"From the Word: 1Kings 16:34 it talks about a man who during the reign of the wicked king Ahab built Jericho. He laid its foundation, or started the work, at the cost of his firstborn son, and hung its gates, or finished the work, at the cost of his youngest. He had to either be ignorant of the curse Joshua attached to rebuilding the city, unbelieving that the word would come to pass, or he cared more for the work of rebuilding Jericho than he did the lives of his family. In any of these cases he is in a bad predicament. Do we at our own cost and misfortune rebuild what God has miraculously delivered into our hands? Galatians 2:18 says “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.”"
In the New Testament we also read that a man who returns to their sin is like a dog returning to its own vomit. How disgusting to think of. And yet the illustration sticks doesn't it? The very thing that upset us and made us sick and weak that our body rejected we want to consume again.
There is a part of an old hymn called "Come Thou Fount" that catches me every time I sing it. It says "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above." It identifies honestly the fight that we all go through in the flesh. Our flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. We have to cling to the Lord in humility and refocus our attention heavenward.
God is able to deliver. We need to be wise enough to leave the pile of rubble alone as a memorial rather than rebuild our Jericho.
What are some ways we can keep from rebuilding our Jericho? How do you think God feels about when we rebuild what He has delivered into our hands?
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