And before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. (NASB) 2 Kings 23:25   God never said this about David or Solomon and He did not say this about any other king. Did you notice the first and last part of the passage? There was no king like him before or after him. He loved God with all his heart, soul, and might. That is what Jesus has called us to do.     And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (NASB) Matt. 22:37   Josiah destroyed everything that stood between him, the people of Judah and God. But that did not change God’s plan to bring Nebuchadnezzar down and destroy Jerusalem and Judah.   However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. (NASB) 2 Kings 23:26   There is a great lesson here for us . God works through leadership. Sinning leaders bring God’s discipline on a nation. The principle is the same with fathers and single parents who are sinning. Sinning church leaders blunt the blessing of the Lord on the church. Oh, the leader can “minister” for the Lord but he/she “ministers” without the Lord’s full blessing.      Eventually, God disciplines the leader and maybe the people, the family, or the church. So God gave the kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians and about one hundred years later He gave Judah and its sinning leaders to Nebuchadnezzar. Was this fair? Here is God’s answer.     Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. (NASB) Isa. 3:9        In the following verse, leaven symbolizes sin.     Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (NASB) 1 Cor. 5:6-7   The leaders are the models. They set the example and the people follow. The kings sinned and here is what happened in the kingdom of Judah.     For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in by-paths, Not on a highway . . . (NASB) Jer. 18;15   God had been calling them to repent but they did not.     Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds. (NASB) Jer. 26:3        So God used Nebuchadnezzar to discipline Judah. Nebuchadnezzar was not a man who followed God. He worshipped other gods, including his chief god Marduk. God used Nebuchadnezzar to bring the Jewish captives to Babylon. Babylon means the “Gate of god” or the “Gate of the gods.” They would be here for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:12-13). God used this man to defeat Jerusalem and bring the Jewish captives to a godless place. Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant (Jer. 25:9) - God’s tool. The message for us is that God uses evil nations, terrorists, thieves, murders, to bring us to Himself. God calls us to believe in Jesus Christ.     Conclusion. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? If you do not, God says that you at war with Him (Rom. 5:10). But you can make peace with God by believing in Jesus Christ.     Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . (NASB) Rom. 5:1   God says that we must believe that Jesus is God, the only true God. You must believe that you are a sinner and that peace is found only when Jesus forgives your sins. We must also believe that Jesus returned to life. If you do, the war is over. Your sins are forgiven and now Jesus calls you to submit to Him. Praise the Lord.                     < Back
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