“And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and all the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said” (2 Kings 24:13).
TEXT — 2 Kings 24:8-16
Message
Historical accounts show several accurate human predictions due to the application of research, analysis, and creativity. One such is the Titanic Disaster. In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote a novella called “Futility.” It was about a massive ocean liner called the SS Titan that sank into the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The similarities between the story and the real-life sinking of the RMS Titanic in1912 are striking. Both ships were described as “unsinkable”; both were the largest ships in the world at that time; they had similar speeds and routes, and finally, both sank on a cold April night after striking an iceberg. And in 1985, an oceanographer, Robert Ballard, predicted that the Titanic wreckage would be found at a depth of around 12,500 feet in the North Atlantic. This prediction was accurate as the wreckage was discovered on September 1, 1985.
If these and other human predictions can be as accurate, one should not expect less of the declarations of the infinite God. Our text today records one such accurate fulfilment of divine predictions. It is the short chronicle of the wicked reign of King Jehoiachin of Judah, his exile to Babylon, and the plundering of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, precisely as God had indicated through Prophet Jeremiah.
God’s words will never fail, whether they are warnings and predictions of judgment on rebellion and sins, or promises and prophecies of hope and blessings. When God speaks, they will surely come to pass as He says they would. Man’s unbelief, defiance, continued rebellion, and the passage of time cannot alter the words of God nor stop them from being fulfilled. Although man’s predictions are not always guaranteed to come to pass, everything God had said in the past have been fulfilled to the letter. In the same way, all that He has said concerning our lives today and the world’s future will be fulfilled with the same exactitude.
What, then, should be our attitude to God’s words? Faith and obedience! Just as God pronounced judgment upon Judah and her kings because of their sins and rebellion, so has He pronounced judgment and doom on all unrepentant sinners. Those who truly believe God’s word will tremble, repent and receive pardon. But those who choose to scorn and continue in their sins in defiance of God will one day wake up to the startling reality of its fulfilment. Then, it would be too late.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
