Thurs.’s Devo - Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Read: 2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27; Romans 13:1-14; Psalm 23:1-6: Proverbs 20:11 Amaziah’s son, Uzziah became the king after his death. Uzziah’s name means “my strength is Jehovah’s” and the first thing he did was to rebuild the town of Elath which means “mighty”. Strength would be a word that described his reign. As long as he sought the Lord, he was very strong and fortified his kingdom and his army and became very powerful. His power lead to his pride which lead to his downfall. He entered the sanctuary of the Temple where only the priests could enter and he started offering incense that only the priests were to offer. When the priests tried to stop him, he got raging mad. He was holding an incense burner at the time and leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead. When the priests saw it they rushed him out but he had leprosy until he died. He had to live in quarantine the rest of his life. His son, Jotham was but in charge of the palace and ruled the kingdom until his death. Then Jotham became the next king. He followed the Lord, but the people were corrupt. He fortified his kingdom and defeated the Ammonites making them give him tribute every year of silver, wheat and barley. He was obedient to the Lord till the end. His son, Ahaz became the next king. He did not do what was pleasing to the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire sacrificing them to the pagan gods. God sent Aram from Israel to defeat Ahaz and he took many of the Israelites back to Damascus. Israel also killed 120,000 of them. God was not happy with Aram for being so merciless so he sent a prophet, Odeb to meet him when he returned from battle. The prophet told Aram that all heaven was disturbed with how he killed so many of his brothers. Now God’s anger was turned toward him. Some of the leaders of Israel agreed and met the prisoners of war as they were being brought to Samaria. They had them released and gave them back the plunder they had taken. They clothed, fed and nursed the prisoners and sent them on donkeys back home. King Ahaz of Judah was about to be attacked by the Edomites so they asked the king of Assyria for help. Instead of helping them, they attacked them and took valuable items from the Temple and the richest people. In all of this, Ahaz refused to turn to the Lord, for help, Ahaz went further from the Lord crying out to the gods of the nations that had defeated them. In Romans, Paul encourages us to submit to the governing authority’s because all authority comes from God. We are to pay taxes so that city officials get paid. We are to respect and honor those who are in authority and owe no one anything but love. Love doesn’t no wrong to others. We are to clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and not indulge ourselves in evil desires. Lord, may we cleanse our hearts of idols and build up our walls of salvation.