Determination

II Kings 18:3-8 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord … he removed the high places … he trusted in the Lord … he held fast to the Lord … he rebelled against the king of Assyria and world not serve him … he struck down the Philistines.

King Hezekiah is a good example of what one does when determined to do what is right and honorable in following the Lord.  He did not just decide to do what was right, he acted on his decision.  He got rid of everything that might keep him from following through on his decision.  He removed things that would tempt him to sin (the “high placed” and idols).  He rebelled when he couldn’t do anything else, and refused to let outside influenced control his actions.  He destroyed (“struck down”) things that could cause him present or future distraction and trouble.  And he was proactive in his pursuit of doing what was right.  These verses tell us he not only trusted in the Lord.  He held fast to the Lord.  This tells me he was not naïve about the potential he had to give up and give in to the things that could tempt him away from his determination to follow God.

Not repairing my house?

II Kings 12:7b Why are you not repairing the house?

King Jehoash was a king who wanted to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  He saw that the temple was in disrepair because of the lack of interest on the part of the people and even the priests (too much attention paid to other worship instead of to the worship of God) so he told the priests to be repairing God’s house.  Yet after 23 years the priests still had done no work … just collected money to do the work.  And the king’s response really struck me today as I re-read this account.  There was no good reason to not be doing the repairs.  There was no lack of means, of supplies, or of personnel.  It was procrastination and/or pure laziness.  It made me stop and think again about my own life and what keeps me from reaching my own goals.  Although I never used to procrastinate, I see that tendency creeping into my life in these retirement years.  Why am I not repairing my own bodily house?  I can only say it is procrastination and laziness that keeps me from pursuing better physical and spiritual health.  I have no other valid excuse.

Our security and stability

As I have read through the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament this time around in my chronological reading of the Bible, I decided to note the names of the kings as they took to their thrones (as you see in my sample picture) and as I have done so I have seen more than ever before the difference that following God made (and makes), even in the life of a nation.  On this page, for example, there is the name of one king for the nation of Judah, which is a nation that obeyed God's laws and worshiped Him only.  On the other hand, during the reign of that one king in Judah, in the nation of Israel there were four different kings.  For every one of those kings there is the statement that they did not walk in the ways of the Lord and did evil in the sight of the Lord.  It has been my vivid reminder that there are always consequences to our decisions to either obey and worship God or not to do so.  This is true in our personal lives but also true in a nation's life.  It reminds me to pray for our nation and its leaders as well as for our populace.  If we do not follow God's principles of living, who knows how long we can remain secure and stable? 

The easy downward spiral

II Kings 21:9b … they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

As sad as this is, and as hard to have to acknowledge, the fact is that we are not immune to going astray from being what God intends for us to be as His children.  This verse reminds us of that.  While Hezekiah was king and led the Israelites to worship God, they did so.  But his own son Manassah, who became king when his father died, was somehow led astray and he took the majority of the Israelites with him down that road of disobedience and spiritual disloyalty.  Unfortunately, to compound matters, such straying led the Israelites into even deeper sinful ways, so much so that this verse says they became even more evil than those they had destroyed in order to conquer their land.  The downward spiral into sin is so certain and so strong that we must guard against ever getting started in it or caught up in it.  My daily prayer for myself is that I will never become less than diligent to continue to follow God because from this story of the Israelites I see how easily I could fall away from faith even though I have now been walking with God for over 60 years.

Procrastination

II Kings 12:6 But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple.

Procrastination may not be the major “vice” of a lot of people, but I see it in some form or other, at one level or another, in every person and in most situations.  It is something we all have to guard against all the time.  We do not know what the reasons were for the long delay in repairing the temple in King Joash’s time, but something kept the priests from carrying out the repairs.  It was not lack of funds.  Offering had been brought regularly.  It was not lack of support.  The King had spearheaded the idea.  Perhaps it was lack of leadership planning.  No one appears to have been named as being in charge of the repairs.  Or perhaps the priests did not want to deplete the treasury.  We do not know the reasons but the result was the same … the repairs did not get done for 23 years.  It was God’s house that suffered from human procrastination.  My prayer for myself is that I will never allow procrastination to keep me from doing what God’s plan is for my life.

However ... yet

II Kings 10:31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart.  He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

Jehu was chosen by God and anointed by Elisha’s servant to be king and to do away with King Ahab and his wife Jezebel and the wickedness they had brought to Israel.  He accomplished that, and he destroyed the servants of Baal as a part of that cleansing of Israel.  For that obedience, God blessed him with the promise that four generations of his would be succeeding him as kings.  One has to wonder what other blessings Jehu missed out on because of the “howevers” and the “yets” in this story: 1) HOWEVER, Jehu did not turn away from the worship of the golden calves, and 2) YET he was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, two things I am pretty sure Jehu saw as “minor issues,” but they were enough to keep God’s full blessing of prosperity at bay.  Israel decreased and was eventually overtaken by an enemy.  That disastrous future might have been avoided had Jehu completely and carefully followed God. 

Just in time

II Kings 8:5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.  Gehazi said,” This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

This incident reminds me of the perfect timing of God in our lives.  So many times events seem to be coincidences but God uses those “coincidences” as tools to enhance the impact of the lesson He wants us to learn.  This women “just happened” to arrive at the palace to make her appeal to the king just when the king needed to see the evidence of the truth of what Gahazi was telling him.  Her appearance was a way of cementing the truth of the power of God to the king.  Her timely arrival was also God’s way of providing for her need, as seen in the next verse, when the king assigned an official to take care of her need without much effort from her in making her appeal.  So they both benefited from the timely interaction.  If that is not proof of how God’s timing is perfect, no other would be!  God is working every event to do His will for me, just as Romans 8:28 says!