20 Years to Go



2 Kings 24:1-20
http://www.esvbible.org/2 Kings 24

In this nation, we have been blessed with prosperity and peace. We have never known a time when an invading country has come to our borders and taken us over. We hear about other countries that suffer that fate, but we are unfamiliar with the experience ourselves. Maybe we don’t appreciate this blessing enough!

Our reading for today paints a pretty bleak picture of life in Judah. The nation does not belong to itself. For the past several decades they have been the servants and vassals of invading nations. First the Egyptians come along and strip them all their wealth, and then the Babylonians come and take them over, reducing them further into destitution. Along with the Babylonians, the Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites take their turn as well. As you can see, Judah is left with nothing. They will struggle along in this condition for a couple of decades, receiving no help or leadership from the king. They have abandoned God and He has left them to their choice of idolatry.

It’s a terrible thing when God gives us over to our choice for sin. In Romans 1:24-25, Paul addresses this same situation, only in terms that were appropriate for 600 years later.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

To be left by God the evil choices of our own hearts is a tragic event. But God does not force us to choose Him. Instead, He lets the consequences of those evil choices bring us to our knees, for His goal is always to bring us back to Himself. Again, let’s remember that even during this desperate time in the history of God’s people, there were those who remained faithful to Him. We know that is true because the stories of those people are told to us in the Scriptures. There were people in the community who knew God and could share His grace and peace with those around them. The fact that they were rarely heard doesn’t matter. They were there and they spoke with God’s voice.

Even though times became terrible, God still had a plan for the redemption of His people. Jesus still looms on the historical horizon for the people of Judah and God’s plan is not thwarted. In Jesus we have forgiveness even when we go our own way. In Jesus we find restoration with God. It is what He wants and it is what we need.

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