May 19 - 2 Chronicles 32-34: Using the Name of God

Love the story of God-seeking Hezekiah, who rallied his people against the attack of Sennacherib and God answered.  Hated the story of Manasseh reintroducing the "moral rot and spiritual corruption".  But, loved it when he repented and was convinced "that God was in control."  Hated the two paragraphs about Amon's short, but evil reign.  Loved the story of Josiah's living "straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David."  Love, hate, love, hate.  We know that God also felt this jerking around  because of the unfaithfulness of His people as illustrated by the prophet Jeremiah,

The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin.  God's message began to come to him during the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah...

God's Message came to me as follows:  'If a man's wife walks out on him and marries another man, can he take her back as if nothing had happened?  Wouldn't that raise a huge stink in the land?  And isn't that what you've done -- 'whored' your way with god after god?  And now you want to come back as if nothing had happened.'  God's Decree.

'Look around at the hills.  Where have you not had sex?  You've camped out like hunters stalking deer.  You've solicited many lover-gods, like a streetwalking whore chasing after other gods.  And so the rain has stopped.  No more rain from the skies!  But it doesn't even faze you.  Brazen as whores, you carry on as if you've done nothing wrong.  Then you have the nerve to call out, 'My father! You took care of me when I was a child.  Why not now?  Are you going to keep up your anger nonstop?'

God spoke to me during the right of King Josiah: 'You have noticed haven't you, how fickle Israel has visited every hill and grove of trees as a whore at large?  I assumed that after she had gotten it out of her system, she'd come back, but she didn't.  Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did.  She also saw that because of fickle Israel's loose morals I threw her out, gave her walking papers.   But that didn't faze flighty sister Judah.  She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore's life also.  She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country.  And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a node, although she made a show of it from time to time.'  God's Decree.

Then God told me, 'Fickle Israel was a good sight better than flighty Judah.  Go and preach this message.  Face north toward Israel and say:

Turn back, fickle Israel.  I'm not just hanging back to punish you.  I'm committed in love to you.  My anger doesn't seethe nonstop.  Just admit your guilt.  Admit your God-defiance.  Admit to your promiscuous life with casual partners, pulling strangers into sex-and-religion groves while turning a deaf ear to me.'  God's Decree.  'Come back, wandering children!'  God's Decree.

'I, yes I, am your true husband.  I'll pick you out one by one -- this one from the city, these two from the country -- and bring you to Zion.'  Jeremiah 1:1, 3:1-15 (Msg)

I don't like that word, "whore".  But, that's what God calls the actions of the Israelites and it is too often an accurate description of my affections towards God.  I can run after the "casual partners" (books and products promising a more balanced life; financial security; a put-together image,...).  I can use ministry as a "sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation" while turning a deaf ear to God's call, 'I am your true husband'.

Father, I confess my fickle nature, my seeking after things that look good for the moment and my desire for immediate relief from the stress points in life.  You are the only true, constant, secure God.  My desire is to be like Josiah, "to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow Your instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to confirm with [my] life the entire covenant."  Thank You for running after me and picking me out in spite of me.