Tag: destruction

Our motive for holiness

God’s words here seem very harsh.

“Devote the nations in Canaan to complete destruction. Make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.”

Why so harsh? Because they hated God and were in rebellion against him, their Creator and rightful ruler. (10)

He had given them over 400 years to repent, and yet they had only gotten worse. (Deuteronomy 7:25, Genesis 15:16, Leviticus 18)

God is patient, but those who unrepentantly shake their fist at God will ultimately be judged.

The amazing thing, though, is that we were in rebellion against God too.

But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

And though there was nothing special about us, God set his love on us and chose us, making us his people. (1 Peter 2:9-10, Ephesians 2:11-22)

That is our motivation for holiness.

Not to earn God’s love and acceptance.

Not to become his child.

But because we already have God’s love and acceptance as a child of God.

So let us not be ensnared by the things God hates.

Let us not allow anything he hates into our houses. Not porn, nor sexual sin, nor anything else that leads to spiritual death.

Make no covenant with sin, but by the Spirit’s power, let us vanquish these things from our homes.

And out of gratefulness and love for God, let us live holy lives that are pleasing to him.

Tags Bible Original, Bible verse, chosen, destruction, holiness

Acts

A pride that leads to destruction

Post author By Bruce
Post date December 13, 2014
No Comments on A pride that leads to destruction

Solomon wrote,

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

We see this in the life of Herod Agrippa I.

To be clear, this is a different person from Herod Antipas who had been involved with John the Baptist and Jesus in the gospels.

Herod Agrippa was the grandson of King Herod, who had attempted to kill Jesus as a baby. And he was just as bloodthirsty as his grandfather was.

He was responsible for the death of James, and would have killed Peter had God not delivered him. And for Peter’s escape, Herod killed the men who had been guarding him.

Herod was a powerful man…and very proud. He had exerted his power to the point that the cities of Tyre and Sidon, two cities that had been in dispute with him, had humbled themselves and sought to make peace with him.

And as he sat before them, they shouted out,

This is the voice of a god, not of a man. (Acts 12:22)

Herod accepted this praise, and because of it, an angel struck him, and shortly thereafter, he died.

If there is one thing that God hates, it’s pride, because pride places a wall between us and him. We start to think we can live without God and that we don’t need him.

Our pride also puts a barrier between us and others. How often, because of our pride, do we destroy our relationships, our friendships, our marriages, and our families?

And as with Herod, pride will ultimately lead to our destruction if we refuse to repent.

If we in our pride say, “I don’t need you God,” God will eventually give us what we want: life for all eternity without him.

But when we get it, we’ll find out that we’re cut off from life, love, joy, and peace. Because all of these things find their source in God. That’s what Herod found out.

How about you? Is your pride standing between you and your friends, your spouse, the people at work, or the people at church? Even worse, is it standing between you and God?

As Peter wrote,

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:5-6)

Tags Bible Original, Bible verse, destruction, humility, pride

2 Chronicles 2 Kings Jeremiah

Reasons for the fall

This is one of the few times in scripture that the same event is talked about in four different places.

Jeremiah 52 appears to be a historical appendix, however, and seems to have been added by someone other than Jeremiah. It’s an almost word-for-word repetition of the Kings’ account.

Basically Zedekiah had rebelled against Babylon, despite taking an oath in God’s name to be a vassal under him, so Nebuchadnezzar put Jerusalem under siege for 2 years.

As a result, there was famine in the city, and at last, the walls were broken through.

Though Zedekiah fled, he was eventually captured. His sons were put to death, after which he was blinded and taken into captivity until he died.

Nebuchadnezzar killed the officials of Judah, and also the chief priest and the next in rank.

Everything of value in the temple was taken away, and then the temple itself, the palace, and the houses of the land were all burned down.

Why? 2 Chronicles makes the reasons crystal clear.

[Zedekiah] did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord… He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord, the God of Israel.

Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place.

But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:12–16)

What can we learn from this? Why did Jerusalem fall?

First, they did what was evil in God’s sight. It goes without saying that when we do evil, we bring evil upon ourselves.

Second, when they heard God’s words of rebuke, they didn’t humble themselves and repent. Rather, they hardened their hearts, not only continuing their evil deeds, but becoming even more unfaithful to God.

Third, they followed the religious practices of the nations around them, and in doing so defiled the temple of God.

Finally, they continually mocked the words of God and scoffed at his messengers until finally there was no remedy for the evil in their hearts. It is possible to so harden ourselves that we make it impossible for ourselves to return.

How about you? What path are you going down?

Are you unrepentedly doing what God has called evil? When you hear God’s words of rebuke in his Word or through messages at church, do you just close your eyes and ears?

Are you following the religious practices and beliefs of the people around you, and in so doing defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

I’m not just talking about following other religions. I’m talking about following the gods of money, sex, and materialism as well. These things will defile your lives.

Worst of all, have you become so hardened to God’s word, that you actually scoff at it and anyone who would preach it?

These are what caused Israel to fall into destruction. And it will cause you to fall to destruction too.

I’m not saying that you’ll lose your salvation. But you will eventually destroy all the good things in your life. And you’ll wreck all the good plans God intended for your life.

Instead of having a life worth living, you’ll be left with a wasted life full of regret.

Let us not be like the Israelites who lost everything. Let us keep hearts that are soft and humble before God. For only in doing that can we find the way of life.