RACHELS DYING

blogging Genesis 35

¹ Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”  

. . . ⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

. . . ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.

. . . ¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel.

And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷ Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” ¹⁸ And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. (Genesis 35: 1-20)

Bethel was where Jacob first had a personal encounter with God.  Bethel was the twice anointed “house of God,” the holy city of Jacob’s generation.  The Lord told Jacob to stay, dwell, abide, live (depending on the translation) there.  The covenant family was to root their community at the geographical focal point of God’s revealed presence.

But Jacob didn’t want to do that. 

Sometimes when I’m preaching I see a congregant weeping on a back row, the look of conviction and God’s invading grace written all over their face.  Sometimes they get up and come to the altar, but being confronted by God always forces you to confront yourself and sometimes that’s too much so they get up and leave early.

Maybe living at Bethel was too much like living in a moment of worship.  Maybe the constant reminder of God’s promises to him and his promises to God so convicted Jacob that he either had to come to the altar or leave early.   Jacob chose to leave early.  Early because Rachel, the love of his life, was pregnant, but Jacob put her on the road anyway.   Jacob made his personal agenda more important than his wife’s health and that’s when the story took a tragic turn.

Rachel had a long history of gynecological problems.  Genesis 29:31 says she’d been diagnosed with infertility, i.e. “Rachel was barren.”   She’d conceived only after lobbying her sister for access to a rare mandrake-based treatment (Genesis 30:14-24).   Years later she’d finally conceived again.  Remember Jacob loved Rachel dearly.  He wouldn’t have hurt her intentionally. He’d figured that they would reach Ephrath before the baby was due.  But before they left Bethel, Deborah died (Genesis 35:8). 

Deborah had been nurse to Rebekah, Jacob's mother. At some point, probably at Rebekah's request, she came to serve Jacob, or more specifically, Jacob's wives.  Nurses were trained midwives and experts in female health issues. With 3 generations of experience, Nurse Deborah was the Old Testament equivalent of senior physician in the women's health center.  

So, Rachel was traveling in the advanced trimester of a high-risk pregnancy and she’d just lost her primary women’s healthcare provider. 

And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor (Genesis 35: 16).

Either the caravan was late, or, more likely, the baby was early.  Rachel’s labor was distressed.  The midwife filling in for Deborah no doubt did her best.  She managed to save the premature baby, but “Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)” (Genesis 35:19).

In the movies, when a woman dies in childbirth she says something brave and inspiring before she passes away.  The Bible does not script inspiring scenes but it reports the often unpleasant truth from the lives of our spiritual ancestors.   

“And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin”(Genesis 35:18).

Rachel’s last words as she looked at the son she would not get to raise were “He is Ben-Oni” which translates into “He is the ‘son of my sorrow’ .”   Jacob changed the motherless boy’s name to Benjamin meaning “son of my right hand.”  It seems kind to save the child from such a sad name, but maybe it wasn't kindness but guilt.

Maybe Jacob didn't want the sound of his son's name to remind him that his decisions, his priorities, his POLICIES had killed the woman he loved.

Would Rachel have gone into premature labor if they’d stayed in Bethel where she could’ve stayed on bed rest instead of bouncing on the back of a donkey, or a camel, or the bed of an ancient cart? We can't know.  

Would Rachel have survived the birth if she’d had access to the senior midwife in Bethel instead of  Deborah’s trainees traveling with them?  We can't know.

We can’t know if the best Bronze Age medical care in Bethel was good enough to save Rachel from being a mortality in childbirth statistic. But, we do know that there were better healthcare options than going into labor on the side of the road.  We do know that the man Jacob made decisions that separated the woman Rachel from her best healthcare options. 

We know that God, in His infinite, precognitive wisdom wanted Rachel to have access to the better healthcare options. We know because God told Jacob to STAY in Bethel which would have kept Rachel and her high-risk pregnancy off the road to Bethlehem.  

Rachel died as too many women since have died when their best healthcare options were rendered unattainable by the decisions of men whose agendas weren’t really about keeping women healthy.   Jacob meant no harm to Rachel.  He loved her, but his plans in Ephrath were more important than her medical history and prenatal needs. 

