Text: 1 Kings 14:25-28
Memory verse:
“For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob Like the excellence of Israel, For the emptiers have emptied them out And ruined their vine branches.” (Nahum 2:2).
Life is a battlefield. We live in a war zone. This battle begins from the womb and throughout life. There were forces that fought to stop you from being born and have not relented, even after birth. Sometimes, they change their strategy. Rather than killing, they make the life of their victims useless.These are called emptiers or wasters.
“For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob Like the excellence of Israel, For the emptiers have emptied them out And ruined their vine branches.” (Nahum 2:2).
The emptiers strip their victims of their glory, beauty and their virtues. They remove the good things that make a life worth living. It’s like a thief who vandalized a house of all its fittings and furnishings and leaves the house empty. The emptiers turn princes into servants and reduce their victims to unbelievable shadows of their wonderful past. They don’t bother if their victims make profit but set the ‘Midianites’ to clear out the profit as soon as they are made (Judg 6:3-5). They position the devourers to eat up their bumper harvest. They allow prosperity but removes peace and health. They are wasters.
According to our text today, that was what Shishak, the king of Egypt, did to the temple. He came against Jerusalem to empty the temple and the palace of their treasures. Jehoash, the king of Israel also did likewise to Judah, when he captured Amaziah, the king of Judah.
“And he took all the gold and silver, all the articles that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.”
(II Kings 14:14). He left behind a temple and a palace without gold! What an emptiness!
There are many who are born as stars but who are not shining. Many who are born great but who are ordinary. The emptiers have emptied them and reduced them to that level.
They make their victims history while they are still alive! They are glory swallowers! Sometimes, the victims attempt to replace the gold that the emptiers stole away with something far lesser, just like Rehoboam replaced the stolen gold with bronze (1 King 14:27).
After a deliverance prayer, an undergraduate lady confessed and wept, regretting how she emptied the excellence of her boyfriend after a sexual encounter. The boy, who was performing brilliantly in his academics suddenly crashed after that encounter.
Friends, don’t wait for the emptiers to crash you before you crush them. Sin opens the door of your life for the emptiers. Repent and turn your life to Jesus, the One who can save you from the emptiers. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, then whatever the emptiers have stolen from you, be in the womb, after birth or as an unbeliever will be restored in Jesus name.
Prayer points
1. Father, please, restore to me whatever the glory and excellence that the emptiers have taken from my life in Jesus name.
2. I destroy all powers assigned to turn my glory into shadows of my past in Jesus name.
Today’s declarations
1. I don’t give opportunity for the emptiers to empty my life through sinful living.
2. I am in the offensive, because I empty the emptiers before they empty me and crush them before they crash me.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng