YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD PERSON DOWN!

The opening line of the Old Testament book of Job states that Job was a man who…was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion.  [All quotes from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted.]

A few verses later, listen to God brag about Job while talking with Satan:

“Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him – honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”  [Job 1:8]

After this meeting in Heaven, Satan departs with God’s permission to afflict Job – with one exception: Just don’t hurt him, [1:12] Satan then immediately causes:

·        Job’s oxen and donkeys to be stolen by the Sabeans; also killing all but one of his servants

·        Right after that, lightning struck and killed Job’s sheep and their shepherds – all except one

·        Next, Chaldeans raided Job’s camels and killed his camel-drivers – all except one

·        Then, finally, a messenger arrived reporting that a tornado struck the house where Job’s seven sons and three daughters were feasting. The house collapsed on the young people and they all died

Job’s response is not what we would expect!  Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped. His words were:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.  [1:21]

Most of us would find this response to be one of remarkable poise, faith and restraint!  The text continues with an almost shocking statement: Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God. [1:22]

The very next verse tells of God meeting again with the angels and again Satan attends the meeting. To our great surprise, God repeats his question to Satan:

Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there – honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! [2:3]

Satan argues that God has spoiled Job with special treatment and suggests that if he personally suffered, he would curse you to your face. [2:5]

God responded to Satan: “All right. Go ahead – you can do what you like to him. But mind you, don’t kill him.” [2:6]

Satan left GOD and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself…[2:7-8]

Then, as a final blow, Job’s wife said: “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it! [2:9]

Job answered her: “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God – why not also the bad days?” [2:10]

After the author reports that Job’s three foreign friends arrived to sit with him, a final note is included: Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God. [2:10]

However, after sitting with him in silence for seven days, Job broke the silence. 3:1

This godly man speaks out in an angry and depressed manner.  And then, much of the bulk of this book is an ongoing dialogue between Job and his friends - with God ultimately having the final word!

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Let’s lay out what we've learned from this passage as an evaluation tool for our own lives.

God had tremendous pride and confidence in Job! God was so certain of Job’s persistence and integrity that God nearly challenged Satan to come against him!

Leaving the complications of this ancient text behind for the scholars and theologians to debate, we must bring this message into the 21^st century.

1.    How convinced is God of YOUR devotion to Him?

Are you honest inside and out?

Are you a man or woman of your word?

Are you totally devoted to God?

Do you hate evil with a passion?

Do you have a firm grip on your integrity?

Why not schedule a time to meditate on these questions? Open them before God and allow Him to whisper into your heart and mind areas that He might like to touch and refine?

 2.    Do you EVER consider that some of the problems and obstacles that you face and deal with could be coming from Satan?

Does it EVER occur to you:

·        We have authority from Christ

“I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions… and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19)

·        We have God’s armor to use in these skirmishes

Ephesians 6:10-13 teaches us to put on the whole armor of God — truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God as a sword.

·        In Matthew 4:1–11, Jesus used memorized scriptures in His battle with Satan.

·        Praise and worship discomfort and discourage our spiritual enemy.

As a personal testimony, I thrive on Christian music – both contemporary and traditional!

·        Prayer! Jesus tells His disciples to pray that you may not enter into temptation (Luke 22:40; Matthew 26:41) as a call to constant spiritual vigilance and reliance on God’s strength.

·        BE ALERT!

Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. Stand firm when he attacks. Trust the Lord; and remember that other Christians all around the world are going through these sufferings too. (I Peter 5:8-9)

3.    Depression is NOT sin!

Job chapter 3 is difficult to read as we hear Job saying things like:

o   Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived. (v.1)

o   Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? (v.11)

o   Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping miserable people alive, those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t, who can’t imagine anything better than death, who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life? (vs.20-22)

But God doesn’t cut off communications with Job for this! There are many pictures of God’s leaders being angry or depressed!

o   Remember when Moses came down from the mountain and saw the golden calf? He threw down the Ten Commandments and broke them to pieces!

o   Remember when Queen Jezebel told Elijah that she would see him killed.

He fled from the area and cried out to God in fear and desperation!

o   King David wrote a psalm in which he said:

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? (Psalm 42:11)

o   The prophet Jeremiah sounds a great deal like Job:

Cursed be the day that I was born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!

