Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 1-4.

Usually when I write on this passage I focus on Solomon requesting wisdom from God.  That is always a good place to start.  While you may obtain fame, wealth, and power without wisdom, they will bring you no joy, and any happiness they bring will be short-lived, if that is the case.  On the other hand, if you obtain godly wisdom, you will find joy, even if it does not provide you any of those other things.

The wisdom which Solomon asked for was displayed in his missive to Hiram, King of Tyre.  I rarely look at it very closely because it is mostly diplomatese.  However, in this letter Solomon displays an important understanding about God: God cannot be contained within any building built by man.  He cannot even be contained within Heaven, which He created.  God is greater than all others and we cannot hope to contain Him in any way.  The structures which we build to worship God can only serve to focus our minds upon Him, but we should not allow ourselves to believe that our worship can, or should, be limited to those locations.  Let us remember that wherever we are, God is there as well, and worship Him at all times and in all places.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 34-36.

I love the story of Josiah.  He became king at a young age, clearly under the oversight of regents.  As he started to be allowed to make his own decisions he chose to seek God.  As soon as he was of age to rule in his own right he began to fight against idolatry in the land under his control.  Once he had cleansed the land of idolatry he turned his attention to restoring the Temple.  In the process of cleaning the Temple, the priests found a copy of the Book of the Law and brought it to Josiah.  Which raises the question of what Josiah and the others worshiping God were basing their actions on?  Perhaps they had traditions passed down to them from previous generations, or perhaps they had partial records of God’s Law.  The important thing is that when Josiah heard what was in the Book of the Law, he immediately responded to it and began implementing it.

King Josiah’s first act upon hearing what God actually required was to tear his clothes in grief over how badly the people of Israel had failed to keep God’s covenant with them.  His second act was to seek God’s guidance on what he, and the people, should do.  Then, when he was told that God’s wrath could not be averted, Josiah chose to enthusiastically worship God and follow His Law to the best of his ability.  Josiah did not serve God because he saw it as the path to wealth and power.  He served God because it gave him joy to do so.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 29-30.

So, I wonder how Hezekiah came to be such a staunch follower of God after the extremes to which his father had gone.  Perhaps it was a combination of contrasting his father with his grandfather (Hezekiah was 9 when his grandfather died) and seeing his father sacrifice some of his younger brothers.  In any case, he called on the priests and Levites to purify themselves so that they could lead the people in worship of God once more.  King Hezekiah did something interesting: when he offered sacrifices for the people’s sins, he did not just offer sacrifices for the sins of the people of Judah, over whom he ruled, he offered sacrifices for all of the people of Israel, many of whom did not acknowledge his sovereignty.

Then when Hezekiah decided to hold Passover, he chose to hold it a month late because there was not time to prepare and have people gather in time for the normal time.  However, King Hezekiah did not reach this decision on his own, he did so in consultation with his advisers and representatives of the people.  Further, he sent word throughout all of the lands settled by the Israelites, even though he knew that most of them would reject celebrating the Passover as silly.  Finally, when they held the Passover, King Hezekiah made accommodation for those who had not properly prepared themselves.  We, also, should allow for those who wish to seek the Lord, but still struggle with sin.  We should not ask people to have cleaned all of the sin out of their lives before we accept their participation in our services and activities worshiping and serving God.  All we ask is that they strive to do better going forward.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 26-28.

Today’s passage describes two kings, father and son, who served God faithfully for most of their reigns (the son for his entire reign).  They strengthened the army and fortified the towns of Judah.  In addition, they defeated the neighboring nations.  However, when the grandson took the throne, he turned from God and instituted Baal worship in Jerusalem once more.  As a result, he was attacked and defeated successively by Aram and Israel.  Instead of turning back to God, he committed himself further to idolatry by closing the Temple.  He sent to Assyria for aid against his enemies.  However, instead of aiding him, the Assyrians saw his weakness and demanded tribute of him.

The successes of Uzziah and Jotham, the father and son who were faithful, is attributed to their devotion to God.  While the disasters which befell Uzziah’s grandson, Ahaz, is attributed to his idolatry.  The faithfulness of Uzziah and Jotham unified their people and led them to follow values which promoted working for the interests of their fellows.  Ahaz divided the people by introducing new gods, whose worship promoted pursuing one’s own pleasure over the interests of others.  Uzziah and Jotham promoted worshiped God, whose covenant called for Him to protect and empower the descendants of Jacob who faithfully worshiped Him.  Ahaz worshiped gods who he thought would give him power, with no concern for others (not even his own sons).

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 23-25.

There are elements of the story of King Joash which make me wonder what else was going on.  Of course, those same elements also convince me that the story is true, since no one who was making up a story would make it up that way.  First we must understand the story.  The high priest, Jehoiada, was Joash’s stepfather and was married to the woman who had saved Joash’s life from his grandmother.  When Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada led the revolt in Joash’s name to overthrow his grandmother who had usurped the throne.  As part of that, and following it, Jehoaida led a religious reform resulting in a revival of worship of God and a turning away from idols.  Yet, it took Joash to order the repair of the Temple when he reached his majority.  We know from the parallel passage in Kings that Joash had to issue a second such order a few years later to get the repairs to actually happen.  Why didn’t Jehoiada immediately implement the Temple repairs when Joash first ordered them?

