Secure in the Knowledge

2 Kings 10:1a

“Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.”

Ahab had everything he wanted and, if he did not, he would simply cry to his wife and she would get it for him. Her husband had multiple concubines, but her son would reign on the throne of Israel and her grandson on the throne of Judah. Jezebel would do whatever was required to make sure he stayed happy. And so, Ahab was sure of his legacy. He knew that he would die and arranged it such that every powerful man in the country was raising one of his sons. Even if they fought over which would be king, they would simply be picking one of his sons.  There was nothing to fear, his biological legacy was as secure as man could ever make it. He went to battle secure in the knowledge his line would continue.

Rehoboam took over the kingdom of Israel on the death of his father. David and Solomon reigned over the nation of Israel for eighty years creating a “Golden Age” of wealth and security. They were the undisputed masters of the most profitable trade route on the plant at the time. He was the undisputed heir of that legacy and so squandered it before it had begun. He took the advice of his friends and refused to pander to the people.

Christians rightly come to Romans 8:31 with the hope and conviction that Paul was hoping to convey to them. For the reality that is implicit in the question “If God is for us who can be against us?” carries with it the assurance that carries us through the most difficult of times as we walk the paths that he has directed our steps down. As I read this morning of the sons of Ahab, I could not escape the reality that the inverse is also true. No position is so secure and strong that it will remain if God is set against it. Ahab had everything going for him, wealth, money, progeny, and devious wife to carry on his legacy and yet fifteen years after his death his wife was eaten by dogs and his sons’ heads were laid in two heaps. It would seem he had everything except the one which was most critical for the victory, God’s favor. Rehoboam is of like nature with the later king of Israel in that his was a kingdom with everything going for it and yet he could not even hold it together past inauguration day!

Romans 13 declares the sure truth that “there is no authority except from God”, when God has decided that a people is in need for a new direction or that a ruler has misused his authority enough nothing will hold it together and “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” will not be able to put it back together. As we are coming to the last month before our nation once again goes to the polls, you must realize that God is for our good, and his glory. No position is so secure or outcome so assured that God is not the primary cause of its rising or falling. After decades of pandering and political maneuvering Hillary Clinton’s victory was a sure bet then, the most unexpected thing happened, “Dewey defeats Truman”.

It is said that the only thing in life that is certain is “death and taxes” but even these, the Christian knows, depend wholly and solely on the will of God. He has defeated death and taxes will not exist in his kingdom. He allows physical death to parade about like a former president which thinks he still has authority, but in the end even physical death's days are numbered by our Lord and King. The saints rest upon the immutability of the decree of the almighty in their final state of joyful relationship with him. In the end his is the only word that truly matters. No position is so secure it does not require him and no place so perilous that he cannot secure it. Let us seek him in abundance and let us seek him in trial, he is all that is of consequence for us.

Coram Deo