As one who has experienced chronic episodes of depression since my young adulthood, I know its pain. I have been – too many times – in a condition where I couldn’t make myself think a positive thought! But God never abandoned me! And He always delivered me. Many – even counselors I visited – suggested medications. But I chose to rely on spiritual resources that always led me out of the darkness. A few:

    > Accountability partners

    > Seeing professional counselors

    > Christian music

    > Pouring myself into God’s Word

    > My last resort was to begin reading the book SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION, by D. Martin Lloyd-Jones. I have never made it past chapter five without experiencing relief! [I suppose the rest of the book is equally good! Maybe someday I should finish it! 🤭]

 If you struggle with depression – remember:

BEING DEPRESSSED IS NOT A SIN!

Follow some of the suggestions above to find relief!

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God wants us to pursue Him,

follow Him,

obey Him,

speak with Him,

speak up for Him,

love Him,

worship Him,

sing to Him,

honor Him, and

live in His Word!

And like Job – He will restore us fully! 

THE FINAL CHAPTER - sort of…

I finally read the last chapter of II Chronicles this morning.  I didn’t expect it to speak so powerfully to me.

Chapters 34 & 35 record the MASSIVE achievements of King Josiah, who “…behaved well before God. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to the left or right…He scrubbed the place clean, Judah and Jerusalem, clean inside and out” [34:2,5 ™  All quotes from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted].

He even reinstituted the observation of The Passover – which no one alive could remember being celebrated! That’s how far from God the nation had become!

One might expect the impact of this significant, young leader would have a lasting effect.

But his son, Jehoahaz, was only king for three months before the king of Egypt dethroned him and made his brother the king – Jehoiakim. He reigned for eleven years before Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made war against him. Jehoiakim was taken to Babylon in chains along with the wealth of things taken from the Temple of God!

Jehoiachin – Johoiakim’s son –

[I know: all these crazy names sound alike – drives the reader crazy, right?]

Jehoiachin – Johoiakim’s son – ruled for only three months before King Nebuchadnezzar ordered him brought to Babylon along with all remaining valuables from The Temple of God.  Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, was appointed as the last king over Judah.

REGARDING King Zedekiah:

“…he never gave God a thought; repentance never entered his mind. The evil mindset spread to the leaders and priests and filtered down to the people – it kicked off an epidemic of evil, repeating the abominations of the pagans and polluting The Temple of God so recently consecrated in Jerusalem” [36:13-14].

All of this time, “GOD, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent warning messages to them. Out of compassion for both His people and His Temple He wanted to give them every chance possible. But they wouldn’t listen; they poked fun at God’s messengers, despised the message itself, and in general treated the prophets like idiots. GOD became  more and more angry until there was no turning back – God called in Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who came and killed indiscriminately - and right in The Temple itself; it was a ruthless massacre: young men and virgins, the elderly and weak – they were all the same to him.” [36:15-17].

Does this still happen today? Does God try desperately to reach out to us – but we don’t listen? Does God become angry with those who today resist His messages and attempts to get their attention? Could some (or much) of the trouble we deal with in our lives be the result of our obstinance against God?  Hmmm…

Then, [Nebuchadnezzar’s army] burned The Temple of God to the ground, knocked down the wall of Jerusalem, and set fire to all the buildings – everything valuable was burned up. Any survivor was taken prisoner into exile in Babylon and made a slave to Nebuchadnezzar and his family. [36:18-20].

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This is a sad indictment on the children of Israel! The promise made to Abram so many years earlier seems to have come to a horrible ending! 

Many suggest that the whole Old Testament is a picture of Israel’s chronic rebellion and obstinance against God.

It seems as if God’s experiment with humanity has failed! God had perpetually hoped that He would find a people who would live faithful to Him and fulfill His purposes.

It seems HOPELESS!

HOWEVER…

If you prefer happy endings – read below:

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After a considerable time of adjustment in Babylon, Persia suddenly swept through Babylon taking over the kingdom. This was done under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia!

