In 2 Kings 25 the exile for the sons of Israel has come to fulfillment. For generations the people drifted away from worshiping God and the kingdom of Babylon comes to carry off the people of Judah into exile just as Isaiah told Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:17,18. The city of Jerusalem was rased and all the wealth of the city was carried off into Babylon. Will good come from the Israelites being taken away into exile in Babylon? Can you imagine being taken away from the comfortable life you have known to be placed in a foreign land? How would you view life if everything you knew and held dear were stripped away from you? How does the adversity that we endure change out lives?
Did it pain God to send the Israelites into exile? When God refines people to be used for His glory does it pain Him? I think about how a crucible is used to refine metal by melting it and allowing impurities to be taken away in the slag leaving the metal behind in a purer state. Did the exile have a refining effect on the people? Is there hope to be found in exile? I think we want to believe that spiritual refinement will be a pain free experience that will happen as we sleep. The building of our faith only comes from the testing of it in moments where we are guaranteed to fail but in that time of failure we grow in our dependance on God. The exile of the sons of Israel will lead them to a closer walk with God but it will take the loss of all the idols they built to consume their lives. In the midst of being refined I guarantee that we would all desire to stay put and not improve but once we come through the fire and look back on our lives we will never regret the walk we took with God.
What idols have rooted themselves in your life? Do you truly desire that God removes? If you choose to ask God to remove the idols from your life He will be faithful to help you. It will not be a pain free but you will be improved from the encounter with God.
