“Ahaz took valuable items from the LORD’s Temple…and gave them to the king of Assyria as tribute. But this did not help him. Even during this time of trouble, King Ahaz continued to reject the LORD. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him…
The king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the LORD’s Temple so that no one could worship there….”
2 Chronicles 28:21-22, 24 NLT
It appears that King Ahaz wanted nothing to do with the LORD. In fact, he cast images for worshipping Baal, burned incense to the gods of pagan nations, and made his sons walk through fire. And despite troubles that came into his life, Ahaz continued to reject the Lord!
Even though Ahaz didn’t want relationship with God, it’s interesting that he still tried to “use” the symbols of relationship to bribe his way out of trouble. And when those sacred items didn’t result in the “magic” he wanted, Ahaz turned his anger toward God. He took the sacred articles from the Temple, broke them to pieces, and then shut the doors of the Temple so no one could worship there.
Do we ever act the same? We want to go our own way, so we close our hearts to God’s presence—we shut the door to our temple. Then when we run into trouble, we try to “use” pieces of that stale relationship to buy our way out. But when our “magic” words or duties don’t work like we expected, we become angry and blame God.
Sometimes we don’t want relationship, but we want its benefits! However, God doesn’t owe us any “get out of trouble” cards. His blessings flow through relationship.
Don’t shut the door to your heart and lose the blessings of relationship!
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