Not Listening

Joshua 1:7-9; 2 Kings 25:5-7: (The LORD said to Joshua as he approached Jericho) "Be strong and courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from you mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go . . . . But the Babylonian army pursued the king (Zedekiah) and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon."

The conflation of these two stories from Scripture is presented to illustrate a point that is very relevant to us today. In the book of Joshua, we find that the Israelites were about to cross over the Jordan to inherit the land that God had promised to Abraham hundreds of years before. The Israelites had been in captivity under the oppressive Egyptians for over 400 years and had wandered in the Sinai wilderness for 40 years. Now the time had come for God's covenant community to enter the blessed land that had been secured by their LORD. God told their leader, Joshua to be courageous, for the LORD would bring success to the Israelites and He would accompany them wherever they went. The only stipulation was for the Israelites to live a life surrendered to the Lord by being obedient to His commands. God instructed the people to meditate upon the Scriptures throughout the day, so that God's Word would dwell within their hearts . . . convicting them of any sin and guiding them to the truth of obedience of God's Law.

To reinforce this dictate, God sent the Commander of His Heavenly Army with sword drawn, to appear before Joshua (see Joshua 5:14-15). Joshua was overwhelmed by the splendor of God's mighty presence and fell facedown to the ground in humble submission. Joshua knew that God's greatness was there, and the leader of the Israelites took off his sandals in respect of the holiness of God.

When we fast forward nearly 1000 years, we find the king of Judah, Zedekiah, fleeing from the Promised Land in response to the invading Babylonian army. Zedekiah was the last of a number of wicked kings who led the covenant community through centuries of abject rebellion against the LORD. To be true to His patience and longsuffering, the LORD sent a number of prophets to warn the people that rebellion against His holiness would end in utter disaster for the Israelites; but they would not listen. Many of these prophets of the One True God were executed for their proclamations of judgment; their messages were not the politically correct words of approval for the licentious behavior of the people. They enjoyed their gross immorality and wickedness and did not want anyone telling them that what they were doing was utterly detestable to God. They were not unlike the wicked man mentioned in Job 15 that "shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty." They wanted to do whatever their heart desired, even if that meant doing that which was counter to God's commands as mentioned in Scripture.

To be sure, the Israelites of the days of Zedekiah did not revere God's Word as God had instructed them to do in Joshua 1. They did not meditate upon its truths, but rather they shunned God's Word in favor of their own false reasoning. They were able to rationalize any type of behavior as being just, provided that it met their expectation of self-fulfillment.

God would be true to His Word! As He had promised in Deuteronomy 28:49-53, so He enacted His Righteous wrath against the covenant community. The days of God's patience were over; now He sent the mighty Babylonians to invade the Promised Land. Over a period of several decades, the Babylonians sacked the land, taking many of the Israelites into captivity and destroying the cities that had been built. In Jerusalem, the temple, the royal palace, and the city walls were all destroyed. Everything was left in ruins and would remain so for 70 years.

The irony is found in the 2 Kings passage quoted above, for we find that the last king of Judea, Zedekiah, is fleeing from Jerusalem and is moving east toward the Jordan River to escape the pursuing Babylonians. As the Lord would have it, Zedekiah was captured on the plains of Jericho . . . the very place where God had told the Israelites that their obedience would assure them victory and possession of the Promised Land.

King Zedekiah was captured and taken to Riblah where he was forced to watch the executions of his sons before he was blinded by his enemies, bound in shackles, and imprisoned in Babylon for the remainder of his life (see Jeremiah 52:11). The descendants of Abraham that had so much opportunity for blessing, lost everything because they stopped listening.

This is a good word for us today. Even now we see our nation following the same perilous path of disobedience against the commands of the One True God as the Israelites 2600 years ago. We are blessed that the Lord is patient, "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (see 2 Peter 3:9). Still, to be true to His Holiness, the Lord will not permit the wicked to go unpunished.

What is the answer? First we would do well to heed the Words that God shared with Joshua, namely to meditate upon the Scriptures and to live a life of surrender to the One True God. Obedience to the LORD is the only way to divert God's Righteous wrath. Start today by confessing your sins against the Lord and receiving God's mercy through His Son, Jesus Christ. Commit yourself to the Lord and find salvation in Him!