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Kings chapter 14 details the end results of ignoring God’s Word.
It reminds me of the famous line by baseball great, Mickey Mantle,
“If I had known I was going to live so long, I would have taken
better care of myself”. Often the full consequences of our bad
choices only show up over time. The chapter begins, “Abijah
son of Jeroboam became ill“.
Interesting how our children help us see things from a new
perspective. Jeroboam sent his wife to “Ahijah
the prophet… the one who told me I would be king over this people“.
God spoke with great passion through the old prophet.
“I
raised you up from among the people… I tore the kingdom away from
the house of David and gave it to you… You have done more evil than
all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods…
you have provoked me to anger“.
God then simply kept His earlier promise. “Because
of this… I will… cut off the family of Jeroboam… And the Lord
will… uproot Israel from this good land … because of the sins
Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit“.
In spite of this stern promise, I believe God would have forgiven
Jeroboam if he had repented, even at this late point in his life. As
one who has received God’s forgiveness, let me shout to anyone that
will listen, IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO ASK GOD FOR FORGIVENESS!
Lamentations 3:23 reminds us “Through
the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His
compassions fail not. They
are
new every morning; Great is
Your faithfulness O Lord“.
Meanwhile
in the other part of the split nation, Solomon’s son, “Rehab”
was in the process of reaping his reward as well. “Judah
did evil in the eyes of the Lord… they stirred up His jealous
anger… the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the
nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites“.
Just as God had warned; marrying outside the faith corrupted His
people and turned their hearts to other gods. In both Judah and
Israel we see the thing that angers God most is when the people no
longer honor God as Lord of their life. This does not mean God
expects perfection. In fact, it is our imperfections that cause us
to run to God’s open arms.
The
chapter continues; the “king
of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the
temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took
everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made… King
Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them“.
So often this is what we do, we replace the things of God with
inferior pursuits. We settle for less than God’s best and like the
king’s palace we are left empty. The chapter concludes, “There
was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam“.
The other result of turning from God is a lack of peace. Is
something missing in your life? In Philippians 4:6, the apostle Paul
says simply, “let
your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts
in Christ Jesus“.
It is never too late.