LEARNING DAILY

 

From 2 Kings chapters 13 – 24, _____ was __ years old when he became king and he reigned _____ years in (Israel or Judah). His mother’s name was ______ the daughter of ______. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father ______ had done.

 

You can read 2 Kings and fill in the blanks with different names, different ages, and different lengths of years the individual led either the kingdom of Israel or Judah and get the same result; they each did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yes, in between these evil leaders, there were those who did right in the eyes of the Lord. Sadly, they were few in number. The evil these leaders did was bad, very bad. They promoted idol worship, the sacrificing of children to their god (Abortion?), temple prostitution, homosexuality, and immersed the people in other occult practices. These practices were practiced in God’s temple; the final act of perversity was to bring their idols into God’s temple. Much of what was done was to promote prosperity because of their belief that the gods would give them the abundance they desired. They acted in indifference to what the One True God desired from them. They continually ignored the warnings of God’s messengers to stop what they were doing and return to Him.

 

It is easy to ignore the warnings of God today. It is easy to ridicule His messengers who are speaking the words to return to the God of Creation, the maker of all things because for so long the message is God is dead. He is no longer relevant. That message is all around us – in the schools (always begin the indoctrination process with the children), in the news, in the entertainment industry, and in sports where we idolize the star’s words (NOT!!!).

 

In the book of Judges, the words, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” seem to be so strong in our present society. You tell me if you think I am wrong to believe that the True King, Jesus Christ, is king in our nation today! Are we not being told people have a right to do what each person desires to do? Are we not being told God, His Word, His commandments is no longer relevant?

 

I left yesterday’s blog with the thought about what the righteous were doing while living under the evil kings. Thinking about this and knowing God’s Word can give us insight about how you and I should be living our lives in this day where unrighteous living is openly being promoted and righteousness is being ridiculed and attacked. I read about the evil kings in the Old Testament and wonder what God’s faithful people were doing. I am not sure the Bible specifically tells us. But the New Testament gives us plenty of information.

 

You and I must stay faithful to the Savior and Lord who saved us from our slavery to sin. Each of us must recognize that there is difficulty walking on the narrow way, but God is sovereign and has given Jesus Christ all authority in heaven and on earth. God has a plan for you and His love for you is “an everlasting love”. Like judgment came to the people of Israel, judgment is coming for the sinfulness of this nation and the world!

 

Those who were faithful during the days of the evil kings of 2 Kings had to be looking for the coming of the Messiah. The Bible does not tell us that; I am just believing they were. They had no choice but to carry on, doing what the Lord required of them to do. The New Testament is clear that God’s faithful followers must be diligent in seeking Him each day and doing the best to walk on the narrow way as the Lord commands us. We are to love Him, love others and keep His commandments. That is the only way we “may have confidence for the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17). We are to share Jesus without fear; 1 John 4:18 reminds us “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear”.  (Those two verses were part of the past weekend sermon at CBC and fit well with this page of the blog.)

 

And, we stay ready by watching for the Lord’s return with our ears we listen for the trumpet to sound announcing the rapture of the true Church! We keep our lamps full of oil, expecting the Bridegroom to come at any moment. We live in a challenging time. Yet, it is an exciting time as you and I watch and live our lives with expectation of Jesus to call us to meet Him in the clouds. Yes, it could happen at any time!