2 kings 11-15

What a great Sabbath Day!  I hope you were able to be in church today to hear Sara Howard's testimony of the miracle in her family's life in the form of Baby Grace.  It was fantastic!  Next week should be more of the same as we celebrate Palm Sunday with an Easter Cantata.  The choir has been working overtime to provide you with a musical blessing for Easter.  I hope you will be in attendance.

Today's reading seems to be more of the same.....the rulers of Israel continue Jeroboam sin.  The nation becomes weaker and weaker until it becomes a vassal state of Syria, but look at the story of Athaliah, Jehosheba and Joash.  Athaliah assumes power after Jehu assassinates Ahaziah.  She is the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel and the mother of Ahaziah.  She seizes the throne of Judah as the Queen mother and attempts to secure her authority by murdering all remaining heirs to the throne.  She thinks that she has succeeded but God has promised that the seed of David will be the source of great blessing to all of the world.  The evil that Athaliah has planned cannot succeed since it is predicated on the failure of God's promise.  Jehosheba is thought to be a wife of a priest.  She takes the infant Joash and his nurse into hiding in the temple and hides them for 6 years until Joash is old enough to be king.  The actions of this relatively unknown women secures the promise of David's throne.

Don't you think it is interesting that the plans of Satan can never succeed in the face of God's promises?  All that he can hope to do is to pick off a few folks as God's will moves steadfastly toward the end times when the dead in Christ shall rise and a new heaven and a new earth will come into being.  Can we be faithful to be obedient to God's plan and refuse the advances of the deceiver?

Joash rules Judah for 52 years, repairs the temple and does many good things.  But he does not tear down the high places where the people continue to make sacrifices.  One of the difficult things for us to do is to create a new model.  it is much easier for us to continue a practice that is already in place even if that practice violates God's purposes.  It is vital that we get it right.  We are passing a legacy on to our children, be it right or wrong, and they will follow in our footsteps.  Their righteousness largely depends upon our faithfulness.  Let us pray that we are obedient to God's will and way.

When Elisha dies, the king of Israel comes to mourn his passing.  Don't you find this interesting since the Kings of Israel have only given half-hearted lip service to Jehovah?  Our prayer should be that we would live so righteously that even ungodly men and women would miss us when we are gone.

We will read more about many of these kings in 1 & 2 Chronicles and the prophets.  It will seem repetitious some times, but listen for the voice of God and for the pieces that speak to us abut our need to be obedient and avoid the mistakes of those people of Israel and Judah that led them to the isolation of exile. 

I hope your new week is filled with opportunity to be a blessing to others.