2 Chronicles 10:15
So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the Lord might fulfill his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Truth: God uses disagreements to His glory.
It is hard to believe that the God of peace and love might use the sins found in disagreements to glorify Himself, but He does. The above passage, and the one that follows, bears out this truth:
Acts 15:39
And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.
In the above passages we have an Old Testament example and a New Testament example of where conflict and disagreement between two people brought a blessing to God. In the O.T. we see that the tension between the new king, Solomon's son, Rehoboam and the rebellious upstart, Jeroboam, was actually allowed to happen, by God, Himself. In the N.T. example we see the tension between Paul and Barnabas over whether to take John-Mark on a missionary trip. God does not originate conflict or "make it happen." But, God knows that man will be in conflict. By His grace we do not kill and devour one another completely out of existence. Yet, in the above passages God gently removes His grace to allow the normal nature of man to take over ... in order to accomplish His ends. God allows the conflict, by removing His grace, to accomplish His purpose, so that others may praise Him!!! Remarkable!!! We see that God needed to punish the nation of Israel for their disobedience. God meant the disagreement to happen ... He didn't cause it ... He simply removed His grace and the sin in both Jeroboam and Rehoboam's hearts did the rest. The same is true with Barnabas and Paul. Although they were "Men of God", God meant the disagreement to happen ... He didn't cause it ... He simply removed HIs grace and the sin in Paul and Barnabas' heart did the rest. The truth is that God uses conflict to accomplish His ends. When we attempt to solve conflict we have to keep in mind what God is trying to do in our lives to allow the conflict to exists and milk all the good we can from it.
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