“And Yet, He Remained Faithful”

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

BIBLE READING: 1 Kings 22

“And [Ahab] said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” (1 Kings 22.8)

We like stories that end as they should. Through scripture, we gain comfort knowing that, by faith, good overcomes evil, justice prevails, and outcomes are resolved. Hebrews 11 serves to ground our hope by letting us see the blessedness of people who lived by faith. But it also reminds that resolved outcomes are not promised in this life. While some ‘enforced justice, obtained promises, and [even] stopped the mouths of lions’ (Hebrews 11.33), others ‘were tortured… suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment’ (Hebrews 11.35-36). This verse challenges us to consider some uncomfortable realities. Faith does not make me immune to suffering. Many times, people of faith endured lonely circumstances. They were mistreated and rejected.

Imagine having the reputation of Micaiah. He was a known man of God whose commitment to speak God’s words got him publicly berated and thrown into prison (1 Kings 22.13-28). His peers were swayed by the power of the king, but Micaiah understood his calling (1 Kings 22.6, 14). Even though he spoke the truth, his staunch faith got him labeled a troublemaker. Like many prophets, his story ends with negativity with him stuck in prison. Surely this wasn’t what he wanted, but it was where faith took him and many others.

Consider the story of Jeremiah. He was thrown in a pit, into prison and put in stocks for sharing God’s message of judgment. He was relentlessly opposed by false prophets with a more pleasant message (see Jeremiah 20.1-6; 28.1-17; 29.24-32). Jeremiah wished he could give a message of peace and hope to his people, but God had told him something very different (Jeremiah 28.5-9). Not only was he personally affected by his commitment to faith, but he had to endure the very atrocities that he foretold on the nation (Jeremiah 39). And yet he remained faithful to God’s calling for him.

The point is this: We mustn’t be delusional about faith’s offering. It settles our heart with peace that is not contingent on present circumstances. By faith, we are on a mission from God to be salt and light in this world. There will be times our work is fruitful and positive. But the reality is, many times it will be difficult. Many people of faith died without justice or resolution because they believed God had prepared something better for them. We must fix our minds in this way. If we focus on the negatives, we are prone to shrink back from the mission of our faith. My friends, we mustn’t be short-sighted.

There are present blessings we can enjoy, but we must not be settled by the temporary. Nothing here will compare to what is coming. When our lives are moved by the calling of God and the hope of his promise, we may experience discomfort; but our hope is in God’s promise of better things beyond this life.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8.18)

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