Art Thou He That Troubleth Israel?

1 Kings 18:17-18, “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.”

These verses come right before what is my favorite story in the Bible—Elijah vs. the false prophets on top of Mount Carmel. At this time, there was a great famine in the land of Israel. Elijah came to see King Ahab, and Ahab was convinced that Elijah was the cause of the famine. He asked Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” Elijah looked right at King Ahab and told him that it was him (Ahab) that was troubling Israel because he was not following the commandments of the Lord.

The thought that I want to bring from these verses is this. How long are we going to blame others for our own actions? Ahab didn’t feel like he needed to change to stop the famine. He didn’t even think he had a problem. He thought it was Elijah’s fault that there was a famine.

How many times do we see people blaming others for their own faults? There are Christians today that are not in church because of people they went to church with were hypocrites yet they don’t even try to live a Godly life. The blame game started back in the Garden of Eden when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. It is time that we start acknowledging our own mistakes and faults before we start pointing out the mistakes and faults of others. Matthew 7:5 says, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Jesus commands us to make sure we examine ourselves before examining others.

Let us focus today on the real reason our mistakes happen. No one is to blame but ourselves. The reason is the same as Ahab’s which is the fact that he forsook the commandment of the Lord like the verse states. That’s what every mistake and fault boils down to. Let us realize that and focus more on following God’s commandments and focus less on blaming those around us.