2 Crônicas 32

2 Crônicas 32

Spurgeon - Morning and Evening —2 Chronicles 32:31 THE TEST OF HEZEKIAH'S HEART God left ('azab; LXX - egkataleipo) him alone only to test (nacah/nasah LXX = peirazo) him If the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the favour of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal security, the grace of God was for a time ("God left him"), in its more active operations, withdrawn. Here is quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness: you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would reel to and fro, and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws himself. Therefore let us cry to God never to leave us. “Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us! Withdraw not from us thine indwelling grace! Hast thou not said, ‘I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day’? Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need thee, O our God!” Even the godliest believer becomes dangerously weak and corrupt when God’s sustaining grace is withdrawn, so our only safety—like Hezekiah’s lesson—is to cling humbly and prayerfully to the Lord who alone keeps us in every season of life. WHY GOD BRINGS TRIALS IN THE LIFE OF BELIEVERS - God brings trials in our lives to humble us of our pride, stripping away self-exaltation so that we learn true dependence on Him; to empty us of self-confidence, exposing the inadequacy of our own strength and wisdom; to mold us into the likeness of the Man of Sorrows, conforming us to Christ through suffering; to wean us from the present world, loosening our grip on temporal comforts and fixing our hope on eternal realities; to use us as witnesses through suffering, making our endurance a testimony that advances the gospel; to drive us to persistent prayer, where need presses us into deeper communion with God; and ultimately to mature us into greater spiritual strength and usefulness, producing endurance, proven character, and a life more fully equipped for His service. (Summary from Geoffrey Kirkland's outline) Bob