Falling Into the Hand of God

Welcome to the Lord's Challenge, our weekly quarter-hour broadcast, bringing the reality of God's Word to all people everywhere. Stay tuned as Joshua Daniel challenges us to a walk with God and the corresponding impact that will have on our lives, families and society today. If we turn to the 12th chapter, 2nd Chronicles 12 and look at 5 and 6, Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and lo the princes of Judah that were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak and that was the king of Egypt who invaded them because of Shishak and said unto them, Thus said the Lord, you have forsaken me and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

My going from the hands of God into the hands of the king of Egypt. What a transition! What a dismal declension! Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and they said, The Lord is righteous. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know my service in the service of the kingdoms of the countries. My what a difference between serving the Lord and becoming the servants of the king of Egypt, that they may know my service. Some of us don't even realize what we have spiritually inherited.

You know I feel very sad when I see people make light of their heritage in Christ. There is a such a heritage of truth given to us today, but we have not completely as I would say, welcomed that body of truth. It seems like an inconvenience, you see.

And we feel we are strictly inhibited or restricted by all these things that are just no-go places. All right, when you see some of these roads going through the desert areas of the United States, and all around cactus and bushes, you dare not go off the road, can you? If you do, you do that to your own peril. There's no water available, there are no rescuers who will come to you speedily, and nobody thinks of riding off into the desert, because they know that they're imperiling their lives.

Well, we just steer off and veer off wherever we please, and then we blame God. Does it make any sense? Who asked you to drive into the desert? Who asked you to choose the service of the king of Egypt, that you must know that you're not going to be happy under his service? See, we don't even seem to rejoice in the service of our king. That is a sad thing.

Should somebody goad you like an elephant is goaded sometimes. What nonsense? I am serving the king of kings. There's no greater, better service, and we treat it lightly.

You know, when I see anybody treating the body of truth which God has given us, and some of the body of truth to trickle down to us, percolate, is not easy at all. Takes a long while, and a lot of resistance from us. And then we seem to say, yes, this seems to be the right thing.

This seems to be true. I had better shape up and pay some attention. But friends, look at this.

When they saw Jerusalem invaded and sacked. Sacked is a British, very British phrase. And you would call it looted or defrauded.

You see, when Jerusalem was sacked, here were the wealth, the treasures. Ninth verse. So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house.

He took all. You know, one of the things that took place in the last war was the awful fear that Russian forces would first invade Germany. They did not want to fall into the hands of the Russian looters and rapers.

So they were waiting to fall into the hands of the American army. Oh, it was a very trying time when the treasures of many stately houses are treasures. And some of them were either trashed or carried away to Russia.

You see, they didn't expect any justice from the Russian forces. They didn't expect any mercy. And as one person told me that when a gun, an American soldier leveled his gun at this German man, who later became a great entrepreneur and inventor, he said, I have five children.

And the soldier put down his gun. You see, that kind of mercy, that kind of kindness and treatment, the people, the conquered people did not expect at the hands of the Russians. There were a bunch of godless people raised up in communism.

So here when the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, he took all, ninth verse, he carried away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. So the walls were bare in the guardhouse. So what did the king do? He said, instead of that, of these shields of gold, King Rehoboam made shields of brass.

That's exactly what we've been doing. You see, instead of real money, it is just paper money, borrowed money. Now instead of golden shields that decorated the walls, brass and shields were made.

And now we like to put up the appearance. You know, the Christian appearance is a very dignified thing. Oh, it gives us anywhere a sense of dignity and a sense of worth, the Christian identity.

Now in the place of the real thing, if you have to set up an imitation, a brass and shield, well, with all the polish that you can give brass, it does glitter. It looks beautiful. You know, the British doorman used to keep the British doors with their handles gleaming and they would keep working at that, cleaning them up with the brasso.

That was an old brand by which you would make old brass glitter. And with the brasso, they would work at them. But brass is brass.

Gold is gold. You can put up an appearance and for a while, but then the glitter fades, the dark hues turn up. Now, this King Rehoboam used to humble himself just to tide over the crisis.

So what rot is that? We must learn lessons by which we never return to the vomit again. Now, when you have determined that something in your life is not right, you've got to say, no, I'm not returning to the vomit again. That is love of the truth.

We must take it, folks. Let us pray. Loving Father, we seem to be far from the standards which Thou has set before us.

We cannot amend them. They are truth. Oh, my Father, and let not our humbling be just to tide over the immediate crisis, but let our humbling be true.

Hear our prayer in Jesus' holy name. Amen. The speaker on this program was Joshua Daniel.

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