Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we are so thankful for the privilege we have had to gather around Your table, to proclaim the excellencies of Who You are and all that You have done.
And Lord, in that proclamation, we are thankful that You have given us Your Word to teach us and to guide us. We would come now and feast upon Your Word.
We are thankful, too, for the Holy Spirit, the enabling power of Thine anointing, to take words that are written on a piece of paper and cause them to be very life within our hearts, Lord.
Lord, we are looking unto You for this time. Just as we gathered at Your table to behold You, Lord, as we come to Your Word, we would come to behold You and You alone, because You alone have those words of eternal life.
We worship You. We bless You for this time we have together. In Thy precious name, amen.
If we could turn to 1 Corinthians 10. First Corinthians 10.
This morning, we are going to be continuing to look throughout the book of 2 Chronicles at the kings and how the Lord assessed them. A couple of verses will introduce us to this time: 1 Corinthians 10:11.
Speaking of the nation of Israel, it says:
Now these things happened to them as an example,
and they were written for our instruction,
upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
This verse is so critical whenever we look at the Old Testament. It is not just a history book. Yes, there is history within that book, but those ones who have gone before us, as we look upon Israel, are there for our instruction.
Particularly in the days we are living in, it speaks of the ends of the ages having come, and I believe we are very much aware that we are living in these times.
Also, if we look over at Galatians 5:7, as Paul is writing to these dear ones to encourage them, he says:
You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?
So often, as we look at the nation of Israel, as we look at individuals, so we look at our own lives. We could be running really well; things are going great. But then all of a sudden, something hinders us.
And it is not something that hinders us, but as it says, who has hindered us. I believe most of us who have walked a little bit along this path, this pilgrimage of life the Lord has called us to, know that the greatest hindrance—the greatest “who” that is the obstacle—is our very self. It is not someone else; it is within our very self. We are our greatest enemy.
So let us turn back now to 2 Chronicles.
As we look at 2 Chronicles, we are reminded how, at the beginning of 2 Chronicles, Israel reached its zenith under the times of David and Solomon, and the glory of the Lord came down and filled the temple.
Then, because of the sins of Solomon, there was a divided kingdom. We had the kingdom divided into the northern kingdom, which is referred to as Israel, and the southern kingdom, referred to as Judah, which also included the tribe of Benjamin.
In Judah, we see, during their history, there were partial times of recovery. The Lord, in His mercy, moved. He found ones, and there were partial recoveries.
If we look at Israel’s history, the Lord was faithful to them too. He sent prophet after prophet to Israel, but there was never any recovery, never any returning back to God.
As examples, we would look at Israel as what would be referred to as the apostate church—the church that has really forsaken the Lord and His ways, seeking their own ways.
As we look at Judah, really we are seeing the weakened church: a church that sometimes is going on with the Lord and sometimes is falling back, kind of an ebb and flow. As we look throughout church history, we see much of that, and we actually experience that in our own lives too.
But we can be very encouraged as we look at this book, because we see these partial recoveries. What was the key within that which brought about these recoveries?
It was always that the Lord found one who had a heart for Him. Because, as we look at 2 Chronicles 16:9, we are reminded of this verse. This verse is not just applicable during the times of Chronicles, but it is very much applicable today also.
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth,
that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
We know that when we look back upon David, David is what we refer to as that model king. The testimony of David is that he was a man after God’s own heart.
I remember back in the fall, Brother Kong shared messages on epoch-making vessels. He shared on David being that epoch-making vessel, and how the Lord desires that kingly character be formed within His people.
Praise God, during the history of Judah, we see certain ones in whom aspects of that kingly character come forth. The Lord sees that heart, and the Lord responds and comes in, and there is that recovery. It is never a full recovery; it is always a partial recovery of all that the Lord is after there. But it is so encouraging to us.
But as we look upon these ones, there is another aspect. It is not just that they have a heart for the Lord, but they also did the will of God.
Because that verse, as it says of David in Acts, says that David was a man after God’s own heart. We love that part, but do we remember what the second part of that verse says? He did all His will.
The Lord knew that David would do His will. He did not just have a heart, but he put it into action. We see in these certain kings how there were ones who did right in the sight of the Lord.
Each king has an assessment made by the Lord: “He did evil in the sight of the Lord,” or, “He did right in the sight of the Lord.” We are thankful that, as we look upon these ones, we can find many lessons and much encouragement. Even from the ones that fail, even from their failures, we can learn.
Because that is the question we have as we are here today. We have been challenged recently: Are we those who are keeping the charge? Do we even know what the charge is?
This was what the nation of Israel faced. This is what the southern kingdom of Judah was facing. Were they willing to keep that charge in spite of the circumstances, in spite of the many battles?
Today, the Lord is looking for ones who will respond to His heart. Just as He was looking around in those days for ones who had a heart for Him, in the times that we are living in, the Lord is looking for that.
He is looking for ones who are willing to undergo the training so that that kingly character can be formed within them. What does it mean to have that kingly character formed within us? It simply means being conformed to the image of Christ.
It is having His life expressed in us. It is not a mystery. The Lord desires that His very life would be expressed—that kingly life that has won the victory—within His people.
It is a very simple desire. We can complicate it, but it comes back to this: He has a simple desire to see the life of His Son expressed in His people individually and corporately together, to be that testimony on earth that He has called us to be.
He called Israel to be that testimony. Because of their sins, there was a great division and great declension.
After Solomon’s death, his sons Rehoboam and Abijah ruled, but both of them were evil. They led the people into idolatry. But out of a horrible circumstance, Asa was raised up by the grace of God.
We have already touched on Asa and Jehoshaphat. Within Asa, we saw how immediately he went back and restored that altar: the cross, the very essence and truth of the work of Christ.
We see within Asa also a great dependence upon prayer. He was faithful for many years, but we also know that in the end he kind of went his own way.
Then we saw Jehoshaphat. Within Jehoshaphat, we saw how he recovered the Word of God. The Word of God had significance, and there was also much prayer within Jehoshaphat’s life.
But we also know that within Jehoshaphat’s life there was compromise. He allowed his son to marry Ahab’s daughter. Ahab was king of Israel, the northern kingdom, and probably one of the worst kings of all that there were within Israel.
Now, sometimes we say, “Well, it is just a compromise. It is just a marriage between so-and-so and so-and-so. What is the harm?”
At the beginning, compromise does not seem harmful. It seems like, “Oh, well, this will be something. We will just do this, and that will settle it, and everything will be fine, and we will not have to deal with it again.”
Let us look at the consequences of this compromised marriage. Real quickly, after Jehoshaphat dies, his son Jehoram comes in and becomes king.
Look at 2 Chronicles 21:6. This is the summary of Jehoram’s life as a result of the compromise:
And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel,
just as the house of Ahab did;
for Ahab’s daughter was his wife.
And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
You see the influence that she had upon his life.
Then, when he died, he was succeeded by his son Ahaziah. Look in 2 Chronicles 22:3-4. We see another result of this compromise as it continues to go downhill.
And he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab;
for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.
And he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab,
for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.
He was led astray. It is tragic, and he ended up being murdered.
Then who becomes queen? The mother, Athaliah, who is Ahab’s daughter, takes over as queen within Judah. Talk about a falling away and evil prevailing.
The summary of her life is in the same chapter, 2 Chronicles 22:10:
Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead,
she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring.
She killed all of her grandkids. But praise God, there was one—one dear one who escaped.
This one lady took this little baby, less than a year old, named Joash, and escaped and hid him in the house of God.
So we see the consequence of what appeared to be a simple little compromise, and how it just opened the floodgates for evil to come in. That is a great lesson for us, because at times within our lives we think, “Well, it is just easier, simpler to compromise.”
But may the Lord open us to see that there are great consequences when that door is opened.
So today, what we would like to do is consider four kings. Now, you say, “Oh, we will be here till two o’clock.” No, there is a point within each one.
The first three kings—Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah—it says of each of them that they did right in the sight of the Lord, but there is a condition associated with each one of them. Finally, we have one named Jotham. He did right in the sight of the Lord without any conditions.
Let us first turn over to 2 Chronicles 24:2, and we will see the summary of Joash’s life.
And Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord
all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Note that little phrase: “all the days of Jehoiada the priest.”
Joash was the one who had been saved as a baby and hidden in the house of God for six years. Then came the time when Jehoiada said, “It is time to put Joash on the throne.”
