10. NADAB
NADAB
"Nadab the son of Jeroboam.reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin."
N adab is the first of Jeroboam’s 18 successors as kings of the northern tribe kingdom of Israel. Every one of these kings did evil in God’s sight and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. What a sad, sad record!
What pattern do we set for our children? For others at our place of employment? For the next generation in the assembly? For our successors whoever they may be? Just as water by nature runs downhill, so it is easier and more natural to set a bad example than a good one. We can trace the bad pattern so natural to us all the way back to our first father. "Even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom 5:12 tells us.
However, we cannot excuse our sin by blaming it on the pattern that has been set for us. We have all actively walked in the lusts of the flesh, doing what the flesh and the thoughts willed to do (Eph 2:3). But when we accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we were made "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2Pe 1:4). The Lord Jesus Himself is the perfect pattern for our lives. He wants us to look to Him and to learn of Him.
Nadab reigned over Israel two years. God allotted him sufficient time to make plain whether he would follow his father Jeroboam’s ways or whether he would follow the Lord. God’s judgment pronounced on Jeroboam and his family fell upon Nadab as he led his people in besieging the Philistine city of Gibbethon.