Articles
Reality Check
We sometimes get caught up in our view of how life is going that we cannot see how things actually are. Then someone comes along and says something that is obvious to everyone but us, and a light suddenly comes on, the blinders fall off, and we see things now as they really are, without our misconceptions. We have just had a reality check.
Long ago, when the Israelites nation had long been divided and the northern kingdom had been taken away by Assyria, the king of Assyria “came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them” (2 Kings 18:13), and then set his sights on Jerusalem, though Hezekiah paid him tribute (2 Kings 18:14-17). The Rabshakeh [the spokesman for the Assyrian king], boasted against Jerusalem and essentially called for their surrender, and to not put their trust in anything Hezekiah told them (2 Kings 18:18-32).
As he continued his boasting, the Rabshakeh said, “Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (2 Kings 18:33-35); he would later send a letter to Hezekiah arguing the same thing (2 Kings 19:10-13); he was essentially saying the Israelite God was no different, and certainly no more powerful, than the gods of the surrounding cities and lands.
After Hezekiah heard this boasting from the Assyrians, he pleaded with God for deliverance, and sent messengers to Isaiah with the news of what was happening at Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:1-4). Isaiah told them that they need not fear, for God would intervene and the king of Assyria would not succeed. When Hezekiah got the Rabshakeh’s letter, he prayed to God and Isaiah again told Hezekiah that God would intervene, and the Assyrians would be defeated (2 Kings 19:14-34).
As sure as the Assyrians were that God would not be able to stand against them and as sure as they were that they were unstoppable, their certainty was exposed as empty boasting when God sent an angel out and killed 185,000 of the Assyrian soldiers, and Sennacherib returned home defeated, where he was soon afterwards killed by his own sons (2 Kings 19:35-37). Needless to say, the Assyrians got a serious reality check; the God of Israel was nothing like the gods of other nations!
I’m sure we have all had our moments when life slapped us in the face and we got a rude awakening and that cold, hard, reality check that made us realize things were not as they seemed…at least not to us. Sometimes, those reality checks are what we need to wake up to the reality that we were not doing as well as we thought, or maybe not even headed in the right direction in life. We can either learn from those reality checks, or we can continue deceiving ourselves; the choice is ours.
In spiritual matters, self-deception is dangerous, but widespread. A great number of people have been either deceived by others, or deceived themselves, into thinking they were traveling the path to eternal life, when the reality is, they are walking the road where “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction” (Matt. 7:13). Some will blissfully ignore the warning signs and the messages God has given us in Scripture that point the way to heaven, fully convinced in their minds that they are safe and destined for eternal life, when they are not following God’s direction at all, but that of their preachers and religious leaders, or that of their loved ones who preceded them in life.
Some will go through their entire lives, deceived into thinking they are serving the Lord and, come Judgment Day, they will stand before Him and declare, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” but He will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Why will He say this? Because, as He noted previously, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21-23). Many are not doing the will of the Father in heaven, but doing their own will and following the example of their earthly fathers…and mothers and grandfathers and many other of their ancestors. In Judgment, they will get a shocking and terrifying reality check when Jesus, instead of welcoming them into eternity in heaven, tells them, “Depart from Me.” It does not have to be, though.
Many others go through life, deceived into thinking there is no God, and falsely thinking this life is all there is. They blissfully follow the path of their own choosing, sure that there is no God to whom they must give an account (Psa. 14:1), and just as sure that there is no such thing as heaven or hell — or ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ or ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ They are just as sure about this as the Assyrian army was about conquering Jerusalem. But for those who live with this way of thinking, life is all about having fun and making memories, and possibly making the world a better place for the next generation, but they cannot conceive that there is anything more than that. There is no purpose, and no meaning to life other than the superficial.
They, too, will get a hard, unpleasant reality check upon their death when, like the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), they will awake in a place of torment and realize that their denials were, to say the least, misguided. Then, they will realize the ones who deceived them into thinking God did not exist were guided by their own selfish agendas, and that they, too, had rejected the abundant evidence God supplied by which one might know God does, in fact, exist (cf. Rom. 1:18-22; Acts 14:17) and that Jesus Christ was exactly whom He claimed to be (John 20:30, 31). After death, there will be no atheists, and there will be far fewer ones who want nothing to do with God. Death will be the final and eternal reality check that will come too late.
Many will, unfortunately, get a reality check that will be too late to change their eternal fate, but it need not be so. As unpleasant as it may be to admit now that we have been deceived by others, or even self-deceived, as long as we have breath, we have an opportunity to change. Some, still, will merely go on with life as it was before (cf. Matt. 19:16-21); others will merely delay any change, though they know the truth (cf. Acts 17:32; Acts 24:25); and many will just kill the messenger (Acts 7:51-60).
How about you? Have you stopped to take stock of the direction you are going in life? Do you really know that the path you walk will lead where you desire? Have you listened, and then investigated yourself, to the message others have tried to get you to hear that comes straight from the Bible, God’s word? As you travel life’s path, are you paying attention to the signs God has given us, or are you confident you know better, or that what others have told you is just as true?
Friend, I would not want you to pass from this life without knowing the truth. God’s word is truth (cf. John 17:17), and the ways of man will not bring reward, in the end. As comforting as it may be to believe the lie, it will all seem very foolish when you stand before your Creator and have to answer for what you have done in this life.
Reality check! — Steven Harper
