The Bottom Predicted



2 Kings 15:23-38
Since today’s reading is a little longer, please use the link below to read the Bible text. Don’t skip this part! It’s the most important part! God’s word for your life is where the power lies. Appropriate that power and read the Word.
 
http://www.esvbible.org/2 Kings 15:23-38

Over the last several chapters of 2 Kings, we have witnessed as kings of the Northern Tribes of Israel have swirled the drain. Not one of those kings gives himself and his nation completely into God’s hands. As a result, God’s patience is wearing thin and that which He promised is about to come true. Several of God’s prophets had tried to warn Israel of the consequences of their idol worship. Read this passage from the Minor Prophet Micah.

Micah 1:1–3, 6-7
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

These five verses are only a minor representation of what the prophets had been telling God’s people for generations. There is never a point where the people can look to God and say, “We didn’t know.” God has shown them with dire consequences and with the words of His prophets that He isn’t kidding about His hatred for idolatry. They have been overrun by enemies, stripped of their wealth, and at war for decades (centuries even!). And yet they will not turn back to God and repent of their wandering ways. The final blow is about to fall and still their hearts are hard.

We have discussed keeping your heart soft before the Lord in previous studies. It is the only way we will ever know and act upon what we are taught by God. When our hearts are hard and our necks are stiff we stand in danger of falling into enemy hands. You can define that enemy any way you want – it won’t be fun. We must be clear about one thing – God is not punishing us for our sin. He has already done that on the cross of Jesus. But He is trying to get our attention. Should we continue to ignore Him, we will suffer negative consequences because His love drives Him to want us back! As we read the Old Testament we cannot but help to compare ourselves to the people of these stories and God is still the same God who dealt with those people back so many years ago. The difference between us and them is that we know the story of redemption through Jesus. They only knew that a Messiah was coming. We know the fruition of that story. And yet we continue to mirror their actions. I find myself quite sobered and repentant this morning as I read these words and look out upon the landscape of our culture.

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