Title: You Can Run but You Can't Hide/ Topic: God's Sovereignty

Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18; 2 Chronicles 19; Colossians 4

Scripture: 1 Kings 22:31-36
31 Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, "Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel." 32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, "Surely this is the king of Israel." So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, 33 the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him. 34 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, "Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I've been wounded." 35 All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. 36 As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: "Every man to his town; everyone to his land!"

Observation: After hearing a prophecy about how the Lord had it in for him, Ahab tries to foil God's plan by having Jehoshaphat be the only one to go into battle wearing royal robes. Ahab disguises himself. But God's sovereignty will not be thwarted. When he has determined that a certain thing will happen, no amount of hiding or trying to trick God will work. Arrogant people are sometimes foolish enough to believe otherwise.

Application: God's sovereignty is a difficult subject to understand. Many people think that if God is all-powerful, then he must bear the blame for all the murders, rapes, wars, illnesses and diseases that ravage mankind. But God has given man a free will to make choices, and those choices bring about most of the evil in the world. There are times, though, when God determines that certain judgments or events need to take place. It's as if,in his sovereignty, he allows man to determine how life will be, but he also has established boundaries beyond which man cannot go. He will not allow our sinfulness to totally destroy his creation. I have heard complaints lodged against God for this; either that he does not act soon enough and allows too much evil before he judges it, or that he does not allow enough free choice. But God has laid out clearly in his Word what the consequences of our choices are and what the end of the world will be like. We have been warned ahead of time about the boundaries he has set. It is up to us to choose to live in the bounds of his will.

Prayer: Father, I want to always heed your Word and obey what you say. May my choices bring good into my life, the lives of others and the world. And I thank you that your will, which is always good, cannot be changed.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.