Randy Green's Blog, page 357

Just Say No To Drugs – Part 1

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds [Titus 2:11-14].

A TV commercial used to run regularly during prime time each evening. For the life of me I cannot even venture a guess how long ago it was. Memory isn’t what it used to be.

Anyway a public disavowal of illegal drug usage was in full swing. In a failed effort to dissuade the young folks—and the not so young too—from using drugs, the government put out these commercials on the TV during prime time. They were actually done quite well.

I remember how one of the commercials popped up on the screen, showing a skillet with an egg in it. The egg sizzled loudly as it fried. After several seconds of watching that scene—the delay being for effect and creating anticipation, you see—a voice brusquely announced, “This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”

Effective in making a point, don’t you agree? Well, the real point I want to draw from those anti-drug commercials is what followed next. All of these anti-drug commercials ended with the same catch phrase, “Just say no to drugs.”

The reason I recall those anti-drug commercials at this time is simple. Many many moons ago a youth pastor at a church where I interned had a good take on Titus 2:12. In the New International Version the verse is translated, “It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions”. Taking his cue from the anti-drug commercials, he noted that Titus 2:12 is his anti-drug verse. Being a youth pastor he regularly taught and exhorted the youth not to do drugs.

Whenever I read Titus 2 anymore, I remember that good brother. He had a knack for ministering to young folks. Youth pastors require a special gift from the Lord, if they are to be effective with teenagers under their care. He was good at his ministry, and I for one appreciated him for it.

In this study we won’t employ Titus 2:12 as our anti-drug Bible verse. We want to tackle verses 11-14 as a group and enjoy the smorgasbord of scrumptious delectables afforded therein. So let’s wash our hands, sit at the table, say grace, and get to eating!

But now we will call it a day and go visit with Jesus a spell. See you tomorrow, and we won’t be showing anymore commercials.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: Christian living, discipleship, holiness, Holy Spirit, John 3:16, new life, spiritual maturity, Titus 2, Trinity

Dawn in the Desert – Part 5

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].

The born again person died to sin “in Christ” on the cross. He rose out of the tomb “in Christ” and now lives the new resurrection life “in Christ”. Christians don’t have their own righteousness. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

What all of this means is that I can now, because I am already born again, present my body to God as a living sacrifice. You can too. We already died for our sins “in Christ” on the cross. We now live His new, righteous life because we rose out of death “in Christ”. Christ died and now lives. “In Christ” we do too. Hence we are free to live as whole burnt offerings to God.

Yes, the blood offerings were killed and remained dead. But that was the Law’s judgment on sin. In the New Covenant we are not under Law but under grace. Jesus already paid the penalty for the sins of all mankind by dying on the cross for us. He fulfilled the Law for us. In doing so God’s righteousness was upheld.

Sin demands death for its wages. But death couldn’t hold Jesus. Three days later He rose out of death in newness of life, in resurrection life. Sin and its penalty was left in the tomb. Sinners remain dead in the tomb. A new creation, eternal and without sin, came out of the tomb. Saints come out of the tomb.

Now those who are born again (aka “saints”) are alive and able to live entirely for God. We are free to do so, but we can refuse to do so. I have to willingly present my body as a “living sacrifice”, as a whole burnt offering, to God in His service. You too have the same choice to make. But do not be mistaken. No one has this choice to make until they are first born again as a new creation in Christ Jesus.

So are you born again? If not, you can become so right now. Simply look by faith to Jesus on the cross and recognize that He died for your sins there. Identify yourself on the cross with Him. This fulfills the Old Covenant part where the offerer slit the throat of his substitute offering.

Ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you for your sins, sins which led Him in love to willingly die on the cross so that you might live in Him. By faith believe He does forgive you because the Word of God teaches this is so.

Then by faith in the Word of God come out of the tomb in newness of life “in Christ”. Go forth and live the resurrection life which He freely bestows on you, no longer a slave to sin but now a willing bond slave to righteousness.

