Year 2, Day 22: 2 Kings 24

The Beginning of the End

Today we hear the preparation for the ultimate fall of Jerusalem.  The fall certainly begins today, but it will end tomorrow.  We hear of Nebuchadnezzar {Also known as Nebuchadrezzar, which I personally prefer because it sounds more menacing!  LOL} coming into Judah and King Jehoiachin gives up the city.  It is inevitable, now.

God Is Faithful

Of course, there is an underlying thread that must not be forgotten as painful as it is to hear.  This end of the story is the fulfillment of God’s promise.  God has warned these Hebrew people about the blessings they would receive if they followed Him and the curses that they would suffer if they rebelled.  This passage – as painful as it is to hear – is proof that God is a God of His Word.  God keeps His promises.

This is significant to remember.  We like the loving God of forgiveness.  We like the loving God who sent Jesus into our hearts so our sins could be forgiven.  We like the loving God who gives us the warm fuzzy Holy Spirit who comes and makes us feel good when we allow ourselves to get spiritual.  And don’t get me wrong, these are all great things!

But we forget that God is just.  In order for God to be just He must be a God who exacts punishment against those who rebel in spite of His love.  He must send His Son to die a bloody death in spite of how much we neither deserved it nor asked for it.  He must send His Holy Spirit to convict us and call us out of sin and cause us the gut-wrenching struggle that tears us apart when we do what we know that we should not do.  In order for God to be just, that is the God we must also recognize.

God begins the process of dragging His people into slavery because they need to learn a lesson.  They need to learn what it means to depend upon God.  They need to learn what it means to follow God.  They need to learn what it means to truly be dominated by the sinfulness that exists in the hearts of mankind.  They need to fall to rock bottom before they can begin to appreciate the ascent into God’s presence.

Bondage

To be honest, so do most of us.  Sure, most of us in America won’t go into human bondage.  But we will go into bondage under our technology.  We will go into bondage by the desires of the people around us.  We will even go under bondage under the free will of our own minds.  We may not know physical bondage, but we will know emotional, psychological, and spiritual bondage.  We will know it, because it is what our humanity cries out to experience.  It is the natural consequence of having a heart and a soul that longs for things other than the humbleness and God-centeredness that is the cure.

I know I’m putting the cart a bit before the horse, but that’s okay today.  When we focus on our lusts and our desires (whether they be physical, emotional, or psychological) we end up in sin.  We either tear down our life or the life of those around us.  Usually it is a fairly slow process until we have sunk so far that we are consumed by it in the end.  This is the message of the nations of Judah and Israel in the books of 1 & 2 Kings. 

This is why it is so important to understand that humbleness and God-centeredness is the cure for the human condition.  When we lust after what we want, we destroy life.  When we humble ourselves, turn to God’s desires, and pursue what He knows is good for us, we build up and support life.  It may seem funny, but the fundamental key to having a life full of peace, happiness, and joy is to stop pursuing what we want and start pursuing God.  This is the message of many of the latter Minor Prophets, and we’ll get to them next year in our study.*

But for today, we begin to see the end.  Judah has crossed over the point of no return.  They have rebelled against God, and now they rebel against Nebuchadnezzar.  There is no more help to come for them until they have experienced a little bondage and are ready for God.  It is a painful process, but it is such an important one to understand.  It began slowly and innocently enough with Solomon.  Now it ends with a quick bang and hardly a whimper from the people.

But even with that said, it is not the end of the story.

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* I found myself thinking about the Declaration of Independence as I wrote this paragraph.  We want to declare: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  I fundamentally agree that we are endowed with certain rights from our Creator.  But speaking from a theological standpoint I disagree with the conclusion.  As a Christian, my rights are not life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  My rights are humbleness, being a slave to God, and the pursuit of God.

Don’t get me wrong, though.  I think God will allow me to experience life if I see my rights as what I say above.  And don’t hear me trying to start an anti-America war with this point.  For a non-Christian, I think that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are fine goals to establish.  But for the Christian, they just aren’t what God wants us to focus on.  True life, liberty, and happiness will come when God is our focus.