Finding Jesus During a Cycle of Rebellion (2 Chronicles)

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Can Jesus Christ be found in the book of 2 Chronicles? Find out with guest Olivier Melnick and hosts Tim Moore and Nathan Jones on the television program, Christ in Prophecy!

Air Date: March 20, 2022

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Key Verse Commentary

Key Verse

2nd Chronicles “A Cycle of Rebellion”

2nd Chronicles is best understood as a continuation of 1st Chronicles. In fact, the two were originally combined in a single Hebrew text.

Whereas the first book in our canon documents the wisdom manifest by David and Solomon that would prove so fleeting, the second book opens with a description of Solomon’s magnificent early reign. Under his leadership the temple was built, the nation enlarged further still, and prosperity was showered upon the land. God demonstrates His approval of Solomon’s right standing by filling the temple with His Shekinah Glory when the king finished his prayer of dedication (7:1-3).

But that heyday of Jewish national life would not last.

Solomon’s own success became his undoing. He began to accumulate foreign wives as surrounding nations entered into treaties with him. And in one year he came to take in 666 talents of gold. Solomon was not deprived into rebellion; he was lulled into complacency.

Beginning with his son and heir Rehoboam, the kings who followed David and Solomon began a long, downward spiral. Perhaps if Solomon had poured into his own son the wisdom David had shared with him or if he had modeled a life of obedience to God’s commandments, Israel’s trajectory would have been different. Instead, what ensued was a cycle of rebellion.

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Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 7:14 [If] My people who are called by My Name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Explanation: This is one of the most-quoted verses in the Old Testament. I’ve attended many National Day of Prayer ceremonies, and this is the verse that underpins all of those gatherings.

It is important to realize that God proclaimed this verse to Solomon in a night appearance. Preceding the promise of this verse, the pretext offered by God is, “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among the people…” (v. 13). This leads to an inevitable question: Why would God allow those things to happen? Why would He inflict such suffering on His people?

The answer is inferred here but clearly stated in numerous other passages: because God will not be mocked; He will discipline those He loves. If His people stray, He will punish them and drive them back to Him. Solomon recognized this aspect of God’s righteousness, justice, and mercy. In his prayer of dedication (of the temple), he listed off a host of maladies that could potentially befall Israel “because they have sinned against You” (2 Chronicles 6:24, 26). Solomon did not consider this a possibility, but an inevitability; he said, “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them…” (1 Chronicles 6:36).

Sinning against God is an inescapable condition of the human heart.

7:14 documents God’s promise to His people, Israel. He did in fact hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land—on numerous occasions. That is His character. And the principle outlined in this verse offers us insight the right heart attitude we should endeavor to manifest: humility leading to prayerful repentance. Stated simply, repentance means a change of direction. We must purpose to turn back from our evil ways and follow the Lord.

This passage is not a formula or magical incantation. In the verse immediately following, God said, “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.” He was referring to the temple. Does that mean He does not hear our prayer elsewhere? Of course not. He hears all who humble themselves, pray seeking His face, and turn from their wicked ways.

Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 7:19-20 But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

Explanation: This same chapter contains another shoe to drop. God’s promise of blessing upon Israel was not unconditional. He plainly stated that if they turned away from Him and forsook His statutes and commandments, He would cast them out of the Land He gave them as an everlasting possession.

Here’s an analogy: If I bought my son a car and had it titled in his name, the car would legally be his. But, I could simultaneously set conditions for its use, requiring that traffic laws be honored, a curfew be respected, and responsible behavior be maintained. Failure to uphold those stipulations would result in the car being impounded for a period of time. It would still belong to my son, but he would not be allowed to use it.

The same thing happened to the Jews in Israel. They did not stay true to God. They turned away from Him and did not obey His statutes and commandments. So, they were uprooted from the Land and carried away into exile and the temple was destroyed.

That happened once in antiquity when both Judah and Israel were conquered and carted off into exile. It happened again shortly after Jesus pointed to the grand temple constructed by Herod and proclaimed that not one stone would be left on another. The Jews were dispersed, and Judea became a wasteland (as documented by Mark Twain in The Innocents Abroad).

