Disobeying God's Word Can Cost You Your Life
Happy Friday! I have been looking forward to the weekend since the week began. I asked my cousin yesterday, “why is today not Friday?” Ask me if I have any beta plans for the weekend - I don’t oh, I just want to spend the entire Saturday sleeping (haha). Anyway, I am glad the week has finally come to an end. I hope your week was great too. And without further ado, let us get right into today’s topic.
So, I came across a story in the Bible that was completely out of this world, as are most stories in the Old Testament. The story, found in 1 Kings 13, follows the journey of the king of Israel (at the time), who had led God's people astray. He made idols and told the people to worship them as God. And anyone who knows God's word knows that He despises idols. As such, God was upset with the king and sent a prophet to deliver a message to him.
The king stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” because God's message was unpleasant to his ears, as the prophet narrated it. (1 Kings 13:4). His hand then dried up and he couldn't move it. So, he cried out to the prophet, pleading with him, to ask God to heal him. The prophet granted his desire, and he was healed. However, the prophet's words against him came true.
This is where the story begins to get interesting. Following the king's miracle, he invited the prophet to his home to receive a reward. The prophet, on the other hand, refused stating that even if the king offered him half his kingdom, he would not accept. This was because God had said to the prophet, “You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.” (See 1 Kings 13:9)
Here, we see that God gave him specific instructions, which he followed. As he was on his way home, he met another man claiming to be a prophet, who had heard about his encounter with the king. Then he invited him to wine and dine with him in his home. The prophet refused and this other “prophet” said, “I, too, am a prophet, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'bring him back into your house so he may eat bread and drink water.'”
As such, he let his guards down, perhaps thinking—God must have changed His mind, and so he accompanied him. After he had gotten there and eaten to his satisfaction, the word of the Lord came to him through the other “prophet” and said, "Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God has commanded you, but have returned and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place where he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.” That is to say, he was going to die. The prophet then left this man's house and was killed by a lion along the way - I was left perplexed.
Disobeying God’s Word Can Rob us of Our Lives
Throughout scripture we see that human beings overarching problem is disobedience. It is almost like when God says not to do something, that is the very thing that will be scratching our bodies to do. In fact, this issue is replete in the Bible; from Genesis to Revelation. God sends His word to us, but we choose to go our own way or follow the ways of others. Just as God specifically instructed Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil—they let the serpent persuade them that what they heard with their ears from the Creator was a lie. And it cost them their lives - death was then introduced to all of us.
We are now living in a time when everyone desires autonomy—when everyone desires to be their own God. We want to be able to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, and what is acceptable. We toy with this your truth, my truth thing when there is only one standard of truth, Christ. We seek to entangle ourselves with what Christ died to save us from. We are defiant like toddlers, we think we know it all like teenagers, and we have an air of arrogance around us, like adults. Yet, we only fool ourselves.
In the Bible, we see what happened to people who abandoned God and pursued other things and gods; the consequences were devastating, and many are on the same path if they do not wake up to the fact that there is a God, and He alone determines what is right and wrong.
However, because we do not always receive immediate repercussions for our wrongdoing, we begin to think that God is blind, deaf, or He has somehow become malleable; bending to fit whatever mold we desire to make Him into. If we think this way, we only delude ourselves.
Psalm 94:6-10 says, “They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
James 1: 16, says, “when sin is fully grown, it leads to death.” There is no escaping it, except we turn our hearts back to Him who is willing to forgive us and grant us access into his eternal kingdom. Let us no longer deceive ourselves or allow the sweet nothings of others be persuasive, now that we know what is expected of us.
These stories of old serve as a critical reminder for us to live our lives for Christ and not follow the way of disobedience. If someone approaches you as a Christian and begins to question things written in the Bible, do not be shaken or toy with the idea that Bible can be changed. God who is the author of the Bible, does not change and is not a liar. He is incapable of lying (Hebrews 6:18).
So, if it is written, remember that it is simply the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you or someone else feel, or how persuasive their argument might sound. Any deviation from it will eventually lead to death.
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