Blindness

2 Kings 25:6-7
So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

The king of Babylon didn’t play with Zedekiah! Can you imagine the last thing you see is your sons being slain in cold blood? As I read this today, it reminded me of how truly wicked and cruel the world is and how incredibly irresponsible Zedekiah was. He was king in Jerusalem under Babylonian reign. While I would applaud him for standing against Babylon, he had no power with God so his efforts were in vain. In fact he terribly offended God in following after the traditions of Manasseh and Jeroboam who turned Israel to idolatry, even defiling the very temple of God.

Zedekiah was certainly no Josiah, his heart was not tender to the words of God and he paid dearly for trying to preserve his kingdom instead of God’s Kingdom. God points out in 2 Kings 24:19 that after 11 years of ruling in Jerusalem that he was as evil as Jehoiakim before him.

Here is the devotional thought God brought to me from the life of Zedekiah. When we who are in a position to follow God , instead turn to idolatry (which is also defined as covetousness in Colossians 3:5) we risk seeing our children destroyed by the world right before our eyes.

This passage serves as a strong admonition to me to follow the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. While Satan would like to blind me, he will not be so nice to my heritage. The last thing The Father heard his son say before he died was, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Praise God for Jesus tender heart and God's amazing grace!