I was reading my Bible the other day, just as I do nearly every morning, and I was in 1 Kings, Chapter 13.
After reading that chapter it occurred to me that there is a really important lesson there, one that could save us from being led away from salvation and straight to damnation.
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Let me review briefly what 1 Kings 13 is about:
A prophet from Judah is sent by God to curse the altar made by Yarov’am in Israel. The prophet is told not to eat or drink anything while there and to come home on a different road than the one he took to get there.
After he delivers his message, he heads home, but a prophet living in Israel goes after him. When he reaches the prophet from Judah, he asks him to come back and dine with him. The prophet says he is not to eat or drink anything while there, but the other prophet lies, saying he heard from God that the man from Judah is to go back and eat and drink with him.
So, the Judean prophet goes back and eats and drinks with the man who lied to him.
Just then the liar gets a word from God and tells the Judean prophet that because he went against the word he was given he will be killed by a lion on his way home, which is exactly what happens.
And here’s the kicker: the lion kills the man, then just sits down next to him. It doesn’t kill and eat the donkey or the man; it just sits there.
The lying prophet hears about this and retrieves the dead prophet’s body, having it buried in the very tomb he had cut out for himself.
I thought to myself how unfair it was of God to kill the man who was just believing what he was told. It should have been the lying prophet who was punished, but that isn’t what happened.
Then it occurred to me that there is a really important message here, one which this ministry is devoted to making known to everyone: you can’t trust what you are being told by anyone!
Not even me!
(Not to sound like I am bragging, but I would say I am one
of the more trustworthy ones to listen to.)
How many different Christian religions tell their congregants to ignore (which is the same as rejecting) God’s Torah, even though God tells us to obey his Torah?
They say that the Torah is just for Jews, basing that lie not on Yeshua’s teachings but on misinterpretations and misusing the letters that Shaul (Paul) wrote!
Judaism is founded on the Torah, which is (like it or not, no matter what your Christian teachers have told you) God’s User Manual for Righteousness. He gave it to the Jews, who he chose to be priests to the world (Exodus 19:6) to learn it then teach it to everyone else.
Who really thinks that Shaul outranks God?
When James offered his four requirements for the Gentile neophyte believers (Acts 15), he preceded that by saying they would learn the laws of Moses (i.e., the Torah) by attending Shabbat services. He fully expected the Gentiles would eventually adopt a Jewish lifestyle, which is how Yeshua lived and what Yeshua taught.
James also said that those who teach have a double obligation and will be judged more strictly (James 3:1-2), implying that teaching is something you should think about twice before doing.
I think about it more than twice, and so I am confident that when I say this story in the Tanakh is not just interesting, but is a salvation issue, and I am not just saying this to sound dramatic.
I have an “Acid Test” question about everything I hear or read regarding God, Yeshua, and the Bible. That question is this: “How does this affect my salvation?”
If something doesn’t affect salvation, it may be interesting or even edifying, but it is not something to get all worked-up about.
For example, the idea of the Trinity is a hot topic, but it isn’t really a salvation issue because we aren’t saved by faithfully believing Yeshua and God are one- we are saved by faithfully believing that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and that his death and resurrection really happened, paving the way for us to receive forgiveness of sin which is how we are able to be in God’s presence for eternity, i.e., “saved”.
But this biblical story in 1 Kings 13 IS a salvation issue because if we automatically believe what we hear, just because someone is a prophet or Priest, or Rabbi, or Minister, or whatever (with credentials or not), we are liable to be in the same spot that prophet from Judah was in when he ignored what God told him to do because a man told him something different.
God tells us all how he wants us to worship him and how he wants us to treat each other in the Torah. That is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where we read that God, himself, tells Moses to tell the people what he (God) wants them to do. There is no other place, anywhere, in the entire Bible where God says anything changes or gives any new commandments.
And you can look until your eyes bleed but you will never find anywhere in the Bible where God specifies some laws are for Jews, some for Catholics, others for Protestants, etc..
If you are Jewish or Christian, or whatever, and you reject what God says he wants you to do (in the Torah), then you are in the same boat as that prophet from Judah who was told to go straight home but turned aside from God’s command because he accepted as truth what some human being told him to do.
And even though it isn’t stated anywhere, I have to believe that the lying prophet got his comeuppance, eventually.
There are a number of places in the Bible where the leaders or prophets give the people the choice to follow Ba’al or follow Adonai, and today- right now as you are reading this- you have a similar choice. You can either follow God’s instructions for worship or follow a man-made religion.
Whatever you do, choose carefully because the choice you make definitely IS a salvation issue.
Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today so L’hitraot, and Baruch HaShem!