A Prophet Denounces Jeroboam
Reading from 1Kings 12:25-13:34. Jeroboam didn't trust God's promise to Him. He's thinking to himself about the people going to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and how they will kill him, and Rehoboam will become the king. He tries to take control of the situation himself. The human tendency to try to hold on to it for ourselves instead of seeking after God. The picture of a king who's been given a great promise, who chooses not to seek after the one who's made the promise but tries to hold on to that promise in his own strength. And the prophet who isn't trying to hold on to anything really. He's just trying to obey the Lord. And what I see in both stories is how we need a savior. When his hand instantly became paralyzed, he knew that he needed God to fix that. What we need to do is learn to trust God. Learn to trust His word and learn to walk it out. Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding, seek His will in all you do. And he will show you which path to take.” Take it to God. 1 Corinthians 13:12. “Now we see things imperfectly like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete. But then I will know everything completely just as God knows me completely.” When Paul wrote that he was saying that God's plan was being revealed to us in the gospel. It does require trust because we're not going to have that perfect clarity.