March 4, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Squandered Grace

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Opening Prayer

Lord, You are true light and constant grace. Forgive me for the darkness in my life and my careless love of You.

Read 2 KINGS 24:20-25:17

[20] It was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. [1] So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. [2] The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. [3] By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. [4] Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, [5] but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, [6] and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. [7] They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. [8] On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. [9] He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. [10] The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. [11] Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. [12] But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields. [13] The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried the bronze to Babylon. [14] They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. [15] The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls-all that were made of pure gold or silver. [16] The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed. [17] Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your blessings, see what God hath done” (Johnson Oatman Jr., 1856-1922). Perhaps this practice will keep us from straying from God’s path.

We often read about lottery winners scooping huge jackpots and then squandering their new-found wealth and ending up penniless. The trajectory from rags to riches is easily reversed by the foolish mishandling of unexpected advantages. Israel discovered the truth of that. With the deportation of Judah’s last king, Zedekiah, and the slaughter of his sons by the Babylonian conqueror Nebuchadnezzar, the Davidic dynasty is brought to an end. Since the throne of Judah is now empty, the invading army’s devastating entry into Jerusalem has to be dated by reference to the reign of the conquering king (25:8).

The capital city is razed to the ground and its remaining dignitaries exiled. Notably, the Temple built originally by Solomon is destroyed. The very mention of Solomon (16) is bittersweet. It not only recalls the splendor of that king’s glorious reign but also serves as a reminder that it was his apostasy, several centuries earlier, that had sown the seeds of Israel’s partition into two kingdoms and her eventual destruction.

Israel had been chosen by grace to be the Lord’s very own bride (why not look up references to this in a Bible concordance?) and showered with countless blessings. God’s people had received every possible advantage to flourish and shine as a beacon of light to the nations. In the end, however, despite many entreaties from her divine husband and like so many adulterous lovers, Israel had to bear the disastrous consequences of her infidelity with foreign powers and their idols. At the personal level, so many lives today are wrecked by marital unfaithfulness. In a wider spiritual context, “let modern cities and civilizations beware; for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare those which have been grafted in among them” (Frederick B. Meyer, 1847-1929; see also Rom. 11:18-25).

Apply

Does God judge nations today and bring disaster on them? Why or why not?

Closing prayer

Dear God, as Your Spirit presses in on me, I am increasingly aware of my sins. Root out those things displeasing to You and lead me in the way everlasting.

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