Sun.’s Devo - Turmoil in the Kingdom

Read: 2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7 Jehoshaphat was buried and his son, Jehoram became the next king. Jehoram had married Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter. She led him into the worship of Baal. *** Jehoram had six other brothers who had been put over towns and given a great amount of wealth from their father. Jehoram had them all killed so that none of them could rise up and kill him and take his throne. *** Because Jehoram turned away from the Lord, the Edomites rebelled against Judah and Jehoram had to escape during the dark of night. *** Elijah sent a message to Jehoram in a letter exposing all the evil he had done by forsaking the Lord and killing his own brothers. It said that God was going to hit his family with a terrible blow and he would die of a painful intestinal disease where his bowels would come out. *** The Philistines and the Arabs attacked and took everything of value from his palace along with his wives and his children. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah was sparred. Then he got the intestinal disease which killed him. *** He was not given a funeral to honor him because the people were glad he died. He wasn’t even buried in the royal cemetery. He had only reigned 8 years. *** The people made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son their king. He was 22 years old and only reigned one year. His mother Athaliah encouraged him to do evil. King Ahab’s family became his advisors and encouraged him to go to war with them against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. Joram, Israel’s king was wounded in battle. King Ahaziah went to visit him and together they went out to meet Jehu who the Lord had appointed to destroy Ahab’s dynasty of which both of them were a part of. *** Jehu had met some of Ahaziah’s relatives on the way and killed them then found Ahaziah hiding in Samaria and killed him also. He was given a decent burial since he was Jehoshaphat’s son. *** When Athaliah heard that Ahaziah was dead, she started killing all the other royal relatives so she could reign. Ahaziah’s sister hid his infant son, Joash and he was raised by priests in the Temple for six years. *** In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign, Jehoiada the priest had all the priests come to the Temple and they surrounded the altar and brought out Joash and with rest ceremony they anointed and crowned him king. When Athaliah heard all the noise and came to see what was going on she cried “Treason” but the commanders took her to the front of the Temple where she was killed. They also killed Mattan, the Baal priest in front of his altar as they were smashing all the altars of Baal. *** Jehoiada gave the priests of God control over the Temple once again and commanded them to begin the sacrifices to the Lord once again. *** Then Joash was escorted from the Temple to the royal throne and all the people of the land rejoiced. *** What a quick change of events. It all happened in a day but had been planned for years. We are experiencing that same thing in our day. A plan has been going on for years which we are about to see open up in a day. Be patient! *** In Romans, Paul explains that the Jews were the root and the Gentiles were the branches. The root gave way for the branches to grow but one day the root will be restored. But he warned them to walk in the fear of the Lord because branches can be broken off and new ones grafted in. The way to be broken off is to lose faith and the way to stay on is to have faith and stay faithful. *** Lord, we pray to stay faithful in all we do.