You Have Pronounced Your Sentence
(1 Kings 20:22ampsim43)
As for our tough life, the Bible says that weve brought it upon ourselves. When asked by a prophet, Ahab answered him 'Its your sentence. Youve pronounced it', which he inadvertently delivered to himself. We are to be caught by Satan without catching him alive first. We pronounce inadvertently so many sentences upon ourselves. How come? Lets see the following reasons.
1. Gods training not grained in us.Ahabs victory in his war against Ben-Hadad was not actually due to his ability. Thats why a prophet advised him strongly to 'go,' 'strengthen,' 'realize,' and 'watch.' We Christians should always be ready to defend Satans attack under all circumstances. In order to be an all-round warrior, we need to go to our school, home, work place, and military camp. Our life is full of big and small wars, in which God consults us in detail whenever we inquire of him. God let Ahab win a great victory, noticing his little faith even though he didnt stand in the vanguard. Thus God lets us know that He, not Ahab, is the true commander of Israel in the war between Israel and Aram. Therefore, the secret of Gods salvation lies in our worship infrastructure, where we are trained body and soul. Through the training, we come to recognize that God is our true commander, no matter how hard our enemies attack us. We practically remember this with our body by listening to the Word, remembering it, and retelling it to others.
2. Satans elaborate scheme. The king of Aram and his officials set up their second invasion operations after analyzing the cause of their defeat. Considering God as one of the Israel hill-gods with their superstitious idea, they concluded that they would win the war if they reinforced their soldiers and arms and fought on the plains. This strategy was based on human thoughts. Compared to them, the Israelites looked like two flocks of goats. What matterer, however, was that the Aramaeans didnt know God. Neither did they know the power of God the Almighty and Omnipresent. In the midst of crisis, God allowed the Israelites to repent and return to him by showing them his ability through the prophet who had prophesied the victory of Israel. God let them wait for seven days till the wall of Aphek collapsed. Finally, Israel defeated Aram, which showed that the Israelites victory was due to Gods presence. However, Ben-Hadad survived even though hundreds of thousands of his men died, showing how tenacious the power of Satan was.
3. Lack of discernment between Gods justice and human compassion. The Hebrew word of mercy is Chesed, which means Gods faithfulness about his promise. Ben-Hadad begged for Ahabs mercy in order to save his life. Being deceived by the word Chesed, Ahab bestowed his mercy on Ben-Hadad through his promise. Ahabs abused mercy is a blasphemy, which insults the Chesed of the Lord, who allowed Israel to win a victory. If Ahab had truly understood Gods Chesed, he would have killed Ben-Hadad as a right response to Gods promise. However, being misled by his greed, Ahab was deceived by Satan. Ahab, who did not know God, wasnt able to discern the truth about a man, either. Nor was he able to see himself because he couldnt see his sins. He showed his wrong mercy on his worldly enemy as if he were a brother. Mercy and sympathy are Christians virtues. Yet the misuse of them against Gods justice is a sin. True mercy and sympathy for the gentiles is to proclaim Gods justice, urging them to repent. True love for the homosexuals is to say that homosexuality is a sin. We show our wrong mercy on others when we fail to inquire of God. Ahab breached his agreement with God by sparing the life of Ben-Hadad, whom he should have killed. He actually traded Gods promise for his economic interests in the world. Ahabs promise to Ben-Hadad was not made out of his goodness, but of his evil greed. Just as Esther pleaded with Xerxes not to sign the edict to kill the Jews, we need to pray that the bill of prohibition on discrimination and abortion wont be passed.
4. The result of our own choice. God urged Ahab through a prophets action like a mother who tries every possible means for her child. Even though we cant understand, we should obey the command of God, who is 100% right. Yet we cant do it because of our sinful nature that compromises with the world. Notice that the prophet asked his companion to beat him as a way of delivering Gods message. The prophet risked his life in order to warn Ahab, who released the Satans ringleader instead of catching him alive, that he should now pay for his wrong mercy by risking his life. Satans major job is preventing us from taking care of our soul. As Ahab said to the prophet, he actually pronounced his own sentence. We often bring suffering on ourselves by wasting all our resources and gifts that God gave us for the salvation of us and our neighbors, chasing our own projects that have nothing to do with salvation. Thus Ahab put himself in Gods court tjat was prepared for Ben-Hadad by chasing his fleeting prosperity of the world. Despite the prophets dreadful warning, Ahab didnt repent because of Jezebel, his best troubleshooter, whom he relied on. Likewise, we dont come forward to God when we have our Jezebel around us. One pastor who attended our Bathhouse Seminar despite his cancer is now making his best application by adapting our QT to his ministry. Another pastor helped his daughter, suffering from marital problems, by letting her listen to one of our assistant pastors sermon. May God bless us to accustom ourselves, body and soul, to his training course without being sullen and angry, yet accepting everything as the result of our own choice.
While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.' 'That is your sentence,' the king of Israel said. 'You have pronounced it yourself.' (1Kgs 20:40)
