Mercy

In the book of 1 Kings 16 onwards we have been reading through the life of Ahab. I am now on the 22nd chapter of 1 Kings. In the readings I find Ahab a very fickle minded person and disobedient to God, unless it was something that would benefit him.

• He and his evil wife Jezebel killed the prophets of the Living Lord
• He started following the gods of his wife Jezebel , baal, ashtoreths, asherah ..etc
• He takes over Naboth's vineyard by false means and killed Naboth
• Leading the nation of Israel to sin before the Living God by making them follow gods other than the Living Lord.

Then the word of the Lord came to Ahab through Elijah -" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy!" "I have found you," he answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21 'I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.'
23 "And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: 'Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of [a] Jezreel.'
24 "Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country."
25 (There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 26 He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.)"

The Bible says "27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. "

In spite of all the Ahab had done all his life, God saw his change and took him seriously and the Bible says "28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son."

Lessons I learnt

God took notice of Ahab's humility, God noticed!!! And not for anything else but our God being the source of all mercy, who sits on the mercy seat, who looks down from above to see whom He can bless, God shows His mercy.

David constantly cried out for God's mercy for every situation of his life and God kept him safe in his arms. I went through Psalms and I find that David continually asked for God's mercy. He knew Whom he was approaching. Even Job humbled himself during his troubled times and said "Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.Job 9:14-16 Job was living a righteous life yet he did not consider that a big deal, he let everything in God's hand that he could not demand God his healing his restoration on the basis of his good works so far, but on God's mercy. Oh that brings God honour, knowing that God has mercy on us, not for our sake but because it is His nature, it is His discretion, it is His choice. The moment we start depending and counting on our own deeds for seeking God's mercy, we elevate ourselves in the position of demanding from God, yet this is not so. Just because our God is a Loving and Wonderful Friend to us, doesn't mean we forget His Position, His Power and His Authority over us. "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy".Romans 9:15-17

• God's mercy is from everlasting to everlasting-Psa 100:5 "For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations. " "Psa 103:17 "But the mercy of the LORD [is] from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; "
• The merciful shall receive mercy-"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" .Matthew 5:6-8 .
• Mercy is better than sacrifice-"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.Hosea 6:5-7

Resistance

1 Kings 20
After some time we see Ben-hadad king of Aram(Syria) went to attack Israel (now being ruled by Ahab). When Ben-hadad threatened Ahab that all the belonged to Ahab was his, Ahab sent word agreeing to it and calling Ben-hadad his lord!!! Ben-hadad sent another word besides saying he would send his men to search out Ahab's palace and take everything he chooses from it. Now Ahab was afraid and wanted to do something about it.

• Sometimes satan also tries the same with us, he puts thoughts in our mind that our finances will never get better, our children may not be good students, teenagers are impossible, if we start agreeing to his lies, it is as good as saying what Ahab said to Ben-hadad and called him lord. Soon like Ben-hadad, would come to claim what he falsely declared as his.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, thats what satan did. The Bible says " 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." (Matthew 4:8) How could satan give that land to Jesus? First of all nothing belongs to satan (Psalm 24:1-2 " 1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters." ), he has laid claims on lands and people that have invited or allowed him to take claim of them.

So what belongs to us? I think anything that is related to you in any manner belongs to you. Remember we used to write our names on books that belonged to us, so I think since our family members bear our names with theirs as either wives, husbands, children, parents, relatives they are ours.The company which has your name in their registry, that work belongs to you. The property which receives mails in your name belongs to you (whether it be rent or otherwise). Our bodies belong to us, our health too, our minds our knowledge are gifts from God. What I mean to say is that everything that we have is a gift from God and we are His stewards while on this earth as we interact with our gifts. No one can take from us what we don't want to give. It is we who must value the gifts we received.

Ahab compromised with Ben-hadad and so Ben-hadad was bold enough to even threaten him to come to his palace and take everything.

Let us make no compromise, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:6-8

• The first point in winning over our enemy who falsely claims what we have is to submit ourselves to God. To submit meaning, to understand and obey what God's will and plan is for our lives and work with God to bring it into completion.
• The second is to Resist the devil- To resist our enemy means to disagree with ,to oppose, to withstand, strive against. Its not a fancy goody goody feeling when you're in resistance to something, it just makes use of a lot of effort on our part. In our heart and mind resisting the enemy.

And the result will be that the enemy WILL flee.

Conclusion- Next time we get suggestions from our enemy to try to defeat us, let us resist, not like Ahab who gave in, but standing strong because the earth and everything in it belongs to our Lord God Almighty. Who dares take or even suggest taking from my DAD's property!!! We've got to stand and resist in our spiritual war, for all that which God our Daddy has made us stewards of, you brothers and sisters in Christ.

Consequences of Obedience

1 Kings 18

The Lord commands Elijah to go meet king Ahab(1 Kings 18:1). It was the same king Ahab who's wife Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Living God. However during such time there was another devout man of God named Obadiah who had hidden 100 prophets of God in caves and had kept feeding them. At this time the drought in the land is very severe and Obadiah and Ahab have come out to look for grass so that the horses could be fed and kept alive. Obadiah and Ahab split ways in search of grass for the horses. Elijah meets Obadiah on the way and asks him to take him to Ahab. Obadiah is very afraid and tells Elijah "9 "What have I done wrong," asked Obadiah, "that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? 10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. 11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, 'Elijah is here.' 12 I don't know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn't find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth." (1 Kings 18: 9-12) Obadiah is scared for life to take Elijah to Ahab. Yet Ahab is determined and finally goes to meet Ahab.

In this little episode from Elijah's life, I learnt the following lessons

1. Obeying God's commands opens communication with God-When God commanded Elijah for anything, Elijah did it immediately, not waiting not killing time. Obedience to God opens more ways for us to listen directly from God. Then God no longer has to ask someone else to tell us anything, He Himself will talk to us, because we are willing to listen and obey.
2. Obeying God's commands sets the course for our faith-As Elijah continued to follow God's commands, his faith grew and as a result the miracles in his life grew to higher power. From being miraculously fed by ravens, to the neverending jar of flour and oil, to raising the dead, to calling fire from heaven and then being carried into heaven. What a life!!! If there is a command God has given us a good way to find out if we are doing the right thing or not is to check the result of our lives, has the power grown or decreased. If it has decreased lets go back and do the last thing God had asked us to do and we will be back on track again.
3. Obeying God's command may bring obstacles, obey God rather than men- When God gives a command, soon enough something will come up which will challenge your faith, challenge your obedience even. When Elijah started off to meet Ahab, Obadiah (a man of God too) met Elijah and was so scared that he did not think meeting Ahab would be a good idea for Elijah. Yet "15 Elijah said, "As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today." No matter what staying steady on the Word of God matters. Acts 5:29 "Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! " It may be a weird command, it may look contrary, it make look disastrous, but if thats what God would have us do, lets do it. For God gives us the grace to do whatever He commands us to do.

Conclusion: The only way we will grow is by faith and obedience. Willingness. Jesus said "Luke 11:28 "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." 1 John 5:3 "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,"

Dear God, I know I haven't fully been obedient to You and have failed many a times, yet You have been so merciful to me.I thank You for your grace and mercy. Please help me to be completely obedient to you that I may see Your work in my life and that my life would turn into a blessing to others.

In Jesus Name I pray.

Amen

"Obedience surely is better than sacrifice"