Given into Enemy Hands

The People of God Set Priorities
Hope and Confidence Come from God
Obey the Lord

2 Chronicles 36:15-21  (The Message)

God, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent warning messages to them. Out of compassion for both his people and his Temple he wanted to give them every chance possible. But they wouldn’t listen; they poked fun at God’s messengers, despised the message itself, and in general treated the prophets like idiots. God became more and more angry until there was no turning back—God called in Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who came and killed indiscriminately—and right in The Temple itself; it was a ruthless massacre: young men and virgins, the elderly and weak—they were all the same to him.
And then he plundered The Temple of everything valuable, cleaned it out completely; he emptied the treasuries of The Temple of God, the treasuries of the king and his officials, and hauled it all, people and possessions, off to Babylon. He burned The Temple of God to the ground, knocked down the wall of Jerusalem, and set fire to all the buildings—everything valuable was burned up. Any survivor was taken prisoner into exile in Babylon and made a slave to Nebuchadnezzar and his family. The exile and slavery lasted until the kingdom of Persia took over.
This is exactly the message of God that Jeremiah had preached: the desolate land put to an extended sabbath rest, a seventy-year Sabbath rest making up for all the unkept Sabbaths.

 
For Reflection

Humans are capable of great  destruction, mercilessness and injustices.  No less now than in Biblical times.  These tyrannies, are a result of greed and desire for self-fulfillment.  They are a result of Godlessness.  They are a result of unkept Sabbaths. 

 

Pray

That you hold the Sabbath close and observe it as a remembrance of God and God's intentions for reconciliation and the healing of human kind.  Pray for those who reject God in favor of self-fulfillment.