READING: 2 Kings 9-10, John 10:1-21
I grieve today for the 3 billion+ people in the world who have little or no access to the gospel. Many of them are following false gods that have no power. They are just as impotent as Baal was in today’s Old Testament reading—and that reality breaks my heart.
Jehu had determined to lead religious reform, perhaps to eradicate the influence of Ahab on the Northern Kingdom. That reform included Jehu’s orchestrating the deaths of the servants of Baal whom he gathered in the temple of that false god. There, Baal could not protect his own prophets, nor could he guard the images and statues of idolatry in the temple. Indeed, he could not even secure the temple itself—and the people turned it into a latrine. I cannot fathom a more obvious sign of the powerlessness of a god: the temple in which he was worshiped was now a place of dung.
That’s why I grieve for the world’s lost peoples—they can have no real hope in false gods. And, I’m even mindful today of family and friends here in the States who, while they may not always be following the false gods of another world religion, are nonetheless living for something that will not last.
PRAYER: “Father, use me to get the gospel to the nations. Free people from their bondage to false gods.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Kings 11-13, John 10:22-42
