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In
Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“As for you, if you walk before me
faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my
decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with
David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to
rule over Israel.’”
“But if you turn away and forsake the
decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and
worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them,
and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a
byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a
heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord
done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’”
People will answer, “Because they have
forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt,
and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why He brought
all this disaster on them.”
2 Chronicles 7:17-22
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to
God.
Have you ever been forsaken in your
life? Has anyone either abandoned or given up on you before?
I know I’ve been there.
It’s a terribly lonely place to be, a
place where those who you relied and counted on, sometimes those you trusted,
have turned from you and left you by yourself. Often times, this abandoning
happened when someone found something or someone better and chose to leave one
pursuit for another.
This happens in our worldly relationships
all the time.
Committed relationships fall apart when
one partner forsakes their mate and leaves them for another.
Within families, people are often
exiled and excommunicated, forsaken by those who are related to them.
Many times, the elderly are placed in
nursing homes when they can no longer care for themselves, left alone there by
family to spend their final times in life.
And many children today are abandoned
after birth, their parents not willing to be faithful to their parental
responsibilities and obligations. Every two seconds, a child is abandoned in
our world today and this is simply inexcusable.
One thing is for sure, there is more
than enough forsaking going on in our world today, maybe because we have
forsaken the most important thing in life.
We have forsaken God.
The people of Israel had done this as
well, not just once but many times. And each time, God had proven that He would
not stand for it. As He finished speaking with Solomon at the end of 2 Chronicles,
Chapter 7, we find God reminding him (and us as well) that there are consequences
accompanied with forsaking Him. Look again at the words of God:
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your
father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will
establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I
said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’”
“But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I
have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will
uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this
temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of
ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who
pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this
land and to this temple?’”
People will answer, “Because they have forsaken the Lord,
the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced
other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why He brought all this
disaster on them.”
Note the stark contrast here.
If we do what God commands – faithful and
obedient to His word, will, and way – then we will find ourselves in His favor
and He will use us for great purposes.
But if we choose to abandon God and
turn from Him to worship the things of the world (the world’s gods), the
outcome is quite different, isn’t it? For if we turn away from God, then we can
expect Him to turn His favor away from us leaving us in the midst of
consequences such as rejection, destruction, and ruin.
In the case of Israel, they would be
uprooted from their land and taken off into exile. And the temple they worked
so hard to construct would be leveled into rubble by the God they had once
worshipped but then forsaken.
Unfortunately, this was a prophecy that
would come true as the Israelites would abandon God and suffer His consequences
for it, hauled off to Babylon for seventy years while Jerusalem and the temple
would be destroyed and left in ruin.
God would send a message to Israel,
those who witnessed the destruction, and to us today.
The message was simply this: “I will
not tolerate being forsaken.””
Friends, we would be well served to pay
close attention to this word of God this morning. For we have seen plenty of
examples where people who seemingly had everything going for them, suddenly
find themselves in ruin, having lost it all whether it be money, popularity, or
prestige. Think about this: What empire has ever remained in power when it did
not have the favor of God? Look in the scriptures and I know you won’t find
one. The Egyptians fell. Ditto for the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians,
and the Romans.
God’s word is clear. Abandon Him and
you will suffer the consequences.
I don’t know about you but it’s far
easier and beneficial to live for the Lord each and every day, remaining as
dedicated to Him as He is to us. When we do, we’ll always be in the midst of
His mercy and grace and love, ever comforted and guided by His Spirit to making
a difference in the lives of others as He leads us to live righteously.
This is the life God favors. He will
not forsake those who do not forsake Him.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you
feel might be blessed by it.
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