Dealing with shades of grey……

So today we continue looking at the life of Jeroboam.

Jeroboam is king of all the tribes of Israel apart from the the tribes of Judah. He does not want his people to return to Israel to worship so he is offering them an alternative religion that looks like the real thing but is not authentic and blessed by the one true God.

In fact, the one true God is not happy. He sends a messenger to tell Jeroboam that things will not end well for him. This period in the history of God’s people is full of messengers sent by God with difficult messages – some are called prophets, some are called men of God. It’s a dangerous business – speaking out against the deeds and practices of very powerful men.

This man of God has no name. When Jeroboam reaches out to order his men to seize him, Jeroboam’s hand becomes shrivelled –

Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.  1 Kings 13:6

As with so many others before him, Jeroboam only responds when he is scared – his motive is self-preservation – his repentance is shallow and soon passes –

Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.  1 Kings 13:33-34

As for the man of God, when Jeroboam invites him to eat with him, the man refuses because God has clearly instructed him to go straight home. When a local old prophet hears about the man of God, he gets on a donkey and goes after him to invite him to his home.

Hospitality is a key part of the faith of the Israelites and entertaining a man of God will surely bring its blessings.

When the man says no (because of the clear instruction from God to return home), the prophet persists. He persuades. He insists. He uses his position as prophet. He lies.

“I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.  1 Kings 13:18-19

While he is eating and drinking, God speaks through the prophet to the man of God to rebuke him for ignoring his word and entering the prophet’s home. As he travels home by donkey, he is mauled by a lion and killed. The prophet rescues his body and buries him in his own tomb, instructing his sons that he is to buried with him when he dies.

These weird stories speak to me of integrity and deceit.

Sometimes things look like the real thing but they are not.

People seem like the real thing but they are not.

Words sound like the real thing but they are not.

We are bombarded with inspirational quotes or stories on Facebook for example, that seem all well and good and we share them without being sure of the source and intent……Britain First is a great example: many of their posts you are invited to share seem pretty reasonable and worth supporting, but did you know that Britain First is a far-right British nationalist political party and movement formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party? It has a vigilante wing called the “Britain First Defence Force”. Perhaps we should all join Jason Manford in deleting any of our Facebook friends who share Britain First posts…….

And then there are all the harmless quizzes about our aura, our guardian angel, what animal we were in a past life, our special crystal…….these all seem to me to offer a pseudo-spirituality with no basis in truth. At best a harmless distraction; at worst an attractive (easy, lazy) alternative to true faith in action.

When God is at work, we know about it. Faith in action is powerful. There’s something going on that makes something more than just the thing…..when God is at work, the most mundane activity or conversation or moment can take on a spiritual significance that takes our breath away. We know we are standing on holy ground. We know something special has just happened. God is awesome, literally awesome.

And when God speaks into our heart, we know it. We can hear a whole talk, read a whole book, listen to a whole podcast and one phrase hits home. One phrase sticks. One phrase becomes lodged in our brain and we know we are changed by what we have heard.

And God’s truth can come to us from the most unlikely of sources. Sometimes from a man of God or a prophet, yes, but we have seen in this passage that even men of God and prophets are capable of getting it wrong. They sometimes make mistakes. They sometimes are merely human. They sometimes speak from their own agenda and they sometimes lie.

I guess what I’m saying is we should never take anything at face value. We should never swallow anything we hear or read hook, line and sinker. The extreme of this is believing everything you read on the internet – the Tyne bridge has collapsed at least five times in the last couple of years according to Facebook……

We have to engage our own brains and learn to recognise and trust the discernment given to us by God. Sometimes we want everything black and white. We want to be told what to think. And yet there are shades of grey. That’s the nature of life. The faith journey of God’s people continues to evolve. We have to ask God to help us to learn how to recognise His truth when we see it and hear it.