“GOD moved Cyrus king of Persia to make an official announcement throughout his kingdom; he wrote it out as follows:

‘From Cyrus king of Persia a proclamation:

GOD, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has also assigned me to build Him a Temple of worship at Jerusalem in Judah. All who belong to GOD's people are urged to return – and may your GOD be with you! Move forward!’”  

[36:22-23].

For the record: this occurred seventy years after the destruction of Jerusalem - JUST AS GOD HAD SAID!

GOD RESPONDS TO EVIL LEADERS

I Chronicles gives the report on a very evil king of Judah [the southern kingdom]. His name was Ahaz and he was twenty when he became king. His father, Jotham, had been a weak leader who tried to do right and accomplished some things of significance, but he failed to restrain or impact the people who pushed right on in their lives of corruption. [II Chronicles 27:2 ™]. However, In God’s eyes he lived a good life… [II Chronicles 27:2  -  All quotes from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted].

A REMINDER:

Leaders bear responsibility for all who are under their influence! And God sees it all!  And sometimes, God responds! 

This is true for leaders at ALL levels: presidents, ambassadors, chairpersons, foremen, superintendents, pastors, executives, and even group leaders.  When we step into a role that impacts other people’s lives directly, we are held to a higher standard.

 II Chronicles 28:1 reports: He (Ahaz) didn’t live right in the eyes of God. His bad choices include:

ü  Casting metal figurines for worshipping the pagan Baal gods

ü  Burning incense inappropriately

ü  “passing his sons through the fire, a truly abominable thing he picked up from the pagans GOD had earlier thrown out of the country [v.3].

ü  He also joined in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place

God saw all of this and responded by allowing the king of Aram to beat Ahaz’s forces badly – taking many prisoners back to Damascus. This defeat caused the king of Israel [northern kingdom] to also attack Judah. Their armies killed 120,000 Judeans in one day all of them first-class soldiers, and all because they had deserted GOD [v.6]. In addition, Ahaz’s son, also the palace steward and the king’s second in command were killed! Then, to add insult to injury, the Israelites carried off 200,000 men, women and children along with cartloads of plunder!

But – as we said earlier – God sees it all!

As the Israelite army crossed back into Israel, God had a prophet in the neighborhood who met them at the border with a message from God:  [vs.9-11]

God’s prophet Oded…met the army when it entered Samaria and said, “Stop right where you are and listen! God, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah and used you to punish them; but you took things into your own hands and used your anger, uncalled for and irrational, to turn your brothers and sisters from Judah and Jerusalem into slaves. Don’t you see that this is a terrible sin against your God? Careful now; do exactly what I say—return these captives, every last one of them. If you don’t, you’ll find out how real anger, God’s anger, works.”

A number of Israelite elders also responded: Don’t bring the captives here! We’ve already sinned against GOD; and now you’re about to compound our sin and guilt… [v.13].

As a result, Personally designated men gathered the captives together, dressed the ones who were naked using clothing from the stores of plunder, put shoes on their feet, gave them all a square meal, provided first aid to the injured, put the weak ones on donkeys, and then escorted them to Jericho, the City of Palms, restoring them to their families. Then they went back to Samaria [v.15].

After all of this, Ahaz asked the king of Assyria for help, but instead, he came and humiliated Ahaz even more. Ahaz raided the Temple of God and paid it to the king of Assyria. In addition, the Philistines captured cities in the south and west of Judah!

BUT IN SPITE OF ALL OF THIS TROUBLE, Arrogant King Ahaz, acting as if he could do without God’s help, unleashed an epidemic of depravity…at the very time that everyone was turning against him, he continued to be against GOD [v.19]!

He:

o   began to worship the Assyrian gods since they had led to his defeat

o   he cleared out anything of value from The Temple and boarded up its doors!

o   he set up pagan shrines all over Jerusalem and throughout the country

THE RESULT?

And was GOD ever angry  [v.25]!

HOW DOES THIS ALL END?

When Ahaz died, they buried him in Jerusalem, but he was not honored with a burial in the cemetery of the kings.

IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS HERE AT ALL?

Only this, His son Hezekiah was the next king…he was a good king; he kept to the standards of his ancestor David [v.27 and II Chronicles 29:2].

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WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS HISTORICAL LESSON?

For whatever reasons, Ahaz was evil from the start and never repented or softened toward God!

