Bible Study: Nations Rejecting God 05.07.10

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Today is Friday May 07, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of II Kings, chapters 16-17. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this link onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-may-7

Title: Bible Study: Nations Rejecting God
As Christians we can rejoice in the fact that we know that God is a loving and forgiving God and forgives all who come to Jesus Christ in repentance. As long as we are doing the best we can to live our lives for Christ and remove sin from our lives He is always faithful and just to forgive all our unrighteousness. People who live in the world will never understand God's love for His people, claiming He is cruel for allowing war and suffering in the world. They fail to realize that they are the ones causing these things to happen, not God. What is worse is Christians claiming they are Christians, yet reject Him, mock Him, and call Him a liar every time they step out of a church and back into their worldly lives. What they and the world fail to understand is that God will not be mocked, He may be a loving and forgiving God, and Israel may be the apple of His eye, but regardless of who we are, He will not stand for people making a mockery out of Him, including His own people. How do Christians make a mockery out of God? They follow false religions, continue to live in sin, yet come to church pretending there is no sin in their lives, they combine religions, they compromise with the world for financial or other personal gain, this list is endless. People wonder why the world is in chaos, full of war, and full of man made, and natural disasters. The reason, they have rejected God. People are rejecting God, which are creating nations that are rejecting God, even God nations are trying to take God out of their countries and what we are seeing today is only a glimpse of God's wrath because of it.

God's people have always, since the world began, been rejecting God for what they think are bigger and better things, the result, He turns His back on them and lets them fall. All through the Old Testament we hear of wars and all through the books of Kings and Chronicles we hear of civil wars. The Northern and Southern Kingdoms were always coming against each other. Why? God vs Satan. God had most of the Southern Kingdom on His side, while Satan had most of the Northern Kingdom. This time though, both kingdoms were ruled by wicked men, which resulted in Assyria getting control and removing all of the Jews out of the Northern Kingdom. Ahaz was the king of Judah and walked not in the ways of his godly fathers, but in the evil ways of the kings of Israel. Fearing the growing power of Assyria, Pekah,made an alliance with Rezin, king of Syria (Aram) (II Kings 15:37) to attempt to force Ahaz to join forces with them in defeating Assyria, but Ahaz resued and that resulted in a civil war between the North and South. “In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.” - II Kings 16:1-5. Although they were attacked, God by His grace protected Jerusalem, had they joined forces with Pekah they would have been is the control of Assyria as well, but God intervened and kept Jerusalem safe. God will always protect His people.

Now, in retaliation, Ahaz made an alliance with Tiglathpileser, the king of Assyria, to attack Syria and Israel. Ahaz paid Tiglathpileser, with treasures from the House of the Lord, to help them defeat Syria and Israel. “So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.” - II Kings 16:7-9. This was the beginning to the end of the Northern Kingdom, Tiglathpileser defeated Syria, Rezin, and also the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the eastern side of the Jordan. He then took control of the northern part of the Jordan Valley, making Galilee and Gilead into Assyrian provinces. All that was left of the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel was the capital city of Samaria and the surrounding hill country of Ephraim. Ahaz tried to cover up his sin by creating more sin, those whose hearts condemn them, will go any where in a day of distress, rather than to God. The sin was its own punishment. It is common for those who bring themselves into straits by one sin, to try to help themselves out by another, but all they do is keep making things worse and getting more people hurt and involved in the process.

A little over 30 years after Jeroboam's death, the words of the prophets were fulfilled as the Northern Kingdom of Israel was dismantled for good. Hoshea was the last king of the Northern Kingdom, he too thought he could align himself up Assyria by paying him, but he was not so honest, he conspired against the king of Assyria and the result, deportation. “Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.” - II Kings 17:3-9. God had enough, He was done watching the people mocking Him, seeking false gods, and ignoring His constant warnings. Those that bring sin into a country or family, bring a plague into it, and will have to answer for all the mischief that follows. Without turning from every evil way, and keeping God's statutes, there can be no true godliness, but this must spring from belief of his testimony, as to wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, and his mercy in Christ Jesus.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and enjoy your weekend.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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