{"id":7009,"date":"2015-10-14T00:05:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T07:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7009"},"modified":"2015-10-13T11:21:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:21:03","slug":"no-way-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/14\/no-way-out\/","title":{"rendered":"No Way Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LORD said to me:<\/p>\n

Even if Moses and Samuel were here, praying with you, I wouldn\u2019t change my mind. So send the people of Judah away. And when they ask where they are going, tell them that I, the LORD, have said: <\/p>\n

Some of you are going to die
\nof horrible diseases.
\nOthers are going to die in war
\nor from starvation.
\nThe rest will be led away
\nto a foreign country.
\nI will punish you
\nin four different ways:
\nYou will be killed in war
\nand your bodies dragged off
\nby dogs,
\nyour flesh will be eaten by birds,
\nand your bones will be chewed on
\nby wild animals.
\nThis punishment will happen
\nbecause of the horrible things
\nyour King Manasseh did.
\nAnd you will be disgusting
\nto all nations on earth.
\nPeople of Jerusalem,
\nwho will feel sorry for you?
\nWill anyone bother
\nto ask if you are well? (Jeremiah 15:1-5)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks, we needed that. Hezekiah was described as one of the best kings of Judah. In contrast, his son, Manasseh, was considered one of the worst to ever sit upon the throne of David. Despite that, he reigned longer than any other Jewish king: fifty-five years. He rejected the reforms that his father had made and reverted to the worship of Baal and Asherah, building multiple altars and high places for them. He burned his son as an offering, practiced soothsaying and consulted with mediums and wizards. He led the people of Judah far away from Yahweh. God blamed him for the destruction that was coming from the Babylonians. <\/p>\n

Josiah\u2019s subsequent reforms were inadequate. The judgment upon the nation had become inevitable. Moses had prayed for the Israelites after they had made the golden calves while he was getting the Ten Commandments. God had wanted to destroy the Israelites and raise up a new nation to replace them, but Moses\u2019 prayer had convinced God to spare them. Samuel had led Israel, gotten them not one but two kings, including David who had established Israel as a powerful kingdom. But even Moses and Samuel would not be able to help Israel now. <\/p>\n

God\u2019s point, of course, was simply that nothing but the coming discipline would be able to fix his people. God knew what his people really needed. They didn\u2019t need Moses and Samuel. They needed Jeremiah and the Babylonians. Whatever God does to us is what we needed to happen to us. <\/p>\n

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The LORD said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel were here, praying with you, I wouldn\u2019t change my mind. So send the people of Judah away. And when they ask where they are going, tell them that I, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7013,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions\/7013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}