They came out, proclaimed him as king, and everybody knew he was the rightful king. They killed Athaliah, that queen mother, and Joash was brought in to become king at the age of seven.
Jehoiada was a great influence upon his life. As long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash did right and Judah prospered. The house of God was restored, and Judah was prospering.
But finally Jehoiada passed away. Look down in 2 Chronicles 24:15. He died at the age of 130.
I think this is probably the oldest man recorded at this point. I do not think anybody after Jehoiada lived to 130. But he had a good life, a full life, and the Lord used him.
He was so honored by the people that they buried this priest with the kings—the highest honor he could receive.
But it is so tragic that after he died, Joash totally turned and went the other way. He became self-absorbed, departed from the ways of the Lord, did not listen to the prophets of the Lord, and listened to his friends.
Because Jehoiada was the one he looked to instead of the Lord, Joash never had a personal relationship with the Lord.
And it brings us down to the question: How about us? How about us?
It is so important that each one of us has this personal relationship with the Lord, that we not be dependent upon the men of God that the Lord has used in marvelous ways in our lives.
Even a husband and a wife—sometimes we can see how a husband can become dependent upon his wife, and a wife can become dependent upon the husband. Now, there is great love there, yes, but does each one of us have that personal relationship with the Lord?
So when that person is not there, we can continue on. Yes, in great grief and sorrow, but we know the Lord in such a way that He carries us through the fires and the trials of life.
It can be a parent. It can be a friend that we have. It can be a Facebook buddy—whoever is out there. We can become so dependent upon a person more than we can the Lord, and it can be a very subtle thing.
We need to ask the Lord to search our hearts, because Joash here—it was tragic. After Jehoiada died, he completely turned the opposite way.
He listened to the flattery of his friends. If you look down in 2 Chronicles 24:17, it says:
After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came
and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them.
They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers,
and served the idols.
It is like these ones came and started flattering the king. They said, “Oh, young Joash, we all respect Jehoiada, but he was such an old man. He was a man for his age, and he was used for the Lord at that age. But now you, as this young man, you are the man of the hour.”
They were flattering him and lifting him up, and his flesh was feeling so good. They said, “You will be free to make decisions on your own. Jehoiada was a good influence, but at times he kind of restricted us. We were not free to do what we wanted to do. But now you are the king, and you can lead us on.”
The more they flattered him, the more he desired the praise of man. He did not have that relationship with the Lord, so he desired the praise of man more than the praise of God.
He ends up totally turning away. The Lord, in His mercy, sends prophet after prophet, as we see in verse 19, but they are never listened to.
Finally, the Lord sends Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah. “He will listen to him,” because he respected his father.
But Joash does not listen to him. Zechariah is trying to get Joash to turn back, but he actually ends up slaughtered. The king gives the command for Zechariah to be killed.
This murder is recorded in the Gospels, in Matthew and Luke. Zechariah was killed between the altar and the house of God. It is sad how far this one had fallen.
We see the Lord’s mercy. He sends those prophets to try to win them back. But this one was so hard; his heart had turned away because he did not have that personal relationship with the Lord.
So often we take for granted having a personal relationship with the Lord. We think, “Well, everybody has that. If you are a Christian, you have a personal relationship with the Lord.”
I am sorry, every Christian does not have that intimate, personal, one-on-one relationship with the Lord. We might know Him as Savior, but do we know Him in that spirit of fellowship and communion, the spirit of abiding with Him, knowing His heart and knowing His desire?
Joash never entered into that. It cost him his life. Joash ended up getting killed.
During this time, we see mentioned how the Lord sends His prophets. It is during Joash that we actually start to see the first written prophets. Most people believe that the prophet Joel was living during the time of Joash.
Now, there is some debate over when Joel was, but most conservative ones believe it was during the life of Joash.
We see through the prophet Joel that God is not desiring just outward performance. He is desiring a heart—an inner relationship with us.
The prophet Joel cries out for his people to repent. He says, “Repent and return unto Me.” We are familiar somewhat with the verses in Joel. When you repent, the Lord says, “I will restore what the locust has eaten.”
It looks like destruction to you, but I will restore. God is a God of hope. Even though the prophet had a hard word, that was always followed by that call to repent: “You repent, and I will restore.”
