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.

I have grown to really appreciate this song. My favorite line right now: "Words of pow'r that can never fail - Let their truth prevail over unbelief."

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

AMOS

"God is not impressed with your Christianity" is how one of my pastors, Jon Anderson, sums up the book of Amos. I listened to an old sermon he preached on the book and providentially, that's where I ended up in my recent endeavor to read through the Old Testament in a more historically chronological fashion (thanks to the help of a Bible reading plan I came across). So, this will be a mixture of thoughts, most of which I got from Jon.

Amos begins the book pronouncing judgment on 7 of Israel and Judah's neighboring enemies. You can just hear the claps of applause coming from the Jewish listeners as they anticipate this destruction of their hated enemies. And then...Amos' approval rating takes a big dip. Amos, speaking for the Lord, did not stop with prophecies of destruction on their enemies. He continued on to condemn Judah and Israel themselves - and Israel at great length.

Why would God bring destruction on Israel, his chosen people? Was it because they weren't sacrificing and tithing like good Jews should do? No. "'Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifice every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!' declares the Lord God" (4:4-5). No, the external actions were not the problem, per se. The problem was that although they did all these religious things - in our day and age, things like going to church, praying, giving, helping at VBS, faithfully reading your Bible every day - their hearts were far from God. How do we know that? They "oppress the poor" and "crush the needy" (4:1). They "trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted" (2:7). "'They do not know how to do right,' declares the LORD" (3:10). It's like Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And they weren't keeping them. They were willing to do some external deeds of righteousness in order to salve their guilty conscience, but when it came to actually changing their lifestyle for the sake of obedience to the Lord? Forget about it. Their religion was just a venire to cover their wicked hearts.

It's not that God didn't try to warn them before this. In 4:6-11, the Lord tells all the things he did in order to get their attention and draw them back to himself; things like withholding rain, sending famine, striking them with blight and mildew, sending locusts to devour their produce. Yet, "'you did not return to me,' declares the LORD". He warned and they ignored, "'Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!'" How do we interpret our hardships? Do we turn to God in them? God designs them to warn and woo us to himself (Luke 13:1-5; II Corinthians 1:9).

Chapter 5 ends with sobering words. Words that we should take to heart: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (5:21-24).

God is not impressed with our Christianity. He knows if our religious actions are just meant to gain the approval of man, or to salve our consciences, or to earn favor with him - or are an overflow of love to him. He is only impressed with Christ and we must be found in him. Our actions will prove over time whether our obedience is prompted by love for the Savior and a desire to please the one who died for us, or if they are prompted by self-seeking interests. It's not that our actions could ever merit salvation. They are just evidence of whether we are truly saved or not.

Happy Birthday, Beth!

I love you and am thankful that God gave me a gift 3 years, 3 months and 6 days before I was even born!

C.S. Lewis

I found this blog entry on C.S. Lewis to be very interesting and encouraging. We are never too old to experience God's grace in a deeper, fresher way.