Downward Slide

 

READ 2 Kings 14–17

In this country, we elect leaders thinking they will improve our lives, but within a short time many demand a new leader. The OT people of Israel and Judah would have been happy to exchange our system for theirs. Back then, kings ruled because of lineage or military power. Their term of office lasted until they died, and most of them were terrible leaders.

For example, Jeroboam ruled in Israel. He lasted forty-one years doing “what was evil in the sight of the Lord” yet the Lord used him to restore a border because God “saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam . . . .” (2 Kings 14:23–27) Can we see the hand of God in even our bad leaders?

During the reign of Jeroboam, Azariah reigned in Judah. He ruled fifty-two years doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but “the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death.” (15:1–5) Does God still afflict leaders because the people are sinful?

Jeroboam’s son Zechariah reigned over Israel a mere six months, doing evil in the sight of the Lord. A man named Shallum conspired against him, put him to death and reigned in his place — for one month. Then another man called Menahem killed Shallum and took out those who opposed him, even “ripped open all the women in it who were pregnant.” (15:16) He did evil, made his people sin, and took money from them to pay the king of Assyria to protect his power trip. Have our politicians done these things? Are we headed in that direction?

The next king lasted two years, and the one after him lasted twenty years. Both were evil in the sight of the Lord. So was the next king after them, yet he stayed in power for nine years before captured by the king of Assyria and put in prison. Then that foreign king invaded and besieged Israel, taking the people into captivity also. (17:1–5) Are we praying that will never happen to us?

And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God . . . And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right . . .  they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet . . . . But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God . . . . And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. (17:6–18)

Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord either, but at this point God “rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight” after they “walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did.” Israel was exiled and the Assyrian king replaced them with pagan people who did not fear the Lord. Therefore God sent lions among them until the Assyrian king ordered an Israeli priest to go back and “teach them the law of the God of the land.” This did not stop these people from serving their own gods. The Lord also told His people also to fear and obey Him but they “served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.”

These nations “feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.” (17:19–41)

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)

Comparing ourselves to these events, are we also on a slippery slope? There is outcry against poor leaders but what about the wisdom of those who elected them? If our leaders are corrupt, do their followers become corrupt too? Certainly these thoughts must govern my prayers. Leaders and the people need to unite and fear the Lord in repentance and in full obedience. Me too.

 

Pray for leaders . . .

 

READ 1 Kings 14–17

Our world is filled with political conflict, upheaval, and evil leadership. It becomes increasingly clear that human wisdom is not sufficient for excellent leadership as conditions go from bad to worse.

After David and Solomon, the OT people of God had centuries of bad government. God made Jeroboam leader over Israel, taking part of the kingdom from David’s line, but this king didn’t do very well. He did evil above all who were before him, provoking God to anger. God promised disaster and eventually “burned up the house of Jeroboam” and he died and his son Nadab reigned in his place. (1 Kings 14:7–20)

Nadab also “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.” Baasha then killed him and reigned in his place. However, he also “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” and died. His son Elah reigned. However, Zimri, his commander chariots, conspired against him. Elah was drunk when Zimri killed him and then reigned in his place.

Zimri didn’t last long. After seven days, word went around that he had killed Elah so all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel. He took the city where Zimri was and set fire to the king’s house with the king dying in the flames. At this point, even Israel was divided for a little while, but Omri’s reign was established. Then “Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, more evil than all who were before him.”

When Omri died, his son Ahab took over the throne. This king was the worst yet . . .

As if it had been a light thing for (Ahab) to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (16:30–33)

At this point, God sent a prophet to deal with the rampant decline. Elijah spoke to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Then God told Elijah, “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

He obeyed and lived by the brook with food brought by ravens and the water from the brook until it dried up. Then he was sent to a widow God commanded to feed him. (17:1–9)

She didn’t have much but God miraculously kept filling her jar of flour and jug of oil. She and Elijah and her household “ate for many days.” But then her son became ill and stopped breathing. Again, God used Elijah for a miracle and the son “came to life again” as the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. As a result, the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (17:24)

God was also moving in Judah. After a succession of evil kings and fighting between them and the kings in Israel, Asa came to the throne (15:8) and he “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord . . . and was wholly true to the Lord all his days.” When he died, Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place about the same time Ahab came to the throne in Israel and when the ministry of Elijah began.

The story continues with the conflict and yet some cooperation between these two leaders. These stories confirm the need for prayer in our modern world. No matter who is in charge, seemingly good people or obviously selfish and power-hungry people, all need the hand of God in their lives and all need the prayers of God’s people.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. (1 Timothy 2:1–8)

This I can do!