“I will bring forth My Spirit, and whatever looks as though it has been destroyed and hopeless, there is hope in Me.” But the people did not respond, and how tragic it is.
Joash ends up self-destructing, and it is tragic.
Then his son Amaziah takes over. If we look in 2 Chronicles 25, his life is summarized in verse 2:
He did right in the sight of the Lord,
yet not with a whole heart.
Another condition: “yet not with a whole heart.” In the end, his divided heart led to his own self-destruction.
If we want to look at a couple of examples of his divided heart, we see in 2 Chronicles 25:3-4 that when he became king, he followed the Word of God and put to death those who had killed his father.
But as the Word of God says, he did not punish their children. It says you do not punish the sons for the fathers’ sins, and you do not punish the fathers for the sons’ sin. Each one is punished for his own sin.
He obeyed the Word of God. He was doing what God wanted him to do; he was following that.
But immediately after that, he says, “Okay, we are going to go fight the Edomites.” He did not seek the Lord. On his own, he says, “We are going to go fight the Edomites,” and he makes an alliance with the northern kingdom of Israel to go fight with him.
Here, one minute he is following the Lord, and the next minute he is doing his own thing.
Now, if we are all honest, each one of us probably does that every day. As we are going through life, we will touch the Lord, and something will come in and it will be glorious. But then, almost a split second later, we can revert to our own self and our own ways.
This divided heart: we are serving the Lord, then we are doing our own thing. This is what Amaziah was doing.
After he allies with Israel, the Lord sends a prophet and says, “What are you doing? Wake up. You should not be allying with Israel. They are not your friends. I have not called you to this, and I did not call you to go out into this battle.”
He listens to the prophet. He sends the soldiers he hired from Israel back away. So he responds to the rebuke of the prophet, again doing right in the sight of the Lord.
But then after the battle, the Lord wins the victory for him. As he was defeating the Edomites, he noticed their idols.
He said, “Oh, look at these beautiful idols. Look how this idol of the Edomites would look so pretty over in the corner of our living room. We could bring it back and set it over here. It would really enhance the atmosphere of our room.”
“And, oh, look at this idol. I could put that in the kitchen.” He was fascinated by these idols, so he brings these idols of the Edomites back to Jerusalem.
The Lord sends another prophet and says, “What are you doing? These idols could not help; they could not protect the people that you just defeated. What good are they going to do you?”
But he does not listen to this prophet. He is fascinated with these idols far more than the prophet, and he rejects the prophet, saying, “Who are you to counsel me?”
The prophet says, “You are going to end up in destruction.” Later in the chapter, this is fulfilled through his death and Judah’s defeat by Israel. It is tragic—again, self-destruction.
Why was this self-destruction? It was because he did not have that whole heart for the Lord.
David had that whole heart. Now, when we speak of a whole heart, it is not a perfect heart. It is not a sinless, perfect heart, but it is a heart that is set on God’s purpose and His desire—a heart that God can use.
This was what David had. But Amaziah did not have this. He kept wavering back and forth.
In the New Testament, there is one, if you have been reading Colossians, you have actually read of this individual named Demas. Demas was one of Paul’s fellow workers, and he is referred to in Philemon and Colossians.
Do you remember what happened with Demas at the end of his life? In 2 Timothy, Paul writes that Demas has deserted me because he loved this present world and has gone.
Demas had that divided heart. He left the work of God and was attracted by the world. We do not know what aspect it was with Demas, but there was something there that captured him and caused his heart to be divided.
This is a lesson for us, because I think so often, as believers, we can be going along—and imagine being with Paul and being called Paul’s fellow worker—we would say, “I will never leave the Lord. I will be with Paul forever.”
I actually tremble when I hear a believer say, “I will never do something.” It is like, “Whoa. Let me step back from that one.”
“I will never leave. I will never do this. I will never do that.” What that says is simply that we do not know ourselves.
Because left to ourselves, we are capable of doing anything. We are capable of denying the Lord, betraying the Lord, deserting the Lord—whatever. We have to be honest with ourselves that we have that within us.
But praise God, we have the victory over that within us also, and we do not have to yield to that. That is why we proclaim Him every Sunday at this table, because we are not left to ourselves.
