Wednesday, September 8: 2Kings 15- March of kings.

I confess reading this chapter, and the march of kings with little added about their lives, didn’t spark much, if anything, as I read early in the morning. I sat and pondered. I looked back through the text. I reviewed a listing of kings and prophets that I constructed years ago to gain an overview of these years… not one significant ‘a-ha’.

So I paused, acknowledged the Lord, my God, and determined to return to this text later in the day. Occasionally my times with God are like this. Dedication on my end to be with the Lord… who am I to question why He seems to be silent this morning?

I examine my life.  Is there something significant blocking the Lord’s voice? Nothing that is immediately apparent.

Maybe the Lord is testing my resolve to be with Him, not to gain anything but simply to BE with Him.I don’t know… His ways are higher than my ways…

I pause again to contemplate and to pray.

I decide to enter the remainder of my day.I will come back to the text later.

Faithfulness in the mundane…??? That is the closing thought that I have. God invites me to be faithful in my time with Him even when nothing in particular seems to come from Him. And so I sit and ponder and pray and think and BE with my God…

Lord, I wish I had heard something from You today. It seems as if you are silent. Be that as it may, I draw myself close to You. You are my joy and crown, my Lord and Savior. You are my God … praise You, Lord God Almighty, praise You.

 

Tuesday, September 7: 2Kings 14- The problem of pride.

Reading the account of Amaziah, Proverbs 16:18 came to mind: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Amaziah became too impressed with himself after his defeat of Edom and as a result he took a whooping from Israel. Amaziah was a good king, doing right in the eyes of the Lord (3). Unfortunately, he allowed a personal weakness (an area of sin) get in the way of clear thinking.

Warnings fired in my thoughts as I contemplated Amaziah’s example. Warning #1: Just because you are walking in the ways of God does not automatically mean every decision you make is right. We are prone to sin and original sin has damaged us to the core. Therefore we must constantly test all areas of our lives against God’s way, will and wisdom. We cannot take for granted that each and every decision will automatically be right. This side of eternity, sin still has its tentacles in our lives… beware and seek godly counsel.

Warning #2:  One success does not mean we can take on the world. Whatever my area of competence; one success, one victory, one great decision does not mean that we are conquering heroes in that arena. One victory against Edom did not guarantee a victory against Israel, a much stronger opponent. One great deal on Wall Street does not mean the next bigger deal will end as well. Success at one church doesn’t guarantee success at the next. Each decision and movement must be evaluated independently. Tactics differ for each battle, deal, or church. Amaziah reminds me not to get cocky but to do my “due diligence” including, most importantly, checking in with and following the lead of the Lord, rather than rushing ahead on my own.

Unfortunately, the proverb is true: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. When we become full of self and stop listening to the Lord and other wise godly council, we teeter on the edge of trouble.  Think about it.

Lord, thanks for this warning from Amaziah’s life. Keep me steady and humble, relying on You for direction, wisdom and leading, each decision along the way of life. Amen.

 

Monday, September 6: 2Kings 13-What faith-legacy am I leaving?

Each day I open the scriptures to see what God is saying. I read the chapter hopefully ingesting all of it into my life. Presently we are reading through Israel’s history and my hope is to gain a big picture view of God’s workings with His people. My desire is to implant the history of God’s people and God’s word into my life.

Secondly, I listen for what God seems to be saying to me as we sit together.

As I watch the history of Israel, and particularly the northern kingdom unfold, I am saddened by the repeated turning from the Lord. How sad it must have been for God to watch those He called into a special relationship repeatedly turn away and seek other gods. I wonder as a parent if I could keep on loving a child who repeatedly ‘spit in my face,’ cursed me and turned away from me. That folks is what idolatry is like to God. I do know if I would have the love and patience the Lord displayed.

As I listened for God’s voice to me personally, I sensed God asking me the question, “What faith-legacy am I leaving my children?” Over and over the kings of the north serve false gods. The sin of Jeroboam was being handed down generation after generation. Again in this chapter that sad reality is lived out two more times…

Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria … did evil in the eyes of the LORD by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. (1-2). And eight verse later we read again, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he … did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them. (10-11).

I don’t know how many times I have read those similar phrases about all the northern kingdom kings. Not one of them served the Lord.  All of them followed the way of Jeroboam. How sad. And this refrain is a nagging reminder to me that if I let particular sins knowingly live in my life, if I say “O, they are no big deal…” then I, too, may be passing on to ‘my seed’ a sin-legacy rather than a faith-legacy. God forbid.

And so, again for the umpteenth time, I sit before the Lord, heart in hand, asking the Lord to search my life to see if and where I have allowed wickedness and sin to live and thrive within me…

Lord, that is my prayer… search me and root out from me sin that I allow and/or encourage in my life.  Lord, I know I fall short daily (hourly).  Yet, I desire to live in a manner that honors You as Lord, Savior, and Redeemer of my life. In and through Jesus, my Savior, I pray… Amen.

 

Saturday, September 4: 2Kings 12- Good people in the wrong job.

I realize that the Bible isn’t a management textbook but today’s reading exposes a classic management blunder… putting good people in the wrong position.

Verses 4-8 Joash said to the priests, "Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the LORD--the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple." But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, "Why aren't you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple." The priests agreed ….

The priests are good men.  They are men chosen by God to lead the people of God in worship and to teach and instruct the people but they were not necessarily good project managers or project workers. For many years they oversaw the repair of the Temple and little or no progress was made because they were the wrong people for the job. Their other responsibilities and skill sets didn’t match completing the necessary temple repairs, so the project lingered.

King Joash had the right vision but the wrong implementers. When he finally recognized the issue (remember he began reigning at age 7) and changed the project managers and hired skilled workers, repairs began to happen…

There doesn’t seem to be one squawk from the priests either. My hunch is that they knew they were the wrong men for the job, too.

