I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Upon the death of Amaziah, his sixteen year old son, Uzziah, was made king. Uzziah did what was pleasing in God’s sight. The passage tells us that he continued to seek God during the days of Zechariah and that as long as he sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success. Uzziah became very powerful, conquering the Philistines and collecting tribute from other neighboring peoples. However, at the height of his power, he became proud and entered the Temple in order to burn incense on the incense altar, in violation of the Law of Moses which stated that only priests should do that. When some of the priests confronted Uzziah over this, he became furious. However, while he was raging at the priests, leprosy (the word used here refers to multiple skin disorders, not just the disease we apply the word leprosy to today) broke out on his forehead. The priests who saw this hurried Uzziah out of the Temple because of his leprous outbreak. Uzziah himself hurried out of the Temple because the Lord had struck him with leprosy. Uzziah lived out his life quarantined in a separate house and his son Jotham became regent for him until his death. Jotham became king after the death of Uzziah and followed his father’s example (except for the part about entering the Temple to offer incense). Jotham was careful to live in obedience to God and became a powerful king as a result.
Upon Jotham’s death, his son, Ahaz, succeeded him on the throne. Ahaz did not follow his father’s and his grandfather’s example. Rather he made images for the worship of Baal and burned his own sons in the sacrificial fires. He suffered defeat at the hands of the king of Aram, who took many of the people of Judah captive. A warrior chief from the Northern Tribes raided Judah and took a large number of people captive, intending to make them slaves. However, a prophet confronted the force as it returned from battle and told them that God would judge them harshly for enslaving people of Judah. When other leaders of the Northern Tribes heard the prophet’s words, they insisted that the army release the captives. The army turned the captives and the plunder they had taken with them over to those leaders. The leaders used the plunder to care for and clothe the captives and returned them to their relatives at Jericho.
The Philistines and the people of Edom raided Judah during the reign of Ahaz, but he did not turn to God for help. He took up worship of the gods of Aram and sealed the Temple so that no one could worship there. He attempted to make a treaty with the king of Assyria for assistance against his enemies, but the king of Assyria instead attacked him and took tribute from him. Ahaz worshiped pagan gods and encouraged the people of Judah to do the same.
Paul tells us in today’s passage that we as Christians should submit to the governing authorities because all authority comes from God. Everyone in a position of authority is placed there by God. God has ordained government to punish those who do what is wrong. We are to pay our taxes as part of that submission to government authority. Paul instructs us to pay taxes to those to whom taxes are due, fees to those to whom fees are due, respect to those to whom respect is due, and honor to those to whom honor is due.
This is a very difficult passage to reconcile with the evil behavior often exhibited by government officials. However, the governing authorities of Paul’s day were every bit as evil as any that we experience today, so we cannot say that he did not understand the potential for evil among government officials. I look at this passage and consider it in light of when Jesus said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” In addition, Paul here tells us that God created government in order to punish those who do wrong. This leads me to conclude that I am to be subject to those instructions from the government which fall into the government’s purview of passing edicts against doing what is wrong, but that I should never obey it when it exceeds that authority and declares as wrong things which God has declared to be right…or demands behavior which God has declared to be wrong.
Paul continues on from his discussion of giving what we owe to those to whom we owe it, whether that be money, respect, or honor by telling us that we should owe no one anything. That is we should give everyone what they are due when they are due it. He then says that the only ongoing obligation we should have is the obligation to love one another. Paul echoes what Jesus said when he tells us that all other laws follow from the one which states “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we love others, we will do no wrong to others. This means that if we truly love others, we will fulfill all of God’s other commands.
Today’s psalm is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. Even those who have never opened the Bible have at least a passing awareness of it. As a result of that familiarity, I sometimes forget why it is so familiar, because it tells us some great basic truths about God’s love for us. It starts out by telling us:
I have all that I need.
It goes on to tell us that God will guide on us the right paths. So that even when we go through a valley where we cannot see what threats might lurk in the darkness, we need have no fear because God is right beside us to protect us and to comfort us. But God’s love for us goes beyond that. The psalmist tells us that God will honor us with a feast in front of those who wish us harm, who are are enemies. God’s goodness and love will follow us all of the days of our lives. This is a wonderful and beautiful psalm.
If we judge even children by their behavior, whether they are good kids or not (and we do), how much more can we who are grown adults be judged by our actions?