Luke 24:36-53
Jesus has risen, He appears to His disciples, and in His resurrected body, He eats broiled fish and honeycomb. After the world is cleansed, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For now, when a Christian dies, their spirit will go to heaven. However, after the earth is renewed, there will be people living on the earth again. Apparently, we will still be able to eat and drink.
Then as He spoke, they did not understand, so He opened their understanding the Scriptures. This is what we call revelation knowledge, where spiritual matters are revealed to us.
Repentance and remission of sins are to be preached in His name, as a representative of Christ. The Holy Spirit would be sent to back up their authority with the power of God. When we preach repentance, we are saying a man or woman turns away from the lordship of Satan and his kingdom and turn to Jesus and His kingdom, choosing a new authority and a new way of living. The remission of sins is the message that through Jesus’ sacrifice, the penalty and the control of sin is broken when a man or woman surrenders to Christ’s lordship.
The fact that Jesus returned to His disciples to show His resurrection, to give further instruction, and to give them the hope of seeing Him again, are acts that show the love and integrity of Jesus’ leadership. He communicated well. He led well. He loved well. What a great example for all of us!
1 Kings 12-13
God’s judgment on Solomon begins when a revolt breaks out against Rehoboam, his son. In 12:15 it says, “the turn of events was from the Lord.” In verse 24 God says, “this thing is from ME.” Rehoboam’s hardened heart to listen to counsel was an act of the Lord. God can and has hardened hearts of kings before in order for His plan to be accomplished, as with Pharoah.
Jeroboam, a son of one of Solomon’s servants, sees Rehoboam has opposition and sides in with the people. The split in Israel would have been a complete removal of the nation from David’s house, but God kept two tribes apart for David’s lineage to honor His covenant with David. Rehoboam planned to take his remaining followers, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to fight, but a prophet intervened. Jeroboam leads the people to idol worship. When government uses a false religion to draw people to follow their lead, it is control. When you get the spirit of people intertwined with your civil leadership, you have a stronger hold on them. You have their heart.
Now the nation is split between a southern kingdom, Judah, and a northern kingdom, Israel.
In chapter 13, a man of God prophesies that a child king named Josiah would be born to the house of David who would destroy false worship. He also spoke against the idol worship of Jeroboam. God loves ALL of Israel, and this man of God was sent to warn Jeroboam and Israel of idol worship.
The Lord had told the man of God not to eat or drink with anyone, but to return home. This was a specific instruction from God. God had not told him otherwise. To eat and drink with the king would have showed approval of him. To refuse a meal showed disapproval.
An old prophet, who sided with Jeroboam, went after the man of God to try to reverse the curse. When the man of God told the old prophet was God’s instructions were, the old prophet lied and said he had an update from God for him. The man went with the old prophet and was later killed by a lion. Here are a few points on this passage:
The man of God did not inquire from the Lord if He had changed His mind. He simply believed the word of a man. We can learn that no matter what ANYONE ELSE SAYS, even if they say they are a prophet, we are to hear DIRECTLY FROM GOD. Anyone else’s words should ONLY CONFIRM what God has said.
Eating and drinking with a person(s) showed approval, so if this man of God would eat with the old prophet, perhaps the curse would be reversed. I think this was the prophet’s agenda.
The office of a prophet is a position given by God. It is a place of spiritual authority. “The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.” In other words, a man or woman has a free will and can decide what they will or will not do, even if the Holy Spirit is leading them another direction. Some can attempt to manipulate situations because of the authority they walk in. The Holy Spirit is their authority; however, because of their office, a prophet may attempt to manipulate the anointing or throw around their power. The old prophet in this historical event was using his office to manipulate another prophet.
With leadership comes responsibility. The more authority, the more responsibility.
Words are powerful. A declaration from a prophet is even more powerful. The old prophet was deceptive and lied; however, he also had a word from the Lord for the man of God, prophesying his death for disobedience.
The old prophet lied, which is wrong. The man of God disobeyed. Why did one deserve death and not the other? After giving a word of judgment from God, then to go against it (by eating and drinking with the old prophet), brings a judgment on the messenger. The man of God died as the old prophet had spoken.
In addition, the word the prophet spoke was going to come to pass. God had to end the prophet’s life early in order to preserve the integrity of the word spoken.
Then we see that Jeroboam not only started his own priesthood for these false gods; but he also ordained himself as a priest.
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