The Israelites did secretly against the Lord their God
things not right.
They built for themselves high places in all their towns,
from [lonely] watchtower to [populous] fortified city.
2 Kings 17;9
I read this passage and I was saddened as I read it hence
the title. These were God’ s people for crying out loud.
The things they saw…..
The things they heard….
How could they have lost all that?
They had great leaders: Moses, Joshua, the Judges, Samuel,
King David, King Solomon…..
Yet they fell, and fell in a huge way.
Let us read more:
They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim [symbols
of the goddess Asherah] on every high hill and under every
green tree.
There they burned incense on all the high places, as did the
nations whom the Lord carried away before them; and they
did wicked things provoking the Lord to anger.
And they served idols, of which the Lord had said,
You shall not do this thing. 2 Kings 17:10-12
The Israelites saw God’s glory.
They saw and experienced His goodness.
They witnessed His power when He drove the enemy
out for them.
They experienced His faithfulness……
They despised and rejected His statutes and His
covenant which He had made with their fathers and
His warnings to them, and they followed vanity (false
gods – falsehood, emptiness, and futility) and [they
themselves and their prayers] became false (empty
and futile). They went after the heathen round about
them, of whom the Lord had charged them that they
should not do as they did. 2 Kings 17:15
They despised and rejected the Lord. They refused
to believe in God and yet they still prayed to Him!!!
That blows my mind.
I can’t believe how deep they fell, how far they went.
But this is a warning to us. As I read this I realized
that could be me……!!! It’s a scary thought. A friend
told me one time that, we are a step away from anything.
We are a step away from sin, a step away from grace. No
one is exempt from the power of temptation. Just one
wrong decision and all is lost. We need the grace of God
to help us indeed.
The word says, “The Israelites did secretly against the Lord
their God things not right.”
The secret things need to be dealt with. The secret thoughts,
the secret habits, the secret addictions……we need to confront
them head on. Our heart belongs to God. Let us not allow the enemy
to steal it. Our brothers and sisters fell and our job is to not say,
“how could you” but we are to look at their lives and learn. We are
to look at their lives and fall down on our knees and cry out to God
to save us from ourselves.
We are to plead with Him with tears and a broken heart realizing we
cannot do this alone……
The true you shows up when you are alone. When you are
alone what kind of thoughts consume you?
What kind of programs do you watch?
How do you speak when no one is watching?
What kind of habits do you have when you are alone?
The Israelites rejected God in their hearts
In their hearts they refused His commandments
There is hope for us. There is always hope!
Let us open our hearts before God.
Let us allow Him access to every part of our
hearts.
No part should be off limits to Him.
Nothing should remain in the dark.
No doors should be closed to Him.
We need to be totally open for Him to come!
Amen
Rolain
kingspeech 