13-May-2024 – The kingdom of God oversees our life on this earth
Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me – 1 Kings 12:24
Here in this chapter, we can see a kingdom on the earth. Rehoboam was ruling that kingdom. There was a situation where he needed counsel. The king had two groups to give him counsel. An experienced and wise old people and inexperienced group of young men, who grew up along with him, and did not have any experience but emotion and thrill oriented nature. The earthly king in the verse went with the counsel of the young people instead of heeding to the wise counsel.
From this we can understand that a kingdom requires the counselling office or an office of the wise to brainstorm and provide the guidance to the king who is in charge. If the king does not lean on to the wise counsel or the king does not have the wise people, then the decisions will depend on the foolish advices and finally pushes the kingdom into chaos and destruction.
God said – “ for this thing is from me”. Because he was the King of kings and the Lord of lords, he devised a wonderful plan to gather back His people. If you remember the young men who gave Rehoboam the wrong counsel, represents the devil who misleads and manipulates us and lure to take wrong decisions.
A key point here to observe is, the counsel only was given, but the execution decision is still with Rehoboam. This is same with us, the devil can only give us counsel, lure us, attract us but it is our willingness to pursue it or resist it. But based on our decision, we are responsible for the consequences.
From the verse, we see God saying – “It was from me, don’t react”. This means, the consequence is allowed by God and let it happen. But God has a plan to recover from the result of the consequence.
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: -Ezekiel 37:22
From this portion what we can learn is, God gives us the freedom to explore the choices in our life to take decisions. Whether we want to listen to the word of God or devil, God will not interfere in the choice. But he wanted us to choose the right path. If we choose the wrong path, God allows the consequence but will not close the doors, but work on a plan to bring us back to the right track. This is how the kingdom of God works.
So if we make a wrong choice, we need to experience the consequence. But the doors are not quickly closed but the grace of God waits for us to give us a chance to gather us back. He sends the word, He warns through the church, He works sometimes in a supernatural way to help us to take the right decision to come back to him. How great is our Lord! All the glory is to Him alone.
Prayer
Dear loving heavenly Father, thank you for your word and teaching us about the important influence in our life, and how we are given an opportunity to take the right decision in the first place. Even we messed up, you are not leaving us out of your love and grace through the forgiveness in Jesus Christ, but you will also allow the consequence as it pleased to you because you are righteous and just as well. Help me to be thankful for your love and mercy, even if I failed you sometimes you never failed me till now. I thank and pray in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen!
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