The One Thing That Matters1 Kings 16:2333The text gives a meagre outline of the reigns of [Omri] and his son Ahab, of which perhaps the meagreness is the most significant feature. The only fact told of the father is that he built Samaria, and his whole reign is summed up in the damning sentence that he walked in the way of Jeroboam. The reign of Ahab is similarly summarised. His marriage with Jezebel, and the flood of Baal worship which that let loose over the land, are told with horror. The lessons to be drawn from these severely condensed records, cut down to the bone, as it were, are plain. The first of them is, that when a life is over, the one thing that lasts, or is worth thinking about, is the mans relation to God and His will. Our lives will all come down to this at last. How did he stand towards God and His will is the final question that will be asked about each of us, and the answer to it is the only thing that concerns the deador the living either. What matters is, whether God will have to record of us what is recorded of these two wretched kings or whether He will recognise that the main drift of our poor lives was to serve Him and do His will. He was a great scholar; he made a huge fortune; he rose to be a peer; she was a noted beauty, a leader of fashion, a queen of societywhat will all such epitaphs be worth, if Gods finger carves silently below them, He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord? (Alexander Maclaren, Exposition of Holy Scripture)
Thank you brother, would like to copy it over to the "Death Awaits" thread as well.
_________________Mike Balog
