Tag: love

Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’ ”  (2 Kings 21:10-15, NASB)

King Manassah was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so evil as to be compared to the Amorites, who God pushed out from the Promised Land before the Israelites.  And THEY were a wicked people! 

What were Manassah’s transgressions?  He encouraged idol worship among his subjects.  He forsook the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in favor of the worthless idols.  One of God’s names is “Jealous.”  At the same time, He is slow to anger.  God says that the Israelites had been obstinate since He brought them out of Egypt.  Yet He waited all this time before punishing them, despite endless warnings.

God promises calamity for Judah and Jerusalem because of Manassah’s sins.  He promises to “abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies.”  This would later come about when the Babylonians conquered Judah and carried the people into exile.  In fact, King Manassah was exiled to Babylon for a time, but he returned to Jerusalem after he repented to God.  

God expects us to repent as well.  He wants us to rely on Him, and not on worthless idols.  But anything that takes our attention away from God may be considered an “idol.”  God punished Judah for its transgressions, and He will do the same with us.  God sent His Son, Jesus, to do this for us, since we’re unable to do this on our own.  Call upon the name of Jesus, and be saved! 

The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left . . . From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One,” But I say, “Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherously!” . . . Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.  (Isaiah 24:5-6,16, 23, NASB) 

Isaiah prophesied against the Kingdom of Judah.  Above are excerpts from one of his messages.  He begins by indicting the people of the earth for polluting God’s creation.  Carbon emissions are not to blame.  Nor is cow flatulence.  No, the problem is sin.  People have forever broken God’s laws.  The consequence:  “A curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.”  I think that the sins of people today are more of a problem than global warming! 

Next, Isaiah decries the hypocrisy of men.  While men sing “Glory to the Righteous One,” Isaiah cries out, “Woe!” because he knows that they don’t mean it.  Isaiah’s commentary:  “The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherouly!”  People have always paid lip service to our God.  We have to get serious in our worship! 

Finally, in a nod to the end of time, when there is a New Heaven and a New Earth, “The LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”  The Apostle John, in his Revelation, mentions the New Jerusalem, where followers of Jesus will spend eternity with Him.  He also tells of the 24 elders, who never cease to bow down before the throne of God in worship to Him.  What a glorious time that will be! 

“For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”  (2 Chronicles 30:9, NASB)

I love to study the kings of Israel and Judah.  Their actions before God have consequences, both on a personal level and a national level.  While the Northern Kingdom of Israel had no good kings, the Kingdom of Judah had some good kings and some bad kings.  Since the kings of Judah were in the line of Messiah, this means that there were some bad apples in Jesus’ ancestry. 

King Hezekiah was good in the eyes of the Lord.  A partial quotation is in the passage above. Hezekiah tried and largely succeeded in turning Judah back to the Lord.  At the time, Israel had been conquered by Assyria and sent into exile.  Hezekiah thought that if Judah were to repent that their brothers and sisters might be restored to their land.  “For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

This is important on a personal level as well.  We are all sinners.  But there is no sin too great to turn us away from God’s love.  He will forgive.  All we need to do is to ask for His forgiveness, and turn our lives over to Jesus.  It’s why God sent His Son to the earth! 

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.  (2 Chronicles 16:7-10, NASB)

God wants us to rely on Him.  When we don’t, there are consequences, like King Asa faced. 
In the Bible passage above, King Asa, king of Judah, has an encounter with Hanani, a prophet of God.  Prior to this, King Asa, who was the grandson of King Solomon, relied on God when the Ethiopian army came to do battle with Judah.  The Ethiopians greatly outnumbered the army of Judah.  Yet because Asa humbled himself and asked God for His favor, God gave the Ethiopian army into Judah’s hands. 

But in the situation described above, Asa was feeling heat from the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Instead of calling on God for help, Asa emptied the treasury of the House of God, and instead paid the king of Aram to fight against Israel.  God was angry.  Hence Hanani’s sermon to King Asa.  As a result of Asa’s lack of faith, Hanani told him, “Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”  The king then shot the messenger.

God wants us to rely on Him.  He wants to be involved in all of our decisions.  God loves us.  There are consequences when we don’t include Him in our decision-making.  They may be financial or personal in nature, but we will see consequences.  He loves us, and He wants to be in our lives.  For me it’s comforting to know He’s watching out for me.  “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

Now when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.” ’ ” So they listened to the word of the Lord, and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord  (1 Kings 12:21-24, NASB)

Going against God’s commands has consequences.  King Rehoboam was in a pickle because of his father’s actions.  His dad, King Solomon, didn’t follow God’s law, which said to not have any idols, but to follow Him only.  Solomon had many foreign wives, which was a problem, because late in his life he drifted away from the Lord his God, and honored the idols of his wives.  Because of this, God said that He would rip the Kingdom of Israel apart, and that Solomon’s son would see the consequences. 

King Rehoboam indeed saw the kingdom torn apart.  While he ruled the Kingdom of Judah, which included the sons of Benjamin, the other ten tribes formed the northern Kingdom of Israel.  Rehoboam wanted to go to war, and force reunification, but as we see from the passage above, God tells him not to attack Israel, because “this thing has come from Me.”  For once, they listened to the counsel of the Lord, and Judah stood down! 

Even today, there are consequences for not following God.  He wants us to be reconciled to Him, to spend eternity with Him.  But the problem is that we’re all sinners, and God can’t tolerate sin to be in His presence.  But He has a plan of salvation.  God sent His Son Jesus to take away our sins.  Jesus became sin for us and took our place on the execution rack, a Roman cross.  He took the punishment we deserve, and died in our place so that we will have eternal life with Him in heaven.  The choice is ours:  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved!