Passage Read: 2 Kings 16-19
Meditation Verses: 19:25-28
Thought
The king of Assyria thinks he is great by his own wisdom and strength, but the Lord has been watching over him and using him to carry out His plans all along. Assyria didn't worship the Lord or know Him. They forgot Him long, long ago. But the Lord knows all the nations and uses them, one against the other, to rebuke and punish those who do evil. The idea that one nation or people is innocent of wrong and undeserving of conquest is foolish. All people have sinned and deserve death and eternal judgment. But they live by God's grace, because of His mercy, not because they deserve it or have some right to life! As with the individual, so too with whole nations and peoples. They are all made up of individuals who do not obey the Lord or walk in His ways! How much more do they deserve to be destroyed! So God strengthens one nation against another, and weakens one before another. This one conquers that one, and another conquers the victor, all because God judges this nation today and that the next, so that all might come to realize their gods are nothing and their behavior is wicked. That would realize they have sinned against the Lord of heaven and earth and must turn back to seek Him, learn what He requires and do it.
Application
This goes on even today, and will continue to the end of this age. Nation rises against nation and people against people. All have sinned and all deserve judgment, and God brings judgment on one nation today and another tomorrow. Some judgment rises up from within: This group hates that group and one fights and succeeds against the other; they're both wrong, they're both in sin. The victor is not innocent of evil, but simply God's chosen hammer for that day of the week! Victory doesn't mean one nation or one group is more pleasing to God than another. The only thing that makes a nation or people or individual pleasing to God is repentance and full submission to His will and ways. The only way to know that God is pleased with a nation or people or individual is to judge them against God's Word. Wars are just one wicked nation punishing another wicked nation, with the attacker often being judged in the process. Stopping wars only makes for an appearance of peace, but they all remain in sin, condemned before God. The Gospel is the only thing that brings true peace--for a nation, a people or an individual--because then, they are no longer at war with God, but have become pleasing to Him. And God is entirely capable of protecting them from all harm. But He intends to send them into harm's way, to carry His message of peace to those who remain at war with Him. Wars shouldn't bother me. Wicked men will do wicked things and wicked people need judgment. I really show my care and concern for people by supporting and promoting and helping efforts to take the Gospel to them.