But the final verdict on Rehoboam was that he was a bad king--God was not important to him; his heart neither cared for nor sought after God. (2 Chronicles 12:14, MSG)
After these months of studying the kings of Israel and Judah from Saul to Jehoichim, we have seen some truly evil kings, men who actively encouraged their people to idol worship and who sacrificed their own children.
The writer of Chronicles doesn't say what Rehoboam did wrong. He doesn't even call him an evil king, just a bad one. Bad in a moral sense, perhaps, but also ineffective. He let his nation down. 2 Kings only mention what the people of Judah chose to do. Rehoboam didn't lead in idol worship, but neither did he interfere.
As Chronicles says, God wasn't important to him. Rehoboam didn't care about God enough to seek after him. If David's approach to worship was whole-hearted, and Solomon's approach was philosophical, Rehoboam's was--going with the flow.
His approach reminds me of Jesus's words to the church at Laodicea: I know you inside and out and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot--far better to be either or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant.
I suspect God's command to Rehoboam would have resembled what Jesus command the Laodicean church: buy medicine from me so that you can see, really see.
Rehoboam didn't see that his inattention to God set his kingdom on a downward spiral that they never fully recovered from.
Moral for the day? Check your temperature--turn on the heater for God.
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
THE HEART OF THE MATTER (Leviticus 10)
Today's reading brought me to one of those uncomfortable, I-wish-this-wasn't-there passages of the Bible: when God's fire killed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire.
Shades of Cain: They offered the wrong thing.
God had given extensive, specific directions for the ordination offerings. The breed, sex, age of animals. The spices. The ingredients for the anointing oil and the incense. And over and over again we read some variation of "they did all that the Lord commanded."
Aaron and his sons had just completed seven days of being closeted with the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, completing the days of ordination. Imagine the joy, the hopes, the pride mixed with humility, of that week! How they must have studied and reviewed the laws God had given them, to be sure they understood. Of all the 600,000 Israelites, God had chosen this small family unit--Aaron and his four sons--to serve God throughout all generations as a perpetual priesthood.
A high of all highs for Aaron and his sons.
The ordination week ended, they began their ministry on day eight, and right out of the gate Abihu and Nadab offered "strange fire."
I struggle to understand this. My experience with God is of Someone who looks at the heart more than what I hold in my hands, not a teacher who will rap my knuckles for passing notes in school.
And from what the Bible says over and over again elsewhere, I know the truth that God desires mercy and not sacrifice.
So why here? Why to the anointed leaders? Why after such a high?
I have to think that, the same way as I mentioned about Moses a few days ago, God held the anointed priests to a higher standard.
After seven days of fellowship and intensive study, they knew how to present the offering. And they chose to do something different. Something not God-ordained. They more or less said, "We don't care what You say, God, we're going to do what we want to."
The question switches from "why did God send fire on them?" to "what were they thinking?"
I suspect that, after all, God did look on their hearts--and didn't like what He saw.
Shades of Cain: They offered the wrong thing.
God had given extensive, specific directions for the ordination offerings. The breed, sex, age of animals. The spices. The ingredients for the anointing oil and the incense. And over and over again we read some variation of "they did all that the Lord commanded."
Aaron and his sons had just completed seven days of being closeted with the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, completing the days of ordination. Imagine the joy, the hopes, the pride mixed with humility, of that week! How they must have studied and reviewed the laws God had given them, to be sure they understood. Of all the 600,000 Israelites, God had chosen this small family unit--Aaron and his four sons--to serve God throughout all generations as a perpetual priesthood.
A high of all highs for Aaron and his sons.
The ordination week ended, they began their ministry on day eight, and right out of the gate Abihu and Nadab offered "strange fire."
I struggle to understand this. My experience with God is of Someone who looks at the heart more than what I hold in my hands, not a teacher who will rap my knuckles for passing notes in school.
And from what the Bible says over and over again elsewhere, I know the truth that God desires mercy and not sacrifice.
So why here? Why to the anointed leaders? Why after such a high?
I have to think that, the same way as I mentioned about Moses a few days ago, God held the anointed priests to a higher standard.
After seven days of fellowship and intensive study, they knew how to present the offering. And they chose to do something different. Something not God-ordained. They more or less said, "We don't care what You say, God, we're going to do what we want to."
The question switches from "why did God send fire on them?" to "what were they thinking?"
I suspect that, after all, God did look on their hearts--and didn't like what He saw.
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