The Jewish people were repeatedly shocked that they would be held accountable for their waywardness. They scoffed at the thought that “the temple, the temple, the temple” could be cast aside by the LORD (Jeremiah 7:4). Their smugness was their undoing.

Never grow complacent about your own relationship with the Lord. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

Explanation: This was the word of truth spoken by the seer Hanani to king Asa of Judah when he relied upon the king of Aram to save his nation instead of trusting in the Lord.

Asa had initially done right in the sight of the LORD (14:2). When he went to battle against Zerah the Ethiopian and his chariot-borne army, Asa prayed to God, saying, “LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength, so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You (14:11).

The LORD routed the Ethiopians and delivered Judah.

However, as Asa grew older his faith wavered. Hearing the chastisement of Hanani, Asa was angry and put the seer in prison—as if that would improve the situation. He even lashed out and oppressed some of his own people.

2 Chronicles 16:9 stands as a beacon of hope for any whose hearts are completely devoted to God. And yet, it also demonstrates a threshold so high that none seem able to attain it. David had a heart after the Lord, but he wavered and failed. Solomon had wisdom from on high, but he succumbed to foolishness. Asa did good and right and his heart “was blameless all his days” (15:18), but he fell short in his old age. Whose heart can truly be said to be completely His?

Only Christ’s. This is why we MUST stand in the shadow of the Cross and claim Christ as our Savior and Lord. If we give our heart to Him, He will hold it securely. He will be our strong support—in this life and forevermore.

Transcript

Tim Moore: Welcome to Christ in Prophecy. Throughout our Jesus in the Old Testament series, we’ve embraced the Old Testament as literally true from the Beginning through the establishment of the kingdom of Israel in the Promised Land.

Nathan Jones: Following our golden rule of interpreting Bible prophecy, we take God at His Word, meaning that when the plain sense makes sense, we don’t look for any other sense, lest we end up with nonsense. Now, that approach treats the Bible as true history, and allows God’s Word to inform our lives even today.

Tim Moore: In our last couple of episodes, we offered a broad overview of the history of the Jewish people as the united kingdom that expanded and was blessed under David and Solomon divided into two separate kingdoms. First and Second Chronicles offers a re-telling of that historic narrative with a slightly different perspective.

Nathan Jones: Whereas 1 and 2 Kings stressed the reason Israel fell and was sent into exile, Chronicles focuses much more on David and Solomon, and on the nation of Judah. Those kings, and that kingdom, represented the line that would culminate in the Messiah. So, while Chronicles still explains why Israel disappointed the living God, it also offers hope for restoration. Once again focusing on a period from 850-600 BC, 1 and 2 Chronicles offers wisdom to nations and individuals who would aspire to receive God’s blessing.

Tim Moore: Second Chronicles also offers glimpses of God’s great mercy and grace that would be extended to all people, Jew first but Gentile alike. Our guest today brings unique insight on God’s great providence in pouring out blessing on the Jew first, but also on the Gentile.

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Part 1

Tim Moore: Many of you will recognize our guest today because he’s been with us before. Olivier Melnick is an evangelist with Chosen People Ministries. And just as the Lord will raise up 144,000 evangelists during the Tribulation, He is already raising up men like Olivier to share the Good News of our Soon Returning King, Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ. Olivier, we are so glad you could be here with us today.

Olivier Melnick: Hey, happy to be here. I want to shake your hand too.

Nathan Jones: Yes, please.

Olivier Melnick: I don’t want to make you jealous.

Tim Moore: Well, tell our viewers Olivier how you came to know Yeshua, Jesus as your Messiah.

Olivier Melnick: It was a long time ago, about 40 years ago. I actually met my wife in California, and then I went back to France. I was on a trip. And then she came to France and at some point after her arrival I wanted to, I was in love with her, I said, “I want to marry you.” And my wife is an American Gentile, here’s a French Jew, and she said, “Well, we don’t believe the same, and I don’t want to ever be separated from you, so you would have to believe like I do.” And I said, “Like well can we just agree to disagree?” She disagreed to that.

And she gave me all kinds of different cassettes to listen to and booklets and things. And then one day she gave me this book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” by Hal Lindsey. I know so many people who have come to the Lord through that book. And because she showed me all the Messianic prophies in the Bible and I was not too impressed with the Bible, it was like a history book. Was it written before or after the fact? Was it all true? It was so confusing to me, I had never opened one before. And the book impressed me. Here there is this man saying this is what is going to happen. Happened. This is what is going to happen. Happened. And then he talked about the Second Coming and he said something that to this day, if it all happened literally in the First Coming why are we to believe its not going to be literal in the Second Coming? And I’m going like if this is going to happen it makes sense.

And I read about the Rapture. Freaked out. I’m going like, oh, looks like I am going to be left behind and she is going to go. So, I remember that day asking her, “Is there anyway you can stay?” And she said, “No, I can’t stay, but you can go with us.” I said, “Oh, you can’t put any like lead shoes?” She said, “No.” And so, she had already shared the simple message of the Gospel, the death and resurrection of Yeshua for my sins, and it was a free gift, I couldn’t do anything but just to accept it, and that was it. And that is what I did. And had I known that was in 1983, so that is what? Thirty-nine years ago. And had I known—because I remember telling her, “I’ll do it but I don’t want to be a Jesus freak, okay. I just want to believe and be left alone.” And here I am traveling all over and telling people about Jesus, and that’s all I want to do. So, it is a good thing we don’t know ahead of time where God is going to take us.

Tim Moore: Isn’t that the truth. Yes, sir.

Nathan Jones: And you probably got Jesus Freak blaring on your car radio wherever you go.

Olivier Melnick: Probably, yes, something like that, yes.

Nathan Jones: Well, let’s talk about some people who weren’t Jesus freaks as we are going through 2 Chronicles. Remember if we go back that Abraham and God had a covenant. The Jewish people were supposed to be a covenant people, almost like a wife. But then we get into 2 Chronicles and it is a series of rebellions, a cycle of rebellion, over and over again. How did the Jewish people stray so far from God?

Olivier Melnick: Well, I think it’s a—more than even just the Jewish people syndrome, so to speak, I think it’s a human nature thing where we like to take matters into our own hands. I mean God has really from the beginning, from chapter 12 of Genesis He started to develop this relationship with the Jewish People. And it says in Scripture not that we are better, not because there is more of us, just because that is His prerogative. I’m going to pick you and I’m going to make it a people after My name. And then the Jewish people you look at how even the Jewish people responded to Moses when he brought the Law. He said, “We are going to do exactly what God wants us to do.” And then as soon as it got complicated, they said, “Well, maybe we can do differently.” And so how did Jewish people stray from God? Is because we trust God when it is easy. I don’t say, we the Jewish people I don’t want to stigmatize.

Nathan Jones: Right, we are just focusing on 2 Chronicles, but yeah.

Olivier Melnick: Right, human nature in general, we trust when it is easy, when it is hard, well, maybe I should do something.

Tim Moore: Well, the ancient hymn that I love says, prone to wander, Lord I feel it. We don’t just have to talk about the Jewish people it is a human condition and we are all prone to wander away from Him. And yet, the Jewish people demonstrate that in spite of their straying God’s promises are always trustworthy and true. And so, He has clearly not cast aside the Jewish people from being chosen and being a covenant of blessing, a conduit of blessing even to the rest of the world. Although too many Christians have believed into the satanic lie that God has cast aside the Jewish people.

Olivier Melnick: Well, in all of the covenants that God made with mankind in general, five of them out of the eight are made with Israel, with the Jewish people. And out of those five, except for the Mosaic Covenant the other five are unconditional, eternal, it is not God say, if you will, then I will. It’s God saying I will, because of my character, because of Who I am, I will. So, if anybody comes and say, well what God has done with Israel, God is done with the Jews because they disobeyed, they walked away, they did their own thing. You know the golden calf. There are plenty of sins of Israel in the Bible. If you say, well, God is now taking all of His promises and transferring them into another group, being the Church, you make God into a covenant breaker, and you make Him into a liar because He promised He would never do that. So, no God is not done with the Jewish people, even though more than enough we have told God, we are done with You.

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Olivier Melnick: And I’m talking about the Jews now.

Tim Moore: And too many other people as well. And God yet loves those who have not loved Him. That is demonstrated in the very Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Olivier Melnick: That’s right.

Nathan Jones: And seems like as we get through 2 Chronicles there is that cycle of mostly bad kings, a few good kings like Hezekiah and all, but it seems like the Lord constantly was trying to get the people to come back. So, even when He brought His wrath down the purpose always seemed to be to bring them back into a covenant relationship to them. Is there a lesson we can learn from that?

Olivier Melnick: Yes, that God is a very patient God.

Nathan Jones: But He doesn’t tolerate evil.

Olivier Melnick: He doesn’t tolerate evil. He’s a very patient God but if you fast-forward to today He is a very patient God and we are always one step away from being back in fellowship with God if we repent and return to Him. But that is for people who have originally put their trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I mean anybody who is not trusting Jesus, Yeshua for their sins, they are not part of that family. So, yes God is patient, and God is loving, and God is compassionate, but that is only for His family.

Nathan Jones: Right. Are there any promises made in the Old Testament, specific verses that would talk not just about individual salvation, but covenant salvation, say 2 Chronicles 7:14?

Olivier Melnick: Well, that is an interesting verse. Do you want to read it so that people know which one it is, or you going to have it on the screen?

Tim Moore: Sure, oh, we will. “And if my people who are called by Name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” A covenant made initially with Israel, not with other peoples of today.

Olivier Melnick: Right. I was going to say this is a promise to America. Not.

Nathan Jones: Not. Yeah. Though you hear many Americans say that.

Olivier Melnick: This is, okay, here it is, the big, when I look at this verse this is a promise made to the Jewish people, to Israel in the context historically. But the principle and that is what I tell people all the time, the principle is blessing for obedience. If you obey God you will be blessed. The blessing will come in different forms, but you will be blessed if you obey God it is this guarantee. But too many people have taken that verse and said, well, if America would listen to God, the land would be healed. This is not about America. It could happen in America, but this is not about America.

Tim Moore: Well, and I’ve had people actually complain, you know I did that I prayed, and I have done this, and God has to bless America because I personally have. And I say, well, just a minute, you by principle need to be praying, you need to be repentant, but this is not a formula. God’s blessing pours out on those people collectively, those nations that obey Him. And of course, we can go to chapter 7, verse 19 just a few verses later when God says, “But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and My commandments which I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you.” In other words, there is a conditional portion of His blessing even for the Jewish people. And of course, that verse was tragically fulfilled in the history of the nation of Israel and Judah. We’ve spoken of God’s faithfulness to His promises which is why Israel has been restored even today as a nation in the modern sense. But how does this verse, verse 19 and on into 20 apply to us in America or anywhere else that has once recognized the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and then turns away?

Olivier Melnick: You know, when you read this verse the first thing that comes to my mind is that when Christians want to grab hold of the blessings promised to Israel, they usually say, well, this is not turned onto us, this is all for us, but any of the curses can stay with the Jews.

Nathan Jones: Yeah.

Tim Moore: Yeah, they get those.

Olivier Melnick: So, the discipline of the Jewish people it is still for the Jews, but the blessings it is for us now; you know it is part of the Replacement Theology false doctrine. So, I don’t know if that answered your question or not? But it made me think of that when I read the discipline and its just very hypocritical in a sense.

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Tim Moore: It certainly is.

Nathan Jones: Well, I am comforted by 2 Chronicles 16:9 it says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” So not just nationally but individually as well. And it seems like for God it is never too late. We get these terrible kings like Manasseh, 50 years of terrible rebellion against God. And then you get to 2 Chronicles 23 and it describes how he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

Tim Moore: Thirty-three, actually.

Nathan Jones: Oh, excuse me, yes, 2 Chronicles 33 and he was moved by his prayer and Manasseh came to acknowledge the Lord as God. Is that a template for all rulers today?

Olivier Melnick: Well, I mean look at King David. I mean it was not too late for him. I mean King David also a man after God’s own heart, and you know he was an adultery and a murderer so its never too late to come back to God I think.

Tim Moore: And you had a personal testimony of that with your own family I think haven’t you Olivier? You talked about praying for your own parents for a period of years.

Olivier Melnick: Oh, a couple of years, 28 to be exact.

Tim Moore: Yes, 28.

Olivier Melnick: Yes, and absolutely it is never–God’s timing is perfect. And this ought to be an encouragement to people who are still praying for their family members and there are plenty of us praying for parents, siblings, children, cousins. And I prayed for my parents for 28 years and I was blessed to be able to lead both of them to the Lord on the same day.

Nathan Jones: Praise the Lord! Wow!

Olivier Melnick: Ten years ago, both Jewish parents. Mother and father escaped the Holocaust and survived the war, and here they are. They are both gone now with the Lord. But, yeah, it is never too late, it is never too late to come to the Lord, but it is too late after you die. People need to understand that. It is never too late to come to the Lord and accept what He has done, what Yeshua has done on our behalf on the cross. But once we die it is done. So, people need to think about it today.

Tim Moore: And really that is your message even at Chosen People Ministries that the Gospel message, the promise of restoration with this relationship with God is to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile. So, for our viewers today who want to bless the Jewish people, and obviously every follower of Jesus Christ should want to bless the Jewish people. How can they do that? How can they pour blessing into the Jewish people collectively and even individually?

Olivier Melnick: One of the biggest challenges I find, and I’ve been in Jewish ministry for over three decades now, one of the biggest challenge is that a lot of Christians still pray for Jewish people, pray for Israel, but they have a biblical mindset. Let me explain what I mean by that. They think of Jewish people in terms of the Bible Jews, they don’t look at modern Jews, they wouldn’t know what to do if they met a Jewish person on the street and tell them, “Oh, you need Jesus.” They say, well, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I pray for the Jewish people, without really thinking about it. But they don’t realize that there are several millions of Jewish people who actually need the Gospel, need Jesus and they don’t know how to approach them. And too often Christian are desensitized to how to properly share the Gospel with Jewish people.

We’ve talked about this before on our show, Antisemitism a lot of it came and continues to come from the Church. Misunderstanding. Misapplying of Scripture. And next thing you know you have a lot of killing of a lot of Jewish people unnecessarily. So, a Christian needs to be very, more intentional about blessing the Jews by realizing that modern Jews, modern Jewish people need the Gospel today. It’s not just about praying for the peace of Jerusalem from Psalm 122:6. It’s about being intentional about going out and either reaching out to their Jewish friends and family or supporting a mission that does but making an effort to do that. So, that’s something that I want to challenge Christians to do that.

The other thing is, we haven’t touched on that at all, and I don’t know if this is for this show or for another time, but I really believe that we are moving forward very quickly towards a time where its going to be extremely dangerous to be Jewish, and you’re going to have to rely on people you can trust. And right now, I think Bible believing, followers of Yeshua, Christians who understand the Bible and love Israel, love the Jewish people they have a chance to really be there for their Jewish friends.

Nathan Jones: Our community was pretty shaken up when the Colleyville incident happened, a terrorist came in and held a synagogue hostage.

Olivier Melnick: I was there, yeah.

Nathan Jones: Do you believe that all this Antisemitism that is growing in Iran and even increasing in the West on college campuses that God is using it to do something to achieve something with the Jewish people? Turning something for evil into good?

Olivier Melnick: That is a tough question. I’ll tell you what because I don’t want to–I’m struggling with that. I’m struggling with that because I don’t like to put God in that box. But like we have talked about this before the one prophecy that I think you can really take to the bank is right now in our lifetime is the return of the Jews in unbelief, like the later chapters of Ezekiel. The Jews will come back in unbelief and then you will be dry bones. So, we know that this is happened now for a few decades. And parallel to that we got an increase in Antisemitism. So, God is not creating Antisemitism.

Tim Moore: No.

Nathan Jones: No.

Olivier Melnick: Antisemitism, it comes from Satan.

Tim Moore: Certainly.

Olivier Melnick: Because he knows that the day that the Jewish people will corporately call on Him and say, “Baruch haba b’Shem Adonia,” blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Which is something that Yeshua said in Matthew 23, He’ll come back. Jesus is not coming back until Israel calls Him. But if Israel doesn’t exist, they can’t call Him, and then Satan’s career is going on forever and he can continue to do what He wants to do. So, we know that this is going to happen. And I have no idea why I was saying that because I forgot what I was saying before. So, bring me back.

Tim Moore: Obviously our purpose in this series is to highlight the presence of Jesus, the Messiah throughout the Old Testament, He is our Savior and Lord, but He is really throughout Scripture, not just in the New Testament. And so, where do you see evidence of Him in 2 Chronicles? We know this book is written by Ezra to give the Jewish people returning an understanding of their heritage and how God’s faithfulness to preserve and protect them, even through the exile was manifest. So, where is evidence of Jesus in 2 Chronicles?

Olivier Melnick: We see not just in Chronicles, throughout the whole Bible the preservation of the Jewish people. We should not exist. We should not exist. The Scripture that I go to that is not in Chronicles but I like is in Jeremiah 31:35-37 that God will never, ever destroy Israel. If you can count the stars, destroy the sun and the moon and then I will forsake Israel, for all that they have done to Me. And funny in that verse, the last part of the verse, “For all that they have done to Me.” So, God again saying they have disobeyed, but I promise I would never change my mind. Even there He says, “You know I will not do it even though for all they have done to Me.” You know all the disobedience. So, I see throughout the whole Tanach, the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, God’s faithfulness in disciplining the Jewish people, but always looking at bringing them back to Him for the purpose, like we see at the end of the Tribulation the surviving Jewish people were all corporately asking Him to, “we missed You the first time, You are the Messiah we want you to come back.”

Nathan Jones: That’s amazing. Well, you serve with Chosen People Ministries. Can you tell us briefly a little about it and how they can get in touch with you?

Olivier Melnick: Yes, I’ve been with the organization for 24 years now, I serve as the Southwest Regional Director. I recently moved to the Dallas area; we are loving it here. So, I serve in that capacity. It is chosenpeople.com. They can get a hold of a lot of material there. Also, I have a website, one that I put a lot of information on: newantisemitism.com. And a lot of videos on my YouTube Channel: Olivier Melnick Today Through Jewish Eyes. So, that should cover everything, if you want to find us.

Tim Moore: Well, Olivier I am so glad that we are co-laboring for the Messiah right here close at hand, near as you have moved to the Dallas area, meaning that you could easily join us today, and that you can come back. And we want you to come back, and I’m certainly glad that the Lord God has raised you up and strongly supported your ministry to be one whose heart is completely His, as it is your own.

Olivier Melnick: Thank you. It is a delight being with you and your ministry. I’ve known about your ministry for a long time and I have followed it. You are doing great things for the kingdom and it just warms my heart. And you love Israel and the Jewish people so it doesn’t get any better than that.

Tim Moore: Certainly, it is.

Part 2 Sign of the Time: Rebels for a Cause

Tim Moore: In 1955, James Dean starred in Rebel Without a Cause a movie focused on the angst of American youth. That film seemed to capture the drift toward moral ambivalence that swept the world in the 1960s and 70s.

Following the fecklessness of western leadership exemplified by Jimmy Carter, strong leadership emerged on both sides of the Atlantic with principled leaders like Ronald Reagan in America, Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, and Brian Mulroney in Canada. Since that time, we’ve come a long way, and not in the right direction.

Evidence of moral rot is all about us. But sometimes it is jolting to see how dramatic the stakes are as we look inside while standing outside.

For several years, Canada has been led by an immature, self-absorbed narcissist, Justin Trudeau. Following in his own father’s Socialist footsteps as Prime Minister, he has upended long-cherished freedoms in our neighbor to the north. Under Trudeau, Canada’s parliament has already outlawed speech that contradicts the sexual revolution, including preaching that reflects a biblical worldview. One pastor has already been arrested and jailed simply for speaking in his own church.

And, for the past several weeks, Canadians tired of draconian government lockdowns have staged peaceful protests. Truckers have gotten most of the attention, but many people are rebelling against Trudeau’s heavy-handed dictates. Like every authoritarian dictator drunk with power, he has run roughshod over his own people to crush their dissent.

Canadian citizens don’t have the same Constitutional protections we have enshrined in our Bill of Rights, but they do have a law called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, only passed in 1982, after Trudeau’s father also took extreme measures following actual terrorist activity in Canada in 1970. Truckers waving flags and erecting bouncy houses today certainly do not constitute terrorism, although the younger Trudeau and a complacent media are intent on perpetuating that myth.

The point is that our God-given rights, even as Americans, will only be honored as long as our elected leaders exercise self-restraint on their own tendency to expand their power, or as long as we the people refuse to acquiesce to their unreasonable demands.

Paul appealed to Caesar because it was his right to do so. He did not tolerate the violation of his rights as a Roman citizen, even as he endured all for the sake of the Gospel.

There will come a time when persecution against Christians will multiply. We will once again be ostracized and beaten and martyred, as brothers and sisters in Christ are enduring in other parts of the world right now.

But we cannot sit idly by while our cherished freedoms, that have allowed us to shine the light of God’s truth all around the world, are snuffed out by socialists and cultural elitists attempting to dictate their godless worldview.

We may be called once again to push back on despotic forces in our own country, but if do so we will be rebels with a cause, because we serve only the risen Christ.

Part 3 Closing

Nathan Jones: You know Tim, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard James Dean being woven into a lesson on 2 Chronicles before.

Tim Moore: No, probably not. But I would say that rebelling is engrained, that very idea, in the American psyche. We just have to be careful about what or who we are rebelling against.

Nathan Jones: I mean it is part of human nature to rebel, at least, that has been our tendency since the Fall. Children rebel against their parents, students against teachers, and all of us against God. Only Jesus modeled perfect submission to the will of the Father.

Tim Moore: Satan was arguably the first rebel, and he has been trying to foment a rebellion ever since. He succeeded in the Garden of Eden, and I dare say that he has found willing and sometimes ignorantly oblivious co-conspirators in the human race.

Olivier made it clear that Satan’s effort to inspire Antisemitism is an attempt to undermine God’s promises and plan. Sadly, for the past 2,000 years too many professing Christians have been accomplices in that evil agenda.

Nathan Jones: But Scripture is very clear. God still has a plan for the Jewish people. His promises to them are still intact, and some of them have come true before our eyes just within the past century.

If you want to understand God and how He is still at work in the nation of Israel, David Reagan’s Israel in Bible Prophecy book is a must-have resource. Just call the number on the bottom of your screen and for a gift of only $20, including shipping, we’ll be delighted to send you a copy.

Tim Moore: We hope that you’ve been following along, reading each book as we’ve looked for “Jesus in the Old Testament” and picking out your own key verses. Ours for this week were 7:14, 7:19 & 20, and 16:9. That last verse says that “the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

Nathan Jones: Until He comes, may all of us who are called by His name in the language of 7:14, purpose not to rebel against Him, but to have hearts that really are completely His. This is Nathan Jones.

Tim Moore: And Tim Moore, saying, “Look up, be watchful, for the Lord, who hears our prayers and offers forgiveness and eternal healing, is drawing near.”

End of Program

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