Which brings us to another element in this story.  After Jehoiada’s death, King Joash turned away from God to worship idols.  Perhaps King Joash was a weak king who followed the lead of the strongest personality around him.  The passage suggests as much when it tells us that it was some of his advisors who convinced him to turn to idol worship.  Further, it appears that it was those same advisors who convinced him to order the stoning of his step-brother after his step-brother confronted him about his unfaithfulness to God.

Finally, we have the account of Joash’s son Amaziah.  Early in his reign, Amaziah turned from idol worship, although the passage suggests that this was not wholehearted.  This leads me to wonder if Amaziah did so because of the fact that zealots for God had assassinated his father.  Initially, Amaziah organized the army and followed the advice of men of God. (Side note: the description of how Amaziah organized the army suggests that Joash had allowed the army to be poorly run).  As a result, he had a great victory.  But instead of giving credit to God and becoming more committed to God, he adopted the idols of those he defeated as his own gods.  So, we see that Amaziah’s reign followed a similar trajectory to that of his father.  He started out serving God, but when he came fully into his power he turned from Him.  We should recognize that many people follow a similar trajectory and ward against making the same mistake.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 19-22.

The beginning of today’s passage really gives us an insight into the downfall of many a man, or woman, of God.  Jehu the prophet condemned Jehoshaphat for his friendship and support of King Ahab.  Yet, Jehu also praised Jehoshaphat for his commitment to seeking God.  In the description of Jehoshaphat’s reign we can see how many otherwise good leaders sow the crop of disaster for the organization they lead while leading it to new heights.  Jehoshaphat went out among the people over whom he ruled so that he understood their needs and desires.  He instructed the judges he appointed to judge so as to please God, not people.  When faced with armies attacking in overwhelming numbers, he turned to God.  He led the people to have faith in God and not fear those coming to destroy them.  As a result of their faith in God, the army of Judah was unified and confident.  Their enemies on the other hand fell to division and bickering.  If we follow this example and unify in pursuit of God’s will, we will succeed.  But, if we instead selfishly pursue our own interests we will fail.

There is another lesson to be learned here as well.  Because of Jehoshaphat’s alliance with King Ahab, his heir, Jehoram, killed all of his brothers, Jehoshaphat’s other sons.  Then, after the death of Jehoram and his son, Jehoram’s widow, Athaliah, attempted to kill all of the rest of Jehoshaphat’s male descendants.  It was only through the actions of Jehoram’s granddaughter (who was possibly Athaliah’s daughter) that Joash was saved.  It seems likely, considering the history of Ahab’s family, that it was Athaliah who convinced Jehoram to kill his brothers.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 11-14.

After the disastrous decision which Rehoboam made at what was supposed to be his coronation, he made a wise decision of listening to the prophet Shemaiah and not making war on the rest of Israel in an attempt to assert his authority over them.  He followed that up by continuing to promote faithfully worshiping God while he consolidated his authority as king.  This led the priests and Levites, and others who wished to faithfully worship God, to  migrate from the Northern Kingdom to the territory controlled by Rehoboam.  Unfortunately, once he had fully consolidated his authority, he no longer felt it necessary to remain faithful.  However, when once again he was confronted by the prophet Shemaiah, he repented.

When war broke out between Abijah, Rehoboam’s son, and Jeroboam, Abijah used the fact that the priests and Levites had moved to his territory to break the moral of the Northern Army.  Abijah’s son, Asa, learned a lesson from what happened in this battle and started his reign dedicated to eliminating idol worship in his kingdom.  The result being that he was able to completely defeat a much larger army when it invaded.  It seems likely that in the process of removing pagan shrines from all of the towns and villages where his writ ran, Asa and his generals learned the layout of the land in detail.  Which allowed them to pick the right location to face their enemy.  The above is not to downplay the significance God played in delivering a victory to Asa’s army. Rather, I am pointing out how faithfully following God often gives us the tools to face unforeseen challenges which arise later.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 8-10.

The story about Rehoboam’s reaction to the challenge to his rule from the Northern Tribes contains multiple examples in what not to do when seeking power.  He did one thing right when he sought the advice of his father’s experienced counselors.  However, he completely defeated the point of such a wise act by ignoring their advice and taking that of his friends who told him what he wanted to hear.  The advice given to Rehoboam by his father’s advisers was good advice and that given by his friends was bad advice.  The elder advisers advised him to show humility while the younger ones advised arrogance.  So, we really have two mistakes in one.  He rejected advice from his elders in favor of that from his peers.  And he rejected advice to be humble in favor of advice to be arrogant.  Rarely is it a good idea to favor the advice of youth over that of experience, but it is never wise to choose arrogance over humility.