1.    Utterly rejecting and opposing God can only end badly!

2.    If a leader openly and rebelliously opposes God, s/he will suffer as will all those who are under their direction!

3.    God is ALWAYS WATCHING! Nothing can be hidden from His sight!

4.    God advocates on behalf of those who suffer because of poor leadership! He loves His people and comes to their aid!

Perhaps you made even more observations from this horrible man’s life…

GOD’S RESPONSE TO AN EVIL KING

I typically try to inscribe three chapters a day in my granddaughter’s Bible. This morning it was my delight to cover I Kings 17-19.

After trudging through chapters about the early kings of Israel and Judah, these three chapters give a delightful break!

The last king mentioned is Ahab.  He is described:

Ahab son of Omri did even more open evil before GOD than anyone yet – a new champion in evil…He made the God of Israel angrier than all the previous kings of Israel put together.  [I Kings 16:30,33]

 

[All quotes from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted]

Upon reading of the continual descension of the faithfulness of israel’s kings, it would be appropriate to ask the question: HOW WILL GOD DEAL WITH SUCH AN EVIL KING AS AHAB?

The answer to that question is clearly given in chapters 17-19.

God responded to the evil king Ahab – and his even more evil wife, Jezebel – by sending an unknown prophet, Elijah, to Ahab with a message.

It’s a perfectly logical response!  Ahab is the epitome of evil!  Elijah is a picture of humility, submission and obedience to God! 

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For those who haven’t read these chapters recently, here’s a synopsis:

God sent Elijah to tell Ahab that as punishment for his evil ways, Israel would experience a three-year draught with absolutely no rain!

After delivering this message, God sends Elijah into a wilderness area near a stream and has birds bring him food to eat every morning and evening!  This sounds preposterous, doesn’t it?  But my response is one that comes from a chorus I learned when I was young:

“God said it!

I believe it!

That’s good enough for me!”  😊

When the brook dried up [due to the draught], God sent Elijah to a nearby village where he was to meet a woman.  Upon his arrival, Elijah found a woman preparing to bake a loaf of bread for herself and her son from the last of her flour and oil. Elijah asks her to first make him a bisquit and then prepare the rest for her and her son.  She explained to him that she sincerely expects that they will then die of starvation.

However, Elijah assures her that her jar of flour and bottle of oil will not run out until God sends rain on the land and ends the draught.  Elijah was cared for by the widow after that until her young son became sick and died.  She carried him to Elijah in anger that he had died.

Elijah prayed earnestly for the boy and he came back to life!

When three years had passed, God sent Elijah to talk with Ahab.  Ahab and his servant, Obadiah, had been vigorously searching everywhere for Elijah!  Obadiah was a God-honoring man who had protected a large group of prophets during the draught by hiding them away and bringing them food and water. 

AN INTERESTING FOOT-NOTE:

I find it interesting that God had planted a righteous man in close proximity to King Ahab!

I wonder how many world leaders have godly men or women in their midst as an influence?

A couple of years ago, I came across a news report about a Chinese evangelist named Zhou Jinxia who was arrested after trying to share the Gospel with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan.  ChinaAid says Jinxia frequently holds evangelistic signs outside a gate the couple regularly passes through. She is described as “an unbreakable, irrepressible Christian woman.” 

God always has a plan!  God plants Christian people near world leaders all of the time!  😉

Elijah meets Obadiah and has him deliver a message to King Ahab. Ahab is to call all of the people of Israel – including the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah together at Mt. Carmel.

When this gathering takes place, Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest to see whose God is the real god!  Elijah challenges the Baal prophets to build an altar and make a sacrifice BUT NOT TO LIGHT IT ON FIRE!  They are to pray for their god to light the sacrifice on fire!

Being a gentleman, Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first!  He teases them as they pray and cry out to their god all day long! Then, he builds his own altar using twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel.  He prepares the sacrifice and then drenches the altar with buckets and buckets of precious water.  Finally, Elijah prayed:

“O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.”

