Knowing God

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

KNOWING GOD

1 Kings 14:12-20

12 "As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good. 14 "The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now.   15 And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles.   16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit." 17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the LORD had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah. 19 The other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. 20 He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his fathers. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.

NIV

This is the rest of what the old prophet told the wife of jeroboam about what would happen because of the evil Jeroboam did in the sight of the LORD. Although this is history, and the people of Israel were living under the law given to Moses, God dwelt with them in accordance with their behavior regarding the law. This does provide us with insight into the character of God. This is one of the central truths within the scripture: knowing God. We know his word never fails to be true, and whatever he says will always be true and come to pass. When he passes judgment, it is final. We are incredibly blessed to live under the new covenant through Jesus Christ, by the grace of God. We also know the love of God, although his judgment is still final. We do not have to live under that old law, but there are still commandments of God we are expected to obey. We are not free to do evil in the sight of the Lord, although any sin, which we all still struggle with, is evil in the sight of the Lord. Any attitude we have that does not match those Jesus said we should have is sin. Any words or behaviors that are not in line with the teachings of Jesus are sin. However, even David sinned, yet he was known as a man after God’s own heart because he did whatever the Lord told him. This must be our story, as it was with David. We may still sin, but our hearts must be bent toward the Lord and do whatever he tells us. We know God will not punish us for our sins because of Jesus. As long as we are in Christ and he is in us, we are connected to him, and we will bear much fruit. Our lives are richer and fuller because of Jesus. We want to know more about Jesus and his love for us. We are blessed to live when we have the whole canon, the complete word of God, so that we can know him, love him, worship him, and follow his commands or his ways. We know our thoughts are not his thoughts nor our ways his ways, but that is why he wants us to know him, so that we can know his thoughts and his ways and change our thoughts and ways to be in accordance with his. This is our challenge, our calling, to follow Jesus, and then we know God.