Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

BROKEN RECORD

February 9, 2010

Remember the old days, Remember the old days, Remember the old days...? You had a scratch in a record, or even a little break, and sound would get stuck replaying over and over again the same thing?
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Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year....He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord...
- 2 Kings 8:26,27 TNIV

King Ahaziah is just a scratch on a broken record. The last chapters of 2 Kings is the sorry, degenerating story of king after king getting worse and worse than the previous king. So much for a judgmental angry God! God had more than enough reason to wipe the slate clean, yet we read, "Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah..." (2 Kings 8:19) or at least for the time being, the people of God at large.

One response to such words is, "If God does not judge, why repent, why try to get it right?" But I suggest another response: "With such great patience and grace, aren't we fools not to turn to faithfulness? What will we do if we neglect such mercy?" In Christ we have the opportunity to fix the broken record.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson