2 Chronicles 15:3-4 Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
4 But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.
15:14-15 And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.
15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.
16:7 & 10 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
10 Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.
A couple of things come to my mind as I read these passages this morning. The first is how patient God is with His people. Israel would run hot and cold for God. When in trouble they turned to Him and they would find Him and He would welcome them back to Him. He performed miracles on their behalf and saved them many times from total destruction by their enemies – driving them out, decimating their numbers Himself, or using the armies of Israel to obtain victory over them. Gives us hope for the times we fail Him, He forgives and still loves us.
The people would rejoice and praise Him. They would actually turn from their idol worship and come back to Him. King Asa did many great things to destroy the idols of the pagan gods and restoring many of the temple’s artifacts. Everything was going well and as long as that continued Israel prospered. However, they started slipping back into old habits. Just as we often do when things are going well and we forget why they are going so well.
The second thoughts - If we are not careful we can forget to continually praise and thank God for His gifts to us and start slipping away from Him. Other things take up our thoughts and some of these become idols to us. Prosperity can be both a blessing and a curse; we have to remember where it comes from and praise God at all times. If we do not, God has to remind us and that chastisement is not a pleasurable thing. God knows that we seem to pray the best when we are oppressed – we remember who He is and why is He is there. As we chastise our children to bring them up right and help them make good decisions in this world, so He chastises us to help us return to Him and His service.
However, accepting that chastisement can be difficult; rather than listening and asking forgiveness, Asa chose to imprison the messenger from God. Hanani didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, so he flew into a rage and incarcerated him. We may not have the power or authority to incarcerate the person who God sends into our life to correct us, but we often will rage against them, refusing to apply the message God has given us to our situation. We don’t like the messenger for some reason, we may not like their choice of words, their style, who they are or any number of reasons – so we downplay, ignore or even get upset with the messenger.
Chastisement from God is never easy, but it can become even more difficult when we don’t like the messenger. More than once I have ignored the message, to my downfall and shame, for that very reason. If we are in tune, daily, with God we will quickly recognize the truth of His correction no matter where it comes from and take appropriate actions to make sure we are back on track with Him. The closer we come to God, the less we find ourselves off track.
It is important, though, to do as the Israelites did in verses 14 and 15, not just once, but daily, every day for the rest of our lives. When we praise Him, when we give our whole hearts to Him, there is less need for Him to chastise us.
From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
No comments:
Post a Comment