Oh Friends in Christ, it’s Monday! And some of you are saying, ‘Chuh! No need to remind me.’ Yes, we all know that it’s the start of another work week, and that means before we venture out to do battle with Beelzebub and his evil cohorts we must ensure that we’re fully dressed in all our spiritual armour, else the wicked will easily vanquish us. Only if we’re fully protected by the Lord’s armour are we able to fight the good fight successfully. And having provided that gentle reminder, (smile) let’s move on to our Bit. Today we’ll be continuing in the same vein as yesterday; that of God’s see all and know all ability, and what happens when we don’t turn to and trust Him, but instead seek the strength of man and false gods. And we have a very good example of that in Asa, king of Judah. In the beginning, his reign was beset by wars and much contention amongst the people, but once the prophet Azariah warned him about seeking God when he could be found and not forsaking Him, Asa took heart, got courage and put away all the abominable idols out of the land of Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim, and restored the altar of the Lord. Then he gathered the tribes under his rule, plus strangers from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, who flocked to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord was with him. They offered sacrifices and plunder to God and agreed to diligently seek the God of their fathers, even to the extent that whoever refused should be put to death. They swore allegiance to the Lord and rejoiced, for their hearts were right, and the Lord gave them peace. There was no more war until the35th year of Asa’s reign. That’s a brief synopsis of 2 Chronicles 15. However, in the thirty sixth year, Asa Baasha, king of Israel decides to build the city of Ramah up close to the border of Judah, which would effectively close the border between the two. And what does Asa, king of Judah do in response? He buys the services of Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to invade Israel. Hn! Ben-hadad agrees, invades Israel and causes much destruction. When Baasha hears about the destruction the Syrians have wrought amongst his subjects, he stops building Ramah. Then smart man Asa takes all the stuff Baasha’s left behind and he builds instead the cities of Geba and Mizpah. (2 Chr.16:1-6) And though on the surface everything seems hunky-dory, it’s not, for shortly thereafter, Hanani, the seer, comes and drapes up Asa in the Lord’s name. ‘Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host (army) of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.’ (2 Chr.16:7-8) Oh Friends, that’s the message right there: Instead of relying on the Lord like he’d done before, this time Asa relied on the sons of men. And please note that our claiming to be loyal followers of the Lord, then relying on man in times of trouble, an act we’re very guilty of today, simply does not compute. It’s like a slap to God’s face; a hurtful rejection. And don’t forget, the Lord’s a jealous God. He made that quite clear very early on. It’s the FIRST commandment: ‘Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.’ (Ex.20:3) So there can be argument about that, for right up front He specifies that nobody or anything; man, beast or inanimate object, should ever be relied on before Him. But Asa obviously did not follow that commandment, especially after he’d sworn to seek the Lord and obey all His statutes. As Cousin Sol reminds us in Ecclesiastes: ‘When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer (delay) not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay.’ (Eccl.5:4-5) Oh Friends, I know the saying today is that promises are made to be broken, but our God doesn’t play that foolish game. He’s a man of His word, and expects His devotees to be the same. So anything we promise Him to do, we ought to do it. Just as we expect Him to keep His promises, He expects us to keep ours. Consequently, we can’t promise to follow His leading and commandments, then at the first sign of trouble or problems, run to men for help before even consulting God. No way Jose! As Hanani told Asa: ‘For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect (at peace with, loyal to) toward him.’ Yes Friends, that’s the Lord’s purpose and great desire; to look after his loyal followers. But if we don’t turn to Him and ask for help, but look to other avenues first, how can we consider ourselves His followers eh? Here’s how Job put it: ‘For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness or shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.’ (Job 34:21-22) Bruh David says the same thing, but he uses the positive approach: ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off (destroy) the remembrance of them from the earth.’ (Ps.34:15-16) And the moral of the story my people is that we cannot play games with God. If we say we’re His followers then we have to behave and live like it. We can’t make promises then renege on them. Please remember that our God is the most powerful being in the universe, who sees all and knows all and doesn’t hold with the foolishness of the world. He has His own rules and regulations and if we choose to follow Him, fine, but we have to follow Him all the way, not halfway, or in the world’s wishy-washy manner. He’s a kind and wonderful Father, but like us earthly parents, He has laws that his children must obey, or they will pay the price. Nuff said for today! We’ll continue this tomorrow, God willing. Till then; Much LOVE!…truly following God…is an all the way…whole life gig…
SCRIP-BITS 