Day 168

1 Kings 18:1-46; Acts 11:1-30; Psalm 135:1-21; Proverbs 17:12-13

YESTERDAY IN 1 KINGS, we met the prophet Elijah. His prominence became much more apparent today in a showdown between the prophets of Baal and the God of Israel atop Mount Carmel. The northern kingdom of Israel had experienced severe drought, which was attributed to the prophetic utterances of Elijah, and once the idol worship of Baal was destroyed, the rains came. We will learn much from Elijah and his successor, Elisha, in the coming days.

In Acts, Peter returned to Jerusalem to wrestle with what had happened in Cornelius’s home —Gentiles receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit.

“You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” the Jewish believers accused Peter. (Acts 11:3). And what could Peter say? He had indeed broken tradition. The vision he had received in Joppa challenged what he thought he knew, and when he told the Good News about Jesus to a Gentile family, they received the Holy Spirit and were baptized. No longer were they the enemy; they were brothers and sisters.

“As I began to speak,” Peter explained, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:15-17).

After Peter told the story, what could those accusing him say? This was a radical and unexpected shift for all of them. They had grown up in an exclusive culture with an exclusive understanding of God. Despite this, God was obviously doing something expansive and far-reaching through Jesus: “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life,” they rejoiced (Acts 11:18).

As this was taking place, believers who had fled persecution, which began with Stephen’s martyrdom, began to share Jesus among the Jews and Gentiles alike everywhere. Many Gentiles became believers.

In Antioch, revival was unfolding, and the apostle Paul moved to the city for a year to speak the Good News and assist in forming the church there: “It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26).

It’s difficult to wrap our minds around the monumental significance of what was taking place —until we begin to examine our own biases. We tend to be like the early believers in Jerusalem, considering our understanding of God’s will and ways to be the beginning and end of what God will and will not do. And yet, the Scriptures continually disrupt that notion. God has no problem painting outside the lines of what we think we know. Our heart’s posture should be to heed the invitation to go further and deeper in relationship with Him, rather than placing ceilings on what He will and will not do. We, too, must humbly rejoice when God does a new thing —even if it forces us to wrestle with what we think we know.

MEDITATION:

The LORD does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths. He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.