2 Chronicles 16

2 Chronicles 16 unfortunately contains the story of another leader who failed to finish strong.  Asa has been leading well, and the nation has enjoyed peace for over 30 years.  Then things begin to change.  In his 36^th year of leading, Baasha who was king of Israel, came and began to build Ramah which was intended to keep people away from Asa.  It wasn’t a direct act of war, but it certainly was intended to disrupt Asa’s leadership and the kingdom.

Asa pulls out a trick from his ancestors.  He goes to Syria and seeks an alliance with Ben-hadad who was king there at the time.  He brought him gifts and asked him to attack Baasha’s territory and get him focused on something else.  It worked.  Baasha stopped work on Ramah and had to go take care of things at home.  Seems like a brilliant move, doesn’t it?  He uses another king’s army to do his work.  But not so fast.  Here is what God told Asa through the prophet Hanani: “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God”….it continues but let’s stop here.  Asa made a mistake.  He relied on self and man rather than God.  That is always a bad plan.  But it is often what we do.  We fall into the trap of thinking we can handle it.  Asa did, but he did it the wrong way.  He ignored the relationship with God that had been so good for so long.  He did not finish well.

Hanani reminds Asa that God has been faithful. He led them to victory over 30 years earlier against an army over twice their size.  He has given them peace and blessed them.  But now, Asa just ignores history and begins to make deals and do things on his own.  Here is the key lesson from Hanani to Asa: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him”.  God is paying attention and watching.  And what He wants is a man who is all in with a heart that is obedient and true.  He wants a pure relationship.  He wants all of us, all the time, all the way.  Asa had lost sight of that.

Asa then makes another mistake.  He takes out his wrath on the messenger who was just delivering what God said.  He throws Hanani into stocks and inflicted cruelty on the people.  He lost it.  Asa was inflicted with disease in his feet which was severe.  And here we see a second big miss: “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians”.  Asa didn’t learn from his first mistake.  He still relied on self and man for his solutions.  We need to pay close attention here.  The secret to life with God is to keep Him where He belongs – first and foremost – the source of all answers. 

2 Chronicles 15

2 Chronicles 15 continues the story of King Asa.  Azariah the prophet came to him and said “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you”.  Pretty simple, isn’t it?  God is with us. He is not hiding.  If we seek Him, we’ll find Him.  Scripture tells us that over and over.  It isn’t rocket science.  So why are we so slow to seek God?  Why do we somehow think it is His responsibility to not only seek us, but convince us to have a relationship with Him.  We get it all backward.

Israel has a history of walking away from God.  Azariah reminds Asa of that:

–       “no peace

–       great disturbances

–       broken in pieces

–       Nation was crushed by nation

–       God troubled them with every sort of distress”

Walking without God is not good.  It is lonely and bad things happen.  It has been this way for a while.  But now, Asa has the opportunity to change all that.  Azariah tells Asa “your work shall be rewarded”.  God is paying attention.  He is ready to be in relationship with us.  When we walk in obedience, He blesses us.  The question is only whether or not we will walk with Him.

Asa has some work to do.  “Great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him”.  He has to rebuild the relationship between the people and God.  And that is what he does.  He calls them together and they sacrifice and worship and “they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul”.  It was back to the basics for the people, led by their king.  That is how leadership ought to work.  But Asa goes further and “whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman”.  Serious business, serious resolve.  Asa wasn’t leaving it to chance.  There was going to be change.

There was rejoicing in the streets and God heard their cries.  “They had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around”.  God blessed them as they came back to Him.  He gave them peace for over 30 years.  That is a blessing these people had not known for a very long time.  Asa was serious, as he removed his mom from the throne as queen and got rid of her idols.  That is a bold move, but he was serious about serving and pleasing God.  Here is the key statement: “the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days”.  Asa was all in.  He was focused on serving God.  He was obedient, and God blessed not only him, but the entire kingdom as a result.  Never doubt that the impact of a leader is significant.  How we live matters, not only personally, but to those in our patch.  It is true as husband or wife, mother or father, leader or friend.  We need to walk with God in obedience and receive His blessing, not only in our life, but in our patch!

2 Chronicles 14

2 Chronicles 14 has a huge turnaround as Asa takes the throne from Abijah.  Things went differently for one reason: “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God”.  They returned to the relationship that David had with God, and His favor returned upon the kingdom.  Talk about a huge change.  Asa doesn’t do anything besides getting right with God.  But the outcome of that – the impact of walking with God and living God’s way – is significant.  It matters much!

So what does that look like?  Scripture describes it this way:

–       “took away the foreign altars and the high places

–       broke down the pillars

–       cut down the Asherim

–       commanded Judah to seek the Lord….to keep the law and the commandment

–       took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars”

It simply came down to obedience.  It was back to the basics of what it meant to follow God and walk in His ways. Asa led the people back to God.

What is the result?  “The kingdom had rest under him….He built fortified cities….He had no war….the Lord gave him peace”.  Talk about a change from the prior leadership.  Abijah was in constant conflict and war.  He hadn’t walked well with God.  And the cost was significant.  So God gave Asa peace for 10 years. He allowed the kingdom to experience a time without being on guard and under attack. And then it came again.  The Ethiopians come to do battle.

The lines are drawn and Asa assembles about 580,000 men, but the enemy has over 1 million so the odds are not good.  The draw up battle lines, and Asa “Asa cried to the Lord his God”.  And God showed up in a big way.  In fact, “they were broken before the Lord and his army”.  God did a number on the other army.  In fact, scripture says “the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive”.  That is quite a victory – no survivors.  But it went beyond just destroying the enemy army.  We are told that Asa also:

–       “carried away very much spoil

–       attacked all the cities

–       plundered all the cities

–       struck down the tents

–       carried away sheep in abundance”

Asa kicked some behind and came out smelling like a rose.  Not because of anything he did except pray.  God did all the work.  God ruled and reigned!

2 Chronicles 13

2 Chronicles 13 has Abijah taking over the throne to reign after Rehoboam.  He is at war with the rest of the chosen people that Jeroboam was king over.  Jeroboam had 800,000 men ready for war, and Abijah has half that number.  So it was pretty lopsided.  Abijah tries to negotiate a peaceful solution and warns Jeroboam that God is on their side.  “As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him”.  But it is not listened to.  Bad choice by Jeroboam.

So Abijah prepares for war.  “God is with us at our head, and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you”.  How’s that for a strategy – just have the priests blow their trumpets when an army twice the size is coming your way.  Jeroboam has a military mind and sets up things for battle.  “His troops were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them”.  In other words, they are surrounded on both sides by an army twice their size.

Things look bleak.  But Abijah leads his troops this way.  “They cried to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets….the men of Judah raised the battle shout”.  When things appear to be overwhelming and out of control, Abijah and his priests and all his men do what most of us do – they cried out to God.  And as is usually the case, God is not only there, He hears and responds:   “And when the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah”.  God showed up and defeated an army that had surrounded Abijah’s troops and had twice the manpower.  That is a God moment.

So what happens?  On Abijah’s front, “the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers”.  Legacy comes through loud and clear here.  The reality of David and his walk with God is making a difference.  Abijah not only won the battle, he took much spoil in the aftermath.  And his enemy – the king that had taken 10 of the 12 tribes, well things don’t end well for him.  “Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah. And the Lord struck him down, and he died”.  God is not mocked.  God is in control.  God does reign!

1 Kings 15:1-24

1 Kings 15:1-24 picks up the story with Abijam who took over for Rehoboam as king.  Not much changed as “he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God”.  Abijam is a bad dude.  He doesn’t walk with God.  But scripture gives us a glimpse at the power of legacy here.  Two generations removed, David is still having a significant impact.  His life and walk with God continues to make a difference.  If you don’t think it matters how we live, hear what God says about David:

“Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite”.  Abijam is not living in obedience, but God gives credit to David who had been dead for a couple generations.  Solomon and Rehoboam had both walked away from God.  And now, Abijam is doing the same.  But the power of legacy is strong and God continues to bless His people because of the relationship He had with David many years prior.

Then comes a bright spot in all this.  “Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done”.  Back to the roots of a few generations earlier, Asa walks with God again.  He cleans out sin and gets rid of all the idols that had been made by prior kings.  Asa is on a course to set things right with God.  In fact, he takes some very bold steps.  “He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother”.  Talk about guts.  Asa kicks his mother off the throne.  He is all in for God.

That is the lesson here.  He finds God and his legacy and returns to walking with God.  Check out what scripture tells us about him.  “The heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days”.  Asa wasn’t sort of bought into obedience.  He was ‘wholly true’ to God.  He wasn’t partially committed.  He followed ‘all his days’.  That is the picture of faithfulness that God desires from us.  He wants to have Christ Followers who follow.  He wants men and women who have a heart of obedience.  Does that describe you?  If not, a change can yield some amazing results.  God blesses obedience!

