Spiritual Teenagers


1 Kings 16:1-7
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
2 “Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins,
3 behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
4 Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat.”
5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
6 And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried at Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his place.
7 Moreover, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it.

Many (most) of us have had the privilege of raising teenagers. It is thrilling, frustrating, challenging, and yes, even rewarding. But when you spend more than a few minutes with them, what you learn about them (as a general rule) is that they don’t believe the “bad stuff” (things like sex = pregnancy or STDs, texting while driving = accidents, drinking while driving = accidents . . .) is going to happen to them. That stuff only happens to other people. There is a part of them that believes they are immune to the consequences that will happen to others if they behave unwisely or badly. “That’s not gonna happen to me” is the mantra of the age. As we get older, hopefully we learn that thinking that way will generally get you in trouble. Oh, but wait. Do we really learn that as we grow older? I’m not so sure that we do. Over the course of several years in the ministry, I have faced numerous adults who are shocked that their bad choices have landed them in a place they don’t want to be, like divorce court or jail.

1 Kings 16 deals with several kings who were unwilling to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. They continued to ignore God and worship idols. They knew the history of their fathers; men who had led the people away from God rather than toward Him ended up with either very short reigns or violence and defeat as a result of their unwillingness to bow before the Lord. And yet, each new king continues to make the same dumb choice and thus suffer the consequences of their decisions. It is almost a form of insanity.

Albert Einstein defines insanity like this: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That’s what these kings are doing – the same thing over and over, yet expecting blessings and power from the God they are ignoring. And of course, once again, we are forced to turn the table back in our own direction. What are we doing over and over, waiting for God to bless us and be pleased with us that is clearly labeled as sin? Each of us has to answer the question for ourselves, but we are all guilty of something like that for we all have our pet sins. It’s a form of insanity. We never truly grow out of that believe that we are somehow invincible or above it all somehow. Perhaps God won’t notice that we give Him only about 10% of our devotion. Maybe He turns a deaf ear to our gossip or a blind eye to our lust. No – this is a foolish way to approach our lives. We need to grow past the teenager stage and realize that God is serious. Our reading for today adds proof to that belief.

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