Thurs.’s Devo - The Price of Disobedience

Read: 2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28; Romans 12:1-21; Psalm 22:19-311; Proverbs 20:8-10 Joash was seven when he became king of Judah and reigned 40 years, as David did. He served the Lord as long as Jehoiada, the priest who raised him lived. Jehoiada picked out two wives for him. Joash wanted to repair and restore the Temple that Athalia had destroyed and used to serve Baal. He had the leaders collect the Temple tax of the people and use it for the repairs as the law required. They restored the Temple according to its original design and strengthened it. Jehoiada, the priest died at the age of 130. He was buried among the kings of Judah because he had done so much good for the Lord and his Temple. But once he was gone, the leaders came to Jerusalem and persuaded Joash to abandon the Temple and worship idols instead. The Lord brought prophets to turn the people and Joash back to the Lord but they wouldn’t listen. Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah was one of the prophets who asked them why they had abandoned the Lord and didn’t want to prosper. The leaders plotted to kill Zechariah and ordered King Joash to stone him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s Temple. When he was dying he cried out for revenge from the Lord. That spring, the Arabian army marched against Judah with a small army. They killed all the leaders of Judah and took much plunder. They plundered much spoil and left Joash severely injured. His own officials assassinated Joash for killing Zechariah. I would say that God heard Zechariah’s last words. Joash’s son, Amaziah became king. When he became established he had his father’s assassins killed. He gathered an army of 300,000 men from Judah and Benjamin. He then payed 7,500 pounds of silver to hire 100,000 men from Israel to fight with him. God send a prophet to tell him not to hire the men from Israel because he would not help him win if he did. When Amaziah asked what to do about the money he had spent for them, the prophet said that God could pay him back so much more than that. So he sent the soldiers he had hired back to Ephraim which made them very mad. They plundered the towns of Judah all the way back home and killed 3,000 and taking much plunder. Amaziah led his small army against the Edomites and they killed 10,000 and captured another 10,000 and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them off dashing them to pieces on the rocks below. (Reminds me of the evil spirits that Jesus cast out of the man and they begged to go into the pigs which threw themselves over the cliff and were dashed upon the rocks.) When King Amaziah returned from his battle with the Edomites, he brought the idols of the Edomites and set them up to worship them. God sent a prophet to ask the king why he would worship gods that couldn’t protect their own people instead of worshipping the God who delivered them. King Amaziah shut the prophet up but not before he could give a final warning that he would be destroyed. Amaziah met with his officials and decided to attack Israel. The king of Israel gave him a parable about Judah’s kings who thought they were all powerful because they had married into Israel’s line (speaking of Jehoram’s marriage with Ahab’s daughter.) Amaziah refused to listen and mobilized his army against Israel. Judah was defeated, Amaziah was captured and brought to Jerusalem where they destroyed 600 feet of Jerusalem’s wall. King Jehoash of Israel carried off all the gold and silver and all the articles from the Temple of God including the Ark. They also took hostages back to Samaria. Amaziah fled to Lachish were he was killed by his enemies. His body was brought back and buried with his ancestors in the City of David. In Romans, Paul encouraged them that the way to really worship the Lord was to renew the way they thought by letting the Lord transform them into a new person. He told them not to think of themselves more than they should but to be humble and honest. Everyone of us are made differently for different purposes. What ever our gift is we should do it the best we can. We should love others, work hard and serve God by helping others and being kind and loving God with all our hearts. It is not our job to take revenge but to trust in the Lord to punish who he judges need to be punished. That is his job. We conquer evil with good. Lord, help us to learn by reading the stories of the kings. You are the only way for us to prosper and to be truly happy. Thank you that you are such a good and loving God and father.