While reading the accounts of God's relationship with man throughout the long line of Kings of Judah and Israel, the state of the on-again, off again relationship we have with God as individuals is brought to mind. Although God is always faithful to us, we tend to have times when we are slack in prayer time, in our reading of His Word, and even slack in attending worship service. Sometimes we just don't "feel" like we have His Spirit reigning within us.
After reading the books of I and II Kings and the books of I and II Chronicles, it's easy to ask ourselves, "What does this have to do with Salvation?" There were faithful kings who honored God and sought the Book of the Law and kept the Temple running. Then there were other kings who let the Temple deteriorate into such a state of disrepair that the Book of the Law was actually "lost" for generations. There were kings that built altars to foreign idols right inside the Temple's walls and other kings who went as far to completely close the Temple and have altars and "high places" built throughout the land, to encourage the people to worship false gods and idols.
One of the "good" kings of Judah was Jehoshaphat described in II Chronicles chapter 17 through chapter 20. His many accomplishments were:
- He sent out "teaching priests" throughout the cities to teach the Law of the Lord
- He insisted on consulting a prophet of the Lord before joining King Ahab of Israel in pursuit of Ramoth Gilead.
- When under attack by three different nations at once, his first response was to seek the Lord and declare a fast. Before heading into battle, He placed the singers ahead of the army to praise the Lord on the way to battle. Amazingly, the three different armies turned and massacred each other.
Another "good" king of Judah was Hezekiah, who reigned approximately eight generations after King Jehoshaphat. King Hezekiah's story is told in II Chronicals chapter 29 through chapter 32, (also in II Kings chapter 18 through Chapter 20.) In his first year as king, he re-opened the Temple, (which had been closed by his father King Ahaz.) His further acts of faithfulness include:
- After restoring the Temple, he stationed the Levites to worship God with their music and with burnt offerings.
- He sent for all the people to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, which had been abandoned. After the 7 day Passover, the people were so enthusiastic they celebrated another 7 days. After returning home to their own areas, the people tore down all the altars to foreign gods and idols in their land.
- King Hezekiah commanded the people to contribute support for the priests and Levites so that they could devote themselves entirely to the Law of the Lord. They even contributed support for all the Levites living throughout the common lands in every single city.
Just as challenges enter our lives, King Hezekiah's life had unexpected and unwelcome events. First the king of Assyria came and built sieges against the city and King Hezekiah suffered a serious illness.
God showed himself strong in both those situations!
In II Chronicles 32:21 and in II Kings 19:35 the king of Assyria "returned shamefaced to his own land." In regards to King Hezekiah's illness, as soon as the king finished praying, God spoke to the prophet Isaiah telling him to go back and tell the king, "I have heard your prayer...I have seen your tears...I will heal you." (II Kings 20:5)
Three generations after King Hezekiah, there was King Josiah. Josiah is described in II Kings chapters 22 and 23, also in II Chronicles chapters 34 and 35. King Josiah
- purged the land of all the altars to foreign gods (which were rebuilt after the reign of Hezekiah.)
- initiated repairs of the Temple, which had fallen into deterioration. During this repair, the Book of the Law was found again.
- King Josiah (like king Hezekiah) kept a Passover. II Chronicles 35:18 says, "There has been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the Prophet.
In spite of all these acts of faithfulness, Josiah presumed to involve himself in a war between two other kings and was killed in battle.
There were four more Kings of Judah after the death of Josiah but the kingdom was soon captured by the Babylonians and was kept in bondage for 70 years. The glorious Temple was burned to the ground. Babylon was later swallowed up by the kingdom of Persia. Amazingly, the king of Persia
decided to send the previously enslaved people back to Jerusalem to build a house for God!!
God does give us back what we thought was lost!
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