Listen! The Lord is calling to the city…”Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save, I will give to the sword. You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil on yourselves, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine.” (Micah 6:9, 10, 13–15, NIV 1984).
My Musings – My how the tide had turned. Why? Because they failed to remember and remain true to the Lord. “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:10–12, NIV 1984).
Just the opposite of what they promised coming out of Egypt, was about to unfold at the hand of the Babylonians. A just punishment to fit the crimes committed. For they were warned. “If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:19–20, NIV 1984). They may have eventually returned to the land, but not to their former glory. Until the end.
My Advice – We must make sure this does not happen to us. “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.” (1 John 2:19, 24–25).
The Brew Is A Musing 