 

Immediately the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “God is the true God! God is the true God!”   [I Kings 18:37-39]

 

After killing all of the prophets of Baal, Elijah prays for rain! He repeatedly sends his servant to the cliff to look out over the sea.  Repeatedly the servant returns with a report of no sign of clouds.  But finally – the seventh time – the servant returns and reports that he sees a cloud…very small, no bigger than someone’s hand, rising out of the sea,

Elijah warns Ahab to run for cover because a great storm is about to arrive.

There’s more to this story, but I’ll let those of you who are interested to pick it up and read it in I Kings 19.

 I suppose you’ve gotten the message.

 WHAT IS GOD’S RESPONSE TO AN EVIL KING?

 A RIGHTEOUS, HUMBLE AND OBEDIENT SERVANT!

Someone just like you or me!  Someone who believes and obeys God!  Someone who acts when God speaks!  Someone whose influence is impeccable!  A man or woman of courage and conviction! 

Don’t dare limit what God could accomplish through you – if you would just submit to His leadership in your life!  

A FATHERS INFLUENCE PARTICULARLY ON SONS

A quick review of Israel’s development:

o   Slaves in Egypt

o   Delivered by Moses

o   Conquered Canaan with Joshua

o   Ruled by judges for at least 200 years

o   Period of the kings: Saul, David, Solomon

o   The kingdom divided into Israel (north) and Judah (south)

Faithful to God’s prediction, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became the king of Israel; however, eleven tribes rejected him and walked away.  They chose Jeroboam to be their king and Rehoboam continued to rule over just the tribe of Judah.

When reading through this period there is a troubling, recurring phrase. The following is in regards to Abijah, the son of Rehoboam.

“He continued to sin just like his father before him.”  [I Kings 15:3]

Now, Abijah had free will! His father had died and he became king. But, his father’s influence had been so strong – so influential – that Abijah simply followed in his father’s footsteps!  Unfortunately, Jeroboam’s example was a bad one!

The above verse end by lamenting:

“He [Rehoboam] was not true-hearted to GOD as his great grandfather David had been.”

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You may have seen pictures or scenes of a little boy trying to keep pace with his father’s footsteps or clomping about in his father’s shoes.

If a father is available, there is a natural alignment with the son because of the shared sexual identity.  Typically, this will continue into the young teen years.

I’ve spoken many times of the phenomenon that often takes place around puberty when a child begins to turn to the opposite-sex parent [if available].  I’ve assumed this to be a God-designed transition with the purpose of allowing the opposite-sex parent the opportunity to guide the child through the process of understanding and relating to the opposite sex.

If this is an accurate portrayal, then one can only imagine the impact that can result from having a father who:

§  Is largely absent [or simply not there due to divorce, death or other reasons]

§  Tends to think that parenting is part of the mother’s role

§  Is hyper-focused on career, hobbies and personal pursuits

§  Is angry, disconnected, distant and distracted

Much of the disfunction we see in American culture could very well be linked or explained by these realities.

God intended for children to be raised in a home with a mother and a father. Their roles are variant but essential! Their dual-engagement with children is vital!

We must remember that the image of God is reflected in both the male and the female:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

[Genesis 1:26-28  NASB]

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The example the father sets for his children is powerful and formative! If this role is magnified it can be massively influential. However, if it is ignored or abused, it can be gravely impactful in negative ways.

Counselors can help to rectify some of the damage done by an absent or distracted father, but the haunting longing for what should-have-been will travel with those children throughout their lives. Only God – the Heavenly Father – can bring total healing to those wounded hearts!

Heavenly Father:

We value the intimacy You imply by making Yourself known to us through this familiar term!

You created us!

You offer us redemption!

You love us persistently!

You give us gifts!

You know the number of the hairs on our heads.

You long for us to follow and honor You!

Bless and challenge the men who read this blog!

Help us to step up to the challenge of being godly men!

Lead us.

Guide us.

Use us.

Grow us into Your image!

 

Enable us to be difference-makers in our home and culture!

For Your Kingdom’s sake.

Amen!

