Yesterday I was impressed with Jehoshaphat because he asked,
after hearing from four hundred prophets, for another opinion. Today, he lets himself be suckered into
wearing his kingly robes into battle while Ahab disguises himself. Wearing the robes made him an easy target for
someone wanting to kill the king. How could he be so foolish? When he cried out they realized it wasn’t the
king of Israel and he was able to escape but Ahab wasn’t so fortunate, he died
even with his protective armor on. Did
you notice that in this passage he isn’t referred to by name until verse
39? He is simply called the king of
Israel throughout the passage until we hear that all he did is written in the
books of the Chronicles of the Kings.
Finally, we are told that Jehoshaphat was a good man but he didn’t lead
the people away from the false worship of the high places. Leadership is about more than doing the right
things yourself, it involves leading others to do the same. Sometimes a good example isn’t enough.
Jesus begins His ministry with a teaching time on the
mountain. The Beatitudes is a beautiful
piece of literature but it is also some of the most challenging teaching you’ll
read. Jesus says our worldview needs to
be checked at the door. Those He says
are blessed include those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who
hunger and thirst, and who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Those aren’t the people we typically think of
as blessed. We would rather be cheerful
of heart, self-confident and assertive, full of good things in life and well
thought of by the world. Those are
things I hear praised in much preaching.
Jesus taught that we have to have kingdom eyes, minds and hearts, that
if we are satisfied with the stuff of earth we have settled for something other
than what we are designed for. We are
called to see the world as He sees it, in pain, tribulation and longing for
redemption. We are called to be very
different from those who do not believe.
When we talk of spiritual things we need to remember Paul’s
words here, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because
they are spiritually discerned.” Why do
I see so many people on Facebook arguing with atheists over the things of
God? That is folly, and a waste of
time. Praying for those people is far
more important than arguing over things they cannot accept or understand. After these things Paul goes back to his
original point about divisions among them over teachers. All that matters is Jesus, the foundation
stone of all things. Paul knows about leadership in the church. It isn’t about attracting people to yourself,
it is about attaching them to Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment