Human Response 499: Forsake the Lord and Worship Other Gods

2 Chronicles 7:22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshiped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

In future years, when God’s people are in captivity and the temple is destroyed, the world will ask, “Why has the Lord done this?” The answer: Because they forsook the Lord and worshipped other gods. Israel was saved from the world (Egypt) by grace, and then Israel was destroyed by the world (Babylon) by sin. The Lord did it, through a worldly instrument, because they responded to God’s grace and salvation by rejecting Him and looking for good from other sources (false gods with false promises).

So why? It was not God’s fault, or the world’s fault, but my own fault. We do not want to accept this verdict, so we blame others and ignore God. The better response to grace and salvation is daily repentance and receiving the blessing of forgiveness by faith in Christ. We acknowledge our own sin and blame, and we look to God alone as the source of all good. We confess, “I am bad, but God is good.” Daily repentance and faith is how the Christian lives life. This truth must be revealed to us: forgetting God brings evil; remembering God brings good.