The King of kings

I wrote this several weeks ago but never posted it:

I just finished reading through II Chronicles. That ends a 260 page, 6 book trek through a mostly horrific history of the kings of Israel (and of Judah after the kingdom split). Thankfully, there were some good kings along the way, most notably David. But even this, the greatest of Israel's kings was a murderer and adulterer. And his poor judgment and disobedience in demanding that a census be taken in Israel led to the death of 70,000 men of Israel as punishment.

Solomon, David's son, began his reign well, following after the Lord. But he "clung...in love" (I Kings 11:2) to foreign women that God had specifically commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with and they "turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God." (11:4)

What about king Asa? He "did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God." But, by the end of his life, he has drifted away from the Lord. After relying on the king of Syria instead of the Lord in a battle, the Lord sent a prophet to confront him about his sin. Rather than repenting he put the prophet in prison and "inflicted cruelties upon some of the pople at the same time". He was struck with a foot disease and yet still "did not seek the LORD."

King Jehoshaphat was also a king committed to the Lord. He "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." He saw some amazing things happen during his reign because of his trust in the one true God. He sought the Lord's face when two great armies, the Moabites and Ammonites, sought to destroy Judah. He uttered one of my favorite prayers, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" (II Chron 20:12). What was the Lord's response? "Do not be afraid...for the battle is not yours but God's...You will not need to fight in this battle" (20:15-17). And just as he promised, "the Lord set an ambush" against their enemies! Without them ever lifting a finger, "there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped". Quite an ambush! But even Jehoshaphat had his flaws. For, during his reign, for all the good things he did, "The high places, were not taken away". He had allowed idol worship to continue, despite the prohibition against that in the law.

Same story with Joash. He also "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD" but only during "all the days of Jehoiada the priest." After his mentor and friend died, he listened to unwise counsel and ended up allowing idol worship and then killed Zechariah, Jehoiada's son, for speaking the truth to him!

There's Amaziah who "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart"; Uzziah who began well, but was still "unfaithful to the LORD his God" by the end; Hezekiah who wonderfully turned Judah back to seeking the LORD, restored the temple, and celebrated the Passover for the first time in a long time and yet still had traces of pride that surfaced near the end of his reign.

Then finally, as far as righteous kings go, there was Josiah. He majorly reformed Judah, sought to live according to the Word of God, celebrated the Passover meticulously and yet still came up short. He died in a battle that he never should have been involved in, but he didn't listen to the word of the Lord.

These were the righteous kings and yet they all came up so far short. I was always hoping to get to the end of one of the stories without their being a "but..." about his faithfulness to the Lord. But it never came (at least among those described in detail). And I think part of the point of spending such a large portion of Scripture to describe kings that never completely measured up is to provide a backdrop for the King of kings, Jesus Christ who DID completely measure up. We never get let down by one of his failures like every other king. An all too common theme among the kings was that often their major flaws were exposed near the end of their lives. This King's obedience shined most brightly at the end of his life as he suffered and died, in obedience, for his enemies. His obedience unto death covers all of those sins and failures of OURS that we see every day if we have taken refuge in him (which will be evidenced by our obedience to his commands. Not perfect obedience, but the direction of our life is towards honoring and obeying him).

All of that to say, yes, there are good things we can glean from the righteous kings of Judah and Israel. But let their failures remind us to gaze more at our truly Perfect King Jesus and to submit ourselves under him.