Ah, you have just presented yourself to God as a living sacrifice. Congratulations. The journey is a lifelong one and the going frequently encounters rough winds and vicious waves. But not to fret. The Lord is on your side. What can man do to you?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: bronze altar, burnt offering, Christian living, continual burnt offering, discipleship, Exodus 28, holiness, living sacrifice, Romans 12, sacrifice, whole burnt offering

Dawn in the Desert – Part 4

NEWS FLASH!!!  Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes   is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].

The eternal Son of God temporarily laid aside His prerogatives as God. He took upon Himself humanity, becoming a man of like nature with us. He eternally is God. At a point in time He became a man, and He now remains a man forevermore. At the same time He is still God.

As a man Jesus walked the earth without exercising His prerogatives of deity. Instead He obeyed the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is one way the Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law for man.

We too are to be born again, and then we are to live in our human body according to the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Guess what? When we describe this arrangement, we are expressing the definition of the whole burnt offering! Hallelujah! Our study is bringing us to a better understanding of the whole burnt offering.

But under the New Covenant we don’t present burnt offerings on a bronze altar. So how does all this understanding affect us today? Just this, that we are to present our body to God as a living sacrifice. Don’t you remember? And this brings us to the distinct difference between the whole burnt offerings of the Old Covenant and the living sacrifices of the New.

Muse upon the scenario we portrayed back in the wilderness in the camp of Israel. It’s dawn and the morning burnt offering is being presented to the Lord at the bronze altar. The priest did what again to that little ol’ lamb? He invited it home to meet the family? No, that wasn’t it. He fed it to the big bad wolf? Not even. I got it! He took it to the movies? Nah. Still not the right answer.

Okay. So you tell me the correct answer. What did the priest do to the lamb of the continual burnt offering? Ah, I see by the look on your face that you remember what we discussed. Yes, that’s right! The priest slit the lamb’s throat, then cut the poor thing into its constituent parts and burned them to smithereens on the bronze altar.

That was the end result of the burnt offerings under the Old Covenant. Now do you see the difference between that and the living sacrifices under the New Covenant? Yes, you got it right again! Praise the Lord! The Old Covenant whole burnt offerings were killed, while the New Covenant whole burnt offerings (aka “living sacrifices”) are presented to the Lord alive and breathing. A significant difference, wouldn’t you say?

But not so fast! The real and true burnt offering—the antitype (the Lord Jesus)—did die on the cross (the bronze altar). Even more, any true Christian also died on that cross “in Christ”. He is our substitute whole burnt offering, just as He is our substitute sin offering and every other type of offering. We don’t live because of our own righteousness. We live because He died for our sins and then imparted to us His righteousness.

I like it! Thank you, Jesus. Let’s go to Him now and do just that. We’ll finish our subject in the next study.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: bronze altar, burnt offering, Christian living, continual burnt offering, discipleship, Exodus 28, holiness, living sacrifice, Romans 12, sacrifice, whole burnt offering

Dawn in the Desert – Part 3

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].

The whole burnt offering represented the offerer—in the case of the daily morning and evening offerings, the entire congregation of Israel was represented. Because it was entirely consumed in the fire of the bronze altar, it typified that the offerer was entirely offered up to the Lord.

The sin offering was presented to typify the Lord’s judgment on the offerer’s sin. That wasn’t the main thing portrayed by the whole burnt offering. Rather, by presenting to the Lord a whole burnt offering, the offerer signified his whole (or total) dedication to the Lord. The Israelite’s entire being was devoted to the Lord. Nothing was left out, except, of course, the sin nature (typified by the skin, which was not burned on the bronze altar).

Let’s refresh our memories as to what this study is about. We are assaying Paul’s exhortation to the Christian to present himself to the Lord as a living sacrifice. Is the issue starting to lose its fuzziness and come into focus now? The Israelite of old symbolically presented himself to the Lord wholly, entirely, by means of the Lord’s whole burnt offering ritual. The ritual typified this on the part of the Israelite.

The Word of God for the Israelites (i.e., the Law of Moses) authorized this process as legitimate. The Israelite believed the Word of God to him (i.e., faith in the Word of God); so he performed the ritual precisely according to the Lord’s directions (obedience to the Word of God). The priests stood between the Israelite and the Lord to insure nothing was done in contradiction to the Word of God. This was the Lord’s way under the Old Covenant.

