God now gives some specific details of what would happen. God is in control of all events and knows what is going to happen. At one point Babylon would be faced with a choice, whether to attack Judah and Jerusalem or Rabbah of the Ammonites. At that point Nebuchadnezzar would seek an omen to guide his next steps. He would use three different methods of divination to seek advice.
Babylon would chose to attack Jerusalem. The leaders in Jerusalem would say it was a false omen, possibly arguing he had sought advice from false gods (which indeed he had) and so meant nothing. Jerusalem would still be saved, they would say. But the encouragement the people in Jerusalem would mean nothing as their hearts were not right with God.
Verse 24 sums up the situation. Since they had rebelled against the Lord they would be taken captive. There is a great tendency among humans to put faith in things. Sometimes these things are associated with God and we think we are putting faith in God, but we are not we are putting faith in the thing. There is an excellent example of this in 1 Samuel 4. Philistine attacked Israel, Israel brought out the ark of the covenant and it seemed as though this would bring them victory, but they were defeated and the ark was captured. Why did this happen? Because they were living in disobedience.
Conversely, we can have a superstitious fear, thinking something will go wrong because we have or have not done something (yes, as Christians we can still act superstitiously sometimes). What counts, and what determines our future is the condition of our heart and our obedience to God.
Babylon would chose to attack Jerusalem. The leaders in Jerusalem would say it was a false omen, possibly arguing he had sought advice from false gods (which indeed he had) and so meant nothing. Jerusalem would still be saved, they would say. But the encouragement the people in Jerusalem would mean nothing as their hearts were not right with God.
Verse 24 sums up the situation. Since they had rebelled against the Lord they would be taken captive. There is a great tendency among humans to put faith in things. Sometimes these things are associated with God and we think we are putting faith in God, but we are not we are putting faith in the thing. There is an excellent example of this in 1 Samuel 4. Philistine attacked Israel, Israel brought out the ark of the covenant and it seemed as though this would bring them victory, but they were defeated and the ark was captured. Why did this happen? Because they were living in disobedience.
Conversely, we can have a superstitious fear, thinking something will go wrong because we have or have not done something (yes, as Christians we can still act superstitiously sometimes). What counts, and what determines our future is the condition of our heart and our obedience to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment