Encouragement

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Around 920 BC, because of the foolishness of King Rehoboam, the Hebrew nation spilt (1 Kings 12). The result was the northern tribes (Israel) under Jeroboam, and the southern Tribes (Judah) under Rehoboam. There were no good kings ever in the north. The people followed in the sin pattern of idolatry of whomever was reigning. In 722 BC, God allowed the Assyrians to capture and wipe out the northern tribes. To this day, that lineage is still broken, never to return. Although there were some good kings in the south coupled with seeing their brethren to the north face God's ire, that did not keep the southern tribes from falling to the same fate in 586 BC when they were captured by the Babylonians (Chaldeans). By the grace of God a remnant was preserved who were the ancestors of today's state of Israel.

You may be asking what this has to do with the price of gas at the pumps. Well, it was 198 years after Israel's idolatry that God stopped in and said no more. It was 334 before he put the kibosh on Judah. Throughout those years. the people never paid attention to the fact their nation was deteriorating. Because it didn't immediately blow up they felt things were copasetic. They continued to laugh, play, and make a mockery of God.

Sometimes that's how the judgment God works. It's slow and methodical but always fulfilling its purposes. One to purge the sin. The other an opportunity to repent.

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