Under the New Covenant we don’t present animal substitutes on a bronze altar. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s once-for-all perfect offering. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the entire Law on man’s behalf. This included fulfilling the spiritual truth behind every different type of offering. The cross of Christ is the antitype of the bronze altar, where the Lord Jesus was offered up to God on man’s behalf.

The eternal Son of God took upon humanity and became one of us. He remains God’s Son still, but at a point in time He also became true man. He is the God-man. He is the only way to reunite God and man, even as He did so in His own Person.

When He became a man, the Lord Jesus temporarily set aside His prerogatives of deity. He didn’t stop being God: He temporarily stopped exercising His power and authority as God. Instead He walked in His human body, living according to the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hurray for Jesus! All hail our King! Let’s bow before Him now. We’ll continue this topic on the morrow.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: bronze altar, burnt offering, Christian living, continual burnt offering, discipleship, Exodus 28, holiness, living sacrifice, Romans 12, sacrifice, whole burnt offering

Dawn in the Desert – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].

The person presenting an animal offering to the Lord at the bronze altar was the one who killed the animal. The daily whole burnt offerings were presented on behalf of the entire congregation of Israel. So who killed those animals? That’s a toughie.

Not! As in the case of the individual Israelite presenting his offering, so too with the offerings on behalf of the entire congregation. The Lord determined every single detail. The Lord micromanaged the entire process. This is because man’s approach to the Lord is always on the Lord’s terms. Man gets to contribute nary a thing to the method of approach.

So, then, what were the Lord’s instructions for presenting the continual burnt offering on the bronze altar every morning and every evening? Just this, that His designated agents, the priests, were to present the offering on behalf of the entire congregation of Israel. After all, that is why the Lord set them apart from the other tribes of Israel in the first place.

The priests stood between the Lord and the Israelites. They represented the Lord to the Israelites, and they represented the Israelites to the Lord. A fine arrangement for a covenant based on law. The Law demanded that man be perfect. An Israelite demonstrated his perfection or lack thereof by perfectly obeying every last detail of the Law of Moses.

Failure to perfectly obey the Law in all its minute details 24/7/365 exposed the Israelite as a lawbreaker, a sinner. The wages of sin is death, so the Israelite had to die. He couldn’t approach the holy Lord.

Which was where the animal sacrifices came in. The Lord employed this temporary expedient to permit the Israelite to kill himself in effigy, so to speak. After he died for his sins by means of a substitute offering, the penalty for his sins was paid and he no longer needed to die for them. Hence he was enabled to approach the holy Lord, there no longer being any sin on his accounts payable ledger.

Much of what I’ve explained applied specifically to the sin offering, not to the burnt offering. However, every blood sacrifice (i.e., animal sacrifice) was killed before being offered on the bronze altar. This implied that sin first was judged before any other aspect of man’s relationship with the Lord was implemented.

So the priest killed the lamb—the continual burnt offering was always a lamb. Next the priest cut the lamb into its constituent parts and placed the parts on the bronze altar. The parts remained there all day, burning until they were entirely consumed. The entire animal, minus the skin, was consumed by the fire of the bronze altar. The skin represented the sin nature, which can never be presented to the holy Lord.

Whew! Offering blood sacrifices on the bronze altar is hard work. Let’s take a breather and return tomorrow to continue our labors. In the interim let’s be refreshed in the prayer closet with our Lord.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: bronze altar, burnt offering, Christian living, continual burnt offering, discipleship, Exodus 28, holiness, living sacrifice, Romans 12, sacrifice, whole burnt offering

Dawn in the Desert – Part 1

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].

It is dawn in the camp of Israel out in the wilderness. The tent of meeting is prominently constructed in the center of the camp. The wall of curtains around the entire tabernacle worship structure sets apart this area from the day-to-day functions in the rest of the camp.

Around the outside of the wall of curtains are four camps:

the priests on the east
the Kohathite clan on the south
the Gershonite clan on the west
the Merarite clan on the north

Those four camps encompass the entire tribe of Levi. The Levites are camped in that location according to the precise instructions of the Lord. The Levites, you see, keep the other tribes of Israel from approaching the Lord’s ministry at the bronze altar and inside the tent. The Lord chose the tribe of Levi to be His priests and ministry servants. The other Israelites were excluded by the Lord.

And speaking of the bronze altar, it was located before the doorway to the tent of meeting. Its purpose was to provide an appropriate instrument for the blood offerings which the Israelites presented to the Lord. The priests alone could sprinkle the blood on the altar. The priests alone were permitted to enter the tent to minister inside. These were the Lord’s choices, and His alone.

Well, every morning and evening a whole burnt offering was offered up on the bronze altar. Those offerings were Old Testament types of the “living sacrifice” which the Apostle Paul made reference to in Romans 12:1.

But there was one significant difference to the whole burnt offerings of the Old Testament and the living sacrifices of the New. Allow me to portray a whole burnt offering, so that we may better understand this distinct difference.

Normally when an Israelite presented an offering to the Lord, he brought it to the priest at the bronze altar. He then laid his hands on the animal’s head to identify the animal as representing himself. Then the Israelite offerer slit the throat of his substitute sacrifice.

The animal, you see, represented the offerer. It died in his place. Even more, he killed himself vicariously, in acknowledgment that he is sinful and unable to approach the holy Lord. He deserved death for his sins, but he availed himself of this method of approaching the Lord, a method which the Lord Himself authorized.

In the case of the continual burnt offering which we are examining, an individual Israelite didn’t present it to the Lord. The morning and evening whole burnt offerings were on behalf of the entire congregation of Israel. So who was to lay hands on the offering and kill it then? Hmm. Now that’s a toughie.

We’ll stop and ponder the question a bit, as we sit with Jesus a while. Tomorrow we’ll share the answer. See you then.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: bronze altar, burnt offering, Christian living, continual burnt offering, discipleship, Exodus 28, holiness, living sacrifice, Romans 12, sacrifice, whole burnt offering

Heights and Highs – Part 5

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?” [1 Kings 22:5-7]

The English Bible translates God’s personal name as LORD (all capital letters). The title “lord” or “master” is translated as “Lord” (only the L is capitalized).

With that understanding in mind, now read the three quotations a third time. Jehoshaphat doesn’t want to hear the false prophets proclaim so-called words from idols. He wants to hear what Yahweh has to say. Jehoshaphat is a good Hebrew. He knows there is only one real God and His name is Yahweh.

So Jehoshaphat says, “Let me hear what Yahweh has to say about us going to Ramoth-gilead.” Ahab sends for his false prophets, who claim their “master” says… Jehoshaphat insists to Ahab that the supposed words of idols won’t suffice for him. Get him a prophet of Yahweh to speak.

Now be honest. Knowing this distinction between “LORD” and “Lord” as used in the English translations of the Bible, doesn’t the tale of Micaiah ben Imlah come alive so much more? We can better understand the interaction between the prophets of the LORD and the false prophets in the Old Testament, when we look for such distinctive signs.

But there is something more we must needs emphasize about this distinction. The Lord revealed His personal name to Moses at the burning bush on Mount Sinai. He did so because Moses was to return to Egypt and be the Lord’s prophet, as He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and into the Promised Land.

This plan of the Lord was the fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham, the Abrahamic Covenant. A covenant is a personal relationship between the Lord and another or others, in this case Abraham’s progeny, the Israelites. A personal relationship entails knowing a person’s personal name. Hence when we see the word “LORD”, we should train ourselves to immediately recognize that covenant and personal relationship is involved.

Ahab and all those who practice idolatry are out of relationship with the LORD. They don’t know Him personally, so using His personal name is awkward and inappropriate on their part.

His name is higher than any other. Ramoth-gilead was the heights of Gilead, but God’s personal name is far far higher than Ramoth. We cannot rise higher than the name Jesus, dear friends. His name is special. It is precious. His name along with He Himself is HIGH above all else.

Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ personally? If you don’t, it is inappropriate for you to use His personal name, and it should be awkward to you if you did so.

