His Doing

6.12.2011

1 Kings 12:24 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’ ” So they obeyed the word of the Lord and went home again, as the Lord had ordered. NIV

In 1 Kings 11.29–40, is the story of Abijah the prophet giving Jeroboam God’s directive that he, Jeroboam, would take 10 of the tribes of Israel and become their king. After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam ascended to the throne to take the leadership of the whole nation. But because he was a spoiled rich kid, he lacked the wisdom to win the nation’s heart to himself and subsequently lost the loyalty of the 10 northern tribes who seceded from the nation and went to be the subjects of Jeroboam (as was prophesied in 1 Kings.29-40).

Rehoboam, like every king would be, was angry that he lost what he lost, so he set out to recapture Israel and force them to become his subjects but God said through Shemaiah the man of God (another prophet), ‘Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’  Whenever I read this I think of the magnitude of two things: 1. that God always does what He says, and 2. God is the One who does it; it is His doing. When we think of God’s involvement in our lives, we’d best remember to filter our lives, and live our lives, by the brilliant light of God’s word… where every prophecy comes true…always. God isn’t saying one thing and doing another – God is saying what He’ll do and doing what He says; it is His doing.

Think about the events and circumstances of your life and factor in God who said through the Apostle Paul: ‘From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:26-28 NIV) If that’s the case, then we need to remember where God is and what God is doing in our everyday lives.

Father God,
Just because You set the boundaries and circumstances of our lives in Your infinite wisdom doesn’t mean everything that happens to us is only Your doing –it means You are involved because You’ve said You are involved and You love us so that we will somehow in return love You and become Your friends. Help me to live wisely and to factor You into my everyday life so that I may know that Your doing is for my best that I may have all of You forever – amen.