Let God be God





Let us desist from making anything else or anyone else to be your God. God is a jealous God and every time we, His children try to make anything else, or anyone more important than Him, we get ourselves into trouble. So many examples from the Bible stressed this message but I will concentrate on stories from the second book of Chronicles. 
The second book of Chronicles relates stories about different kings of Israel and Judah, from King Solomon to his son, Rehoboam, to Jeroboam, Abijah and so on, to the likes of King Jehoshaphat and others after him.
One thing was clear from these accounts, which I found very scary; God was never happy when the kings deviated from His precepts and sought help from somewhere else. I was amazed at the age of some of these kings. Some of them were as young as 7 years old, yet, God still required total trust from them.
Joash in 2 Chronicles 24:1-2, was 7 years old, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. So, it doesn't matter the age at which one starts trusting God.
In the case of Joash, he did right as long as he had Jehoiada the Priest mentored him, but when Jehoiada died (Vs. 15), he deviated from God, abandoned the projects he had embarked on in building the Temple and served other gods (Vs18). God gave him chances to repent by sending prophets to him, but he did not listen, he even conspired to kill one of the prophets, Zechariah, who brought a warning message to him. Zechariah died while pronouncing judgment against the king in verse 22.
God was not happy about this act of king Joash, so God forsook him. He died a gruesome death while fighting a battle with the Syrians, a smaller army than his. In the end, he lost the privilege of being buried in his fathers' tomb.
It was so unfortunate that even though Joash started well, but he did not end well. I so moved to tears when I read this story.
The next king was Amaziah, a son of King Joash, who was just twenty-five years old when he took over the kingship From his late father (2nd Chronicles Chapter 25). The bible recorded that he also did right in the sight of God, but not with his whole heart. You can guess how that will end. Initially, he obeyed the word of God, when God warned him not to use Israel's army for battle against Seir because God is not with Isreal at that time. (Verses 7-11). His obedience earned him to victory, however, the victory was shortlived because he brought the gods of the sons of Seir and bowed down before them, and burned incense to them (Verse14). Warnings from God was met with disdain and disrespect to the Man of God. God did not take such disobedience and deviation lightly at all. Amaziah met his end when he challenged Joash Israel.
More stories from this book of Chronicles showed us the danger of these kings not letting God be their God all the way. it also applies to us today because God has not changed, He expects the same commitment from us to Himself. Regardless of how we started, let us strive to end well. 
All God requires from us is to believe in Him, trust in his loving-kindness, obey Him to the letter, and not ever try to test Him by giving His worship to other gods, who according to the Prophet, whom God sent to Amaziah in verse 15, "have not delivered their own people from your hands". 
In conclusion, I encourage everyone to trust God more and let God be our God. I love the way King David put it in the book of Psalms 48:14
"For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death."


 

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