A confusing world . . .

 

2 Kings 14; Psalms 120–122; Hosea 7; 2 Timothy 4

While the New Testament didn’t specifically point to the year 2020, some of the characteristics of this year fit some of the Bible’s predictions about the attitude of Joe Public toward the Word of God and truth. For instance:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)

I’ve Christian friends who are listening to false teachers even though they know the teaching is not biblical. I am mystified and wonder why the attraction yet understand how fickle the human heart can be. Just looking in the mirror and rehearsing my own rebellions tells me that sin is sneaky and determined to have its way.

The OT is filled with examples. In 2 Kings 14, the story is told of two leaders, one who did what was right, not consistently, but he seemed a good man. However, his success went to his head and he wound up in a totally unnecessary war. He ruled twenty-nine years and was assassinated.

The other king “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” and yet was a competent administrator and military leader that God used to keep the Syrians at bay. He ruled forty-one years and died in peace.

As the devotional writer concludes, a good king may do bad and stupid things and a bad king may do good and important things. A more modern example: Hitler restored German confidence and created jobs. There also have been presidents who win wars and keep the economy going yet their moral life was in the gutter.

God knows and evaluates hearts. He’s had much experience with people who profess to follow Him but value other things more. In the time of Hosea, He said through the prophet:

Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. (Hosea 7:13–16)

These were people who cried out to God, not because they wanted a deeper relationship with Him or to be more like He wanted them to be. Instead, they were wailing and cutting themselves like the pagans over the loss of their “good life” rather than being concerned about having a godly life.

These illustrations are mirrored in today’s world. We have leaders who do good things and at times act like idiots. We have leaders who are morally bankrupt yet convince people they will make their lives good. We have religious people more interested in financial prosperity than godliness with some of them masking their greed with furious preaching against evil. God’s Word predicts that good would be called evil and evil called good. This happens now today. People can put down Christians, even persecute them but It not okay for Christians to protest against the sin all around us.

APPLY: I’m sure there is a better application, but my first response to all this is weeping. I can pray and ask God why He is not doing something about it, yet perhaps He is saying, “I might ask you the same question.” As I seek His mercy and grace, and as I ask for specific instruction in even how to pray, my hope is that all the followers of Jesus Christ are dismayed over what is happening in our world and are praying for the will of God to prevail, first in our own lives but also in the lives of those around us and in those who lead us.