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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends around the world.
To those of you who are not Americans, regardless of where you live, I’m sure news reports which you’ve received of the American election chaos recently have left you scratching your heads. Me too! In recent days, I’ve been trying to help us gain a spiritual perspective of all this by looking at the Biblical record of Israel’s history. God often spoke His opinion about leadership performance and frequently God actually intervened and reshaped history in response to leadership failure. We’ve seen there were prolonged times of God’s protection and blessing of His people when leadership was leading well, and other times God’s judgment came upon the leaders and the people when they turned away from God. We’ve seen important leadership lessons to be learned and applied to our world in our day haven’t we?
Today I invite you to another unique situation in Israel’s history found in 2 Chronicles 22. Sometimes a leader’s family heritage or education or traumatic events in their young lives have profound effect on their values, their leadership style and even their leadership decisions. Over the past weekend we looked at the sad account of king Jehoram who in 8 years undid most of the good he had inherited from 66 mostly good years of the leadership of his father king Jehoshaphat and his grandfather king Asa, as they ruled in Jerusalem over the kingdom of Judah. Jehoram’s youngest son Ahaziah watched his father’s unraveling of all that good heritage.
King Jehoram is the one of whom it was said “He passed away, to no one’s regret.” (2 Chron. 21:20.) There were probably many things about his failed leadership which drew this sad eulogy from his discouraged people, but I suspect two key events early in his kingship which turned the people sour on Jehoram were: his slaughter of all his brothers so there was no family competition for his throne (2 Chron. 21:4) and his marriage to a daughter of wicked king Ahab (2 Chron. 21:6). I’ve often wondered if Jezebel was this girl’s mother?
At the time of Jehoram’s death, I’m sure the people hoped for change in the quality of their next leader, but alas, things went from bad to much worse. 2 Chronicles 21:16 tells us there had been an attack of a terrorist group, perhaps similar to ISIS, and they had killed most all Jehoram’s royal family, leaving only his youngest son Ahaziah, who became king when his father died. (2 Chron. 22:1) Ahaziah was 22 years old at the time, and he reigned only 1 year, for he too was assassinated! The chaos of this season in Israel’s history makes the American political and social chaos of recent weeks look quite orderly and peaceful, as you’ll see as you read through 2 Chronicles 22.
Friends, this is one of those chapters in the Bible that we are tempted to simply overlook, but there are important life and even leadership lessons to be learned here. Notice vs. 2-4: “Ahaziah’s mother’s name was Athaliah. She was a grandaughter of Omri [the father of wicked Ahab]. Ahaziah walked in the evil ways of the house of Ahab for his mother encouraged him in doing wrong. He did evil…for after his father’s death, they became his advisors to his undoing.” (2 Chronicles 22:2-4)
If I’m not mistaken this is the ONLY place in the Bible where a mother’s legacy is that she “…encouraged her son in doing wrong.” Now think about that a moment as you look at your family heritage. I really feel sorry for this young man. His grandfather and great grandfather were among the most respected, God honoring kings in the history of Jerusalem. But it appears both his father king Jehoram and his mother Athaliah made every effort to sour his young heart toward his incredible heritage and actually turn him away from God! What do you suppose God felt and thought as He watched this happening?
What follows next is almost beyond belief as you’ll see in 2 Chron. 22:10-12. “When Athaliah, the mother of king Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah! But Jehoshaba, the daughter of king Jehoram, took Joash, young son of king Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom… He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah [queen mother] ruled the land!” Now don’t get confused by the names, they are important for they paint a family disaster that stands out in Israel’s history as one of its darkest seasons.
But as you’ll see as you keep reading, God reached into this disaster and did something remarkable for the people of Jerusalem. It wasn’t a quick fix, in fact it was a prolonged period of 16 very bad years. 8 years of king Jehoram’s bad leadership, 1 year of his wicked son king Ahaziah’s terrible leadership, and then worst of all, 7 years of queen mother Athaliah’s bloody leadership! And do you see what’s at the core of this mess? A dysfunctional family! A royal marriage determined to turn both their children and the people they ruled, AWAY from God!
Now let’s look around our world today my friends… do you see any families like this? Are there parents determined to prevent their children from seeking or knowing God.? Are there teachers and bosses and coaches and entertainers and neighbors and politicians intent on drawing the children they influence away from any interest in or time for God? And what should God and God’s people do about this social disaster? In truth, we see it all around us in every part of our world, as societies push harder and harder to remove God from every part of society. Do you see that where you live?
But friends, the reason this chapter is so important even though terrible is this: the end result of pushing God, God’s truth and God’s ways out of society is ALWAYS the same. In every place, in every generation, in every culture, it always breeds disaster, despair and death! Do you see that in your country? But also watch this… God is always ready to help any person, any place, where this terrible disaster is happening. God helped one courageous woman and a very courageous priest step in, rescue little Joash from the slaughter, and they hid him as their foster son for 7 years, while wicked queen mother Athaliah wrecked Jerusalem’s society.
Tomorrow, we’ll see the remarkable story of what God did with that little boy and how despair was turned to a glorious season of great blessing in Jerusalem. For today, look around you… who are the young people that seem to have no hope because NO adults in their lives know God and no adults are trying to help that young generation know God. And without God, what hope is there for them to build productive, God honoring lives, or God honoring families? Might you be positioned by God to take an interest in, make an investment in some young lives in your own extended family or neighborhood and help them turn from their current path of despair?
My friends, regardless of the end result in the American Congress or White House, or the orderly or disorderly transfer of authority as leaders change all across our country, there is HOPE wherever there are some of God’s people willing to stand firm and engage in this mess and make a difference. Wherever there are some people of God willing to put their arms around some young people and start giving them hope by drawing them TO Jesus and sharing with them what you’ve learned as you’ve walked with Jesus. . .there’s hope for the future!
So…what’s going to be your position in these next months…frustration that some elections didn’t turn out the way you wanted, maybe even anger that there may have been fraud in some aspects of these elections in various places OR will you offer yourself to God as a Christ follower ready to step into the mess and help some young people find hope?
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 22. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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