Alternative Choices Pt. 4

Beware of the little foxes

Ezekiel 13:4 GW

4 Israel, your prophets are like foxes among the ruins ⌊of a city⌋.

Foxes are interesting animals in that they are in the canine family and typically tend to be very crafty in their abilities. They tend to do a great job of evading dangerous situations. In folklore of many cultures the fox is a symbol of cunningness and trickery. I titled todays message beware of the little foxes. It’s the little foxes that can derail your call to obedience to God.

Jesus calls Herod a fox in Luke 13:32 as an insult because foxes in the middle east represent craftiness and destructive animals to pastures. Herod was crafty, destructive and killed for his own gain. He was a fox and Jesus was not going to avoid his assignment. This is also why in Song of Solomon 2:15 He uses a play on the words of catching the foxes the little foxes, that spoil the vineyard. In other words the little problems that are not seen openly, the crafty ones, the ones hidden must be addressed in order to create a strong marriage. The things that needs to be addressed in order to have a strong, vibrant and healthy marriage you have to beware of those little foxes.

Everything comes down to choice in life and I mean everything! I want us to look at today a young prophet who made a choice to be disobedient to God. It cost him dearly. It cost him his life! A choice that cost you your life is for sure a choice you need to reconsider.

1 Kings 13:14–19 NLT

14 Then he rode after the man of God and found him sitting under a great tree. The old prophet asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “Yes, I am,” he replied. 15 Then he said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some food.” 16 “No, I cannot,” he replied. “I am not allowed to eat or drink anything here in this place. 17 For the Lord gave me this command: ‘You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.’ ” 18 But the old prophet answered, “I am a prophet, too, just as you are. And an angel gave me this command from the Lord: ‘Bring him home with you so he can have something to eat and drink.’ ” But the old man was lying to him. 19 So they went back together, and the man of God ate and drank at the prophet’s home.

This story in the book of first kings is an interesting one and one I would highly recommend all saints to read. It explains how God gives clear instructions to one of His prophet to go and tell the king Jeroboam that his kingdom was coming to an end and that the false alters he had set up were coming down and to prove that all of this was true the very alter he was sacrificing on would split in two, spilling all of the ashes out! Which was a no no in sacrifices.

As the king became angry with the prophet he out stretched his hand commanding his guards to seize him and his hand became paralyzed! He begged the prophet to pray to God to heal his hand and the prophet did and the kings hand was healed. Trying to win the prophet over, the king invited him to his court for dinner but the prophet turned him down based on what Gods instructions were.

Leaving, the prophet was headed out of the city and an older prophet who lived there, got word from his sons what had happened. He told his sons to saddle up the donkey so he could go and track down the man of God. This is where the story picks up based on what we just read. I want to expound on what is being revealed here because it’s a very important message based on our series this month. Choices! Everything is based on choices.

The young prophet had every opportunity to not listen to the old prophet, but he chose to listen to the man. Why? Why did he choose to listen to the old man.

I believe there are several reasons and I want to examine them today.

The old prophet played on two statements that the king could not play on.

1. His position - Albeit weather he was lying or telling the truth the young prophet made a choice to be disobedient to God and follow the leading of a man.

2. Thus saith the Lord Syndrome - When a man or woman of God chooses to propha-lie to advance their position, for their own gain.

See was a major problem for this young prophet, he was hoodwinked, bamboozled, He had bought the fake golden ticket to nowhere but to disobedient land and it was going to cost him.

Never assume a snake is not going to bite, just because it told you so. Chances are… It’s going to bite.

2 Peter 2:22 NLT

22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

The younger prophet should have told the older prophet with respect I must follow the Lords commands and not an angels. See the problem already was why was the older prophet still in with a king who had decided he wasn’t going to do anything God commanded? That should’ve made the younger prophet look with concern. The seconded thing was why was this man sons at the ritual making sacrifice to false gods if he was for God? Two very important red flags.

Always pay attention to the flags always pay attention to the details.

There is an old saying that says: If it’s too good to be true… Then it probably isn’t true.

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Decisions

It may be true that there are two sides to every question, but it is also true that there are two sides to a sheet of flypaper. And it makes a big difference to the fly which side he chooses!

I was having a conversation with a young man I mentor from a distance. He’s out of state and he works in the production field. (3-5 min. story of B-Rut, not having a contract with his position in Minnesota)

Listen to what Jesus said, He said it best.

Matthew 5:37 The Message

34 You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

This is one of the things that we love to do! Use all sorts of nice Christian Phrases and all those I call them Christianese. So colorful and fluffy sounding. But at the end nothing changes in your situation for the better.

Listen this is what got the young prophet in trouble listening to man and not to God. Well, Pastor how do we know when to listen to the man or woman of God? When it lines up with God’s Word.

As a follower of Christ anything that is not in God’s Word is an opinion

Now there are some truths not in God’s Word. Not many that matter but there are some outside of His Word. But everything should be measured by the Word of God and the directing of His Spirit.

I want to point out one more thing about the young prophet, God needed to make it clear that He was serious and by the young Prophet turning back towards the evil God told him to not turn back towards it is a clear representation of what so many believers do, God gives them a fair warning shot, but they insist on making bad choices because they hearts are still bent towards the world they came from.