All of me loves all of you……

I don’t know if you noticed yesterday, but the last king in the list was actually called the last king of Israel. That’s because Israel was attacked by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who had previously been Hoshea’s ally, but had been betrayed by Hoshea. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. He laid siege to Samaria for three years and then captured it and deported the Israelites to Assyria.

Why? If you’ve been following this journey, you know why –

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. They worshipped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshipped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.  2 Kings 17:7-17

That is why.

They’d had their chances. They would not listen. They would not learn.

Judah were not much better but God had made a promise to them because of their ancestor David which He was not about to break.

The king of Assyria replaced the Israelites in Samaria with people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim. When they did not worship the one true God, He sent lions among them to kill them – they then turned to God as ‘the god of that country’. So a priest is sent back to teach them how to behave and how to appease God (which they did in part, just as the Israelites had done).

So let’s pause here and take it right back to the beginning. Right back to the children of Israel in the desert, receiving these first commandments –

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:3-6

God made it perfectly clear. He continued to remind His people over and over again. But still they could not manage it.

He was totally devoted to His people. He expected the same of them.

He kept every one of His promises. He expected them to too.

He was loyal and faithful. He expected them to be too.

He was all that they needed.

He provided. He rescued. He protected.

There was no need to look to any other gods. So why do it?

He demanded total devotion –

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  Deuteronomy 6:5

All your heart.

All your soul.

All your strength.

And then let’s move forward to now, because nothing has changed. God has not changed. He expects the same from those who profess to love Him and follow Him today.

That’s us.

But what does that really mean? What does that really look like?

How can we know? How can we be sure?

It seems an impossible task, doesn’t it? To even get through one whole day loving God with your whole being? No one in history has ever nailed it, has ever got it right all of the time. Just look at how spectacularly wrong the children of Israel got it. Only God is perfect so only God can love this wholeheartedly and consistently without fail. We will get it wrong. A lot.

Getting to know God is the first step, because how can you love and devote yourself to loving someone you don’t even know? Learning more about God, seeing God in action….nothing can convince us more that God deserves our complete loyalty and love.

As for unpacking this further, I have no idea where to go and what to say. We are all so different and lead different lives, so I could talk about what I think this means for me and how it looks in my life, but how would that help you in yours?

Look at my love for my husband or for my children? It looks pretty different to yours, right? We work it out in different ways. But I hope that when you look at me, you know that they mean the world to me, that I am devoted to them. You should be able to see my love for them in action and attitude.

Just like you should be able to see my love for God in action and attitude every day too. He should mean the world to me. Following Him and learning more about Him and how He wants me to live my life should be my highest priority. I should not be distracted by other things that try to take God’s place in my life. Everything should be less important than the God who gives me new life everyday. I should be taking the precious gift of life each day and using it to shine like a star for God and for His glory.

Everything I do and say – and when I am simply being – it should all be about bringing a piece of God’s kingdom into the here and now. Quite a bar to set, isn’t it? And guess what? I’m human. So no. It doesn’t always happen that way. And when it does happen, it doesn’t necessarily look like how it will when it happens in your life.

This is the journey we are taking. A journey of discovery about how to live life for God and with God. A daily exploration of how to live life to the full.

I cannot give you a list of ten things to do today that will make this commandment real in your life…for me, maybe the ten things are….love, laugh, run, forgive, reflect, rest, cook a good lunch, hope, confess and receive…..maybe by the end of the day, you can say what your ten things have been……