I know the solution. Why not call on the Lord Jesus right this moment? Confess your sins to Him, ask Him to forgive you and be your Savior and Lord. Then spend time alone with Him daily, reading and musing over His Word and talking to Him in prayer. You’ll get to know Him real well in no time flat. And you’ll never be the same again. So what are you waiting for already?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 Kings 22, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Jehovah, Micaiah,

Heights and Highs – Part 4

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?” [1 Kings 22:5-7]

The Lord’s prophet Micaiah warned Ahab and Jehoshaphat that King Ahab would die at Ramoth-gilead, if he went to war against Aram there. But that smug idolater didn’t care what the Lord had to say about anything.

So off to Ramoth-gilead went Ahab and Jehoshaphat, leading their armies to the battle field. Now here’s where Halloween comes into the story. Ahab donned a disguise so that the Aramean soldiers wouldn’t recognize him as the king. He told Jehoshaphat to impersonate him, and Jehoshaphat was dufus enough to do so! Didn’t exactly flatter himself, did he?

All the disguises in the world couldn’t thwart the Word of God. The Lord pronounced through Micaiah that Ahab would die on the heights of Gilead, so die Ahab must. The Aramean soldiers saw Jehoshaphat bedecked in his kingly garb and mistook him for Ahab. But try as they might, they failed to kill or even wound Jehoshaphat.

On the other hand, Ahab went into the battle looking like…well, not like a king, let’s put it that way. So the Aramean soldiers didn’t pay Ahab any mind. It didn’t affect God’s plan one iota though. By accident an Aramean archer shot his arrow and killed Ahab! The Word of the Lord came true, as we should know it always does.

Now I want to bring out a point of import from the story, one which the average English reader wouldn’t notice. But it bears the utmost weight of importance in Biblical teaching, so we mustn’t miss it. This point has to do with the words spoken by the true prophet Micaiah on the one hand, and by the false prophets on the other.

King Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.”

The false prophets claimed, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”

Jehoshaphat didn’t like what Ahab’s false prophets said, so he rejoined, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?”

Read those three quotations again, except very slowly. Do you see the difference in who they prayed to? Jehoshaphat wanted to hear the Word of the “LORD”. The false prophets spoke the word of the “Lord”. In the English Bible when you see the word “lord” in all capital letters, it is the actual name of God in the original Hebrew. God’s personal name is YHWH (aka Yahweh or Jehovah). The word “lord” with only the first letter capitalized (“Lord”) is not a name at all. It is a title which means “lord” or “master”.

Hmm. Interesting tidbits those. But they’re not tidbits at all, and tomorrow we’ll learn why. For now let’s enjoy time alone with Jesus.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 Kings 22, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Jehovah, Micaiah,

Heights and Highs – Part 3

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?” [1 Kings 22:5-7]

King Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from a prophet of the LORD. King Ahab had no choice but to send for Micaiah, even though he hated the dude. So he dispatched the guard to the dungeon to fetch Micaiah from his jail cell. Before the guard left though, King Ahab bent over and whispered in the guard’s ear, “Be sure to warn him in no uncertain terms that he had best agree with what my own prophets have proclaimed.”

So the guards fetched Micaiah ben Imlah, the Lord’s prophet, from the dungeon and read him the riot act. Standing before the two august kings, Micaiah spoke the words of a sycophant…but he did so with the utmost sarcasm. “Go, O King Ahab, to Ramoth-gilead. The Lord gives it to you, like your toadies said.”

King Ahab snapped at him, “I told you to never tell me lies, Mike! Let’s hear the truth.”

So Micaiah ben Imlah gave him the unadulterated Word of God, “I saw all Israel on the heights of Gilead, wandering about without a shepherd.” Uh, the shepherd of Israel was old King Ahab. That didn’t sound to promising for the king’s longevity.

“See!” Ahab bellowed at Jehoshaphat. “I told you he never says anything good about me. Not even by accident! Why’d you have to ruin a perfectly good day by insisting on hearing from him anyway?”

Micaiah wasn’t finished with the Word of the Lord yet. He added,

I saw the throne room of God in heaven. The angels were gathered around the throne, and the Lord asked, “Who will go and convince King Ahab to march off to Ramoth to face his death there?”

