Proclaimer Blog
What will you do with the word of God?
Sometimes, my own preaching convicts me deeply. There is always challenge of course, but sometimes the application seems so pointed and precise that it almost has my name on it. So it was with 1 Kings 13 last Sunday, one of the more bizarre parts of 1 Kings: a great story, carefully told, but inpenetrable to some.
It’s essentially the story of two men who defy the word of God. Jeroboam is obvious. He has already heard God’s word and continues to set himself against it. Judgement and destruction await. This is about outright rejection of God’s word.
But there is a more subtle danger. The “man of God” – the young, clear, courageous, direct, bold prophet who speaks to Jeroboam, himself “defies” the word of the Lord as he goes against what God has said and gives in to the lying prophet. There are many questions here, but the lesson is clear – even the most orthodox and assured preacher is at risk of (in this case) going against God’s word. What he is in public is not what he turns out to be in private.
And his fate is equally certain. Death. For the record, I think there are many clues that he is not thrown out of the covenant people. He continues to be known by the important title “man of God” (20 of its 80 occurrences in the OT are here in this one chapter). The lion who kills him then appears to stand guard over him! He is spoken of highly by the older prophet. This is not, in other words, about losing your salvation. Rather this is about (precisely) preachers of the word of God staying faithful and true to the word of God and not turning to the right or the left.
And it is in this precision that I find the challenge. Don’t you, Mr Preacher? What will you do with the word of God? Not just in public, in the pulpit, but every moment. For us, of course, that is a deeper question. It is not about a relationship to a book, but a relationship to a King. What will you do with the word of God? is actually What will you do with the Son of God?
There’s something to be thinking about on a Monday morning.