We have that victory, but we have to be aware that this is within us, in a way that if we are not consciously, with a whole heart, giving ourselves to the Lord, we will fall back to our old ways so easily.
I think of this matter of a divided heart. Another way of phrasing it can be that they have left their first love.
That is one of the reasons I have been enjoying this book of Colossians so far. I am actually not using the little phrase first love as much. I now like the phrase pre-eminent love.
“First” can be misunderstood, but if you look in that first chapter of Colossians, when it is telling about that pre-eminence, that place that nobody else can have—that is pre-eminent love. That is first love. That is having a whole heart.
He is pre-eminent over everything within our life. He has that priority. He has that sovereign place, that place of authority, the place of power, the place of enabling over us and within us, that we can be wholly given unto Him.
Paul testifies that he was captured by the love of Christ. He was constrained by the love of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, there is one thing that gets us through every crisis and every situation we are in, and that is being held by the love of the Lord. The Lord’s love never forsakes us. It never lets us go.
If we start doubting that, if we start not appreciating the fullness of what He has done for us and what we have been brought into, we will end up with divided hearts.
But the more we can see of His great love, the more we can see of the testimony of what we remembered this morning, the more we see of that proclamation of His life and victory, it holds us and never lets us go.
The things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. That is why Amaziah was fascinated by the things of the world: his eyes were in the wrong place.
But keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord. That is such a precious thing.
That is one of the reasons I picked that hymn, “I Am the Lord’s.” It is a beautiful love song. In that hymn it says, “Teach me, Lord.” We need to learn more and more of the love of God.
“Teach me more and more of Your wonderful ways. Teach me of Yourself, that I would be captured in a fuller and greater way unto You.”
We have talked about how David was one after God’s own heart, and it says the Lord is searching to and fro, seeking ones whose hearts are strongly toward Him.
I love how it uses the word heart there, because heart is the word for love. Wherever you see heart, you can always put in love, because heart and love go together. That is where it is expressed.
When you really have a heart for someone, you love that one. When you really have a heart for this or that, there is a love that is there. It is the organ of love.
To me, it is sad today how so many precious things of the Lord have really been devalued. The grace of God has been devalued. The love of God has been devalued. On the other side, the fear of God has been devalued. The holiness of God has been devalued.
There is a great devaluing in this hour of the precious and excellent things of our Lord.
In Timothy, it speaks about how we are the ones to proclaim the excellencies of Him Who has called us out of darkness into light—not to devalue those, but to be proclaiming them.
As we proclaim those, as we see those, we are ones who have that whole heart set upon Him. Would it be, in the end, that our testimony not be, “He did right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a whole heart”? We do not want these little caveats at the end.
After Amaziah passes away, Uzziah comes on the throne. The people make Uzziah king.
Most of us are familiar with Uzziah simply because of Isaiah: “I saw the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died.”
If we look at 2 Chronicles 26:4-5, we see a little summary of Uzziah.
And he did right in the sight of the Lord,
according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
And he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah,
who had understanding through the vision of God;
and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.
But then down in verse 16, it says:
But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly,
and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God,
for he entered the temple of the Lord
to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Uzziah had a great beginning. He was greatly blessed of the Lord. Under Uzziah, Judah was restored to a place of prominence in the world, where it had lost so much prominence.
Other nations were honoring Judah, even paying tribute to them. Jerusalem was strengthened, the army was strengthened, all of Judah was strengthened, and many fortresses were built. Under Uzziah, Judah was greatly prospering.
But eventually he became proud, and he acted corruptly. He handled the things of God that were holy. He tried to function as a priest.
The Lord had called him to be a king. It was not enough for him. He wanted to function as a priest, and he got out of divine order.
When you get out of divine order, you are really trying to be in a higher or another place than God has called you to be in.
God had called Uzziah to be king, and he was doing great as king. But then he said, “Oh, because I am the king, I should be the priest now. I want to go do this.”
The Lord said, “No, I called you to do this.”
We see how pride, when it grips us, makes us want something higher than what God has called us to. We want something else than what God has called us to.
Look at Lucifer, that angel who was leading the worship. How magnificent Lucifer was, but he wanted something higher. He was not satisfied where he was. Pride came in, and he lifted himself up.
