Right or Left? Back or Forward?

“Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:26–27)

The man of God left Judah by the word of the Lord to go to Bethel, where he found Jeroboam, Israel’s king, standing at an altar to burn incense to false gods (1 Kings 13:1). Without fear, the prophet loudly spoke against the altar and prophesied about the coming of a righteous king (Josiah), a message of which the king disapproved. As the king tried to take hold of the prophet, God paralyzed his hand. He begged the man of God to ask the Lord to heal him. The prophet prayed, and God restored Jeroboam’s hand. The king invited the unnamed man to the palace for a meal and gift, but he could not accept because, by the word of the Lord, he was not to eat or drink anything while there and not to return to Judah by the same way he came. So, he left Bethel, going home another way.

An old prophet lived in Bethel, and hearing what the man of God did, he rode out after him and invited him to his house. Refusing the offer, he explained God’s command to him. The man replied that he, too, was a prophet and that an angel gave him this command from the Lord: Bring him home with you and give him water and food. So, God’s prophet went home with him, ate, and drank. But the old prophet lied; he wasn’t a true prophet. While they were still at the table, God spoke through the false prophet, telling the man of God that he would not be buried with his ancestors because he defied God’s word and disobeyed Him by turning aside. The man of God finished his and meal, got on his donkey, and continued his journey. But along the way, a lion killed him, leaving his body on the road. When the old prophet heard of his death, he found the corpse and buried the man of God in his own grave.

 God spoke to you; the message was simple and clear to travel the path He put before you. But a whine came, a desperate plea, a sincere concern, or maybe a mindset of your own making, and you turned aside from God’s directive. Because you are a man (or woman) of God, you thought, I must take care of this need, it’s the right thing to do. But God did not give you leave from your assignment. He already had someone prepared to care for the whine, the plea, the concern; your mindset was not from God. You were to stay faithful to His instructions which did not include a turning back or turning to the right or left. Your course was straight ahead.

If anyone in biblical history had the “right” to second-guess God, it would have been Abraham when God commanded him to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice unto the Lord. But Abraham learned through many failures to trust God. He knew that though the knife in his hand would slay his son, God would raise him from the dead because of His promise to make a great nation from Isaac. Obedience without wavering. Faithful.

Is your turning aside from what you know God spoke worth the consequences of disobedience that await? The man of God did not meet with an unfortunate accident along the way. Because of his disobedience, the Lord delivered him unto the lion. Because of disobeying God, he missed the honor of burial in Judah with his ancestors (v. 26, 29–30). God may put you to the test; don’t let others’ voices, temptations, or distractions rob you of the honor and blessings that await your obedience.