Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 Kings 14 and Psalm 114

King Jeroboam (of the northern kingdom of Israel) had utterly rejected Yahweh. He had erected golden calf idols and demanded that they be worship as the gods of Israel. Even having been confronted by the prophet from Judah and given two signs (an altar that split and a hand that shrivelled and was then healed) he did not repent, but continued in his sinful, idolatrous ways.

Yet, when sickness struck his son, Jeroboam did not turn to his idols. Something inside him knew all along that his idols were not truly gods. He turned to the One True God of Israel. It had been so long, though, that by now he had a very limited faith in the LORD, and he certainly did not intend to respond to the LORD with true repentance. After all, his self-created, self-centred religion was key to his power over his people. So he sent his wife to Shiloh to consult with Ahijah, the prophet of Yahweh. He did not bother to go himself. He told her to wear a disguise and then sent her to ask for some fortune-telling, not to truly consult the Lord and plead for his own forgiveness and his son’s healing. He was hedging his bets.

In a twisting tale, his wife disguised herself … only to find that the prophet Ahijah was blind and would not have been able to recognise her anyway … except that the Lord revealed everything to Ahijah ahead of time … and Ahijah greeted her by name and with a full description of her troubles as she approached his door. So much for being able to trick a prophet of the One who knows all things.

The words of the prophet Ahijah were not good news for Jeroboam and his wife. There was a short-term prophecy about the death of their sick son, a long-term prophecy about Jeroboam’s household losing the monarchy, and an even longer-term one about the total defeat of Israel and the exile, which happened 300 years later.

A searching question to ask ourselves as disciples is: “What am I trying to hide or hold back from the Lord? What am I not willing to surrender?” There is no point trying to hide anything from the Lord. He knows our deepest thoughts and emotions before we even understand them ourselves. Rather, let us cultivate the sort of relationship with the Lord that is completely vulnerable, open, honest and yielded. Let us seek to humbly surrender to Him and trust Him in all things as our God.

Lord, I choose to surrender. Help me to trust You in all things. Amen.