October 10, 2019
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Reading along with us in 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Chronicles 27 (ESV)
1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the Lord........Continue Reading
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1Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices.
2 Chronicles 27:2 (ESV)
And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still followed corrupt practices.
Even though Judah has a good king who ‘did what was right in the eyes of the LORD’, the people still followed corrupt practices. But in spite of the people’s sins, God still blessed Judah in spite of the people’s continued spiritual prostitution.
At first, I was thinking, so what value is there in godly leadership when the people fail to follow the example. But when this chapter is read in light of chapter 28, then I see the value.
It is much like we see in the world today. Yes, God still judges people and nations. However, I think that the ungodly still benefit from God’s blessing on the godly. Does not God make his blessing pour out on the just and the unjust?
This is such a short chapter for a righteous king who learned from the mistakes of the past and continued following God to the end. That is certainly notable in light of the pattern we have seen in the past few chapters. In reading the corresponding account of Jotham in 2 Kings, we learn that the people were making sacrifices and burning incense on high places. It is important to note that at times that refers to them worshipping false gods and other times it refers to them “worshipping” God, but not in the way that God prescribes. He made clear when they were entering the land (remember in Deuteronomy? 🙂 ) that they were to focus their sacrifices and certain aspects of their worship of God in a central place. At first that was where the tabernacle was put in place (Shiloh) (and that was after carrying it around for 40+ years I might add…in a very small way it was like when we got a building after bringing church to a school for 10 years). Then that central location was in the temple in Jerusalem (you can read Solomon’s prayer of dedication in 1 Kings to see how central that location was in his mind). But what the people did was make places for sacrifices to God on high places around Israel. It was a right thing done in a wrong way. God actually reveals Himself to Solomon when Solomon is sacrificing at one of these high places. What then happened is when the people of Israel replaced God and worshipped idols, these high places became places of worship to the false gods. It is a lesson how a little wrong thing can more easily become a big wrong thing. But I bring it up here because when the people are worshipping on high places in Jotham’s reign, it may or may not be worshiping false gods, but it is also not the way God wants it. You could also imagine that by the time Jotham is on the scene, false worship has crept into those places.
And the fact that those practices continued under Jotham could represent a gap in his leadership. Naturally if he initiated things to provide direction and correction to the people, that would be his place and then their behavior would be on them. But if he didn’t, then he would bear some responsibility, not for their behavior, per se, but for his lack of initiative to correct it. The same is true of anyone in leadership. We have a role not only to follow God ourselves but initiate things to help those under us follow God too. I do make these comments in light of what happens under Hezekiah and Josiah. There the transformation in Judah involves everyone. Was it because Judah was in a worse place after Ahaz’s reign or because Hezekiah and Josiah were better leaders?
Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.
……But still the people acted corruptly.