No Downfall

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

NO DOWNFALL

1 Kings 13:23-34

23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body thrown down there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived. 26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him." 27 The prophet said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me," and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, "Oh, my brother!" 31 After burying him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true." 33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

NIV

Once again, the word of the Lord is always true. The man of God did not follow the word of the Lord, and he paid for it with his life. Interestingly, he was not mauled or eaten by the lion, but was simply killed by it. Although he was a man of God and had cried out against the false altar that Jeroboam had built, which was split in two, he still defied the word of the LORD by returning to eat and drink with the old Prophet who had lied to him. The LORD dealt harshly with the man of God because he defied the word of the LORD. He did something the LORD told him not to do, and that was not acceptable to the LORD, so he had the lion kill him. It is good that the Lord does not treat us the same way he did to men who lived under the old covenant. We cannot say that we have never done anything the Lord said we should not do. If we become impatient with someone, we have defied the word of the Lord. If we have gossiped, or become bitter, or not forgive someone, we have defied the word of the Lord. Any sin whatsoever is against the Lord, and it is a form of defying his word. However, we do not live under the old covenant with all its commands and laws, but under the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. Of course, that does not mean we are free to defy the word of the Lord any time we desire. But we also know that we will not be able to attain perfection as long as we are captive in this body. Someday we will exchange this corruptible for the incorruptible and this perishable for the imperishable, but for now we are here with the corruptible, yet we do not need to be afraid of a lion killing us whenever we fail to heed the word of the Lord, because Jesus paid it all. We are aware that our enemy, the devil, prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour, but because of Jesus, he is a toothless lion, yet we still need to be self-controlled, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit. However, even if we lose control of our “self” and fail or sin, Jesus took all our sin upon himself, and we are forgiven and declared innocent in the eyes of the Lord. Jeroboam refused to listen to the word of the Lord, and it was his downfall. We do not refuse to listen; we want to know the word of the Lord, and we desire to fulfill his word, but we fail. Thank you, Lord, for Jesus. He paid it all, so we will not meet our downfall.