Just a Random Verse

The Bible holds verses that draw our interest like a treasure chest sitting on the front porch of an abandoned mansion. How did it get there? What is the story behind it? Eh? Are you crazy? Look inside for the treasure! Go explore the mansion, maybe there's more! This morning I did a word search on 'random' in the New King James version and found one verse in all the Bible that has 'random' in it.

Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” (1 Kings 22:34)

The verse does not even say on which side this archer stood on the day of battle. Was it friendly fire; a man simply testing his bow before the enemy drew close? Was it a shot from the enemy thinking he was out of range and hoping to hit nothing at all? Like the smaller part of an iceberg though, there is a great story behind this verse. God and His angels and spirits are involved. Another of those lonely prophets takes a stand for God against many false prophets. The king is none other than Ahab, the Israelite king who had a certain evil wife. Elijah does not come into this story directly, but at about the time he is giving in to self-pity in the desert and telling the Lord he is the only faithful one left, this other prophet of the Lord, Micaiah, stands against many false prophets where Elijah had stood and takes a slap that is much like the story of Christ centuries later.

The false prophet that smites Micaiah wore a pair of iron horns he fashioned to deceive the king. Get that image in your mind as you read the story of Micaiah's prophecy of what will happen to the slapper when the enemy overruns his house. The inner chamber spoken of the in NKJV sounds remarkably like "You'll know when you hide in your toilet!"

God's actions, His almighty knowledge, His servants, a faithful prophet, an evil king, humor, a moral to the story, an amazing and unlikely bowshot, and much more from a simple word search in God's Word using modern technology. What a great age we live in! How great is God's Word!

Bucky