“Now as the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and there, a man came over and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” Then the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”” I Kings 20:39-40 NKJV
a. Your servant went out into the midst of the battle: After the pattern of other prophets, this anonymous prophet brought a message to King Ahab through a made-up story.
b. While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone: The prophet’s story told of a man who was responsible to guard the life of another, and proved himself unfaithful. In the story, the guilty man’s excuse was that he was busy here and there, which was no excuse at all. He should have paid attention to the job he had to do.
i. “This was likely enough to happen on a battlefield. It would not be possible to hold your prisoner, and to busy yourself about other things at the same time.” (Meyer)
ii. The prophet’s made-up story with the fictional excuse becomes real in the life of many, especially many ministers of the Gospel.
“If a man is called to preach the Word, and becomes busy over a hundred things other than that of his central work, and so loses the opportunity to preach, his failure is complete. That which is our God-appointed work, we must do. If we fail in that, the fact that we have been ‘busy here and there,’ doing all sorts of other things, is of no avail” (Morgan).
iii. He was gone: Even as the fictional prisoner escaped, so many opportunities escape us in the Christian life. “I want you all to remember this morning that if any portion of life has not been spent in God’s service it is gone. Time past is gone. You can never have it back again, not even the last moment which just now glided by” (Spurgeon).
c. So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it: In the prophet’s story, he was unfaithful in guarding something that was entrusted to him. Ahab rightly judged that he should be held responsible for his failure to guard what was entrusted to him. (Guzik)
God-appointed work!
Don’t miss Morgan’s commentary! How can a man preach if he is busy over a hundred things? The same applies to us! If we are serving the Lord in some capacity we can’t be of service if we are busy over a hundred things!
Morgan’s example of a preacher is spot on and sitting through one sermon will demonstrate his failure is complete!
Do you prioritize God-appointed work?
Blessings
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