Nougat 25

My response to today’s Holy Nougat may be considered a little controversial. How do you process this?

“People who passed by saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported it in Bethel, where the old prophet lived. When the prophet heard the report, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord’s command. The Lord has fulfilled his word by causing the lion to attack and kill him.”” ‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭13:25-26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

As stated above, I am challenged by the sentiments of the Nougat. But maybe it’s how my brain works. My understanding of God’s God-ness is challenged to accept that God ‘caused’ the lion to kill or even hurt the young prophet. Maybe it’s how I was raised; I recall my mother sternly warning me against some actions. And, when I disobeyed, the consequences were extremely painful.

Like me sitting on a fence – in a skirt at that – and barely escaping a punctured thigh, because of the spikes on top. The metal ripped the skirt and grazed my leg. Superficial though the scratch was, I got the message my mother tried to pass on to me. Don’t sit on the fence! Not a church fence, which it was, not a house or literal fence; nor a debate fence!

Did my mother ‘cause’ the skirt to rip or the metal to graze me? No. Did she know the consequences of sitting on that fence? Most likely. Did she know I’d have done my thing despite being warned multiple times? I suspect so. Did she tend my wound, superficial though it was, and dry my shock-induced tears? Oh yes.

And so it is with God. I think we’d rather God remove the temptation from our lives or just robotize us. But that’s not how God operates. The power of choice is one of the things we claim distinguishes us from the rest of God’s creation. It comes with an invitation to deeper relationship with God as well as with a responsibility we ought to take seriously.

Creationist (one who argues that God exists and works through all creation) and Physician, Sir Isaac Newton, is perhaps most popularly known for his theory the Third Law of Motion, ’*for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction*.’ It’s a law that gets applied to life in general. And when applied to the man of God’s actions, we see he ate – nothing happened, except he was refreshed for his journey home.

BUT

it delayed him

AND

placed him in the way of the roaring lion awaiting him or anyone coming down the road.

We don’t know for certain what route he took home. We know that he stopped to eat. I wondered why the old (false) prophet knew who it was immediately; but the circumstances were unusual. Please note, although the lone lion killed the man of God it didn’t eat him. That’s atypical of lions – which hunt in packs and eat shortly afterwards. Was the lion waiting for the rest of the pride? If so, how did the old prophet get to take the man of God away without a fight? I believe that the lion, like those in the den in Babylon, had no permission from God to eat the young prophet.

Remember – even when we walk outside of God’s will, the devil only has partial jurisdiction over us. Because we still belong to Jesus! Does that give us permission to sin – certainly not. But when we do; I pray we have more time to repent before our end arrives.

May God’s grace keep us and prevent us from sinning.

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May all we seek be found in Christ