Asking but not receiving

                                                                    2 Kings 25:22-30

 

December 4, 2021

 

 

The leaders go after Ishmael for killing Gedaliah and many others and rescuing the people he had carried off.  Now they went to Jeremiah and asked him to seek God's advice before they ran to Egypt in fear of the King of Babylon.  They said whatever God said they would do.  Let’s see how good their word was to God.  The answer comes to us from Jeremiah 42:7-18,  At the end of ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.   Then he summoned Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest,  and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him:   If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.   Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand.   I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.   But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’  then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there,  then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die.   All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more.  God takes what we promise Him very seriously, and God always keeps His word. 

 

2 Kings 25 ends with this word; “Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.”  Have you learned anything about fear from the China Virus released on the world?  A little man who claims he is science, who has been caught in lie after lie, has become the voice of fear,  You listen to him and ignore the word of God.  Not one of those people who die dies one moment before God appointed a day for them to die.  If you believe otherwise, you are ignorant of Scripture, such as Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”  The only other alternative is your faith is not centered in God’s written word.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.   And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon.   So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table,  and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.  That is a, "but God" moment, where the king would show mercy to Jehoiachin.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice