SCRIPTURE: 2 Kings 24
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, `For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, `leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ [Luke 13:6-9]
How long will God’s patience last?
Our reading for today shows that God is finally bringing judgment upon His people because of their sin.
For Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive… It was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. [2 Kings 24:4,20]
Jesus makes it plain that God gives time for things to change, but that eventually that season of mercy will end – leave it alone for one more year!

God does not treat us as our sins deserve; He postpones the final judgment, and in the meantime treats us like a gardener, digging around and fertilizing, doing whatever He can to help us change.
But in the end, if we do not repent, if we do not admit our need for forgiveness and help, then His patience will run out.

To be thrust from His presence is the ultimate outcome for those who reject His presence.
God ultimately gives us our heart’s desire: if we don’t want God in this life, we won’t get Him at the end of this life; if we seek God in this life, we will find Him at the end of this life.
The people of Judah got what they wanted – God to buzz off, get lost – so that they could do whatever they wanted, however they wanted.
What they failed to realize that life without God is not life, but it is death.
We run away from God at our own peril; its like trying to run away from oxygen.
God gives us time to come to our senses; He allows us to taste what life is like without Him.
But if we persist in rejecting God, ultimately we will lose God, and all the good that comes from God.
All that will be left is… hell.

PRAYER:
Lord, thank You for reminding me where life without You leads. May I seek Your presence in this life, that I may enjoy it in the next.