Hide And Seek

One year for Halloween, my then 5-year-old son wanted to be an army soldier. We got a cool costume, and I painted his entire face with camouflage face paint. Completely unrecognizable, in my opinion. But as we went trick-or-treating, we stopped by a house around the corner with several people standing around a bonfire handing out candy. Up we go, “trick-or-treat” the kids say, and around the candy was passed. Then I heard a voice say “Victor, is that you?” To our surprise, his Kindergarten teacher was standing there assessing this little army look-alike. Wow! Not only did we discover that his teacher lived in our neighborhood, but I also discovered that I’m not that great at disguising my son! Or she’s just really good at identifying her students. In either case, here goes my mind flipping the coin over and finding the spiritual parallel…… 

“So, Israel’s [King Ahab] and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat attacked Ramoth-Gilead. [King Ahab] said to Jehoshaphat, ‘I will disguise myself when we go into battle, but you should wear your royal attire.’ When [King Ahab] had disguised himself, they entered the battle. Meanwhile, Aram’s king had commanded his thirty-two chariot officers, ‘Don’t bother with anyone big or small. Fight only with [King Ahab].’ As soon as the chariot officers saw Jehoshaphat, they assumed that he must be [King Ahab], so they turned to attack him. But Jehoshaphat cried out for help. When the chariot officers realized that he wasn’t [King Ahab], they stopped chasing him. But someone randomly shot an arrow that struck [King Ahab] between the joints in his armor. ‘Turn around and get me out of the battle,’ the king told his chariot driver. ‘I’ve been hit!’” (1 Kings 22:29-34 CEB) In this account, we read that Israel’s king (King Ahab) intentionally tried to hide himself by “dressing down” from royal attire to common attire, thinking he would blend in with the rest of the army. And it seemingly worked, except that a random arrow hit him square in the chest. Bullseye! It’s almost as if King Ahab had a bright red circle painted on his chest, the way that arrow hit its target. This story reminds me that God is in absolute sovereign control over the destiny of our lives. The prophet Micaiah prophesied in 1 Kings 22:20 (before this battle even took place), that Ahab would indeed die in this battle. Ahab didn’t believe him and thought he could conquer his enemy nation anyway. Ultimately, however, he could not evade this judgement. No matter how well he tried to hide himself in the battle, Ahab could not hide from God. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You made us and You see us. There is no where we can run from Your Spirit. You see all things, know all things, and hear all things. Thank You for being the intimate all-knowing God that You are. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Action: When God has a call on our lives, it cannot be thwarted. No matter how far we run or how well we try to hide. Is there anything you are running from today? Ask that God would show it to you and make clear the direction He wants you to go.