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How Do
You Make God Laugh?
by Lieutenant Rachel
Sheils
In the
thirty-first year of Asa king of
Judah, Omri became king of
Israel, and he reigned twelve
years, six of them in Tirzah. He bought the hill of Samaria
from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the
hill, calling it
Samaria... But Omri did evil in the
eyes of the LORD and sinned more than all those before him...
As for the other events of Omri’s reign, what he did
and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book
of the annals of the kings of Israel? Omri rested with his
ancestors and was buried in
Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him
as king. (1 Kings 16:21-28)
Q: Do
you know how to make God laugh? A: Make plans
Q: Do
you know how to make people laugh? A: Follow God’s plans?
That sums up today’s article
– Do you follow your plans or God’s plans.
You may wonder, “How do these
Bible verses relate at all?” Well,
sadly King Omri followed his own plans and not God’s plans.
The Bible only dedicates seven verses to king Omri.
If this is all the information we had on King Omri – we
wouldn’t know much.
The main thing the Bible pointed out is that he did
evil in the eyes of the Lord.
He caused
Israel
to sin. He doesn’t seem like he was that important of a king.
Interestingly, we have other
ancient data on King Omri. History tells us that he was one of
the most powerful kings of
Israel:
-
He
is the 1st king of
Israel
who is mentioned by historical sources other than the
Bible.
-
Omri’s
reign brought peace – He ended almost 50 years of civil
war.
-
With this
peace, he brought economic prosperity.
-
The
Bible notes that Omri built
Samaria. That
was no small feat; He built a new capital for
Israel.
-
Archaeology discovered that the walls were 1.6 meters
wide (about 4 ½ ft).
-
Archaeologists also note that it is one of the finest
examples of this type of construction in
Palestine
-
Samaria
was so strongly fortified that it endured several
sieges before its downfall.
-
Omri’s
reign was established enough that he could name his son as
his heir and thus begin a new dynasty of rulers.
-
Omri was
so well known among other nations that
Israel
was called the “land
of
The House
of Omri.”
-
Some archaeologists believe that Omri
and his descendants, rather than
David or
Solomon, "established the first
fully developed monarchy in
Israel."
The Bible does not highlight
any of these facts that history has recorded!
Some archaeologists believe that the Bible truly
minimizes his accomplishments; he only gets seven verses!!
Why is that? In the grand scheme of
eternity, the Bible doesn’t remember his great deeds.
All he strived for, all his toil, all his hard-work,
all his late night planning and worrying about events seems
futile because it was not for God.
It was all worthless in the end.
What mankind sees as an important kingdom was
insignificant in God’s kingdom.
Solomon’s son had become
corrupt and God didn’t want him to be king anymore.
God sent a prophet to tell Jeroboam and others that God
picked Jeroboam to be the new king.
Jeroboam was picked
by God to lead Israel!!
When he became king a big split happened in the kingdom
that divided Israel
and Judah
into two nations. Jeroboam
became king of
Israel
(ten tribes) and another king ruled Judah (only two tribes).
BUT Judah had the chosen, holy city of Jerusalem.
Jeroboam was afraid that the people would want to
reunite with Judah
since the
temple of God
was in Jerusalem so he set up altars to golden calves
in two other cities so the people could worship in his nation.
Jeroboam forgot that God directed his paths and that he was an
instrument for God.
Jeroboam did not
trust in the Lord. Jeroboam
first sinned when
he forgot who placed him as king.
This led him to continue to sin and actual lead others
to sin. He led the people astray by worshipping other gods.
That was the sin of Jeroboam.
Omri made similar sins.
Omri’s name in Hebrew meant
“The Lord is my Life” – yet even with this reminder in his
name, his very actions denied God’s place in his life.
