In early June I came here with a conversation springing from my reading of 2 Samuel, saying I was reading through the Bible slowly, Book by Book. I am continuing.
Today I finished 2 Chronicles. Yes, that’s pretty slow but it’s steady. 😊
2 Chronicles 36. In particular verses 15 – 27.
15 Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, 18 who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. 19 Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.
20 Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.
21 So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah. source
The first thing I want to call your attention to is again and again The LORD. Did you see that? Again and again The LORD sent His Messengers with His Message. And what did the people do?
Does that sound familiar to you? Do you know a people who are doing that today? Is it you?
What happened after the again and again and the mocking? Yes. The wrath of The LORD was stirred up beyond remedy. What does that mean? It means the kindness and goodness of GOD did not bring them to repentance so the only remedy left was for them to reap what they had sown. Is such a day coming again for a mocking people? We can be sure it is. What form will it take? That remains to be seen.
But this is not all I want to show you.
Do you see what happened next to the Sanctuary, the House of GOD?
Do you see what took place there?
Perhaps, the people ran to the Sanctuary when the judgment began, but it was too late and they died there.
That’s not all. All the articles of the House of GOD were taken away. (Those articles were gold, silver, bronze – very costly!)
Now to my point. If you know from Scripture how meticulously and splendidly GOD gave instructions and made provisions for the building of His House, you might think He would certainly protect it. He didn’t.
What was He more interested in? THE PEOPLE.
He wanted the People to return to Him. When they rejected His kindness and long-suffering, He took out the Whip. Do you think He has changed?
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
No.
PEOPLE are what matter to GOD.
People, GOD loves People!
Everything else is just stuff!
GOD LOVES PEOPLE.
Which means GOD LOVES YOU!
He is not who you have likely been taught He is.
Read His Word and find out for yourself who He is.
Let’s read the last verses of the Book and see what happened next.
22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
23 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.
Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.’”
For some in Exile, they humbled themselves and returned to The LORD.
By the way, if you are interested DANIEL lived through this exile of 70 years and He loved GOD all the way through. You can read all about it in the Book of Daniel. I hope you will.
As some of you know I am reading, slowly, through the Bible, not necessarily all in this one year of 2024, but reading through all the same. In my reading, I took note of sacrifices.