READ: 2 Kings 16 and 17
THINK: This is a lengthy passage and not exactly easy reading. God’s chosen people, his covenant people, the very people he miraculously delivered out of Egypt, have become a culture of idol worshippers, engaging in sexual sin, treating the HOLY GOD as simply another among many religions, and even engaging in child sacrifice! Try to imagine getting to a place in your soul when you are depraved enough that you believe burning a child will somehow get you to a better place……
Rejecting God’s law is always sin. Sometimes sin looks more convenient; sometimes sin is the path of least resistance; and sometimes we are convinced sin will get us something or someone that obedience to God’s law will not. Once again, those ancient Israelites are alarmingly like us.
We put God right beside all the other gods in our culture and choose whichever god looks best to us at the time. The faith challenge for us is this: BELIEVE every day that GOD’s law is always the best! Following GOD will always be the better way. GOD’s law is the very freedom we long for, and our sin choices result every time in the very bondage we hope to escape! GOD loves us and longs for us to experience life to the fullest! Serving any other god – whatever it may be – will only leave us enslaved and empty. That’s the great paradox of the gospel: we lose our life to find it! Give your life to JESUS and he will give you back a life of abundance…full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!
PRAY: Ask GOD to make clear what idols we are allowing in our lives and to give us the power through his HOLY SPIRIT to live in complete obedience to HIM!
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