Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.
(1Ki 14:22-26)
What happens when the Lord is provoked to jealousy? Does He just sit and think “I am so jealous of the love those people are giving to idols rather than me, their creator”, and do absolutely nothing? No, when the Lord is provoked to jealousy, then He reaches out and responds with CHASTISEMENT.
The kingdom of Judah was FULL of idolatry. On every hill, and under every green tree, you could find an idol. The sin of Judah was quite simple really. Instead of worshiping GOD, they were worshiping STUFF. This kind of sin, (called SPIRITUAL ADULTERY throughout the scriptures) ALWAYS leads to more obvious sin. The reason that some of the people in the land were PERVERTED as we read in verse 23, was because they were worshiping CREATED things rather than the CREATOR of all things.
The result was God sending judgment. Now, His judgment wasn’t meant to DESTROY the people of Judah, it was meant to BRING THEM BACK to Him, to cause them to REPENT. He sent the Egyptians, the same people they had been delivered from way back in their beginnings to discipline them. The Egyptians stole some of the BLESSINGS that belonged to the Israelites… they took away some of what God had given them.
Sometimes this happens in our lives. We start to get a little too friendly with the world, and we begin to give CREATED things a place in our lives that ONLY belongs to the creator. The Lord is JEALOUS of our love, and He wants our ENTIRE LIVES. Because of this He sends chastening our way to bring us back to Him. Often it comes in this form… the world we are so admiring begins to steal from us the blessings we experienced walking with the Lord… we begin to lose the Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-control that come from walking with God.
Guess what? You can always get it back! The Lord LOVES to restore, all it takes is REPENTANCE… Changing our mind about what we are doing, seeing things the way God sees, and altering our course to match His will for our lives. Maybe today you feel that you have lost some of the blessings of being a believer, like the world is choking them out… Turn back to Jesus and allow Him to fill you with life once again!
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