TEXTS AND APPLICATION: Sometimes we completely miss who God is. In today’s readings, Sennacherib King of Assyria sent letters of psychological warfare to the people of Jerusalem as he prepared to attack them. Listen to the content of these letters:
2 Chron. 32:17 He also wrote letters to mock Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying against Him: “Just like the national gods of the lands that did not deliver their people from my power, so Hezekiah’s God will not deliver His people from my power."
Here was Sennacherib’s problem: he assumed that the God of the Hebrews was just like the gods of the other nations he had already conquered. He could not have been more wrong.
- The gods/idols of the nations were made by human hands; God made those human hands that wrongly created those idols.
- The gods of the nations had eyes but could not see, ears but could not hear, and mouths but could not speak. The God of the Hebrews sees everything, hears the prayers of His people, and calls the world into existence with His words.
- The gods of the nations could not protect their people from the Assyrian armies; God, though, would send an angel to annihilate those same Assyrian forces.
- The god of the Assyrian king could not even protect the king from being murdered; God, on the other hand, will protect and keep His own people forever.
How many billions of people today still worship false gods, not even knowing there is a true God? Our God is NOT AT ALL like the other gods, and the nations need to know.
Might God be calling you to go to the nations? Might He be calling me? Might He be calling you to lead your church to engage the nations more intentionally ?
PRAYER: “Lord, please make us open to doing whatever You ask so people following false gods will know about the one and only true God.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Nahum 1-3