If you look at Aaron’s sister Miriam, she wanted another place. She wanted something else. If you look at the rebellion of the sons of Korah, they wanted a higher place.
When we get out of divine order, this rebellion can start to come in. God has used us and God has actually blessed us right where He has put us.
But we end up not being content because we suddenly start taking the credit for what He has done in our lives. We say, “Oh, because I have done this, I should be able to do this.”
But He has us here, and this is where He wants us to be functioning.
We have to realize again within ourselves: How many proud people are there in this room? Every one of us is proud. If you do not think you are proud, you do not know yourself. Excuse the bluntness.
Left to ourselves, each one of us is very proud. There is a pride of life that each one of us has, and we are going to do everything we can not to lose face in ourselves.
But thank the Lord, daily we can deny ourselves. Daily we can have that dealt with. We have to be aware that pride—where does pride come from? What are some of the things that stimulate it?
Pride comes from success. Pride does not come from failing over and over again. You are not going to get proud of that. Pride comes from success, when you have been used of the Lord, when things have been going right. That is when there is that great temptation.
Maybe at prayer meeting, you pray a prayer, and next week it gets answered. “Oh, I feel good.”
Somebody shares a message, and somebody says, “Oh, that was a good message.” You say, “Yeah, you got that right. That was a real good one.”
But we have it within us. Praise God, if we are honest with ourselves, we can allow the Holy Spirit to show us.
When somebody says something to us and we get that warm, fuzzy feeling—“Oh yeah, that did feel good”—well, that is an indication from the Holy Spirit that you have pride.
We can say, “Okay, praise God for showing me my pride. Lord, I want to deny that. I do not want that to have dominion over me.”
As we enter into this conference, we can get proud because, “Oh, we have been to all these conferences. I do this. I do that. This and that.” Who is getting the glory?
The thing is, we all know how to talk the talk. We know how to talk very humbly.
Somebody says, “Oh, this was a great conference. Thank you so much.” We say, “Oh no, it was nothing, nothing, nothing.” We put it down.
Somebody says, “Oh, thank you for bringing this meal. Thank you for doing that.” We say, “Oh no, no, no, no.” But inside we are going, “Yes, yes, yes. They saw me. I was glad they appreciated that.”
Be honest with the Lord. Say, “Lord, I have got this within me that keeps swelling up whenever I am serving You and people notice. I get this feeling within me. Deal with it, Lord. I want to put it under Your feet. I want to deny that. I do not want that to have dominion within me.”
Uzziah, when that pride started coming, did not deny himself. It ended up capturing him in a wrong way.
We need to be aware because pride comes from so many various, diverse angles—so many ways daily—that we would watch.
One of the things in the New Testament: I think each of us probably has goals in life. One of my goals in this Christian life is to become an unprofitable servant.
I have not reached that point yet. The unprofitable servant, it says, did all that his master asked him to do.
I am not sure I can say I have done all the Lord has asked me to do. But I want to come to that point where I am more and more obedient unto Him, and to one day reach that level of becoming an unprofitable servant.
Would that we could be those. That is what David did. David reached the level of being an unprofitable servant because he was a man after God’s own heart, and he did all that He asked him to do.
That is what that servant did. Would we come to that place too?
Uzziah was greatly used by the Lord, but then pride ended up being that stumbling block. Again, he self-destructs. We know how he had leprosy and all. There are many lessons that we can learn from these ones.
As we look at these three kings, I was reminded of what the Apostle John wrote in his epistle. If we look at 1 John 2:16, there is a verse that actually summarizes these three kings:
For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes,
and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the Father, but is from the world.
When I think of the lust of the flesh, I think of Joash. He gave in to the praise and flattery of man. It felt good to him, and he allowed himself to be carried away by it.
You think of the lust of the eyes: Amaziah. He was fascinated by the idols of Edom and the world. Are our eyes fascinated in a similar way?
That boastful pride of life: you see Uzziah, not content with where the Lord had him but wanting more.
The lesson we need to learn from these three is that these three are not unique. These three are actually very common.
Self within each one of us has these same characteristics, and how we need to die daily. We do not look at these three kings as some small minority. No, we have this within us.
We need to see that there is a great battle going on. But thank the Lord, He has made that provision that, as we daily deny ourselves, we can enter into all the goodness that He has.
