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God's Word: Unchanged By Human Reaction
When king Ahaziah, after suffering a tragic accident, was told by Elijah
that he would “not come down from the bed,” but would “surely
die,” he sent a battalion of fifty soldiers to detain the ‘bearer of
bad tidings.’ When this attempt failed (God destroyed all fifty with
fire from heaven), Ahaziah sent another fifty. Once again “the fire
of God came down from heaven and consumed” them. When Ahaziah sent a
third party of fifty men, their captain pleaded (not surprisingly) with
Elijah for his life. Elijah, under counsel from the angel of the Lord,
finally went down with the captain and went in to the king. And just
what did Elijah tell the bedridden dignitary? “Thus says the Lord...
you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you
shall surely die.” The message hadn’t changed, had it? After all of
Ahaziah’s pressure tactics, not one bit of God’s word on the matter had
been diminished or altered. (The account of these events is found in 2
Kings 1.)
There is a simple lesson in that chapter for you and me, and it is this:
God’s word remains true and sure, no matter how we might react to it.
God’s word is “faithful” (Titus 1:9) -- it is trustworthy. It “lives
and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23) -- it is “incorruptible.”
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no
means pass away” (Matt. 24:35). “If we are faithless, He remains
faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).
Becoming angry with God’s word will not change it in the least. We may
cut a copy of it up and toss it in the fire, as did another infamous
king (Jer. 36:23); yet we should know that “Forever, O Lord, Your
word is settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89).
Nor, for that matter, will it alter God’s message one bit to become
furious with the bearer of it. We have known of some who have become
upset with this preacher or that one when presented with a specific
point from the Bible. Did their wrath change God’s ordinance? While we
would not deny anyone’s legal right to be upset, we still yet inquire as
to how such misbehavior has a bearing on what the Bible says. Who do we
humans think we are to suppose that a display of vehemency (or any other
emotion, for that matter) on our part will change what God’s word says
about the plan of salvation, or what it declares concerning fellowship,
or what it states about the subject of divorce; etc.?
“He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which
judges him -- the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last
day” (John 12:48). The Lord spoke those words, not this writer. We’d
best put our anger, sullenness, or what-have-you aside and be glad that
not only are we able to “understand what the will of the Lord is,”
but as well that the Lord has been most gracious in providing us with
numerous opportunities to obey it.
--Mike Noble
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