To Boast or Not to Boast

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

TO BOAST OR NOT TO BOAST

1 Kings 20:1-11

20:1 Now Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it. 2 He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, saying, "This is what Ben-Hadad says: 3'Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.'" 4 The king of Israel answered, "Just as you say, my lord the king. I and all I have are yours." 5 The messengers came again and said, "This is what Ben-Hadad says: 'I sent to demand your silver and gold, your wives and your children. 6 But about this time tomorrow I am going to send my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. They will seize everything you value and carry it away.'" 7 The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said to them, "See how this man is looking for trouble! When he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him."   8 The elders and the people all answered, "Don't listen to him or agree to his demands." 9 So he replied to Ben-Hadad's messengers, "Tell my lord the king, 'Your servant will do all you demanded the first time, but this demand I cannot meet.'" They left and took the answer back to Ben-Hadad. 10 Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful." 11 The king of Israel answered, "Tell him: 'One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.'"

NIV

The rest of this narrative is about a great war between the Armenians and the Israelites, which, of course,  ends with the victor being Israel because of the Hand of God. However, there is a truth in this first exchange that strikes a chord in our hearts. Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, thought more highly of himself than he should have. Just because he showed up with his entire army, he thought Ahab, the king of Israel, should just hand over all his silver and gold, plus the best of his wives and children. After a back-and-forth exchange with messengers, Ahab makes this important statement that bears our focus. “Tell him: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.’” In other words, all of us men put our pants on the same way. We are but men, or women, humans that all dress in the morning and undress at night. None of us is more important than any other. Sure, it would seem we have some who have more wealth than others, and some temporarily have a larger position of power than others. However, when it comes to the Lord, we are all His handiwork, His creation, and subject to His supreme power and divine will. What do we, mere men or women, have to boast? What real power do we own? What real wealth do we accumulate? All of it is meaningless because we all must face the Lord God Almighty and give an account of the greatest decision of our lives. No matter who we are, how much we own, how large our influence or power is in this world, we must make a life-or-death choice. Do we accept Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as our Lord and Savior, submitting our will to His will, or do we reject Him, demanding our will to be accomplished in our lives? How can we boast in our armor, that is our wealth and power, when it will all come off, be taken away from us when it is all over, and we face God? Boast you fool, boast in your wealth, boast in your power, and we believers should be very careful that we do not boast in our religiousness, or righteousness, spirituality, or “Good works”, or anything other than to boast in the Lord. We can boast about the Lord’s righteousness and almighty power. All things we put on can be taken off; that is, all we gain can be taken from us. All things are temporary, but through Jesus, our lives are eternal. That is why He is the only one whom we can boast in.