The Regular People

1 Kings 22:51-53 
51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. 52 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 53 He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done.

And so we draw to the close of yet another book of the Bible. Ahab is dead and his legacy of evil and idol worship is ingrained into the culture. Of course his sons are going to follow in his footsteps. The worship of idols and forgetting about the God who loves them and provides for them is now a part of who they are as a people. While turning this around is not impossible, it would be difficult; so difficult in fact that it does not happen and Israel is on a path from which they will never return - literally.

There is always much discussion at Bible studies and among God's people about those who have turned their backs on God. Are they ever redeemable? We have to believe that they are, for we believe in a God of mercy and grace. Until we die God is always willing to receive the sinner back under His wings. But - the chances that we are going to give up our hard hearted ways grows slimmer with each passing day of apostacy. What we can always rely upon is that God is great and merciful. Throughout the story of the nation of Israel, He offers up chance after chance for the people to return to Him. It is also important to remember that while the stories in the Bible are mostly about the leaders and kings, there are multiple thousands of people living out their everyday lives as solid believers and followers of the Lord God. Even though their leaders went astray, many of them did not. There were probably countless thousands who lived for God and loved him all of their days. While God dealt with the nations, He cares deeply about the individual. He cares deeply about YOU.

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