Author: John Tillman

Scripture Focus: 1 Kings 20.28
28 The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” 

Reflection: Kings Like Ahab
By John Tillman

Ahab is the anti-David. If David shows us “a man after God’s heart,” Ahab is the mirror image. (1 Samuel 13.14; Acts 13.22) Ahab and David become moral measuring sticks. Scripture describes bad kings as following Ahab’s ways and good kings as following David’s.

Ahab gets the most ink in Kings. He’s unquestionably wicked, yet God used and spoke to him frequently. Why?

It may shock us that God blesses Ahab with victories and with his presence and voice, spoken through many prophets. Humans aren’t perfect, yet God works through them. We know this academically, but emotionally, we feel God should find someone else when he uses the wicked. We can learn from this.

God uses wicked kings to accomplish good things. This doesn’t make them good kings. God used Ahab as a mercy to the people of Israel and for the glory of his own name, not because Ahab was good. Victories don’t grant leaders a never-expiring stamp of God’s approval or mean a leader is “God’s man or woman.” They don’t suddenly deserve praise, adoration, or unquestioning, unshakable devotion.

God pursues the wicked for salvation. God repeatedly tells Ahab, “You will know that I am the Lord.” God wanted Ahab to know him and offered himself to Ahab, who repeatedly rejected God. We typically think of God pursuing the wicked, seeking to punish or destroy them, but God also pursues the wicked to turn them to him and change their hearts.

We are among the wicked. Ahab was wicked and God used him. David was wicked and God used him. We are wicked and God will use us. Our wickedness is different by degrees when we compare them humanly, but to God wicked is wicked. Just as God pursued wicked kings for repentance, he has and will pursue us. 

Jesus is the only righteous king. God did find a better, righteous king to do the work that no imperfect king could do. Jesus is the king who accomplishes all that God wants. He is the only king to whom we can be unswervingly loyal because he is the only righteous one.

Like Ahab and all wicked kings, we are wicked ones repeatedly called to repentance. Ahab and David differ in their response to God, not in God’s offer. May we respond like David and not like Ahab.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “I tell you, if anyone openly declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, the Son of man will declare himself for him in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who disowns me in the presence of human beings will be disowned in the presence of God’s angels.” — Luke 12.8-9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
1 Kings 20 (Listen 7:03)
Psalms 40-41 (Listen 3:57)

Read more about Ahab and David
Even Ahab, the wickedest of wicked kings, obtained a measure of mercy from God when he showed humility and grief.

Ahab and David

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Scripture Focus: 1 Kings 13.29-33
29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”

31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways… 

2 Kings 23.4-24
15 Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. 16 Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

17 The king asked, “What is that tombstone I see?”

The people of the city said, “It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.”

18 “Leave it alone,” he said. “Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Reflection: Nameless Prophets
By John Tillman

It is one of the strangest stories in the Bible. 

Three powerful and frightening signs.
Jeroboam was offering a sacrifice on the altar of Bethel when the Judean man of God prophesied to the altar. At the prophecy, two signs occurred. The altar split and the ashes spilled. The third sign came when Jeroboam threatened the man of God and his hand instantly shriveled. Jeroboam repented of his threat and at the prophet’s prayer, the hand was restored.

Two nameless prophets.
The mysterious “man of God from Judah” is identified only by gender and geography. He confronted a powerful king with powerful signs. Yet, he became so hungry he made a serious error in judgment.

The “old prophet” from Samaria was unscrupulous and ambiguous. Did he attempt to save a fellow prophet from starving on the side of the road? Did he sabotage a rival prophet who destroyed an altar his family served? Where did his loyalty lie? He lies to the man of God, then lies with the man of God, side-by-side in the same tomb. His dying wish implies he meant no harm, but we can’t be sure.

One corrupt, wicked king.
God promised Jeroboam a kingdom “as enduring as the one I built for David” if he would walk in obedience. Instead, he became as corrupt as the son of Solomon he rebelled against. (1 Kings 11.34-40)

One reforming, destroying future king.
Josiah is the greatest reformer of any biblical king. (2 Kings 23.25) He is known more by what he tore down than by what he built. David fought for political peace against outer threats, armies entrenched at the borders. Josiah fought for spiritual peace against inner threats, foreign gods entrenched in hearts and culture.

The Bible is not a curriculum. Many tales, like this one, lack obvious takeaways. However, we know that God is on a mission of reformation and restoration. The process will be painful. Errors in one generation harm those following. Future generations must tear down errors before harms can be healed.

Jesus is a greater reformer than Josiah. When Jesus sets things right, they will stay that way. Are we willing to be nameless prophets, announcing the coming king? God seeks the repentant and the faithful for nameless missions whose happy endings may come after our death.

Come soon, King Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.” — Luke 12.32

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
1 Kings 13 (Listen 5:14)
Psalms 33 (Listen 2:08)

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Scripture’s accounts of kings are focused on the only statistic that matters—righteousness.

Incomparable King and Kingdom

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Scripture Focus: 1 Kings 4.20, 25
20 The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy…25 During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree.

1 Kings 5.13-18
13 King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men. 14 He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, 16 as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workers. 17 At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of high-grade stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. 18 The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and workers from Byblos cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple. 

Reflection: Rosy Idealism vs Gritty Reality
By John Tillman

One chapter paints a glowing, idealistic picture of Solomon’s reign, packed with prophetic references. The people are “numerous as the sand on the seashore,” referencing God’s promise to Abraham. (Genesis 22.17) They ate, drank, and were happy, with “peace on every side,” as promised to their ancestors. (Joshua 21.44) They lived in safety, everyone “under their own vine and fig tree,” an idyllic state that would be referenced by the prophet Micah and many others. (Micah 4.4)

The next chapter is a reality check. The idyllic portrait was a partial picture. For at least 30,000 Israelites, the reality included forced labor. Everyone lived under their own vine and fig tree for two out of three months. The other month, they were slaves.

The version of slavery in the Bible was less brutal than the North Atlantic slave trade, yet God opposed even the gentler version. God liberated Israel from slavery. Scripture cites this experience as part of their identity. “For you were slaves in Egypt” is a frequent refrain. God commanded that they never enslave another Israelite. God commanded that they prevent fellow Israelites from being enslaved by outsiders. God commanded that they always set free escaped slaves. Yet, here is Solomon, building a Temple for God by breaking these rules.

Societies supported by slavery always have a rosy, sanitized vision of themselves. They say things like, “Slaves were like family,” “slaves learned skills,” “slaves lived happy lives,” and “slaves were rarely mistreated.” Even if these are or were always true, it doesn’t change God’s opinion of slavery as a practice to avoid and oppose. 

Pointing fingers at the past is not scripture’s intention. Jesus condemned those who looked to the past and claimed they would not have joined their forebears’ sins. (Luke 11.47-48) He would say the same to us. It does no spiritual good to claim we would have opposed past wrongs. Spiritual good comes from sober examination of our present.

Do we have a rosy, glowing, idealistic, and sanitized vision of ourselves? Have we allowed a “gentler version” of slavery to rise up, unnoticed, except by the tens of thousands trapped in it? Or if not slavery, a gentler version of empire, greed, or lust?

Recognizing the sins of the past is important, but not without repenting of the sins of today. God, wipe away rosy idealism. Grant us the mercy to see gritty reality and repent of today’s sins.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
The heaven of heavens is the Lord’s, but he entrusted the earth to its peoples. — Psalm 115.16

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
1 Kings 4-5 (Listen 7:21)
Psalms 22 (Listen 3:49)

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