The Adversary

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

THE ADVERSARY

1 Kings 11:23-43

23 And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 He gathered men around him and became the leader of a band of rebels when David destroyed the forces [ of Zobah]; the rebels went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. 25 Rezon was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel. 26 Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah. 27 Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. 28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.

There is more to this story about Jeroboam, too much to include; however, he is going to get ten of the tribes of Israel. However, the story is about more adversaries of Solomon. A man who forged treaties with so many nations around him, and married their daughters, is getting his just due from the LORD, for his act of evil by having more and more rebel against him. It is a wonderful truth that we have been given the peace of Christ so that we can live in peace with God. But the question is whether we have peace with others. We know the world is not at peace with us; in fact, it is our adversary. We may make every effort to shine our light into the darkness of this world in hopes that someone will come out of that darkness into the light of Jesus, yet there are so many who want to extinguish our light. The ideologies of this world are not only opposed to the message of the gospel, but they also make every attempt to remove any reference to Christianity from all public places. The world rebels against God, and thus, they rebel against all we hold dear and stand for. However, we were once among those who were adversaries of God, yet the Holy Spirit broke into our lives, bringing us out of that darkness into the Light of Jesus. Sometimes we spend so much effort trying to win souls for Jesus, or worry about those in the darkness, but it is still up to the Spirit. Thankfully, we are no longer rebels against God, as he has adopted us as his children and we live within his realm. However, we must also know that we will always have adversaries in this world, as Solomon did. Let us stay close to the Lord, and He will fight our battles for us, and the Spirit will do what He does best: change people's hearts. Our task is to live in peace with God and with all others, even our adversaries.