June 12
Obadiah
After many days the word of
the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought, saying,
“Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” So Elijah
went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. Ahab
summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah revered
the Lord greatly; when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of
the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and
provided them with bread and water.) Then Ahab
said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all
the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, and
not lose some of the animals.” So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went
in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. As
Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his
face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” He answered him, “It is I.
Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.”
Obadiah
was in a tough spot. He was the Palace
Overseer, a man of influence and importance in Ancient Israel. His loyalty lay to his king and his
God…unfortunately those two entities were in conflict at the moment. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had led Israel
into the worship of false gods. In
response, God had sent his prophet Elijah to proclaim a famine on the nation. For three years, not a single drop of rain
fell. The land withered and the people
died. The king and queen lashed out,
conducting a manhunt for Elijah and killing any other prophets that they could
find.
For
three years there had been no rain in the land.
For three years Obadiah’s leaders had attacked his beliefs and his
religious leaders. What could he
do? He could leave his job and run away
into a world wracked with famine. That
would probably lead to death. He could
turn his back on God, harden his heart and blindly follow his leaders. That would lead to spiritual death. He could compartmentalize, following the
king’s commands during the day and being pious at night, telling himself that
the deaths of the prophets were not his fault…he was just following orders.
What
Obadiah chose to do was to act as a double agent. He served the Palace but also went out of his
way to hide 100 Prophets of God in caves and provide them with food and water
throughout the drought. If Ahab or
Jezebel had found out, Obadiah would have surely been killed but he could not
stand by and watch as Injustice rolled through his country when he could do
something to save the prophets.
Our
world is incredibly political. Many
times we will find ourselves in Obadiah’s shoes: torn between our elected,
business or religious leaders and our faith.
Most special needs parents that I know just choose to wash their hands
of the entire situation and claim isolation as they already have too much to
deal with at home to bother. Some have
causes that are near and dear to their hearts and so they are passionate in one
area and leave the rest alone. There are
a few who decide that if the world is going to change, the want to be a strong
voice and so they dive in to politics and leadership. Whichever option you pursue, blessings upon
you.
Also…whichever
option you pursue, remember Obadiah. He
could not change the entire system. He
could not overthrow the monarchy and take control of the country. But he also could not allow evil to go
unhindered. He stepped in, committed
civil disobedience, and changed the lives of 100 people. Look for who you can serve. Look for whose lives you can impact on a
personal level.
When
I worked in the corporate sector there was a strong movement to cut employee
hours down to part-time so that they would not have to be paid as well or given
benefits. I am sure that it saved the
company lots of money, but it hurt the employees that I supervised
substantially. I could have cried
injustice and quit…and hoped I could find another job. Instead I used my power as a supervisor and
scheduler to craft schedules that would allow my employees to work second
jobs. Other department heads would just
hit the schedule autogenerate button and pass out shifts. But I would erase the entire department
schedule and tailor-make a new one in order to allow my crew to bring in enough
money for their households. It did not
change the corporate policy, but it did change the lives of 15 people and that
was as much as I could hope for in that role.
Keep
an eye out for opportunities. As we pour
ourselves out for our kids, remember to look around and see what you can do for
those outside of our family. Even with
the few resources that we have access to, we can change lives in our community.
A moment to reflect:
Whose life
could you impact this week?
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