S) "13 Now behold, a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and said, 'Thus says the Lord, "Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver them into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord."'"
1 Kings 20:13 (NASB)
O) What incredible grace! This Ahab, the same who just witnessed Elijah's victory over the prophets of baal and asherah but failed to change his heart (see SOAP 06/16/2014), the same who is later described as unique in his evil (see 1 Kings 21:25) - this Ahab is about to receive unmatched grace! He was literally about to forfeit the women, children, gold, and silver of his nation (see vv.5-9) to a foreign king. Instead, God intervenes and prevents a stupid, grievous mistake. Not only does God stop him from doing this foolish thing, the LORD actually gives him a victory over this same foreign king! So, it's not just that God prevented a negative, but He actually created a positive. Amazing grace, indeed.
A) Examples like this tend to make me appreciate grace in a new way. I'd already been reading/writing about God giving apparent prosperity to the wicked (see SOAP 06/15/2014), and so the magnitude of this grace really just slapped me in the face. But that's the trick of grace, isn't it? In human terms, we are amazed when grace covers such incredible atrocities, but in God's terms, grace is grace is grace. The grace God has for me when I lie about something trivial, is the same grace He had for Ahab. We tend to think of grace in amounts though, don't we? I think that's an error. What was the grace that was required from God to save Ahab? Was it not the fact that "The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness"? (see Exodus 34:6, Psalm 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, and more). And, that is the same exact grace that I have been given. There is this idea that His grace builds a bridge for us to reconnect with God. Sometimes, we get caught up in measuring that gap, though. The danger is that we trick ourselves into thinking that we aren't so bad. Like, we look around, seeing the length of grace-bridge other people are crossing, and we see ours as so much smaller. Like, somehow, we didn't need "as much" grace. But that's a lie! We needed the exact. same. amount. You know what that amount is? Complete! The amount is: all of it! This grace, which is amazing when seen in Saul's conversion to Paul (see Acts 9), is easier to accept when we can see a human purpose. The Apostle Paul was crucial in the expansion of the church, writing of the Bible, and spreading the gospel to the Gentiles. What did Ahab do, after receiving such grace? Murdered a man and stole his vineyard (see 1 Kings 21). That takes the grace from amazing, to just baffling. But, isn't that the point of grace? The nature of grace, especially in light of the gospel, is that God gives it as an absolute gift, because God doesn't give grace that just barely makes up for our deficiencies. We know this because He gives grace irrespective of our relative deficiencies. It's all the same, immeasurable, inconceivable grace! So, with that, I stop trying to quantify, or qualify, the grace given to me. His grace is in everything good in my life. His grace is infinite, and it is not limited in scope - only my ability to see it is limited in scope.
P) Father, Your grace really is beyond my understanding it wholly. But God, I thank You that I am starting to understand some of it, if not the sum of it. Help me accept Your grace for all that it is, despite my inability to grasp it for all that it is. Discipline my heart, to stop comparing the grace I see in my life, with what I see in the lives of others. Remind me that it is all the same, inexplicable, logic-defying grace. Thank You for this grace, which overcomes my circumstances, and overwhelms my sensibilities. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
A) Examples like this tend to make me appreciate grace in a new way. I'd already been reading/writing about God giving apparent prosperity to the wicked (see SOAP 06/15/2014), and so the magnitude of this grace really just slapped me in the face. But that's the trick of grace, isn't it? In human terms, we are amazed when grace covers such incredible atrocities, but in God's terms, grace is grace is grace. The grace God has for me when I lie about something trivial, is the same grace He had for Ahab. We tend to think of grace in amounts though, don't we? I think that's an error. What was the grace that was required from God to save Ahab? Was it not the fact that "The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness"? (see Exodus 34:6, Psalm 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, and more). And, that is the same exact grace that I have been given. There is this idea that His grace builds a bridge for us to reconnect with God. Sometimes, we get caught up in measuring that gap, though. The danger is that we trick ourselves into thinking that we aren't so bad. Like, we look around, seeing the length of grace-bridge other people are crossing, and we see ours as so much smaller. Like, somehow, we didn't need "as much" grace. But that's a lie! We needed the exact. same. amount. You know what that amount is? Complete! The amount is: all of it! This grace, which is amazing when seen in Saul's conversion to Paul (see Acts 9), is easier to accept when we can see a human purpose. The Apostle Paul was crucial in the expansion of the church, writing of the Bible, and spreading the gospel to the Gentiles. What did Ahab do, after receiving such grace? Murdered a man and stole his vineyard (see 1 Kings 21). That takes the grace from amazing, to just baffling. But, isn't that the point of grace? The nature of grace, especially in light of the gospel, is that God gives it as an absolute gift, because God doesn't give grace that just barely makes up for our deficiencies. We know this because He gives grace irrespective of our relative deficiencies. It's all the same, immeasurable, inconceivable grace! So, with that, I stop trying to quantify, or qualify, the grace given to me. His grace is in everything good in my life. His grace is infinite, and it is not limited in scope - only my ability to see it is limited in scope.
P) Father, Your grace really is beyond my understanding it wholly. But God, I thank You that I am starting to understand some of it, if not the sum of it. Help me accept Your grace for all that it is, despite my inability to grasp it for all that it is. Discipline my heart, to stop comparing the grace I see in my life, with what I see in the lives of others. Remind me that it is all the same, inexplicable, logic-defying grace. Thank You for this grace, which overcomes my circumstances, and overwhelms my sensibilities. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
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