I've shared many times about how God steers me on Sunday mornings and not necessarily in the same direction the pastor is steering the congregation. Something he says or a Scripture read is all it takes for the Spirit to whisk me away into an adventure with Him through the Word.
Over the past several weeks, our pastor has been preaching sermons based on the kings of the Old Testament. The blog picture is from the front of our worship guides. We are exploring one king a week, getting an overview of his life and relationship to God and His people leading up to Easter and to the King of kings, Jesus Christ.
King Hezekiah was the O.T. king scrapbooked this particular Sunday. This king of Israel did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He trusted God and held fast to Him, obeying all that the LORD commanded. (2 Kings 18:3-6)
A huge test of Hezekiah's faithfulness to God was inserted into 2 Kings 18:29-35. Hearing the twisted and distorted truth which flowed from the lips of the king of Assyria's army commander to the ears of the Israelite people, my mind flashed back to another conversation; one between Satan in the form of a serpent, and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Satan used a familiar script to entice the Israelites to doubt and disbelieve their God.
Both the serpent and the army commander question if God is really who He says He is, and if He means what He says He will do. In the garden of Eden, Eve begins to doubt in Whom she trusts, and engages the serpent in conversation. Once she engaged, she fell right into his sin trap.
The difference between the army commander questioning God's authority and power, and the serpent's placing doubt in Eve's mind, is the form in which Satan chose to speak. In Eden, Satan became a serpent. In Assyria, he spoke through an evil king's army commander.
The response to the lies was, in this case, much different. Eve chose to converse with the serpent, but the Israelites, warned by king Hezekiah not to speak a word, obeyed the king's command and remained silent.
My flashback to Eden was all about the script Satan uses every time he seeks to trip us up on our faith walks with Christ. If we engage Satan in conversation and dwell on the doubt placed in our minds, we will more than likely fall into his trap, but if we do not engage the evil one in conversation, ignore his twisted, distorted truth, by meditating on Truth we know, then we can outsmart the schemer and avoid the sin.
King Hezekiah led the Israelites well during his reign, and by knowing and obeying the commandments of God, the people defeated their sadistic enemy, Sennacherib, king of Assyria.
Please Lord, keep me engaged in conversation with You. Help me to know Your Word so well that I can distinguish between Your truth and the lies of the enemy. You died on the cross to cancel our sin debt and to provide for us a way out. Through conquering death and the grave, You provided the Way, the Truth and the Life. Keep my eyes focused on You, Lord Jesus, and my mind alert so I can get to an exit every time a trap is set.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
My Pleasure,
Melanie
Comments
Post a Comment