Year in the Bible Week 25

Jereboam Sacrificing to the Idols by Jean-Honoré Fragonard c. 1752

Jereboam sacrificed to idols so that they would help him. Then he would credit himself with victory, and say thank you to the idols he made. Meanwhile, the real God was simply letting Jereboam be a puppet, setting up all the pieces. Disaster would soon come, and there would be no question that God held sovereign power the whole time. That’s how you turn a nation back to you, and discipline those whom you love.

Sharing a personal story this week, so I hope you’ll indulge me.

Last weekend I was in the hospital to do a medication change, and my favorite nurse was a young lady with tattoos and piercings, with indomitable spirit and energy. I’ll call her “Lauren,” because her name is actually Lauren… When my blood pressure came up as 111/68 on one of the six daily checks, she smiled broadly and said, “oooh, angel numbers!” Clearly, numerology was part of her lifetsyle. Instantly, she looked at me and she got shy. She had remembered everything I had been saying about God and miracles for the past day and a half, and she recognized that her numerology was not part of my belief system, and I couldn’t possibly share whatever it was she was experiencing. All of this happened in half of a second.

Lauren glanced over, embarrassed, and said, “I know you don’t believe in this stuff.” She looked to me for a response.

In those moments a choice happens. You can choose the relationship over your profession of faith, or you can choose your faith over the development of relationship. However, in these (post)modern times there is a third option that many of us are choosing. Basically you say “let’s have a truce, where neither of us presents their beliefs as a weapon.” That’s basically what I did.

“Well, whatever makes you happy.” was my response. I didn’t call out the lie in that moment. It just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. In my thinking, she already had acknowledged that I was a strong believer, and that she was doing things that denied my faith. Instead of “going in for the kill,” pushing the truth into the moment, I tried to show compassion, respect, and care. If you’ve known me a while, you know this is something I’m not used to doing. I have never been afraid to speak truth into tough situations, and I have suffered steep relational consequences over the years. Recently, God has given me the opportunity to share my faith with lot’s of people who do not believe, and in this case Lauren understood who I was, and what I believed, and it made her question her own idolatry. Mission accomplished.

My gratitude for my salvation has changed the way I talk to people. instead of pushing hard facts and debating people’s perceptions, I show them a changed life and let them start asking questions. They say that’s the best kind of evangelism, and I hope they’re right.

I’ll leave the video up for Kings for another week because things are getting really intense, and it’s good to have a program to keep track of the big picture. In this coming week we will hear a lot from prophets, especially Amos, and God’s harsh plans will be revealed.

Remember, the timeline is going very slowly now, so be patient, and settle into this moment. Israel is about to fall to the Assyrians, and it’s important to get the full picture. Above all, keep reading!