Scripture

Ahab said, "I will send you away with this treaty . . . " "Thus says the Lord: "Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life and your people for his people."
(1 Kings 20:34-42)

Devotional

We can make no treaty with sin; it must be annihilated. It is not to be tolerated. Sin left unchecked will always return with a vengeance. Unless it is destroyed, it will escalate and devastate. Here is what I repeatedly know about sin: it will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, cost you more than you are willing to pay, and negatively affect others more than you could imagine. How are we to war against it? Sin must be put to death in us; that is, we must confess it and repent of it.
We are not to kill sinners as Ahab was called to do. We are to win them instead. The only way to rid the world of sin is to get the world to Christ. Therefore, we are to hate the sin and love the sinner. This we do by sharing the saving grace of God to a lost and dying world. Only Christ can rid the world of sin.

Text For The Day

1 Kings 20:34, 42: Ahab said, “I will send you away with this treaty…” “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’”

Thought For The Day

“To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable. We cannot even wish, in our better moments, that He could reconcile Himself to our present impurities. What we would here and now call our ‘happiness’ is not the end God chiefly has in view: but when we are such as He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.” C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain.

Questions To Ponder

Have you ever judged God as wrong for His dealing with people in the Old Testament? Have you ever heard others do so?
How do you answer those who question His harsh treatment of entire nations of people?
What parallel is there between the Old Testament sinner and the New Testament sin?

Morning Study Guide

Defining: “Treaty”: That which cannot be made with God. All that we can do to be reconciled to God is surrender. A treaty entails mutual agreement, a giving and taking.

Referencing: “I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land,” Judges 2:1-2.

Applying: Be careful not to make a treaty with anyone who would cause you to violate your surrender to God.