We live in a nation that has cured male pattern baldness and erectile dysfunction.  We’ve figured out how to save and redeploy a soldier blown up on a battlefield two countries away from a decent hospital.  But 3,000-plus years after Rachel, women in the greatest nation in the world still die from having a baby. 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/health/black-women-maternal-mortality/index.html

We don’t know a lot of things, but, if we believe the witness of Genesis we do know that God wants better care for His daughters than His sons have been providing the last few thousand years.  

So, brothers, instead of running ahead and forcing women’s health needs to submit to our priorities

we should hold up where we are.  We should stay, dwell, abide, live in this moment of conviction for our failings.  We should own, confess, and repent of our medical sins against women.  We should listen to what women who know women have to say about how to take care of women.  Instead of men setting women’s health on our path, we should take care of them the way God wants --- with the best resources this blessed place can produce.

  

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

RETRACING YOUR STEPS

Blogging Genesis 35:1-15

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” (Genesis 35: 1)

Chapter 34 ended with Jacob worried the Canaanites would attack his family to avenge the men of Shechem whom Jacob’s sons had all murdered. Chapter 35 begins with God telling Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.” 

It seems that between the two chapters, Jacob said, “God, I gotta get out of town.  Where can I go that these people won’t kill me?” 

And God replied, “You can go to Bethel.”   

Or, more specifically, BACK to Bethel.

Bethel is where Jacob stopped on his way to Syria to look for a wife and escape his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him.  By the end of chapter 35, Jacob was back on his father’s land.  He had retraced his steps with a great deal of repetition along the way. 

Bethel used to be called Luz. His first stop there, Jacob dreamed of angels climbing a ladder to Heaven and he christened Luz with the new name Beth-el, “the house of God” (Genesis 28:18-19).  On his return visit he re-renamed the spot El Beth-el which means “God of the house of God” or “God’s house of God.” 

His first night in Beth-el, Jacob was running out of Canaan, away from a vengegul brother.  This time he was fleeing deeper in Canaan, away from vengeful neighbors.

God made Jacob retrace his steps.  And not just geographically.  God wanted Jacob to retrace the spiritual and emotional steps that began his journey.

  

Coming out of Syria on his way to Shechem, years ago, Jacob had been afraid of meeting Esau, but his fear was unfounded.  His brother never tried to harm him.  Coming out of Shechem, Jacob feared the Canaanites would attack, but “they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob” (Genesis 35: 5). 

His first time at Bethel, Jacob “took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it” (Genesis 28:18).  This time, he repeated the ritual. “Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it“ (Genesis 35:14).

Earlier, the Lord had said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel” (Genesis 33:28).  Now exactly two chapters and an indeterminate number of years later, God said to him AGAIN, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name” (Genesis 35:28).

When you feel your life going into a skid, when the negative hypotheticals overwhelm you, when you can’t focus on the blessing for the fear and anxiety, when you’re gifted and anointed and destined and falling apart ----- retrace your steps.

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:4–5).

Re-reread those goals you wrote down when you first set off to change the world.  Pray like you prayed when you had nothing but you believed, you KNEW God had a plan for you.  Remember before you had possessions, and middle-class debt, and important relationships with influential people that you can’t afford to jeopardize by taking a stand.  Remember how disciplined, and creative, and bold you were when you had nothing and therefore weren’t afraid of losing.

“So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ “ (Hebrews 13:6)

Jacob had forgotten, so God made him retrace his steps.

But the walk back requires you to leave some of your new stuff behind. 

And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.

Then let us arise and go up to Bethel . . .

So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.” (Genesis 35:2-4)

Go through your emotional baggage and take out the idols you’ve collected along the way.  Bury them and leave them behind.  There’s no place for them in God’s house that God is building in you.  Purify yourself.  Put off the trappings of title and your new class.  Then, retrace your steps.

Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.  (Zechariah 1:3)

Go back and re-anoint the pillar of your calling.  Go back and re-dedicate your life to the mission.  Go back and listen to God.  Listen like you listened when you were hungry in every sense of the word.  Go back because maybe you don’t need a NEW solution.  Maybe you need a reminder.

Go back so God can remind you who you are.

“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel” (Genesis 33:28). 

“Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name” (Genesis 35:28). 

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

SLEEPING ON YOUR VISION

Blogging Genesis 28:10-22

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.  . . . And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously (Genesis 28:10,11, 19).

Jacob was the primary heir of a wealthy family, but instead of buying food and lodging in the city of Luz, he slept alone in the woods.  Esau was the hunter; Jacob didn’t ENJOY sleeping outside.  He liked tents and red lentil stew, and beds.

At his campsite, Jacob didn’t lay his head on his extra blanket, or use the bundle of clothes he’d packed as a pillow.  Instead he pushed over a rock formation tall enough to be used as a pillar (Genesis 28:2), and slept with his head propped on the thin end of a weird looking boulder.

Why?

Avoiding town indicates that Jacob was afraid the townspeople would murder him and take his money.  Sleeping on a rock implies that Jacob didn’t pack an extra blanket or a change of clothes.  Jacob was afraid, alone, and absolutely unprepared for his situation.

He couldn’t go home because his brother was waiting to kill him.  He couldn’t stay where he was because he thought the people there would kill him.  And given his lack of wilderness survival skills he’d probably die before he got anywhere near Uncle Laban’s house in Syria.  Good night.

God had a great plan for Jacob since before he was born, but sometimes we can’t see the vision or hear the plan until we’re sitting in the empty silence of desperation.   Away from Mama’s tents and beyond the influence of Daddy’s money, Jacob was able to hear and see clearly.

In a dream, God showed Jacob that he was not and had never been alone.  Angels were busy doing God’s will on the earth (Genesis 28: 12).  Heaven knew what he was going through, and God cared.

All his parents’ talk of greatness and promises was real, but Jacob wasn’t an extension of other people’s dreams.  He was the one God had chosen. 

Many of you have been told who you are supposed to be by loving, well-intentioned parents and mentors, and they may (or may nor) have been right,  but if you don’t have a clear vision of yourself for yourself, you will be insecure in your self and ill prepared for your future.

Many times when I was a child, elders in the church declared, “That boy’s gonna be a preacher someday.”  That boy (me) didn’t see it.  The prophetic accuracy of the elders’ assessment didn’t get me into the pulpit.  God had to show me my calling for myself. 

The vision has to become YOUR vision.  Only then can you live it out.

Jacob woke and began working the kinks out of his neck.  He lifted his stone pillow into a stone pillar and anointed it with oil.  When you take ownership of the vision, the things you slept on become landmarks you raise up (verse 18).

When the vision becomes YOUR vision,  your present ceases to be the city of fear.  You realize your authority to transform the present city of fear into the place where God is (verse 19).    

Jacob’s path followed the direction his parents had prescribed, but he left Bethel different from how he’d arrived.  He’d arrived fleeing Esau and trying to please Mother Rebekah.  He left pursuing his calling.  He’d arrived responding to others.  He left responsible for himself. 

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.  And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You”  (Genesis 28:20-22).

Jacob realized that to walk in the vision, he had to walk in the faith. 

God has a vision for you personally.  To fully realize it, you need to know the Lord, personally.

See it.  Wake to it.  Walk in it.  Walk in it by faith.

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

THE UNINTENDED STATE OF RELIGION

Jeroboam, 1^st king of the divided northern kingdom of Israel, created a new system of Judaism centered at altars he erected in Bethel and in Dan. 

The king gave an official public statement for why he was building a new system of churches and ordaining a new set of priests.

He said: It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!  (1 Kings 12: 28)

His statement had 2 main points:   (1) “I’m doing this to improve your lives.”  (2) “This is your true heritage.”

That was the official statement.   But the official statement was not the real reason. 

The real reason was Jeroboam’s desire for power.

Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David:   If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”  (1 Kings 12: 26-27)

Translation: “If I let these people just go on worshipping God without interferene, they’ll eventually get back to the way God had originally set things up.  And then, they won’t need or want me anymore.”   

Thus King Jeroboam created a new system under the guise of

(1)    Breaking with the old, irrelevant traditions (Liberalism) ; and

(2)    Taking the nation back to its true original roots (Conservatism).

By the time of Jeroboam II and the prophet Amos, the religious leaders in Israel no longer saw a difference between their faith and the king’s political agenda.    In fact, they would modify their religious declarations to fit the king’s political platform. 

What’s worse, they would attack any believer who stood up to question their political platform, even when the dissenter was speaking exactly God’s truth.

So, when God sent the prophet Amos with a message of rebuke and condemnation, the politicians didn’t have to pressure the church to silence Amos.  The established authority of the church initiated the attacks on behalf of the beloved political agenda they were trying to protect.

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.   For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, And Israel shall surely be led away captive From their own land.’ ”

Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, And there prophesy.  But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king’s sanctuary, And it is the royal residence.” ( Amos 7:10-13)

Not the people’s sanctuary---- the KING’S sanctuary.  Not the place where the Lord resides---- the king’s residence.

Bethel was the place established (supposedly) for the people to worship God, but the priest isn’t trying to protect the sanctity of Bethel scripture.  The priest is trying to protect the sanctity of Bethel’s politics.

By the time Jesus walked the lands in which Amos had preached, the people there had thoroughly lost their identity.  So much so that Jesus told a woman of the lands,  “You don’t even know what you worship.” (John 4: 22)

They weren’t even Jews anymore.  They were Samaritans.

Politicians cannot and should not tell us what it means to be a Christian.  When the words “conservative” and  “liberal” mean the exact same thing in a church as they do in Congress then something is very, very wrong with the church. 

The church and the people of the church should be involved in politics, but we must never be defined by it.

If we are, if we are a faith-based extension of any political platform; then we are enroute to losing ourselves; and one day, the Lord will look at us and say,  “You don’t even know what you’re worshipping, do you?”

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

WHEN STRONG FRIENDS HURT

In 2 Kings chapter 2, the prophet Elijah was about to leave this world, and he knew it.  However, being a strong, go-it-alone type-A kind of guy (1 Kings 18:22), Elijah didn’t want to worry anyone---- especially his closest friend Elisha.

And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” (2 Kings 2: 1, 2)

Elisha though sensed that something was wrong, and he replied, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So they went down to Bethel [together]. (2 Kings 2: 2)

Elijah went from Bethel to Jericho and from Jericho all the way across the Jordan.  At each point in the journey to his end, Elijah told his friend, “Don’t worry about me.  Stay here.  I’ll go on alone.”

Each time Elisha replied, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!”

When the end came, Elisha was there with Elijah. 

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. …Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” (2 Kings 2: 11, 15)

The strong man did not have to face the fiery chariot alone, and Elisha gained a doubled connection to the spirit of his friend and mentor.

Strong, go-it-alone, I-got-this, type-A kind of people don’t share their pain.  It’s out of character for them to admit that they are hurting.  So when they do, it means that they hurt BAD.

By the time you get to them to comfort them they may say, “Oh, I’m fine now.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll go on alone.”

They’re not fine.  They’re just back in character. 

If they were in enough pain to actually admit to hurting in the first place, that pain was at a level that doesn’t just go away. 

But they will jump back into their routine.  They’ll work from here to Bethel, to Jericho, and all the way across the Jordan.  And, while they’re working they’ll say, “I’m fine.”

They’re not. 

They’re still hurting.  They’re just back in character.

Your job in those times is to be their Elisha. 

You can’t fix it for type-A, go-it-alone kind of people.  The problem, the pain, the flaming chariot that’s coming is theirs alone to ride.  And they don’t expect you to fix it,  but they need you to be there.  They really need you to just be there while they hurt for a while.

If you can understand that and just be there, your presence will give them the strength to face what’s coming, and the experience will leave you with a greater portion in the spiritual connection between you.

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

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

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
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.