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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
2 Kings 15
I am getting the impression that Judah and Israel give us a rough example of life with God versus life without. The commentary for most of Judah’s kings is that they did what was right in the LORD’s eyes. Yet there is always an exception clause. Furthermore, many of those kings suffer from turning away from God at some point in their lives. This reads a little like my life. Though my overall desire is to faithfully seek God, I have struggled and strayed at various times in my life. Because of God’s promise in Christ, however, He considers me righteous in spite of my failures. Only because of Jesus will my record in God’s book read, “She did what was right in the LORD’s sight.”
The Israelites, on the other hand, look no different than the rest of the world. In just this one chapter the standing royal family was usurped four times in a period of a little over 32 years. How’s that for instability? Their story is filled with assassinations and coups, all because they refused to turn away from sin and return to God. So, though neither nation was perfect, one belonged to God while the other did not. Thus, one was covered by God’s promise, while the other remained steadfast in their sin. The contrast is telling.
One last thought for this chapter. One rare exception in all of Israel’s upheaval was the house of Jehu. Because of his zeal in destroying the evil house of Ahab, God made him a promise. “’Four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel,’ and it was so.” (2 Kings 15:12b). Which shows me that God keeps His promises, no matter who He makes them to. God never makes a promise that He cannot and will not keep, and nothing we do will ever change the character of God.
2 Chron 26
Once again the Chronicler fills in the details that the writer of Kings left out. We know from 2 Kings 15 that Uzziah, or Azariah, sought God but suffered a serious skin disease in his later life. The Chronicler tells us why. Not surprisingly, it is the same story as with his father and grandfather. Pride got to him. As long as he had the Godly influence of the priest, Zechariah, Uzziah stayed the course. However, when that influence was gone and he felt secure in his strength, arrogance stepped in.
There are two things I really want to sink into my heart and mind about this. The first is how susceptible we all are to straying off God’s path and going our own way. This is why the New Testament is full of reminders for us to be on guard, keep alert, and stay awake. We all fall. It happens to the best of us. It even happened to King David. Which brings me to the second thing. David wasn’t different because he didn’t sin. He was different because of his response to that sin. When the priests boldly confronted King Uzziah, he responded with anger, just as his father and grandfather had done. King David, on the other hand, responded with humility. His response didn’t remove the consequences of his actions, but it certainly restored his relationship with God.