“Out of the frying pan and into the fire” is an old saying about things going from bad to worse. Think about how often in life we get ourselves into a difficult situation and every attempt to get out of it lands us in something more difficult. Sometimes the initial problem was not our own doing, but more often than not it was our own fault. “Seinfeld”, the old TV show with Jerry Seinfeld was essentially nothing but a long series of silly people doing silly things and lying about it, which constantly got them into more trouble.

In the controlled environment of a TV show the situations may be embarrassing, but in the end are just make believe to make people laugh. In real life the situations may be embarrassing but because they’re real, can and often do lead to terrible, even deadly, results. Most of the time the worse situations could be avoided if we would confess our sin, and simply beg for forgiveness with a willingness to accept our punishment. But no; we lie, deceive, and conceal our sin in a dangerously futile attempt to avoid embarrassment. Worst of all we refuse to go to God in humble repentance. Do we really believe He won’t find out?

Yesterday’s Morning Minutes in the Bible on An American Missionary noted how Ahab died in battle because he refused to submit to God in humble repentance (1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18). As a result the nation of Israel lost its king, the battle, and any hope for the future of Ahab’s family. Sadly, in a case of like father like son, Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, became king and refused to turn to God as well. In his case he took a bad fall, and was severely injured. But instead of turning to Elijah and seeking God’s help, Ahaziah sent a messenger to the headquarters of the Baal worshippers to find out if he was going to recover. Considering he knew how his dad died as revealed by God it would have made sense for him to go to God. But he didn’t, so God had Elijah meet the messengers and give a short answer – “No! You’re going to die” (2 Kings 1:1-4).

Why didn’t he send to Elijah to seek God’s word, or perhaps even healing? The answer is simple – Pride. He didn’t want to confess sin and humble himself before God. Now, before we get all judgy on Ahaziah let’s all look in a mirror and ask ourselves: “Are we any different?” Is there no sin in our life that we refuse to repent and ask God to forgive? Do we live as if we can keep our defiant refusal to obey God’s will hidden from Him? Or do we believe and live as if our defiant refusal to submit to God in obedient faith is actually faith and justified by God’s grace? If we confuse bowing to Baal with obedience to God, we’ll end up in the fire.