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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Half-Way Obedience {2 Kings 8:16 - 10:36}

Tuesday, March 27, 2018




Imagine only washing half of your kitchen floor.  Or only cooking dinner half-way.  Or applying only half of your make-up.  That’s what we see here in 2 Kings 8:16 – 10:36.

It’s remarkable to me that Jehu gets anointed at all.  God knows Jehu’s natural inclination.  This was a time when people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.  But isn’t that what is occurring in our lifetime?  Abortion.  Sexual sin.  Corruption in the government and in the business world.

I have had to ask myself lately what am I doing wrong?  I have been battling a few little battles and I just can’t seem to see the end.  And the more I pray, the more I’ve come to realize that it’s truly a heart condition.  I am in a place of waiting and it’s painful to wait so long.  I seem to be desperate for the Lord’s answer – an ache in my soul, just waiting to be fulfilled.

As I prepared this post, I could recognize myself – totally devoted – no.  No, I still have my tendencies to not destroy everything that keeps me separated from God.  It was only the forbidden fruit that began the sin of the world.  But it spread to lying and selfishness and disobedience and murder.

Sin is not just something that affects just one person at a time. The sins of one person can influence other people.  Jeroboam’s sin caused the northern kingdom to continue to sin against God and it grew until Ahab introduced Baal worship to the nation.  Our sins can influence the people around us. 

Sin isn’t just like some disease that we have to rid ourselves of it; it is something that is inherent to our nature.  We are not sinners because we sin.  We sin because we are sinners.  We are sinners first and that can be a bitter pill for some of us to swallow.  We don’t even mean to sin, but we do.  It’s like second nature.

When God flooded the earth, he knew that that was not the solution to sin.  He wanted to show us that our solution would not work.  The same is here with Jehu.  We might think that wiping out the source of Baal worship would solve all the problems, but it doesn’t.  Just read the headlines these days.  ISIS.  Police/Citizen shootings.  School shootings.  Our hearts may want retribution, but that is not the answer.  None of these solve the problem of sin.  The solution to sin requires an even more drastic measure than killing everybody.  The solution requires killing God.

Jesus came to save us from ourselves!  He came to suffer and die on the cross for our sins, even though He was the only person to ever be sinless.  He was fully man and fully God, and the only one able to take away our sins.  His sacrifice on the cross enables us to nail our sins to that very same cross once and for all.  He took our shame.  He took our pain.  He separated Himself from the Father so that He would become sin, the sin of us all.  The Lord poured out His complete wrath of Jesus.  The innocent was broken.  His blood flowed on the ground.  His death caused the earth to quake and the skies to break.  He endured death in order to break death.  Death could not keep its hold on Jesus and He returned just 3 days later.  Jesus had broken sin and death, and the problem of sin now had a solution.

So I ask you, do you find your sole delight in the Lord?  Are you praising God in each and every moment?  Or do you cling to those questions?  Are you clinging to your solutions?  I found myself back in 1 Samuel 2 this morning – “Then Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high.  My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in Your deliverance.