Once again, it's amazing to see how passages from the Old and New Testaments chosen virtually at random will dialogue with one another in profound ways.  It shouldn't really surprise us, in light of the fact that there is one Author behind all 66 books and one Voice speaking across the thousands of years in which the Scriptures were produced.

In our story in 2 Chronicles today, we see that King Ahab of Israel has no fear of the Lord–and therefore no acknowledgment of the prophet of Yahweh.  It's worth noting from the outset that significant points in this passage get obscured because, where we see the English word ‘God’ in our Bibles, the Hebrew word is ‘Baal’, the generic word for ‘god’.  

For Ahab, the prophets are nothing more than a cheering section who give him spiritual legitimacy in the eyes of the people for whatever he happens to want to do. Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, doesn’t care what the ‘gods’ might have to say. He wants to hear from Yahweh alone.  So it’s no surprise that Ahab wants to lock up the opposition. But it’s astonishing that Jehoshaphat, after having the conviction to insist on inquiring of Yahweh, goes into battle anyway–even after His prophet clearly reveals what’s happening from Yahweh’s perspective. 

As is often the case with Old Testament leaders, passages that talk about how they became prosperous, secure and successful because they followed the Lord are often followed by stories about how these same leaders completely blew it. There is certainly a connection (one that God explicitly warns against in places Deuteronomy 8:10-20); when God makes us successful, that is when we are most likely to forget Him. 

With this background in mind, Matthew 16:24 makes all the sense in the world.  Taking up a cross is the only solution to the world’s fallenness. No matter how successful we get, our cross-bearing will keep us dependent upon God.  We will remain those who ‘tremble at the Word of Yahweh.’  Or, as the NT puts it, those who ‘work out their salvation with fear and trembling.’  ...which, if you read that passage in Philippians carefully, you realize is another way of saying ‘walking in obedience’, something that Jehoshaphat clearly lost touch with the importance of.

At the heart of the issue is the ever-present 'if.'  Read Deuteronomy 28 for the long version, but the essence is: IF you obey me, all will go well with you and you will enjoy a long and full life–the highest and best of God's plans for you will be worked out in your life.  IF, on the other hand, we ignore the boundaries He places on us, we will encounter hardship, misery, and disaster.  It's not that God has a desire to punish the disobedient.  It's that walking in God's ways can be compared to 'going with the grain' of reality itself.  Since God is the Author and Creator of all that is, He knows which paths lead to the fullest kind of life–a life of flourishing.

It's the same in the New Testament. As I've been exploring in the blog next door, Jesus says, "IF you hold to my teachings, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  The Old Testament side of the IF is written all over the pages of the New Testament as well.  IF you do not believe in Me, then you will be condemned with the world.  IF you hear what I say and don't do it, you will be swept away when the floodwaters of judgment come.  

At the center of every moment of every one of your days lies this 'IF.'  Throughout the Bible we find God reminding us that the choice is ours when it comes to the two sets of outcomes that are available to us.  And at each point, we find God encouraging us: choose life.  The cross reminds us that we only remain in this life through entering into the continual dependence upon God that results when we deny the instinctive and automatic ways of acting that belong to the part of our nature whose desires are at war with the desires of the Spirit.  When we carry our crosses and deny ourselves in this way, even if and when God's highest and best plans for us involve making us prosperous, secure, and successful, we will remain in what Psalm 1 calls "the path of the righteous."  It's the path that leads to life.  We know that it is, because it is the path that He Himself walked, in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, and in doing so, placed footprints ahead of us that we might walk in them and follow Him along the way of life that is so powerfully alive that it leads straight through the realm of death and out the other side to eternal life. 

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!"  Deuteronomy 30:19

"Repent, and turn from your sins. Don’t let them destroy you! Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel? I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!"  Ezekiel 18:30-32

“How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”  Luke 19:40-44

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock."  Matthew 7:24-25

"Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God."  Revelation 2:7