2 Chronicles 12

2 Chronicles 12 is another story of a leader who doesn’t finish strong.  In his case, Rehoboam didn’t start strong either, but he did find the path for a short period of time on his life journey.  You’ll recall that he began his reign by ignoring the wise counsel of Solomon’s wise men.  That led to the lost of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel.  He finds God’s path and began to find favor again.  That brings us to this chapter in his life.  “When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him”.  He goes off the reservation yet again.

How does it happen?  Rehoboam struggled, God restored, and then he becomes “unfaithful to the Lord”.  What is it that causes us to forget the consequences of disobedience and fall into the trap of believing we are in control?  How does that happen over and over?  God sends his prophet Shemaiah to tell him “‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak”.  The enemy king is taking over Rehoboam’s kingdom.  Why?  Because they lost sight of God.  They stopped obeying His commandments.  Spiritually, they lost their way which caused their actions to be counter to God’s direction.

How does God respond when we figure it out and change our ways?  “Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, The Lord is righteous”.  Rehoboam’s team finally put two and two together and realized that they were on the wrong course.  So they repent and humble themselves.  “When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak”.  God’s response was to spare total destruction.  He decides not to wipe out the kingdom.  But…..

There is a ‘but’ in this story. While God turned from destroying the people, the result of their sin is still happening.  “Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries”.  There is always a consequence to sin. The final outcome may change based on God’s grace, but the consequence of that sin will not.  In Rehoboam’s case, “when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction”.  God decides not to destroy the nation.  But they were still slaves because of the choices they made.  And even though again God blessed Rehoboam, he does not finish strong.  “He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord”.  How unfortunate, not only for him, but for those who followed him.   Few finish strong. And when they fail, it impacts those in their patch.  It is so important that we walk closely and completely with the Father.  Are you on the path to finish strong?

2 Chronicles 11

2 Chronicles 11 shows us a maturing Rehoboam in his role as king.  Remember that he was Solomon’s son but only ended up with two of the twelve tribes under his leadership – Judah and Benjamin – and the other 10 were led by Jeroboam.  Of course that doesn’t sit well, and Rehoboam assembles 180K troops to fight so he can regain the entire kingdom.  Seems logical to man, doesn’t it?  But God has a different plan and sends Shemaiah the prophet to go and tell Rehoboam no.

The message comes “you shall not go up or fight against your relatives”.  Basically just turn around and go home.  These are warriors mind you.  That isn’t their normal course of action.  But “they listened” and did exactly that – they went home.  So Rehoboam changed his focus from one of battle to a couple other areas.  The first was to build cities and fortify them and equip them with leaders and stores of food and weapons.  He focused on preparation and sustaining the kingdom, not growing it.  But the priests and the Levites from all over came and presented themselves to Rehoboam because thir king Jeroboam had stopped them from serving and were focused on idol worship.

We learn that Rehoboam had turned around and was following the early days of his father.  “Those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers”.  The influx of positive influence is really paying off.  It is quite a change for Rehoboam to be making, but as is always the case, when we focus on God and His ways, good things happen.  “They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon”.

Rehoboam followed in Solomon’s ways in other areas too.  “He took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters”.  It isn’t a thousand like his dad, but 78 is quite a number.  But scripture also tells us “he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and procured wives for them”.  Some of that wisdom is now starting to filter in.  Too bad for the kingdom that he didn’t follow it from the beginning, but now he is starting to lead like he needs to.

2 Chronicles 10

2 Chronicles 10 is a perfect lesson in how not to lead.  It is the same story as we saw in 1 Kings 12.  Rehoboam takes the throne from Solomon as his son.  He does a wise thing and calls together the old men who had been counselors for his father after the people came and asked him to back off on some of the work that they had been under in Solomon’s day.  “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you”.

It seems like a fair request.  Rehoboam is a new leader.  He has no experience or wisdom in what to do.  So asking the advisors is a good plan.  But when he gets their advise, he makes a poor decision.  He ignores their counsel and finds some young men to check in with.  These guys are inexperienced and want to tell the king what he wants to hear.  So they give a very different set of instructions.  “Whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions”.  Talk about a completely opposite direction.

