II Chronicles 20: 31-33
Now Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years.
And he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not depart from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. The High Places, however, were not (did not stay) removed; the people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.
Asa reigned 41 years, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years. They both had removed these shrines, these "High Places" (Asa in 14:3 and Jehoshaphat in 17:6), but the people kept replacing them, because even after 66 years of godly leaders, the people still "had not directed their hearts" to the Lord Who was their God. They still kept turning to the pagan deities of the peoples around and among them. They were just too seductive.
And people today also are seduced by the same ideas that these pagan idols represented. Our enemy is still deceiving us into believing that God is holding out on us, and we're smart, we're intelligent, we can make our own decisions; we can be our own god. We don't need to ask God what we are to do in every circumstance, what worked before should work again.
But God is still God, He is still our Creator, Who knows us better than we know ourselves, and He still loves us more than we can imagine. He always wants what's best for us, even if what we're going through right now doesn't seem very pleasant. But He has purpose for everything He allows in our lives.
Here in this World we are children in school, and we must endure the testings that come with that. They are all for our benefit. And His glory.
And one day, when we're adult children in God's Family, in the New Heaven and the New Earth, then we will be mature and ruling with Him in His Family Business, His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