Now we can pass away from these ones who have these conditional comments with them and go on to Jotham in 2 Chronicles 27.
Jotham, Uzziah’s son, actually started reigning during the last days of Uzziah. When Uzziah was suffering from leprosy and was put out, Jotham came in as the regent overseeing things. Finally, after Uzziah died, he became king.
He was twenty-five years old, and he reigned for sixteen years. We can see in 2 Chronicles 27:2 the summary of his life:
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.
Look at that first part there: “He did not enter.” He learned from his father. He did not enter the temple of the Lord.
As you look at Jotham’s life, he ruled during the latter part of his father’s life, and he really learned. He learned from his father’s sin. “Look, my father went this way. I can learn from that.”
Jotham was teachable. He restored the house of the Lord, restored the wall, and won battles over the Ammonites. We see how he was used in a wonderful way.
The wonderful testimony of Jotham is found down in verse 6:
So Jotham became mighty
because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.
He became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. Some translations say he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.
There is a simplicity to this. We can look for great formulas, but what was Jotham’s secret in life? He just ordered his way before the Lord. He said, “Lord, You structure my days.”
He was given to the Lord, and the Lord was the One. It says he ordered his ways—not before the Lord God, but before the Lord his God. It was his God.
He had that personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. The Lord had brought him into that. There was a simplicity in his life, that he simply went on and followed the Lord in a marvelous way.
This word ordered is also used in the Psalms. David has a wonderful psalm in Psalm 57. He says, “My heart is fixed.” This is the same word.
The New American Standard says, “My heart is steadfast.” My heart is fixed. My heart is steadfast. My heart is ordered. My heart is prepared before the Lord.
He was given to the Lord in such a fullness. There was not a divided heart. There was not distraction. He was not like Joash, dependent on somebody else; he had that personal relationship.
He learned from his father the evil of pride, and he learned from Amaziah to have that whole heart. He was given. Jotham knew the Lord in such a way.
During the time of Jotham, Isaiah was prophesying, as well as Hosea and Micah. There were some greatly godly influences around him during this time.
When I was thinking about the simplicity of Jotham’s testimony, of how he ordered his ways before the Lord, I was reminded of Micah 6:8. This was during the time of Jotham when this was prophesied:
What does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
What a simplicity of life. There is nothing complicated there. It says to do justice, to do what is right in the sight of the Lord; to love kindness, to be kind, to receive the kindness of the Lord, and to be kind to others; and to walk humbly with your God.
Oh, walking humbly, not proudly. Have that humble walk with the Lord.
Isaiah prophesied during this time also. There is a similar word in Isaiah 66:2, the last part of that verse. The Lord says:
But to this one I will look,
to him who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and who trembles at My word.
We want to be those who are following the Lord and having that right relationship with Him in this hour and this time. Over and over, we see these words of humbleness and contriteness, coming under His authority and His power.
Jotham knew the Lord. He knew His heart and His purpose. He was captured by this love in a way.
To me, we can ask the question, “Well, how do we do this?” It is very simple. As you look through the New Testament, there is a simple little phrase the Lord uses over and over again.
From His first call to His disciples, He simply says, “Follow Me.” Follow Me.
What is that speaking of? It is really speaking of abiding with Him—having that personal relationship with Him, knowing Him, knowing His purpose, depending upon Him, not going your own way, trusting Him.
It is having this relationship where we know Him in such a way that we are following Him and keeping our eyes upon Him. When you are following someone, you keep your eyes on them.
You are not distracted by others, and you are not distracted by the circumstances and pressures of life.
Now, do you think Jotham had an easy life? Was it easy within Judah? He was the king. He was ordering his ways. Was everything going well?
Look back again at 2 Chronicles 27:2, at the end of that verse. After it speaks of how faithful Jotham was, it says:
But the people continued acting corruptly.
Here he was, faithful in the midst of corruption. I am sure there were others who had not bowed the knee, to use another example, but Jotham—it says the people were acting corruptly.
But it did not impact him. He stayed faithful in ordering his life before the Lord.
He did not say, “Well, I could be more faithful to the Lord in the assembly if everybody else would act better.” No, he was faithful.
He did not say, “Oh, if the leadership was better, if they were doing this or doing that, I could be more faithful.” No, he was faithful right where he was, in what the Lord had called him to do.
