DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- DOING THINGS GOD'S WAY

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – DOING THINGS GOD'S WAY

"Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his (Zedekiah's) reign, in the tenth month on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of Zedekiah. By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then the city wall was broken through and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls." (II Kings 25:1-2, 4)

Chapters 24 and 25 are the sad conclusion to the story of a nation that forsook God. It is the story of what might have been. The nation began so well under the reign of King David, but through the years, the people abandoned God's ways to do their own things, and the results were not pretty.

I am reminded of the sermon that Moses preached to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land. That sermon is worth remembering for any nation, for any church, for any home, for any person.

God said to His people, through Moses, that there are blessings and cursings. " 'Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all the commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.' " They would be blessed. Then He told them what would happen if they forsook Him for other gods - many curses (Deuteronomy chapter 28).

Sadly they did not heed the word that was given to them, and we finally come to the end of I Chronicles where the house of God was burned, the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and they were carried away as captives to Babylon.

I know that it sounds like a broken record, but this is the history of Israel. They disregarded God's way to go their own way. And story has been repeated many, many times on a national level and on a personal level. It pays to serve God rather than ourselves.

Love, Dad