The last couple of days we have looked at Azariah’s council to Asa. The next part of that council is 2 Chronicles 15:5 – 6 (here @ Bible Gateway). I am calling this series of posts “Preface to Distraction,” these verses are part of Azariah preparing Asa for what he was going to encounter.
We would do well to listen to Azariah as well. The core of his message is that things have been in the toilet before. People have abandoned the Lord in the past. The reality is that they will do so again. The first part of the exhortation is that even for those people if they seek the Lord he will let them find them.
In our lives, when we are going through difficulty, we can become laser focused on our situation. We forget, or better, do not consider that others have been through similar or worse and will do so again. Azariah’s exhortation to Asa would be a good place to turn at times like that. We should acknowledge that others have had it as bad or worse. We should take comfort in the reality that if we seek Him, He will let us find Him.
That is really good news.
In our lives, when we are going through difficulty, we can become laser focused on our situation. We forget, or better, do not consider that others have been through similar or worse and will do so again. Azariah’s exhortation to Asa would be a good place to turn at times like that. We should acknowledge that others have had it as bad or worse. We should take comfort in the reality that if we seek Him, He will let us find Him.
That is really good news.
The great "pessimist" of the Bible observed, "That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9
ReplyDeleteI usually see him as a courageous realist, cutting through the religious garbage that tends to surface in every age offering little other than "positive thinking" toward a solution. The Apostle Paul reminded us that everything written in the Old Testament was recorded there for a reason, that we would learn from the examples of these ancient people of God (1 Cor.10:11).
Having just finished a study of the prophet Daniel with a group of men and was staggered with the relevant lessons of Daniel and his friend's experiences in the pagan Persian court.
If there was an "age of Distractions" they were in one. And so are we.