Tag: heard you

20.j. “You humbled yourself before the LORD”

Joel 2:12  “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

 2 Kings 22:19    because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD.

 Isaiah 66:2   All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

 

Those of us who love God are also prone to wander away from God. A. W. Tozer used an analogy to explain why that is. He said, “Every farmer knows the hunger of the wilderness, that hunger which no modern farm machinery, no improved agricultural methods, can ever quite destroy. No matter how well prepared the soil, how well kept the fences, how carefully painted the buildings, let the owner neglect for a while his prized and valued acres and they will revert again to the wild and be swallowed by the jungle or the wasteland. The bias of nature is toward the wilderness, never toward the fruitful field.” The same can be said about our relationship with God. No matter how sincere our intentions, the bias of life causes us to wander away from God. We do not mean for it happen. But the very real concerns we have about our families, about our jobs, about our finances cause us to focus on the temporal instead of the eternal. Pretty soon, we find ourselves in a place we never thought we would be. And we wonder, “Is it ever possible to regain our relationship with God? Is it ever possible to restore that intimacy with a God who we have lost our passion for?” (Jeffress)

195. Concerning the words of this book that has been found.

2 Kings 22:8  And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Can you imagine what this must have been like?  We know there was a 55-year drought of God’s word during the time of Manasseh and another two-year drought during the reign of Amon.  There were prophets during this time but people did not listen to them nor did they give much worth to the written word of God that had been recorded and passed down.  The written word of commandments, promises of blessings, warnings, and prophecies of what was to come was cast aside and put away in a place where it would not be thought about or easily seen.

When this happens there is a void of what is right and wrong.  People will do what is right in their own eyes.  People will blindly follow the heard and will be swept away by every wind of worship, doctrine, and false god that comes along.  People will forget God, forget His promises, forget His commandments, forget His blessings, and forget His warnings.  When left to our own interpretation of what is right and wrong we will always fall on the side of sin.  It is in our nature.  We are born with it.

We should be mindful of the examples that have been given of what happens to people, cities,  and nations when they forsake the Word of God and live for themselves.  We should take more care and concern with our time spent in His word.  Learn from it, drink from it, eat of it, trust in it, follow it, and obey it out of wanting to honor and glorify Jesus Christ.