SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022
TEXT:
2 Kings 17:5-18
5.
Then proceed to invade the entire country. He attacked Samaria and threw up a
siege against it. The siege lasted three years.
6.
In the ninth year of Hosea’s reign the king of Assyria captured Samaria and
took the people into exile in Assyria. He relocated them in Halah, in Gozan
along the Habor River, and in the towns of the Medes.
7.
The exile came about because of sin: The children of Israel sinned against God,
their God, who had delivered them from Egypt and the brutal oppression of
Pharaoh king of Egypt. They took up with other gods,
8.
fell in with the ways of life of the pagan nations God had chased off, and went
along with whatever their kings did.
9.
They did all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then
openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available
site.
10.
They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every crossroads.
11.
Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan nations off into exile. They
had accumulated a long list of evil actions and God was fed up,
12.
fed up with their persistent worship of gods carved out of deadwood or shaped out of clay, even
though God had plainly said, “Don’t do this – ever!”
13.
God had taken a stand against Israel and Judah, speaking clearly through
countless holy prophets and seers time and time again, “Turn away from your
evil way of life. Do what I tell you and have been telling you in the
Revelation I gave your ancestors and of which I’ve kept reminding you ever
since through my servants the prophets.”
14.
But they wouldn’t listen. If anything, they were even more bullheaded than
their stubborn ancestors, if that’s possible.
15.
They were contemptuous of his instructions, the solemn and holy covenant he had
made with their ancestors, and of is repeated reminders and warnings. They live
a “nothing” life and became “nothings” – just like the pagan peoples all around
them. They were well – warned: God said, “Don’t!” but they did it anyway.
16.
They threw out everything God, their God, had told them, and replaced him with
two statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore
goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces – sky gods and goddess – and frequented
the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal.
17.
They even sank so low as to offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial
burnt offerings! They indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short,
they prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And God
had had enough.
18.
God was thoroughly angry that he got rid of them, got them out of the country
for good until only one tribe was left – Judah.
(The
Message Holy Bible)
TOPIC:
CONSEQUENCES OF REBELLION AGAINST GOD
As a parent, take a few
moments to reflect on what it means to have a child you love so dearly but
chooses to dishonor, abuse, disrespect and disobey you. How would you feel if
this had been going on throughout the life of this your beloved child?
God chose Israel to be
His possession so as to display His grace and mercy to the nations. He
sacrificed so much for them, yet they disobeyed, dishonored and disrespected
Him. They preferred the Egyptians to God, worshipped and adored the idols of
the same people God condemned and wiped out. They indulged in the worship
practices of these idolatrous people to the extent of sacrificing their sons
and daughters to these dumb idols!
Currently in Africa, we
are witnessing a resurgence of ancestral and pagan worship. Many of the
‘returnees’ claim that Jesus has abandoned them into the hands of terrorists
who are having victory after victory over them. However, don’t join them
because serious consequences would follow.
QUESTION:
Have you allowed your present circumstances make you turn your back on God?
PRAYER:
I need Thee every hour, blessed Redeemer. Help me to stand firm and never give
in to any pressure to turn away from You, Amen.
Remain
Blessed
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