Something Less Glorious

I wrote a phrase this morning in my note book during my quiet time. It has lodged itself in my spirit and refuses to be silent!

The story in 1 Kings 14 is about Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. He is not turning out to be a good king. The King of Egypt swoops down, attacks Jerusalem and carries off the treasures of the Temple. He takes everything including the gold shields that Solomon made.

What does Rehoboam do? Well, he doesn’t chase after the King of Egypt and claim them back. He doesn’t amass another pile of gold and made some more. He replaces the gold sheilds with bronze ones. They only get taken out on special occasions and the rest of the time they are locked away in the guardroom!

The phrase that I wrote? “Rehoboam makes do with something less than glorious.”

I am challenged by that! How many of us make do with something less than glorious?

Perhaps bronze was stronger than gold and much more practical for shields. It looks like they are only there for show anyway. It is not as if they appear to be spear-stopping shields. You get the impression that he makes the replacements bronze so that they are not worth stealing.

I am reminded how often the devil swoops in to try to steal the treasure that God imparts. Sometimes we don’t put up much of a fight! We don’t always chase after him and claim it back!

Sometimes what we replace that treasure with is something less glorious! We perhaps allow our picture of God to get smaller or we allow our vision to be less clear. We count ourselves unworthy of involvement in his Kingdom building. We start to perhaps generate a quality of life that doesn’t draw the attention of the enemy the way it used.

We settle for a Christian life less glorious that the one God mapped out for us!

I had a good think today about the treasure I feel that have been stolen from me by the enemy. I have a choice to stand by and let it happen, and fashion out a poor replacement for what has been taken. Or I could chase after the enemy and claim it back!

The Spirit is urging me to claim my treasure back!