2 Chron. 35
I wonder what possessed Josiah to get involved in somebody else’s fight. The king of Egypt was not attacking him. He was not even attacking a nation that Josiah should have been interested in helping. Whatever the reason, he clearly did not consult God on the issue. Even so, God was gracious enough to give Josiah an escape from his rash decision. God sent word to Josiah through Neco’s envoys, but Josiah did not listen. I wonder if Josiah didn’t recognize God’s word to him because of its source. He might have expected God to speak directly to him or through one of his counselors or God’s prophets. But receiving God’s word through king Neco of Egypt? Unexpected.
What can we learn from Josiah’s unfortunate mistake? Obviously the best thing to do is to seek God earnestly before we get involved in any kind of battle. But we all make mistakes and poor decisions from time to time. So I guess the next best thing is to always make an effort to stay tuned in to God’s voice, recognizing that it can sometimes come from the most unexpected places. Furthermore, we need to always stay humble and be willing to admit when we made a bad choice. Far better to admit it and change course than to let pride compel us headlong into pending disaster.
Hab. 1-3
The books of the prophets can be hard to understand, but this is what I see in the book of Habakkuk to this point. Habakkuk sees the iniquity around him and questions God’s inaction against it. God responds by telling Habakkuk that He is sending the Chaldeans as a judgment and reproof for His people. This isn’t exactly what Habakkuk wants to hear! So he then questions why God would use an even greater wickedness to execute justice on the first. God then assures Habakkuk that all wickedness will reap its due reward in time, and that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).
Then Habakkuk prays and praises the living God, acknowledging His sovereignty. He trembles at God’s coming wrath and says, “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” (Hab 3:16b). Habakkuk chose to quietly accept God’s plan and wait for Him to act. But he didn’t stop there. He said that in the face of all the destruction, the devastation, and the hardship that was to come, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab 3:18). Habakkuk was able to rejoice because he chose to focus on God and trust in His sovereignty and His promises.
We, too, can lay our complaints before God. The world is full of iniquity and injustice. We, like Habakkuk, see it. But we, too, can receive God’s word and hear His plan for the ultimate destruction of evil and redemption for those who have taken on the righteousness of Christ – God’s remnant. And so, like Habakkuk, we can choose to wait quietly for God, rejoicing and trusting in Him.
Acts 25
Paul’s story and experience here is not unlike that of Jesus’. Both angered the Jewish leaders by speaking the truth. The leaders arrested and plotted to kill both of them. And they were both brought before the Roman authorities on false charges. But their missions were different. Thus, their responses were different. Where Jesus was silent in His own defense, Paul asserted his innocence and was given multiple opportunities to give testimony to the very truth that got him in trouble before a lot of very prominent people – people he would not likely have gotten an audience with otherwise. Also, unlike Jesus, Paul would not die in Jerusalem. In appealing to Caesar, Paul was finally given the opportunity to take his message personally to Rome. God always provides opportunity in hardship. We simply need to look for it and act when we see it.