Do you follow what
others tell you about God or do you study for yourself??
1 Kings Chapter 12 & 13:
In 1
Kings chapter 12 & 13, we
read about Jeroboam becoming king over all
Israel. He was afraid the kingdom would turn back to
the house of David, if the people went up to the temple of the Lord at
Jerusalem. He was afraid the heart of the people would turn back to Rehoboam
kind of Judah. So Jeroboam took counsel & made two calves of gold &
told the people they had went up to Jerusalem long enough. He said, in verse 28, “Behold your gods, O Israel, who
brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” He then set one of the golden calves
in Bethel, and the other in Dan. He also made temples on high places. He then
appointed a feast on the 15th day of the 8th month, he offered sacrifices on
the altar, sacrificing to the calves that he made.
A Behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word
of the Lord to Bethel. While there he cried out against the altar, saying,
“Behold, the altar shall be torn down, & the ashes that are on it shall be
poured out.” When King Jeroboam heard this, he said, “Seize him.” The hand he
stretched out dried up, & he could not draw it back to himself. The altar
was also torn down, & the ashes poured out, as the prophet had told. The
King then said to the prophet, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God,
& pray for me,, that my hand may be restored.” The prophet did so, then the
king’s hand was restored. After his hand was restored he told the prophet,
“Come home with me, & refresh yourself & I will give you a reward. The
prophet told him he was told by the Lord, “You shall neither eat bread, not
drink water, nor return by the way that you came.” So he left going another
way, & did not return the way he came.
Now there was an old prophet who was told about the
traveling prophet & what had been done that day in Bethel. He asked which
way he went when he left, then he asked his sons to saddle the donkey, & he
went after him. When he found him, he said, “Are you the man of God who came
from Judah?” The traveling prophet said, “I am.” The old prophet them asked him
to come to his house & eat bread. He then told the old prophet that the
Lord had told him not to eat bread, nor drink water there, nor to return the
same way.
The old prophet then told him that he also was a
prophet of the Lord, & that an
angel spoke to him by the word of the Lord, saying,
“Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread & drink
water.” But he lied to him. The traveling prophet took the old prophet at his
word that the Lord had sent this word to him & so he went with the old
prophet. While there he ate & drank
water.
While at the table the word of the Lord came saying,
“Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord & have not kept the
command that the Lord God commanded you, but have come back & have eaten
bread, & drunk water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no
bread & drink no water,” You body shall not come to the tombs of your
fathers. After the prophet left while on the road he met a lion & was
killed.
When word came to the old prophet, he went and got the
body of the traveling prophet & laid his body in his own grave telling his
sons “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay
my bones beside his bones.”
After reading 1 Kings 12 & 13, I was thinking, are we
like the traveling prophet? Do we study God’s word & follow what he tells each of us to do
or what not to do for ourselves? Or do we like this traveling prophet take the
word of others? Do we follow blindly the words of others as to what God’s word
is instructing us to do? Do we take the time to dig deep into his word, to
study to show ourselves approved unto God?
If we are not reading the Bible, diligently studying
it and striving each day to grow in God’s word, so that we know what God wants
from each of us. We also will miss out upon our death. We will miss out on
God’s greatest gift the gift of eternal life in Heaven which is given to us by
the sacrifice of his only begotten son. So I plead with you if you are not
studying God’s word for yourself, if you are relying on others to “get you to
Heaven”, make the decision today to stop taking others by their word as to what
the Bible says, take time each day to study it for yourself. You and only you
are in charge of where you will spend eternity.
The gift of Heaven is open to all who follow the word
of God, we only need to:
Hear -
Romans
10:17, John 6:45;
Believe -
Mark 16:16, Hebrews 11:6, John 5:24,John 8:24;
Repent -
Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Luke 13:3
Confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God -
Romans
10:9-10, Acts 8:37-38
Be
baptized -
Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3
Continue to live a
faithful Christian life unto death -
Rev. 2:10, Matt. 10:22, 24:13, 1 Corinthians 15:58, James 1:12.
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