5/25/2011 8:10:06 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Jotham, a virtuous king
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Ki. 15:32-38; 2Chron. 27
Message of the verses: “32 ¶
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham
the son of Uzziah king of Judah became king. 33
He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen
years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.
34 He did what was right in the sight of the LORD; he
did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. 35 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still
sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of
the house of the LORD. 36 Now the rest
of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of
the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 37
In those days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the
son of Remaliah against Judah. 38 And
Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city
of David his father; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.”
“1
¶ Jotham was twenty-five years old when
he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s
name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2
He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father
Uzziah had done; however he
did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people continued acting corruptly. 3 He built the upper gate of the house of the
LORD, and he built extensively the wall of Ophel. 4 Moreover, he built cities in the hill country
of Judah, and he built fortresses and towers on the wooded hills. 5 He fought also with the king of the Ammonites
and prevailed over them so that the Ammonites gave him during that year one
hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of
barley. The Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second and in the third
year. 6 So Jotham became mighty because
he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. 7
Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, even all his wars and his acts,
behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 8 He was twenty-five years old when he became
king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they
buried him in the city of David; and Ahaz , his son became king in his place.”
I
would suppose that if you look at the total of forty kings who reigned over
Israel, both the united kingdom and then the divided kingdom that the majority
of them were evil kings, for all of the kings of the northern kingdom were evil
kings and then most of the southern kings did evil in the sight of the Lord. In yesterday’s SD as far as the commentary
that Warren Wiersbe gave he named all of the good kings in the Southern
kingdom, and they were as follows, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah,
Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Then he
goes on to write the following, “Of course at the top of the list is King
David.” I notice that he did not include
Solomon in the list of good kings and I suppose that he should not be there for
of all of the kings of Israel he was probably the most gifted king and yet the
most wasteful of all of his gifts.
Another thing one can read about is these good kings is that many of
them did not get rid of the high places where Israel would sacrifice, sometimes
to the Lord and sometimes to idols.
Now
as far as King Jotham he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but did
not remove the high places. He
co-reigned with his father Uzziah after Uzziah went into the temple and
received leprosy and the thing that I do not understand is that he died when he
was forty-one years old and there is no explanation of why he died. He did conquer the Amorites while he was king
and received tribute from them after he conquered them. He built the walls of Jerusalem that had been
destroyed earlier by the northern kingdom.
The Bible does not really record a lot about Jotham when he was king and
yet he was a good king. His son Ahaz
would not be a good king and with this thought in mind Warren Wiersbe directs
his readers to the 18th chapter of Ezekiel for an explanation of
this good king and evil king history of Israel.
I listened to this chapter and it says that a person who is evil will
pay for his sins, not his son, and if an evil person changes then he will live
and if a righteous person changes he will die.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: In that 18th chapter of Ezekiel I
surely can see something that has been a theme in my devotions for some time
and that is to finish strong. I believe
that one aspect of finishing strong is to continue to learn contentment, for
when one really knows contentment one really believes that the Lord is in
charge and even though at times, life does not seem good, by realizing that the
Lord is in control of all things and in the end all will be good then I can
continue to be content in my life. This
is a difficult thing to learn in that the best way to learn this is to go
through some difficult times of which there have been a few in my life at this
season of my life. I must continue to
live a life that is pleasing to the Lord and continue to learn contentment.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to learn contentment. (Phil. 4:11)
2.
Remember Psalm 101:3 “I will set no worthless thing
before my eyes.”
3.
Remember Romans 12:1-2.
4.
Remember Psalm 139:23-24.
5/25/2011 9:14:30 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment