The kings of Israel and Judah, Ahab and Jehoshaphat respectively,
determine to restore Ramoth-gilead to Israel together. It has fallen into Syrian hands and the kings
propose to go up and re-capture it.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, asks Ahab to first consult the prophets in
order to determine if this is indeed the will of God or if it is a fool's
errand. The prophets unanimously say,
"Go for it." For some reason,
however, Jehoshaphat has reservations about these prophets and asks if there
isn't one more person they could consult.
Ahab affirms there is one more man but he hates him because he never
prophesies good for him. Who are these
prophets serving, are they prophets of Baal or Asherah? Micaiah, the troublesome prophet, seems to be
a servant of Yahweh and he will not say anything the Lord doesn't tell him. In spite of this, he initially,
sarcastically, tells the king to go up and do what he wants but the king knows
this isn't true. Ultimately, Micaiah
explains the contradiction between his word and the others by saying that a
lying spirit has gone out into them. Not
surprisingly, the kings are going to do what the kings want to do irrespective
of the prophecy of this honest prophet.
Jesus calls the fishermen to be his disciples and their
response is automatic and complete. They
leave behind the past in order to attach themselves to Jesus, their destiny is
in His hands. Do we understand the call
of discipleship the way these men did?
Jesus' claim on these men is absolute, they have to leave everything to
follow Him. Put yourself in their
father's shoes. Your sons walk off on
the family business, leaving you without the help you need, their experienced
sons now gone. I wonder if any of us
would be happy with our sons in this situation, no notice, no nothing, just
gone. Quickly, however, their decision
is validated when Jesus begins doing miraculous things and teaching as no one
has ever taught before Him and the crowds from all over the Land, including
even Syria, begin to follow Him as well.
I obviously have nothing against apologetics but we need to
understand its place in the life of the church.
When that is our primary evangelistic message we have got things
backwards. It is not in clever
argumentation that we will see people come to faith. It is simplicity, the message of the cross,
the self-sacrifice of Jesus for our sin, and the resurrection from the dead as
proof that God accepted that sacrifice on our behalf. Accepting the truth of that story is
dependent on the activity of the Holy Spirit working both in the testimony and
the person receiving the message. The
message is supralogical, it transcends human logic. If Jesus were truly dead then He didn't come
back to life. Believing that requires
the work of the Holy Spirit. Apologetics
has its place in the church, among believers to build up that faith but it is
not evangelism. It can support
evangelistic work but it isn't the primary means by which we come to
faith. If our faith isn't in that which
is otherwise unbelievable it isn't faith.
Faith requires us to go beyond human wisdom and knowledge and to belief
that is in that which is unseen but to which the Spirit nonetheless bears
witness.
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