Omri did not inquire of God. He did not do what was
right. He even led others astray in his sin. Ultimately, all
the seemingly great
things he did in human history are
worthless in
eternity!! Afterall,
“what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world,
yet forfeits his soul.” (Matt. 16:26)
What
we can learn from Omri’s sins? No matter how great we are in
the world’s eyes, no matter what we accomplish, no matter how
much money or electronic toys we have, no matter how nice our
house or car is, no matter how trendy our clothes, hair or
make-up – it is all worthless in the light of eternity if they
are not for God.
Do you rush into making plans
without asking the Creator of Life
His plans for you?
Do you toil, sweat and worry about things that God does not
even want you to do?
Do you waste time, energy or money on plans that aren’t
in-line with God’s plan?
Do you truly seek
first the
kingdom
of God
(Matt. 6:33)? If
we do not inquire of God then we probably are not trying to do
His will because we don’t even know what it is! We often make
our own plans and later ask God to bless them? Wouldn’t it be
better to ask God to direct our paths and expect His blessing
will follow by doing His will?
It is easy in life to forget
to inquire of the Lord
-
We may
just start doing a task that is good to do or routine
-
We may get
busy in our work and forget
-
We may be
so far along in our own plans to stop and ask if they are
even God’s will
Embarrassingly, Matt and I
started picking songs one Sunday and had a couple selected
before we realized we hadn’t prayer first.
We stopped and said sorry and then asked for God’s Holy
Spirit to guide us.
One of the best-selling books
apart from the Bible is called,
In His Steps.
It was written 1896 by Charles Sheldon.
It is a great novel – I recommend you reading the book.
The main character is the Rev. Henry Maxwell, a pastor of a
church in the
USA, who challenges his
congregation to not do anything for a whole year without first
asking: “What Would Jesus Do?” This is where the phrase, WWJD
came from. It has
become so popularized today that I think it has lost some of
its deep meaning.
The book follows the
characters in the book as they focus or pretend to focus on
the question WWJD. There is one woman, Rachel Winslow, who is
a talented singer.
She decides not
to use her talent to become popular and make money but instead
she gets involved in tent revivals.
She uses her beautiful voice to calm down the rowdy
crowds so their hearts are prepared to hear the gospel
message. Another character is a landlord who owns tons of
apartments. He realizes the state of his apartments are very
poor– even though that is the norm in the 1900’s.
He decides to provide better housing for the less
fortunate. He decides not to get rich off the backs of the
poor.
The result? The town they
live in is transformed and surrounding towns are affected too;
all because they inquired of the Lord by asking “What Would
Jesus Do.” If we
put God first in our plans, then details fall into place!
“Commit to the Lord
whatever you do and your plans will succeed.”
Proverbs 16:3
What
if you did the same thing? Commit for one year to ask – What
Would Jesus Do -- When wondering about employment, moving,
making a big purchase, using your free time, SHARING THE
GOSPEL and more. If we all ask God I believe He will direct
our paths in the ways He wants us to go.
You may ask how God reveal’s
his plans for you once you ask. First, in order to know
the answer you need to know
What Jesus Did.
We need to read the Bible which is our “Basic
Instructions Before Leaving Earth”.
Don’t paint Jesus the way you want Him to look, but
read your Bible and
know his teachings. Jesus did not come to
only say that God
loves you – He came to warn people to repent.
Those are his
first words to people in the books of Matthew and Mark!!
As his disciples, we should be spreading his message. The
Bible speaks on many other topics as well so we know what is
right and good.
Another
way to determine God’s will is to seek advice from mature
Christians.
Proverbs 15:22 proclaims,
“Plans fail for lack of
counsel, but
with many
advisers they succeed.” It is good to seek godly advice.
Thirdly,
God also reveals his will in situations working out. If you
ask God to, He will probably close the door you are not
supposed to walk through. Someone told me once – Instead of
sitting back and waiting for God to open a door –
we should be active and
going through the door. If it is not the right one, God will
close it.
When death is at the door,
would your life only get seven sentences to summarize your
life in eternity like King Omri? Or would God welcome you into
His kingdom and say,
“Well done – good and faithful servant.”
May we all strive to hear these blessed words!
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