Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.”…
And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.”
But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” (I Kings 3:10,13 ESV)
Blame and Praise
Backslidden Israel joined with Judah to fight against the Moabites. They also convinced the Edomites to join them.
On the way to Moab, the army ran out of food and water, and things looked grim.
The king of Israel blamed God. He acknowledged God’s sovereignty over the movements and troubles of the combined armies.
God’s prophet, Elisha, is summoned by the three kings. He shows up and tells the king of Israel to call on his OWN gods.
And the king of Israel refuses… he says God got them into this mess, and so God needs to get them out.
The king of Israel was eager to blame God for his troubles… acknowledging God’s power, in a way! But after the battle was won, and the Moabites utterly defeated, the king of Israel went back to worshiping his false gods.
He blamed God’s power and admitted God’s sovereignty when things were going poorly. But when things were normal, he clung to his own power, and believed his own sovereignty.
Society is prone to do the same thing these days. Society blames the Lord when calamity strikes. Society blames the Lord when the economy fizzles. Society blames the Lord when disease creeps in. Society blames the Lord for everything we fear.
But society forgets or rejects God after the crises are past.
And we do a similar thing. We blame God for untimely deaths, failures of our solutions, the unmitigated power of nature, and the cruelty of mankind.
And yet we struggle to praise Him… for both huge things and small.
IF the Lord deserves blame for problems… He deserves praise as well.