{"id":35021,"date":"2025-03-09T22:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=35021"},"modified":"2025-03-04T17:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T00:13:10","slug":"1-kings-16_21-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-kings-16_21-28\/","title":{"rendered":"How God Measures Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings\u00a0 16:21-28 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 16:21-28.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 16:21-28 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Omri did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and sinned more than all those before him.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As for the other events of Omri’s reign, what he did and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a021-28:\u00a0 These verses summarize the 12 year reign of Omri.\u00a0 From a political and military standpoint, Omri was an impressive king.\u00a0 Omri outlasted his opponent Tibni in a civil war (v21-22).\u00a0 Omri built a new capital city for Israel called Samaria.\u00a0 Ancient Assyrian records even refer to Israel as “the land of Omri” [1].<\/p>\n

So from a secular perspective, Omri was a strong and successful king.<\/p>\n

However, from a spiritual perspective, Omri was a bigger failure than any king of Israel before him. As verses 25 and 26 say, “Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him.\u00a0 He followed completely the ways of Jeroboam…so that they aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols.”<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When measuring a person’s success, the criteria God focuses on is different from what most people focus on.<\/strong>\u00a0 God is more concerned about your character than your accomplishments.\u00a0 He is more concerned about your worship than your net worth.\u00a0 If Jesus were to assess the effectiveness of Omri as a king, he might say, “What good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?” (Matthew\u00a016:26)\u00a0\u00a0So when assessing others, do not just look at accomplishments, but focus on that person’s character and heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Kings<\/em><\/strong>\u00a016<\/em><\/strong>:24\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 24:\u00a0 Why did Omri build his new capital city on a hill?\u00a0 It’s not just so that people could see the city from afar.\u00a0 Even more, it’s because being situated on a hill made it difficult for enemies below to attack the capital city (v24).\u00a0 The elevation wasn’t just for the view.\u00a0 It was for protection!\u00a0 So when Jesus says in Matthew\u00a05:14, “You are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden”, He’s saying that God has placed you in a special and protected position.\u00a0 He has elevated you so that it is harder for the enemy to attack you, so that anyone who comes up against you is at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Praise God!\u00a0 You are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden!\u00a0 So since you’re in an elevated position, there’s no need to fight your enemies on their level.\u00a0 You can rise above because God has placed you on a higher level where the view is also much better.<\/p>\n

Father, I pray that I would\u00a0not focus on accomplishments at the expense of character.\u00a0 May I seek to do right in the eyes of God even more than in the eyes of people.\u00a0 Thank You also that I am a city on a hill that cannot be hidden and that I am specially elevated and protected by You.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
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[1] Thomas L. Constable,\u00a0\u201c1 Kings,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures<\/em>, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 521.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 16:21-28.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

1 Kings 16:21-28 (NIV)
\n21\u00a0\u00a0Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri.
\n22\u00a0\u00a0But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.
\n23\u00a0\u00a0In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
\n24\u00a0\u00a0He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a021-28:\u00a0 These verses summarize the 12 year reign of Omri.\u00a0 From a political and military standpoint, Omri was an impressive king.\u00a0 Omri outlasted his opponent Tibni in a civil war (v21-22).\u00a0 Omri built a new capital city for Israel called Samaria.\u00a0 Ancient Assyrian records even refer to Israel as “the land of Omri” [1].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35024,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35021\/revisions\/35024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}