophets to remind people of who he was and what He desired for their life.

Today, I gain great comfort in that. We may be following the polls and electing the president of our country based on popular opinion. And God expects us to participate in this process. Yet, it is going to be the average people around us who likely won't get the TV time or the press time that is calling the world out of our sin and pointing the Lord's sovereignty out to us. Won't you thank your pastor, your neighbor, your accountability partner or any other of God's representatives around you today for helping you understand who God is?