The NT reminds the church, repeatedly, that God-endowed gifts, not titles or positions or what have you, should determine a person’s function in the body.

Before you move on to the rest of your day, take a few moments and ask yourself, “How has God gifted you? Where might He be calling you to function in His body?” If you have the gifts and the calling but you are not functioning, then some other good person is likely trying to do what you have been gifted and called to do.  It, too, may be working out no better than priests repairing the temple…

Think about it.

Lord, am I doing things outside my arena of gift and calling? Am I not doing things You would have me do within my gifts and calling? Either way the body -Your Body- suffers. Point me to the things I should be doing for You, Your body and Your world. In and for Jesus I pray… Amen.

 

Friday, September 3: 2Kings 11- Many have a role.

Dark days in Judah.  The king dies in battle and chaos breaks out among the royals with unexpected people vying for power. How did the Lord preserve the lineage of David on the throne as He promised?... It was through the efforts of many faith-filled people.

The king’s mother, Athaliah, goes berserk and kills the royal family. In the midst of this upheaval, the king’s sister –heretofore unnamed and unknown- hides the king’s youngest son, Joash, a mere infant, preserving his life. An unnamed faithful nurse cares for Joash for six years as they remain hidden in the temple. Sometimes, many times in my experience, the Lord’s assignments go on for years!

As the infant prince remains hidden, Athaliah rules the land. Then after 6 years, the priest Jehoiada declares it is time.  He summons the guards, reveals the young prince and proceeds with a plan to announce him as king.

For six years the princess, the priest, the nurse and most likely a small tight-lipped cadre of cooks, attendants and servants hid, educated and protected the infant prince, keeping him safe from Athaliah.

For God to fulfill his promise of maintaining a Davidic heir on the throne, many people had to faithfully fulfill their role. Princess Jehosheba had to risk her life for her nephew. The unnamed nurse had to face seclusion for an indefinite time. And we could run through the remainder of the list of faithful agents in this cloak and dagger episode of Judah’s history.

What God showed me is how important each person is for God’s plan to be fulfilled. Some played glamorous roles, most had bit parts, but all kept at it for a considerable length of time… that is how God’s kingdom is built. Faithful people filling their assigned role.

The same remains true to this day. God’s kingdom advances as faithful people fill the assignments God directs to them. Some get full billing, some go unnamed, others don’t even get a mention in the history books but God knows them all and all will be met with the same hug and greetings in eternity, “Well done good and faithful servant… come enter my happiness.”

O, God, give me the strength to do whatever You ask me to do… that I may hear those words upon my promotion from this world into the next. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Thursday, September 2: 2Kings 10-Lingering sin.

Jehu does so much right but he stumbles at one point and it costs him and Israel dearly. Jehu fulfilled the decreed punishment upon Ahab’s family, killing everyone. Jehu rids the land of all the prophets of Baal, a despicable god, a great and faith-filled work. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit--the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan (29).

This lingering sin of Jeroboam would be the undoing of Israel. Jehu moved closer to the Lord but never could close the gap and live faithfully. The sin of Jeroboam was so firmly embedded in the life of Israel that it was never dealt with…

Sin can be that pernicious. When we allow particular sins to linger, it is as if they send tap roots so deep in our lives that we never deal with it.  We consider it part of our life. The northern kingdom, according to the historical record, never dealt with the sin of Jeroboam. It became part of the fabric of their lives.

I am not sure that we can deal with lingering sins (sins passed on to us from previous generations) alone. But we are not alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit and part of the Spirit’s work is to uncover and root out pernicious sin. But this is a task with which we must cooperate. The Spirit will not override our will. Instead He invites us to deal with these lingering sins by revealing them to us and aiding us, if we obey, in the surgery necessary to get rid of it.

This is a life-long journey of sanctification… cooperating with God as He shows us the sin which so easily entangles us.

This journey begins with honest self-assessment as we sit with the Holy Spirit and allow God to probe our heart, our motivations and our actions. And it continues through repentance, confession and transformation…

O, God, set Your gaze upon me and search me. Reveal any wickedness in me, then cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow…

I cannot do this on my own. Only with Your help can I grow to be more and more like Jesus, as long as I live this side of eternity.

I hand my life over to Your gaze and Your sanctifying work… in Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

Wednesday, September 1: 2Kings 9- Judgment will happen.

These are gruesome days in Israel.  Sin is mounting and God’s avenging hand begins to strike the house of Ahab. These events were prophesied by Elijah in 1Kings 19.

My heart cringes as I read this chapter. I am not comfortable with all the bloodshed and brutality.

God’s judgment is not pretty. Sin, rebellion, idolatry are grievous actions against the Lord and justice demands that they be dealt with…

My mind floats from these scenes to ones in the Book of Revelation.  There will come a day when God executes His final judgment and that day will not be pretty either.

The Apostle’s Creed reminds us… “Jesus will come to judge the quick and the dead.” One of the core tenets of scripture is that God will execute His judgment. Today’s reading declares to my heart, “God’s judgment is real and it will happen in His sovereign timing.”

Lord, my heart cringes at the thought of Your judgment.  That could be me… that should be me. At that moment, I saw in a different light what Jesus’ death on the cross means. He received in His body the execution of judgment reserved for me. He took my punishment. O, God, I don’t have words to express my THANK YOU. Were it not for Your grace, I would still be marked as guilty and deserving of Your judgment.

Yet, I have been saved by Your grace.  I have not onlybeen  spared from Your wrath, I have been adopted into Your family and given the birthright of eternity with You when life here on earth ends for me…

All of this and more through faith in Jesus Christ, my Lord. O, O Thank You. O, O praise you… Amen