But it makes sense that these youngsters would tell Rehoboam things that stroked his ego and gave him the feeling of power.  His soon to be adversary, Jereboam, came with the people to get the kings response.  And of course, the king went with the counsel of the young kids and tells them he will turn up the heat on what is expected.  The reality of what happens here is that “the king did not listen to the people”.  That is never going to end well.  And it certainly doesn’t in this case either.

Rehoboam sent his taskmaster, Hadoram, to the people to get them doing the kings work.  Their response?  They stoned the poor guy.  They weren’t open to the continuation and actually the apparent increase in control the king wanted to apply.  So they took out the messenger in a very painful way.  When word got back to the king he flew the coup because he feared for his own life.  “So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day”.  The rebellion that day has continued and the poor choice of a leader set in motion events that changed history.  Oh how far the nation had declined in a couple generations as they fell away from God, largely led there by their leaders.

1 Kings 14

1 Kings 14 has the tale of two kings.  Neither finishes well, or even lives close to where they should have.  We’ll start with Jeroboam, who took the majority of Israel under his rule when Solomon died. The kingdom he led was a gift – it was given by God to him to lead – and he totally went off on the wrong course.  Here is God’s analysis: “You have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, but you have done evil above all who were before you”.  Note the standard that is used here – it isn’t Solomon who also went off the reservation – but David who was obedient and in spite of his failings followed God with his whole heart.

So Jeroboam has a problem at home.  His son is ill and he sends his wife in disguise to a prophet to find out what will happen.  Isn’t amazing how we think we can deceive God.  The prophet Ahijah was told by God that she was coming, and he knew it when she entered his presence.  He has to deliver some very bad news. Not only is their son going to die, but God says “I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone”.  How would you like to go home with that message.  Plus the prophecy that as soon as she entered their city her son would die.  Not a good day to be the bearer of news.

Jeroboam has a bad day.  His leadership away from God not only cost him personally, it cost the kingdom.  Check out what God says: “He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin”.  Leadership matters a lot.  Jeroboam led the people away from God, or at the least allowed it.  And because he didn’t live in obedience, or lead obediently, not only did punishment fall on his family but also the kingdom.  Anyone who thinks that leadership isn’t important needs to re-read this chapter.  It is hugely important that we walk and lead obediently.

Down the road a ways Reheboam, Solomon’s son who is leading the sliver of the kingdom he was left with in the tribe of Judah, is having a similar fate.  He also does not lead well and allows the people to continue in sin and idol worship.  Enemy kings come take their treasures and God allows a continual war between these two kings.  Neither of them reigned all that long, and the result of their leadership was chaos, sin and loss.  Two great examples of how not to lead.  God holds us accountable as leaders.  There is a price to disobedience, and it rolls downhill from the top.  Lots of lessons here!

1 Kings 13

I Kings 13 has Jeroboam continuing down the wrong path.  A man of God came to the altar where they were worshipping and told him that they were not being obedient and that God would deal with the altar by tearing it down and scattering the ashes.  “And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself”.  Of course Jereboam didn’t like that so wants to capture this guy and remove him.

But God intervenes and dries up Jereboam’s arm.  He can’t move it.  He pleas for the man to heal his arm, and he does.  Jereboam asks the man of God to come to his home, but he refuses saying it was against God’s direction.  Another prophet gets wind of what has happened and takes off after this guy to find out if he was real or not.  He “lied to him” telling him that God had given him direction that the man of God was to go to this prophet’s house to eat with him.  Of course, the lie creates disobedience.  And God is never pleased with that.

So God kills the man of God for disobeying.  Just a bit earlier this man had been walking in the middle of God’s will delivering God’s message to Jereboam.  But now, due to a lie and disobedience of what he knew was God’s commandment, he is dead after listening to a lie from bad counsel.  Seems a bit severe, doesn’t it.  After all, he was led astray by a guy purporting to be a prophet.  Yet God does hold us accountable for what we choose to do.  We can’t blame others for our actions.  We choose to sin. No one makes us.

So “Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way” and keeps on leading his people astray.  He ordains priests to be part of his evil worship scheme.  “And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth”.  God doesn’t tolerate sin. He won’t just look the other way when we choose to disobey.  Even if someone leads us that way, we still have to choose obedience.  God requires it.  There is no alternate route.  We are to obey continually.  That is the life of a Christ Follower that brings God’s blessing.  Are you walking in obedience today?