“And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered
them into their hand.” (2Ch 13:16 AV)
Abijah, king of Judah decided to go to battle with
Jeroboam. He viewed the ten northern
tribes as citizens guilty of insurrection and whom his father, Rehoboam, was
unable to conquer due to lack of experience or immaturity. Abijah believed he had the upper hand simply
because he and the temple and the north did not. He felt that since they had the temple and
the temple system of sacrifice was still in force, then God would be for them no
matter how many there were against him.
When the battle was set in array, Abijah confronted Jeroboam head-on. However, while he paid no attention, half of
Jeroboam’s forces came around back to surround Abijah’s army. Seeing himself in a precarious position, he
and the children of Judah cried out to the LORD. God gave them a victory to the tune of
500,000 dead. From that point on, Jeroboam
was never the same and never again caused a problem for Judah. Abijah got himself in a situation he should
not have been in and God rescued him. Further,
the LORD kept this adversary at bay for the rest of his reign. It may appear God blessed even though Abijah
was mistaken. But that is not what
happened.
Pragmatism can get us in a lot of trouble. Assuming things based merely on what we
observe, or experience, may not be wise. Imagine a hiker begins his ascent. As he slowly climbs he fails to read his topographical
map. He fails to see that he is headed
into a pass with no exit. The way in was
too steep to go down, but not too steep to climb. After a bit, he realizes he cannot get out of
this pass without some help. So, he
grabs his satphone and radios for help.
Due to the weather, help cannot come right away. In fact, poor weather settles in and it takes
three days before help finally arrives.
This hiker failed to prepare and had no food and limited water. When the rescue team final extradites him
from his certain peril, they immediately take him to a medic tent on the top of
the summit. There, he is treated and
recovers. They feed him. They bathe him. Then, they take him to the precipice of the
summit to see the most amazing sunset he would ever see. No one in their right mind would think the
end was a reward for the choices he made along the way. Not even the hiker would think the sunset
justified his poor planning and poor judgment.
Yet we do this all the time.
Abijah was rescued despite his choice to conquer
an enemy he had no business engaging.
The victory was a decisive one.
The LORD didn’t simply get him out of a fix. Rather, the LORD used the choice of Abijah,
misguided as it was, to humble Jeroboam.
Five hundred enemy dead. Cities
taken. An enemy city destroyed. If I am Abijah, it would have been hard not
to assume God’s hand of blessing on me even though I had started with the wrong
choice. The split between the two
portions of Israel was of the LORD. It
was the judgment on the house of Solomon for allowing idol worship. There was no reconciling this nation until
Shiloh comes. For Abijah to think the
only reason his father was unsuccessful was immaturity lacked an understanding
of the will of God. To then assume the
LORD delivered them and blessed them because Abijah assumed he was right, but
got caught in a strategic disadvantage would be a great error. The point is, we cannot judge God’s opinion
merely based on our observations. We
cannot assume God’s blessings also means God’s approval. Just because we are blessed of the LORD does
not mean all the methods used to get there were approved of the LORD. Perhaps what we see as approval is really
mercy. Simply because things are good
does not mean things were o.k.
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