PURPOSE, FOCUS, LIONS, & PROPHETS

God gives purpose, but focus has to come from you.

1 Kings chapter 13 records the story of an unnamed man of God from Judah.  This man of God had a mission.  He had a message from God to deliver to the king who was defiling the altar in Bethel.   The man of God delivered that message with courage and integrity.  The man of God spoke truth to power and God confirmed His word with signs that stayed the king’s order to arrest the man of God.  The man of God fulfilled his Divinely appointed purpose in the face of corruption and personal attacks.

But then things got easy.

The king invited the man of God to rest, refresh himself, and enjoy a reward from the royal treasury.   The man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place.   For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” 

So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel (1 Kings 13:8-11).

Having kept to his purpose, the man of God was on his way home, but he stopped to rest near where all this had happened.  While he was resting, doing nothing, just chillin’, an old prophet from Bethel caught up to him.  The old prophet invited the man of God to come back to his house in Bethel to rest and have a meal.    

The man of God replied, I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” (1 Kings 13:16-17).

But the old prophet said, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (1 Kings 13:18).

Well, the man of God was tired, and hungry, and thirsty after his long journey, and he still had a long journey ahead of him.  It was a sweet offer, and it came from an old saint, a prophet.  No, it wasn't the what God had said before, but it would be so nice to  take the old prophet at his word and enjoy a home-cooked meal.

The man of God lost his focus.  He went home with the old prophet.  They ate.  They drank.   They talked. They chilled. 

Problem is that the end of verse 18 says that the old prophet was lying to him.

He wasn’t lying about being a prophet; he was lying about having a new message from God.

(Now why would a genuine prophet lie, especially to another man of God?   Perhaps the od prophet just really, really wanted to talk to the man who’d stood up to the king.  He didn’t mean any harm to the man of God.  The prophet probably figured that a little lie was O.K. as long as he said “I decree and I declare” before he told the lie.)

Funny thing is that when you lose focus, it’s often the people who distracted you who are the first to call you out for getting off track.

^Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ^ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ^ but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ “ (1 Kings 13: 20-22)

Of course at this point the man of God hops on his own donkey and hits the road, but a lion snatches him off and kills him. 

Only, the lion doesn’t harm the donkey, and the donkey doesn’t try to run away, and the lion doesn’t eat the man he killed.  The lion and the donkey just stand there over the body on the side of the road so everybody passing by can see that “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him….” (1 Kings 13:26).

The man of God had a purpose; he had an anointing; and he had the power of the Holy Ghost.  But he lost focus.

In a moment of rest and reverie, he let somebody convince him to do what God had told him not to do.

God gives each of us a purpose but when we’re tired, when we’re just chillin’, or  when we feel all good about a particular success we tend to lose focus.  We tend to drop our guard and get a little slack.  We become susceptible to the temptation to compromise on the fine points of God’s directions.  We get enticed by the offer of a slight and understandable deviation from the Lord’s commands. 

It’s not like we denounce our calling.  It’s not like we’re following the idolatrous king into sin.  We’re just taking a little break with some good people and hanging out when we should be humping it down the road in the direction God already told us to go.

We have to stay focused.

We have to keep on the grind.

We have to keep going and going until we get to the point where God says we can rest and be refreshed.

You should hear the counsel of godly men and women, but the weight of the decision is yours alone to bear.

In the end, no body----- and I mean NO body------ should convince you to deviate from the purpose and plan God has given you.

Remember that the lion didn’t kill the lying old prophet. 

The lion killed the man of God who lost his focus and deviated from God’s plan.

God will give you purpose, but you have to provide the focus.

 

That said, though I stayed up late last night, but you'll have to excuse me while I go exercise for 30 minutes and knock some things off my to-do list.

I’ll chill when I’m done.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.