1 Kings 18:17–18: When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals. (ESV)
It is as if I (Wes) have two competing desires wrestling around in me. The first desire is the desire to stay on the sidelines, not get in the fight. I want to keep the status quo and- to say it another way- “keep the peace.”
Then there is another desire that barks and fights against the first: the desire to be a troublemaker.
Because I am typically quiet and reserved, the “troublemaker” side of me surprises people. For some, they don’t believe that I can be a troublemaker. That’s probably better, I guess. If I came across as nothing but a troublemaker then that would communicate a message I don’t mean to share.
I read the passage quoted above earlier this week and stopped quickly at Ahab’s description of the man of God he was speaking to. Ahab saw Elijah as a troublemaker. Ahab perceived the prophet as a man whose actions were disrupting the peaceful status quo of Ahab’s reign. King Ahab and his determined Queen, Jezebel, were having their way with the people of Israel; the people willingly and eagerly followed their lead in turning their hearts from the Lord to loving the ways of the Baals.
Elijah was a bump in the road of the Crown’s search for political power. Elijah’s words calling people back to sincere devotion to the Lord was making trouble for the regents in ways no one else would.
Elijah was a problem that needed to be solved; a man who would not submit to Ahab’s type of peace. In Ahab’s eyes, Elijah was a troublemaker of the worst kind. In God’s eyes, Elijah was creating a kind of trouble that pleased Him.
Peacemaking is, in a way, troublemaking. Yes, there are great dangers in being a “troublemaker” in this way, but, if you are like me, I am more in danger of dishonoring God by my inaction…out of fear working to keep the “peace” that keeps people comfortable in their devotion to anything but Jesus.
I want to be a troublemaker. I want to be a maverick. I want to be a disturber of the peace. But, the kind of peacemaking that disturbs the selfish status quo is not, destructive or selfish. It is, at its root, loving like Jesus is loving. Jesus was not (is not) afraid to disturb our selfish, painted on peace, in order that we might find real peace that comes from life with him.
I am not sure how to do that like Jesus does it, but I want to follow his lead in this. Will you come with me and learn from him? Let’s seek his heart and his ways together!