1 Reis 20

1 Reis 20

Morgan - As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.—1 Kings 20.40. These words constitute the central light in a parable which one of the sons of the prophets employed to rebuke Ahab for his failure in the matter of Ben-hadad. God had created for the king an opportunity of return to Himself. Ben-hadad, drunken, profligate, despotic, came in the pride of his arms against Samaria. By the prophets Jehovah spoke to Ahab, who acting under Divine direction, gained complete victory over his enemy. Then followed failure in the very hour of triumph. He made a covenant with the man whom God had devoted to destruction. He had one thing to do by the command of God, and while he did a hundred things he neglected the one. That was the meaning of the parable. What a revelation this of a perpetual reason and method of failure! We are given some one responsibility by God, some central definite thing to do. We start to do it with all good intention; and then other things, not necessarily wrong in themselves, come in our way. We get "busy here and there," doing many things, and neglect the one central thing. That is failure of the most definite kind. If a man is called to preach the Word, and becomes busy over a hundred things other than that of his central work and 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. Concentration upon the work entrusted to us is a solemn obligation. Diffusion of energy over all sorts of things not appointed to us, is a waste, and a wrong. F B