Imagine the most treasured possession we own. What is it? A spouse? A child? Maybe it’s something material, like a family heirloom that cannot be replaced at any cost.
What would cause us to abandon something we once held dear and precious? How desperate would we be to cast aside our most loved possession?
When the American West was being settled, the pioneers loaded all sorts of precious items into their wagons, things that were priceless to them, things they simply could not bear to leave behind: wardrobes, washbasins, and even the pets they loved.
Yet we have photographs showing these things abandoned along the trail. If they were precious enough to choose at the beginning of the trip, what made them into something to later cast aside?
It was the circumstances. Back in St. Louis, it was easy to justify carrying Grammy’s cedar chest, rather than loading an extra sack of grain. When the oxen were thin, and stomachs were hungry, it became a matter of life and death.
Life prevailed.
Does God ever have to make the choice between life and death? Does he have to choose between what he will keep and what he will toss aside, in order that his people might live?
In 2 Kings 21:10-16, God makes one of the hardest decisions in the entire Bible. He chooses to abandon his children.
Verses 10-11 tell us what motivated God to such a desperate act. Manasseh, king of Judah, was more evil than even the wicked Amorites.
Verses 12-14 describe the punishments God planned to send upon Judah. His punishments would be so profound that people’s ears would tingle when they heard the stories. He would wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, even turning it upside down to clean the filth from the underside. He would forsake his people, giving them over as spoils to their enemies.
Verses 15-16 give God’s justification for casting his chosen people aside. It was their king, Manasseh. What would motivate God to toss Manasseh and his cohorts from the wagon? Manasseh was killing the innocent and forcing his countrymen to assist him in his murders.
Life had to prevail.
God chooses us because we are precious unto him. He desires us to offer hope to the weary and life to the dying. God chooses life over death.
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