Setting up the Sequel
Our day began early. The alarm went off at 2 a.m. and we got up to travel to the airport for a flight to California. We will join Christian and Bridget and grandchildren for a week in Palm Desert. It has been since 2001 that we have been here. At that time Debbie’s aunt and uncle lived here.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…Ā “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,Ā that the word of theĀ LordĀ by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,Ā theĀ LordĀ stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:Ā āThus says Cyrus king of Persia, āTheĀ Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may theĀ LordĀ his God be with him. Let him go up.āā Ā Ā 2 Chronicles 36:22,23 ESV
Have you ever come to the end of a book or a movie and you can tell the way that the story ends that it is set up for a sequel. In other words, there is more of the story to be told. The final chapter and outcome has not been revealed or recorded.
Such is the case with the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. This repeated account of what is recorded in 2 Kings focuses only on the Kingdom of Judah. It is the chronicles of Judah’s kings and their history and the record of their idolatry and God’s judgment and the eventual captivity in Babylon.
But that was not the “end of the story.” Judah would not be like the tribes of the northern kingdom Israel, who were conquered by the Assyrians and became referred to as the “lost tribes of Israel.” The Lord had promised David a lasting dynasty. A dynasty that would include the “one” who would “reign over the house of Jacob [David] and of His kingdom there would be no end.”Ā (Luke 1:33)
The last verse of 2 Chronicles do not end with God’s people in captivity, but with an indication of the fulfillment of the hope and future that the Lord had promised His people at the end of 70 years.
The simple message for our lives is that the Lord provides a sequel for that which we experience and for our journey with Him. In the words of baseball great, Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over, til its over.” God is continuing to work out the “story” of our life. We may feel at a dead end, we may feel that our “life is over” due to hardship or heartache. But the Lord is getting ready to “write the next chapter.” He is showing us the He is continuing His work for “His good purpose in our lives.” (Philippians 1:6; 2:13)
Prayer for today…..Ā Lord thank you for the sequels to the story of our lives. Allow us to believe and see that You are a good who is continually working in our lives and accomplishing Your good purpose in and through us, until You “write” the final chapter.