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2 Kings 17:9-13 Things done in secret - Day 308

Good evening fellow sojourners

Listened to another Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon on Romans 8 last week.  He pointed out that the motivation for holiness should be what sin does to God and not what it does to us.  I  quench the Spirit when I sin.  It is an affront to God.  I am to put to death the deeds of the body so that I do not offend Him, not because of any negative consequence to me personally.  Today's passage is an example.

Blessings,

Jeff

The sad summary of northern kingdom's entire existence.

How can author say that people did things in secret against the Lord that were not right?  Certainly they may have thought that God did not see what they were doing.  But the testimony of scripture is clear that God sees all things and is much displeased with the sin of having other gods.  And God sent prophets galore to warn them. When there are pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and every green tree, these are very public acts.  It seems that it was the vast majority of the people who were involved.  So I can't see this as being in secret from other people.

This made me think about current leaders like Ravi Zacharias.  When the truth finally came out, there were people who should have known and possibly did know, but they didn't do anything or say anything.  So his acts were "in secret" in the sense that people closed their eyes to what was there to be seen.

Israel was doing the wrong things for over 200 years.  So maybe the individual and corporate conscience became harder and harder.  Doing wrong was the norm, so it is hard to see it when everyone is doing it.    A modern example is abortion.  Everyone knows what happens to the unborn child during an abortion, but it is done in a medical context and the courts say it is constitutional, so it can't really be wrong. can it?  Human trafficking is another "in plain sight" evil.

So the application has to be, What am I doing that is wrong that seems to be in secret?  People may not know, but God does.

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