Monday, February 13, 2017

Beyond the Hope of Prayer - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Kings 25;3,

"By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat."

The plight of those living in Jerusalem when Babylon came calling was severe.

The king of Judah (Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah) that the king of Babylon had installed rebelled against him. Zedekiah was the uncle of King Jehoiachin of Judah, and in an earlier military victory over Judah, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, removed Jehoiachin and replaced him with Zedekiah.

As I say, Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and so the Babylonian army was dispatched and set up a siege against Jerusalem lasting two years. Then the city fell. What were the folks doing inside the walls of Jerusalem? In addition to starving to death, I suspect many were on their knees praying to the Lord for deliverance. This would be a deliverance that would not come. The Lord would not answer those prayers.

The headlines in the papers of the day (had there been any) may have read, "Babylon's siege of Jerusalem results in her defeat." This reported without any reference to what the Lord was busy doing behind the scenes. Just like today. The Lord is busy doing things and what we read of only reports on outcomes and never the true source of effect behind the scenes - what it is the Lord is doing. This "back-story" is provided us in 2 Kings 24:20, "It was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence."

The people of Judah had spurned the Lord and following what might be considered "well-beyond-fair-warning" from the Lord, he decided to "thrust them from his presence." No amount of prayer, no amount of pleading by the folks behind the walls in Jerusalem would bring about the Lord's mercy and deliver them. They had placed themselves outside of the Lord's mercy and deliverance. Our God of love is also our God of justice and it was only justice that faced them now.

This will be the plight of all who fail to place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ in this life. If anyone assumes they can presume upon the Lord's mercy and kindness on judgment day (as the folks in Zedekiah's day might have), they need to read this account and learn the horrific message it provides: yes, we can place ourselves beyond the Lord's kindness and mercy and find ourselves in the cross-hairs of his terrible judgment. "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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