TO SERVE GOD FAITHFULLY

 

 

How are we to love God? The entire Bible gives us one consistent answer - by trusting and obeying His Word:

 

·       “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

 

Joshua replaced Moses as head over the millions of Israel. God instructed him to be courageous. How? Only by following His Words:

 

·       “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:7-8)

 

Joshua’s success depended upon his following every Word of God, all that had been written.

 

Each king of Israel and Judah had been measured by their faithfulness to this principle. If they rejected His Word, they would be punished. If they adhered to it, they would be blessed. King Solomon elaborated on the close relationship between sin and punishment while he consecrated the Temple:

 

·       “If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers. “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. (2 Chronicles 6:24–27)

 

The lives of the kings of Judah and Israel consistently manifested this reality and the need to turn from their sins. Some were evil from the start. Amon reigned only two years in Jerusalem and was assassinated:

·       And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made and served them. (2 Chronicles 33:22)

 

Manasseh had reigned over Judah for 55 years:

 

·       And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. (2 Chronicles 33:2)

 

However, later in his reign, he was imprisoned by the Assyrians where he repented, humbled himself, and cried out for the Lord’s mercy. God then reinstated him as king, and he tried to rectify the evil he had done by not following the Word of the Lord.

 

Other kings had been reckoned as somewhat obedient, “yet not with a whole heart” (2 Chronicles 25:2). Commonly, success brings arrogance and pride. King Amaziah began to think that he knew better than the Word of God. Consequently, the Lord turned against Amaziah. He was defeated in battle and his riches were plundered.

 

His son Uzziah reigned for 52 years and also succumbed to pride. However, he too had been faithful to the Word of God and was blessed:

·       But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense.” (2 Chronicles 26:16–18)

Immediately, God struck him down with leprosy. Eventually, God destroyed the entire nation, and the exiles were carried off to Babylon. However, the Lord had given them many opportunities to repent:

The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers [the prophets], because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:15–16)

Every prophet of Israel had reinforced this simple direction to follow every command of God lest they incur His wrath. He had humbled Israel to teach them that they had to obey every word (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus reintroduced this principle:

 

·       “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

 

We cannot sit in judgment over God’s Word to choose what feels right to us. Instead, we are to love God by allowing God’s every Word to judge us. As some of Judah’s kings would do this, they brought revival to Judah and the protection of the Lord upon its people.