Speaking Out

 

    Speaking up for what is right will not always make you popular.  You can loose friends, work, and rarely your life by speaking about things that are unpopular.  Even in the Christian world there are certain subjects that make people uncomfortable.  However, we are called to speak against what it wrong in the world.  We are to speak in love, but we can't just watch evil thrive around us.

    A man of God cried out against the life that King Jeroboam was creating for Israel.  This man foresaw Josiah being born.  Josiah would burn the priest in an insulting manner.  He told Jeroboam of the signs to look for.  This made the king angry, so he ordered the man of God to be seized.  

    God protected His man.  The king's hand shriveled up and the first sign occurred.  It changed his attitude for the moment, so God restored his hand.  The Man of God did not want anything from the king, so he simply just left.  

    A local prophet went to the man of God to bring the man of God to his house.  He did this by lying to the man of God.  The man of God believed the lies, so he went without consulting God, which made God angry.  When the man of God left the prophet's house he was killed by a lion.  The prophet heard about the incident and recovered the corpse to bury in his own tomb.  He mourned being the cause of the man of God's death.

    King Jeroboam did not change his evil ways which would eventually lead to his downfall.  The bad part is that he brought his nation down with him.  He caused the destruction of his nation.  He can't say that he was not warned.  His punishment was that his entire family line would be removed from the face of the earth.

    Speaking out against evil can be scary.  It can cost you a lot, but if you walk every step of the way with God, He will protect you.  There are martyrs in the world, but I believe that God only allows us to die for His Word if it would send a bigger message than our living.  

1 Kings 13