Skip to main content

#SaturdayDevotion: II Kings 17:7-18

By
Breaking or delighting God's heart
II Kings 17:7-18
Date: 31. 10. 2020

In our current sermon series on Kingdom-mindedness, one of the Beatitudes is "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall comforted." It refers to the mourning over sin, a repentant heart, and that the sins that breaks God's heart breaks ours too.
 
In this text it tells of the condition where this beatitude is totally absent, captured in this words,  ".... (Israel) sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger."
 
When we cry over our sin, God forgives and comfort us. Can you picture a loving parent comforting a child who has just confess his wrong? With this beatitude we shall find
 
happiness and blessedness from God.
 
The opposite, when we become harden to sin, what is the consequence? "Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone."  God removed them from his sight.
 
Let me leave your 2 thoughts from this verse for you to meditate on:
 
1. Being in God's sight means many things,  example, God's favor, blessing and so forth.  I want to emphasis here that it also means God's protection. In God's sight is like sheep in the shepherd's sight where protection and safety is guaranteed. Thus this verse means God actually removes his protection and allows sin to take it course in the sinner's life.  This is the road to destruction. When
 
God removes his presence and protection, sin has freedom to destroy. Think of the example of Saul or Samson. Think of broken marriage due to sin. Think of the permanent effect from long term drug abuse. Sin is suicidal. Thus choose not to sin.  When it does happen, never let sin stay long in our heart, quickly confess and repent.

2. Numbers 6:24-26 tells us that God makes His face shines upon you. Instead of looking away with pain, sadness and anger because our stubborn sins, here God is delighted.  It is liken to delightful parents, smile and joy in their faces over their child. When we walk with God in faith and obedience, God's face beam with joy and delight over us. Seek to please God always. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
 
Prayer: 

Lord, help me know you deeper that I won't ever want to hurt you and break your heart. Let me instead bring delight and joy to you. Let my life be a worship to you, pleasing and honoring you. I love you, Jesus. Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger of Spiritual Infancy (Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12)

By
Have you met people who refuse to grow up? There are some adults who prefer to remain as children because they do not want to take on adult responsibilities. Not only is immature behaviour unpleasant to observe or deal with, the consequences are often destructive. In Hebrews 5:11-14, the writer expresses his frustration that some members of the church were refusing to grow into spiritual maturity. They were no longer trying to understand God’s word (v 11). Instead of taking on the responsibility of teaching others as they themselves had been taught, they needed to be taught the basics all over again (v12). Therefore, they were unable to take on “solid food” which is for mature Christians, and they were not able to distinguish good from evil (v14) or to understand teaching about righteousness (v13). Spiritual maturity is a necessary part of our walk with God. Remaining as a spiritual infant means that you are not good at discerning right from wrong and you will have a hard time maintain
Post a Comment
Read more

A prophet prophesies and the church fully obeys (Acts 11:27- 12:4)

By
During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. When Jewish believers from Cyprus (Europe) and Cyrene (Liby
Post a Comment
Read more

THE BLESSINGS OF HIS NAME (Numbers 6:22 - 27

By
I find this interesting because I remember listening to Pastor Betty’s message for 2021, and it was on the same Benediction Blessing verses. And today’s Scripture reading is exactly the same, and I am sure the Holy Spirit wants to remind us of “The Blessings of His Name” for 2022. Today, our mobile phones are loaded with New Year wishes, TV and radio personalities wish into microphones and cameras – we hear them from so many different sources. Carefully note what God tells us: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.’ So, they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:23-27) In this way, God places His all-important NAME on us, His people. A comparison would be that of signing on a cheque. An unsigned check is void and worthless until the owner ‘s “name” has been pl
Post a Comment
Read more