3/18/2011 5:29:58 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The challenge
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 1Kings 20:22-30
Messages of the verses: “22 ¶
Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him,
"Go, strengthen yourself and observe and see what you have to do; for at
the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you." 23 Now the servants of the king of Aram said to
him, "Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger
than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will
be stronger than they. 24 "Do this
thing: remove the kings, each from his place, and put captains in their place,
25 and muster an army like the army that
you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight
against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they." And
he listened to their voice and did so. 26
At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to
Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 The
sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet them; and
the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the
Arameans filled the country. 28 Then a
man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, "Thus says
the LORD, ’Because the Arameans have said, "The LORD is a god of the
mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys," therefore I will give all
this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the
LORD.’" 29 So they camped one over
against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle was joined, and
the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day.
30 But the rest fled to Aphek into the
city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and
came into the city into an inner chamber.”
I
would suppose that some would wonder why the Lord gave such a great victory to
the nation of Israel even though they had a very wicked king, and the king’s
wife was one of the wicked women presented in all of Scripture. As Dr. Wiersbe explains here it was Mt.
Carmel all over again, for the counselors for king Ben-hadad convinced him that
they lost the first battle because they were fighting in the hills and the God
of Israel was the God of the hills, and so they must fight in the plains. God caused their army to be defeated by
Israel to show Syria that He was the God of all the earth, and the victory did
not really have anything to do with Ahab and his army for the Lord used them to
defeat Syrian as the prophet told Ahab.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think what I can learn from this section of
Scripture is that there will be times when I am living a righteous life and
things will go wrong, and there will be times when I sin and things will go
good for me, and I believe that it is my duty to the Lord who saved me to live
a righteous life regardless of the outcome.
I am not under the covenant that Israel was under in that if you do
right you will be blessed and if you don’t do right you will be cursed, (Deu.
28).
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to learn contentment.
2.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
3.
Trust the Lord to guide my life.
4.
Remember to put on the spiritual armor.
3/18/2011 5:47:39 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment