Tues.’s Devo - The Counterfeit and the Real

1 Kings 12:20-13:34; Acts 9:26-43; Psalm 132:1-18; Proverb 17:6 Reading today’s scriptures makes you wonder why God chose Jeroboam who was going to be so evil to be the king of Israel. God always gives a nation a leader that they deserve. Israel was bent on following false gods so God gave them Jeroboam who would give them a counterfeit of the real. Jeroboam set up his own capital in Shechem, erected golden calves at Bethel and Dan to worship so his people wouldn’t go to Jerusalem and want to stay. He ordained priests who were not Levites, instituted a counterfeit festival to the Feast of Tabernacles on the same day of a different month. He himself offered sacrifices to the calves he made. On the day set to celebrate their first counterfeit feast, Jeroboam headed to the altar at Bethel to offer sacrifices and begin the celebration. God sent a prophet from Judah to meet him. He told him that God was going to raise up a man by the name of Josiah and he would be a descendant of David. He would sacrifice the false priests who came to worship here on this altar. They would also burn human bones on this altar. As a sign that what he was saying was true, the altar would split in half. Jeroboam pointed his finger at the prophet and yelled, “Seize that man!” When he did, his arm was paralyzed in that position and he couldn’t move it. The altar split and its ashes poured out on the ground. That was what God had to say about their worship. Jeroboam now cried out to the prophet to please pray to God to heal his hand. The prophet did and the king’s hand was restored. Jeroboam asked the prophet to stay and eat but he said that God had told him not to eat or drink in this land but to go home another way from the one he had come. There was an old prophet that lived in Bethel. His sons had attended the celebration and witnessed what happened. They came home and told their father, the prophet. He set out to find the young prophet. When he found him he asked him to come home with him and eat. When he told him what God had told him about eating there, the old prophet lied and told him that an angel had appeared to him and told him to bring him home with him. The young prophet learned a fatal lesson. He listened to man rather than God and went home with him. After the meal, the old prophet prophesied over him and told him that because he didn’t do what God had told him to do, he would not be buried with his family. Sure enough, he left and was killed by a lion. When the old prophet heard what had happened he went to find his body. The lion was guarding his body and had not eaten it. A donkey was standing with the lion and the lion had not eaten it either. Jesus was guarding this man’s body. Jesus is both the donkey, the suffering servant and the lion from the tribe of Judah. The old prophet took his body and buried it in his own grave. He told his sons to bury him beside him when he died. This story is hard to understand but the young prophet was a perfect picture of Israel who started out following God but ended up listening to other voices and following them. When Josiah did come on the scene, to hundred years later, and burned the prophets on this altar, but he saved this man’s grave and didn’t desecrate it. God did honor this man and didn’t let his body get destroyed by the lion, but he had to honor his word also and killed the man. When we get to heaven we can hear the rest of the story. In Acts, the Jewish believers in Jerusalem were afraid of Saul and it took Barnabas’ testimony of being with Saul and his story of how he got saved to convince them Saul was a believer. When they understood this, they accepted him and he preached boldly there. He argued with some of the Greek-speaking Jews who tried to murder him. The believers found out their plot and sent Saul to Caesarea on to Tarsus, his hometown. The church was growing in numbers and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter healed a paralytic and many turned to the Lord. He healed Dorcas who was on her death bed. News spread quickly and many came to the Lord. When the church does the works of Jesus they won’t have to have gimmicks to get people to come to church, they will hear and flock to the churches. Jeroboam offered his nation the counterfeit but Jesus offered the real. Lord, may we walk in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.