1 Kings Part 3...Ahab the Wicked...or Maybe Not???

   Alright, the name I gave Ahab pretty much sums up the entirety of his life. Wicked. First, he goes and marries the king of Sidon's daughter Jezebel, who practically runs the kingdom for Ahab. He serves Baal, kills innocent people, and throws himself pity parties ALL THE TIME!!! However, despite all this(pretty hard to imagine, huh?) when he repents after "issuing" the decree to kill Naboth over his vineyard, God forgives him! I mean, right before this, God sent Elijah to tell Ahab that when he dies, his blood was going to be licked up by dogs, etc. etc. BUT! Ahab realized his sin and turned to Christ. I don't know whether he was saved or not, but we do know that he repented.

 

   This is perhaps the weirdest thing for me...I mean, I do know that God can/will forgive anyone, but forgiving Ahab? He just seemed like a lost cause. However, this just really shows how patient God is with us, and we know that we don't deserve one bit of it. We tend to compare ourselves with people too much, especially people we know do the most outrageous things we've ever heard of. In doing this, we justify our sin that we do...even though God sees us just as dirty and filthy as the person we are comparing us to. Remember the parable that Jesus told about the Pharisee and the Publican? The Pharisee went and thanked the Lord that he wasn't like the "other man" standing there with him, and THEN went on to list all the "great" things he had done. The publican; however, could only beat his chest and ask God to forgive him for all his sins, even though he knew that he wasn't worthy. Jesus then asks the question, who do you think went away justified that night...the Pharisee, or the publican? Obviously, we know that the publican did. My point is, though, I can find myself being the Pharisee a lot of times...and sometimes I even find myself being a Pharisee while I THINK I'm being a publican. It is all about our attitude towards God. We all need to be humble towards God and other people. Thinking we are better than everybody else is not going to get us very far in life. ; )

   I would like to share a quote I found somewhere..."The center of sin and pride is 'I'" I thought it was a pretty good quote to sum up everything.