Evil in the Eyes of God

He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit...But Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD and sinned more than all those before him...He did evil in the eyes of the LORD...He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. - 1Kings 15:34, 1Kings 16:25, 2Kings 8:18, 2Kings 15:9

The Scriptures above are only 4 of 26 listed speaking of the evil some of the kings of Israel did. Are there days when nothing seems to go right? You are rushed, you can't find something quickly, traffic has you at a crawl when you're late. We've all had days like that. I have occasionally noticed if I have not allowed myself my quiet time with the Lord my day gets whacked out--even causing me to become impatient or grumpy--or things just don't run smoothly. It feels like I'm trapped in some entangled mess.

Before you wonder about the harsh Scriptures, let me explain I'm not trying to say we have literally "done evil" in the eyes of the Lord. However, there is a recurring theme among those kings--they were all appointed some disaster in their lives. God was provoked to anger. Instead of looking to Him they looked to their own gods which offered nothing to them. They didn't praise the God who took them out of captivity. They settled for believing unseeing, unhearing gods of their own making. God is a jealous. His righteous jealousy is for us.

There are times when we as believers don't have that first part of the day to spend with the Lord. But do we put it off for the whole day? Or find the time later? Or have we opted to do as we desire one morning and leave God sitting waiting for our hearts to turn to Him and remember Him that day? Are we hearing or feeling His disappointment? We can take these kings' lives as examples of what not to do. What are the idols that prevent us from going first to God? What excuses can we come up with?

These kings worshiped idols and did away with the need for priests. What are the idols that have us do away with our great High Priest? I'm not talking about little statues we might hold dear. I'm talking about anything that chews up our time--cleaning, computer, television, calling friends, overabundance of personal activities.... How is our idol worship affecting our lives? Is it bringing spiritual death within us and our families? Is it allowing other sin to quietly, slowly, unassumingly creep into our lives? Are we being attacked by our enemies--those seemingly little distractions that eat away at us spiritually? If we continue down this path, more temptation, more evil, as it were, will infiltrate and devour our spirits.

The kings experienced all these things listed above and more. Their families' lives, like ours,

(even "to the fourth generation" Exodus 34:7) can be a result of any lack of discipline in our prayer closet and time with God. Spiritual injuries can happen. God can be provoked because of our disobedience, especially if we have chosen to commit ourselves to Christ.

If we are repentant God will forgive. One of the kings of Israel was repentant but it was not permanent. God allowed his enemy to succeed in battle, although Israel was not totally destroyed. Do we want only partial success in our lives or the lives of our family?

Let us maintain that time with God--or begin to develop a time--each day to prevent such things. It is our worship of Him. He will be blessed in our praises. He in turn will bless us. We will prosper, we will grow in holiness and righteousness.

Psalm 67:5-7 - Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

Lord God, keep us from the temptation to not steal away some time of our day to spend in praising and worshiping You. We know in our heart of hearts that You desire that time with each of us. Let us not be deceived by thinking our time is insignificant. It is far from that in Your eyes. Draw those closer who have slipped away and draw those even closer who have taken the time to be with You to praise, worship, learn and hear from. Like Mary in a Martha world, let us come and sit at Your feet, letting the distracting idols come between us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen