Seize the Moment – Day 861
Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, July 26.
You’ve repeatedly heard it said, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Why do so many people fall into this trap?
Ahaz, the king of Judah, refused to band together with Israel and Aram in the defense of their region against the Assyrian Empire, so they attacked him at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 28:5-15; Isaiah 7:1). In a string of wrong responses, Ahaz retaliated by seeking the protection of the Assyrians (2 Kings 16:7-9). In his distress, he made a sly political maneuver that cost him far more than he anticipated – the soul of his nation. Ahaz made a foreign altar and offered burnt offerings at it, polluting himself and corrupting the nation of Judah (2 Kings 16:10-18).
King Ahaz let his survival instinct take control of his decision-making process. He took matters into his own hands and disregarded the Word of God as given to him by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:1-16). Ultimately, by his lack of faith, he forsook God and responded to evil with evil, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 28:22-23:
Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the Lord. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they became the downfall of him and all Israel.
In 2 Kings 16, we witnessed how a king responded to evil with evil in hopes of something good coming from it. That never works out for the good! Jesus posed a probing question in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
Seize the moment and defeat evil by aligning yourself with God to do good. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).