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Daily Devotion: 2 Chronicles 36:15

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2 Chronicles 36:15     "And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: (16)  But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy." 

We wind our way down in the study of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah. The last several kings did evil in the sight of the Lord before they were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I won't even mention their names in this devotion. The nation went farther and farther away from God until "there was no remedy".

We know the Lord had said, "If my people...", but His people were not humbling themselves. They were not praying. They were not seeking His face. They were not turning from their wicked ways. As long as a people are in that situation, there is no remedy. If you remember the prodigal son, as long as he was down in that far country, there was no remedy for him. The remedy came only after he said, "I will arise and go to my father."

We see that God gave the people much space to repent. He them messengers "because He had compassion on His people." But they would not listen. In fact, we are told they mocked the messengers. They despised the word of God that was given to them. They misused his prophets. Then the wrath of God came against His people. They were carried away captive for 70 years. If you turn in your Bibles to this 36th chapter of 2 Chronicles, you will see that God does not allow the book to end with His people in captivity.  He allows us to see into their future that He would raise up a man by the name of Cyrus, king of Persia, who would send the people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. That account is given in the book of Ezra. And in the book of Nehemiah, we see the people were allowed to go back and rebuild the wall.

Yes, God is good and merciful to His people. He will chastise us, but He will never turn His back upon us. He did that to His Son Jesus when He was hanging on the cross. Why did God turn His back upon Jesus? It was because of my sin. It was because of your sin. Jesus took the cup of wrath that should have been mine and He endured the pain and agony for me.

May I never be guilty of mocking the messengers of God or His Word.  God's grace is sufficient for all matters of life. Let us trust Him. Let us learn from the study of these kings we are blessed when we obey the Lord.

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