Monday, July 1, 2013 - [More Than Enough]
2 Kings 18
20 You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?
22 …if you say to me, "We are depending on the Lord our God"—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"?
32 "Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The Lord will deliver us.'
33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"
Hezekiah was a king "like David." He was totally devoted to the covenant worship of God in the place that God had approved for His temple to be built (Jerusalem). He was so committed to God that he destroyed the high places in Judah and required that all of the people worship God in Jerusalem in the way that God had intended. What was the big deal?
In all of the different villages of Israel were "high places" – places where the elders of the village judged; where the wheat harvest was separated from the tare; and where worship would take place. The problem was that each village had a different high place and people would worship God differently there. In many villages, while worship was directed to Yahweh, the form of worship was just like how the Canaanites had worshipped. In other villages the people even worshipped some of the local gods and Yahweh at the same time thinking that they could get "more bang for their buck"! Why not worship all of the gods and Yahweh, too?
This is not very different from our society today, even in the Church. We are tempted to worship jobs, government, the media, and societal priorities (keeping up with the Jones'). But, this is a counterfeit – a lie. It is the lie that Jesus is NOT enough. This lie keeps us from realizing the liberty and free flow of the Spirit of God that we truly desire. Our hunger for "more" is twisted to the point that we believe the addition of things (possessions, power, politics) to our way of life will satisfy us. In actuality, it is the release of things into the hands of God that actually frees us up to receive from God…
More Peace
More Health
More Joy
More ability to love
More ability to give
More intimacy with God!
Sennacherib thought that Hezekiah had made a big mistake by reducing the number of gods worshipped in Judah to just One. He figured that more gods would have given them more of a chance for victory. FALSE! All Judah needed was the One Eternal God of Heaven, the God of Angel Armies, the Lord of Hosts – Yahweh…aka, Our God!
Is Jesus enough for you and your family?
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Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11)
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)
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