Reflection for Today ▶️ ⏹️

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For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing / And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
2 Kings 17:12,15

Written after all the events have happened and Israel is enslaved, the second book of Kings documents the decline of Israel, indicating that each battle loss, each occupation by heathen nations was due to disobedience. Israel was God's chosen people, so the only way they could have ended up a slave nation, must be by direct rejection of God. Second Kings tells us how, and the first part of chapter seventeen encapsulates the mood and behaviour of several generations. The kings and their people were driven by fear, vanity, ego, power, short-term gain, and glory. Faith, trust in God for the long term barely entered their minds.

So it is today. We seek short term gain too: quick profits for little effort, instant satisfaction, immediate gratification, stuff and more stuff, these are the idols we worship today. An idol is there. It can be seen. We can see the state of our bank accounts, we can hear (and bask in) the accolades of those that admire us for our wealth, our power, our fine house, beautiful wife, privately-educated, successful children. Even a new car or appliance brings satisfaction as it offers us attention and status. Yet it is all vanity. Our focus on self and ownership takes us away from community and away from God (the big picture, the observer), causes us to destroy the very world that gives us life. The fall documented in Second Kings continues today, and will continue into the future as long as we continue to value and worship the golden calves we have created by our own hands.