Well, one angel had this idea and another angel had a different one. They couldn’t seem to come up with a plausible plan. Then this other angel stepped forward and boldly declared to the Lord, “I’ll do it!”

The Lord wanted to know the angel’s plan, so the angel told him, “I’ll go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’s false prophets. He always listens to them because they always say what he wants to hear.”

The Lord responded, “Go. You’ll certainly succeed with that plan.”

Now be sure to take in the scenario in the throne room of Ahab in Samaria. There were the 400 false prophets and there was Micaiah, the lone true prophet. Did you catch what he said about all 400 of those rascals? Could you be so bold and audacious as to confront 400 deceivers and denounce their deception? Only the Lord Himself inside Micaiah could instill such confidence, that Micaiah didn’t even flinch when the false prophets attacked him.

King Ahab ordered Micaiah sent back to the dungeon, and to be left there with his needs unattended to, until Ahab returned from Ramoth. Micaiah got off a parting shot, “If you ever return from Ramoth, then the Lord didn’t speak through me!” Folks, that is holy boldness in the extreme!

And that spells a fine time to call it a day. We’ll return to this spot on the morrow. Now let’s betake ourselves to the prayer closet.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 Kings 22, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Jehovah, Micaiah,

Heights and Highs – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet a prophet of the LORD here that we may inquire of him?” [1 Kings 22:5-7]

King Ahab wanted Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-gilead, so as to take back his territory from the king of Aram. That king was a bad dude, you see, so Ahab wanted some moral support…and some extra fire power on Jehoshaphat’s part.

And that is where King Jehoshaphat entered the story. He was visiting his buddy Ahab at his palace in Samaria. King Ahab decided to take advantage of the opportunity by putting Jehoshaphat on the spot.

Hey, Josh! Now that you’re here, maybe you can give me a hand. That no good sidewinder in Damascus is occupying my territory in Gilead at Ramoth. I want it back. Care to come along with me and take it away from him?

Jehoshaphat was on the spot. If he declined he’d look like a scaredy-cat. The alternative was to go fight Ahab’s war for him. Hard choice, huh? Not! Jehoshaphat didn’t want anyone to think he was a wuss, so he jumped right into the fray like a real dufus.

Yes, by all means. Let’s go kick the scalawag’s heinie and take back Ramoth-gilead! But first let’s consult the Lord. Let the prophets give us His Word about the matter.

Well, back in the day folks knew better than to get on the king’s wrong side. Any self-styled prophet who wanted a life worth living knew to tell the king what he wanted to hear…or else! So Ahab’s four hundred flunkeys gathered in the throne room before the two kings. “O King. Go up to Ramoth and take back what is yours. The Lord gives the king of Aram into your hands. You’re the man!”

But wait a sec! King Jehoshaphat didn’t much fancy those smarmy pagan prophets. They didn’t speak the Word of God. They uttered their own malarkey in the name of the heathen idols. So Jehoshaphat waxed bold and objected,

Hold your horses, Nellie, er, I mean Ahab! I want to hear the Word of the Lord, not the words of man under pretense of being words of the gods. Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord in Samaria?

Ahab was taken aback by Jehoshaphat’s rebuttal. He was used to seeing the king of Judah playing the role of yes-man to him. So Ahab was a bit slow in responding. He had to compose himself first, so as not to lay the lumber to Jehoshaphat for his display of temerity.

Oh, of course. I almost forgot. You’re from Judah and they like to worship the Lord down there. Up here we prefer our own gods. Well, in answer to your inquiry, yes, there is still one prophet of the Lord left in my kingdom…unfortunately. But I hate to give him a pulpit because he never says one good thing about me. He always castigates me and banishes me to the deepest, darkest recesses of the nether world. But for you I will allow him to speak…but just this once! Guards! Go fetch that worthless Micaiah from the dungeon and bring him here at once.

Awkward for Ahab? Yes. But even more so for Jehoshaphat, who should never have had such close involvements with an idolater like Ahab. The Law of Moses specifically forbade it, but Jehoshaphat was a slow learner.

We’ll continue this theme in our next study. Jesus requests our presence now. Let’s not keep Him waiting.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 Kings 22, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Jehovah, Micaiah,