Skip to main content

Ahab's Reaction

I don't know about you, but I sometimes struggle with what to say right after a Church service. Be it a youth group, small group or especially the Big Show, I am usually at a loss as to the best transition into what feels like 'the rest of the week'.

It feels weird to follow a Sunday morning worship service with, 'Hey anybody up for the Pizza Hut buffet?' Shouldn't something from the previous hour with god have affected me more than that? Shouldn't my focus on hunger be more spiritual than physical?

As much as I internally struggle, it would appear that King Ahab had none of these problems. He has a front-row seat to one of the greatest Old Testament displays by God. You can read all about it in 1 Kings 18.


The Cliff-notes version is that King Ahab just saw 450 Baal prophets slaughtered after losing a my-god-is-better-than-your-God battle with Elijah. Now he's told that rain is coming, something not seen in Israel for 3 years.

What's his reaction? Worship? Repentance? Reconcile with Elijah? Lots of people in the Old Testament came up with songs to commemorate this sort of thing. He didn't say a prayer or even suggest a moment of silence.

Nope. He decides to go have a bite to eat. This has got to be the epitome of being all about yourself. An experience to rival all others has just been put on display for Ahab and all he does in response is to fill his own temporary needs.

Yes, Elijah did tell him to go eat and drink. But if Ahab had any sense of following after God within him, he would have said that worship...or prayer...or something was more important than getting a value meal at the nearest McKing.

I'm guessing he didn't debrief with his attendants while at a buffet. I know a guy's gotta eat, but this smells like more evidence of a life spent ignoring God.

What about you, ever had difficulty transitioning from a worship service? Do you have any ideas how to best go about this transition?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d