CONSEQUENCES OF OUR SIN

^{[All quotes are from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted.]}

^{I Kings 11:1-5} King Solomon was obsessed with women. Pharaoh’s daughter was only the first of the many foreign women he loved—Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite. He took them from the surrounding pagan nations of which God had clearly warned Israel, “You must not marry them; they’ll seduce you into infatuations with their gods.” Solomon fell in love with them anyway, refusing to give them up. He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines—a thousand women in all! And they did seduce him away from God. As Solomon grew older, his wives beguiled him with their alien gods and he became unfaithful—he didn’t stay true to his God as his father David had done. Solomon took up with Ashtoreth, the whore goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the horrible god of the Ammonites.

 

^6-8 Solomon openly defied God; he did not follow in his father David’s footsteps. He went on to build a sacred shrine to Chemosh, the horrible god of Moab, and to Molech, the horrible god of the Ammonites, on a hill just east of Jerusalem. He built similar shrines for all his foreign wives, who then polluted the countryside with the smoke and stench of their sacrifices.

 

^9-10 God was furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God’s orders.

 

^11-13 God said to Solomon, “Since this is the way it is with you, that you have no intention of keeping faith with me and doing what I have commanded, I’m going to rip the kingdom from you and hand it over to someone else. But out of respect for your father David I won’t do it in your lifetime. It’s your son who will pay—I’ll rip it right out of his grasp. Even then I won’t take it all; I’ll leave him one tribe in honor of my servant David and out of respect for my chosen city Jerusalem.”

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Clearly, Solomon disregarded God and chose the pleasures of sinful behavior instead. He put his love for women above his love for God! He willfully disobeyed and disregarded the God of his father, David!

AND THERE WERE CONSEQUENCES!  The nation of Israel would be divided as a direct result of Solomon’s sinful behavior! Yet, out of respect for David, God promised that Solomon’s heir would retain control over one of the twelve tribes. 

This was God’s declaration, and the following chapters give the details of these promised results. 

Let’s be clear: God is willing to forgive sin! He is not willing that any should perish! [II Peter 3:9]

However, we must often deal with the consequences of our sin!

This fact has been evident from the very beginning!

When Eve and Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God cast them out of the Garden – never to be allowed to return!

Now we can assume that forgiveness was an option, although we have no record of them ever pursuing it. But it is clear that the consequences of their sin were real and had a dynamic impact on the rest of their lives!

^{Genesis 3:22} …God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.

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There are plenty of other examples of Biblical characters who had to suffer the consequences of their sin.

§  Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of his anger with the Israelites.

§  Samson’s remarkable, God-enabled strength allowed him to do incredible things, but his love for foreign women was his downfall and eventually brought about his premature death.

§  The children of Israel were chronic rebels and God eventually allowed them to be captured and carried away by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

§  Peter denied knowing Jesus three times in a short period of time on the night of Jesus’ trial. Although forgiven, imagine the reaction Peter had for the rest of his life when he heard a rooster crow!

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However, even though we may frequently suffer the consequences of our sin, God has promised us resources to assist us with the friction that these consequences create.

Consider Hebrews 4:14-16 [NASB]

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Never underestimate the power of God’s mercy and grace!

Jesus was tempted just as we are! He understands the power of our opposition! And He does not leave us without resources!

RECEIVING MERCY

The Hebrew word for mercy, chesed, signifies lovingkindness and covenant loyalty. God’s mercy is not earned; it is freely given out of His lovingkindness, even when people are unworthy or faithless.

RECEIVING GRACE

God’s grace is fundamentally His benevolence, love, and mercy extended to people who do not deserve it [that's us!]. It is not earned by human effort or good works but is a free gift from God, reflecting His loving character and generosity (Ephesians 2:8-9).

NOW – the above verse from Hebrews tells us that “…we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

As a result of this,…let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

SUMMARY

Even when we have sinned and are dealing with the consequences of our sin, we can still have hope because of the immeasurable goodness of a God who sympathizes with our weakness and – in spite of our sinful thoughts, words, actions – stands ready to offer us His lovingkindness [mercy] and patience [grace] to enable us to recover and restore His kingship in our lives! 

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Thanks be to God for His lovingkindness and faithfulness in rescuing us from the powerful influence of sin in our lives!

 

God sees us!

God understands our weakness!

God forgives us!

God restores us!

 

AND,

God offers us mercy and grace as we deal with the consequences of the dreadful impact of our sinfulness!

 

MAY GOD’S NAME BE FOREVER PRAISED!

AMEN!