In spite of the corruption, in spite of the battles, in spite of all the many things that were going on, he continued to be faithful.
It reminds me of the end of the Gospel of John, when the Lord said to Peter—as Peter had looked over at the Apostle John and said, “Well, how come he gets to go this way and I am going to go this way?”—the Lord said to him, “What is that to you? You follow Me.”
Follow Me. Keep your eyes on Me. “I have a plan for you, Peter. John is following Me. You follow Me.”
There is a simplicity that we see in Jotham. Jotham became mighty.
I think you all know that I love the mighty men of David. Jotham, to me, is one of the mighty men. This is not the same Hebrew word, but he was mighty before God.
The thing that is so impressive about Jotham: here is one who was mighty, who ordered his ways before the Lord, and he gets nine verses in this whole book. Nine little verses. That is all he gets.
But he was content with what the Lord had for him. He did not get upset and say, “How come I only get nine verses, and all these guys that do evil get two chapters?”
No, he was content. He was satisfied with what the Lord had for him, and he was faithful unto that.
Would we be faithful, as we see Jotham, just faithful in the midst of corruption, just going on, following the Lord? May we be those who follow the Lord.
That will involve daily taking up that cross and allowing the very life of Him to become reality within us.
Because we know the call that the Lord has to anyone who desires to come after Him:
Let him deny himself,
take up his cross,
and follow Me.
That is a daily activity. That is the reality. Jotham lived that type of life, and he came into that simplicity and purity of devotion to the Lord.
It is interesting, even as you look at commentators, there is not a lot written about Jotham. There were kings who were used in a far greater way. I am not going to get into that at this point, but he was a marvelous king who ordered his ways.
Would it be of our testimony that we ordered our ways before the Lord and allowed Him to lead us into all that He has.
As we have looked at these ones, we realize again that each one of these were living during times of declension, weakness, and corruption.
But we see how they met the Lord in a wonderful way. The Lord was faithful to them, and as long as they were staying faithful with the Lord, there was a blessing and a prosperity.
But once they turned their eyes off Him and started getting occupied with their own ways, their own self, and their own desires, there was that turning away.
May we be those who have a heart set on His purpose, set on His desires, set on His testimony.
Also realize that during all of these times, the Lord continued to send forth His Word. He was ever faithful to send His prophets.
We are thankful that today the Lord continues to send forth His Word, to call us back to Himself. At times one has responded, and at times one did not.
Would we be in the category of responding when the Lord calls us in this time?
We see in these kings also the vital necessity of that personal, intimate, daily relationship with Him—really abiding, having that intimate relationship, knowing our heart, knowing His heart, knowing what His desire is.
We need to know Him in such a wonderful way that we are dependent upon Him and not man. We do not end up being dependent on any man, but we would be dependent upon Him and serving Him with a whole heart.
Walking humbly before Him and allowing Him to have all that He desires.
We are aware too that the enemy is prowling in these days. The enemy is prowling about, seeking those that he can destroy.
But we are thankful that, as we are those who abide in Him, we have a place of security. We have a place of rest.
It is only when we go our own way that we can open ourselves up to the tactics of the enemy. May we be on guard. May we be watchful, and may we learn the lessons from these kings.
We are here in these last days. They are there for our instruction, for our encouragement, for our admonition, and we are thankful for them.
We want to learn from their so-called successes and their faithfulness, and we also want to learn from their failures.
We saw that Jotham learned from the failure of his father Uzziah: “You do not do this.” Would we learn from the faithful, and can we learn from failures too, that we would be those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
He calls us to follow Him. Where is the last following in the Scripture? Where do they end up? Before the very throne of God in Revelation 14. That is where we want to end up: before the throne of God.
Maybe let us pray.
Lord, we are so thankful how You give us these examples for our instruction.
As we look at these various ones, we see within ourselves how we are found out: how at times we depend on ones other than You, how at times our hearts are divided, and how at times we allow pride to rule within us.
But we are thankful, Lord, that there is an answer at Calvary for all of that. We come back to the foot of the cross, and we give ourselves unto You, Lord, this day.
Lord, may we be those who allow You to order our days. Each day that we have, may we allow You to order it as we fix our hearts upon You, Lord.
In Jesus’ name, amen.