June 29 (and June 28)

OT – 2nd Kings 15:1-16:20
There is no way, no way I would have allowed EITHER of my sons to try and become a King during this time! How many were assassinated? What awful things they did and how brief their descriptions of their lives were?
I am sure that when they were little, they were cherished little boys. But most of them grew up into truly awful men. Or did they?
Don’t forget, we are reading a book that was written after the Babylonian exile. It was written to explain WHY God had allowed his chosen people to be split into two lands and WHY both sets of people had been removed from their homeland. 11 of the tribes in Israel to vanish forever and the 12th – Judah to only make it through as captive people.
At no time were any of these kings at peace with their neighbors for any length of time. And if they were, it was at a great cost, like the selling of the temple ornaments. That probably robbed Ahaz his place in heaven. And Israel/Judah was not a great producer of anything. They had no minerals, lumbers or ruby mines. Mostly landlocked with huge amounts of desert, they really had nothing to export. The wealth of David and Solomon came from destroying their enemies and carrying off the booty. Once that was exhausted, well, there isn’t a whole lot of money in goats.
These kings were really, really desperate and just trying to hang on.
I get that they should have been faithful. So should we all in times of trouble. But I had a hard time believing so many were evil, that is until I read that they had assassinated the previous king to get the throne. Politics and power as usual.

And that brings me back to the psalm for yesterday – sorry about that…
Psalm 146
“Do not put your trust in princes,
In mortal men who cannot save,
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
On that very day, their plans come to nothing.” Vs 3-4

“But I believed in him.” My dear, dear friend was one of the state representatives for John Edwards and I cannot tell you how many times over the past couple of months she has emailed those words to me.
He is just the newest of the ones to be dashed to the ground.
Wikipedia has an amazing list of political scandals. Go check it out. Some, I knew about. Others had me almost breathless and I wondered where I was….
Political scandals
It is tempting to believe in powerful people. They say the right things and have ‘charisma’. They have a PLAN. All mapped out. With the stops and benchmarks all along the way. But Charismatic or no, just people. With faults, foibles and usually a whopping big bag of hubris.
Dictionary.com defines hubris as:
excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.

Our kings in 2nd kings are no different. They probably believed themselves to be God’s gift to Israel/Judah depending on where they were from. They thought military goals, being the top dog in that part of the world was the most important thing.

But God has a different scale of importance. His is “upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.”
Sound familiar? Jesus based his sermon on the Mount from this psalm. The Beatitudes are directly taken from this psalm.
Want to hear the Beatitudes in song form? Check out this beautiful version from Sweet Honey in the Rock.



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Don’t put your happiness, health or your financial status in what happens or doesn’t happen with princes/presidents/governors. Do your civic duty, yes. Vote. One is coming up here in Georgia on July 31st and if you haven’t registered, you have until July 2 to do so.
But if you want true happiness, and true heavenly rewards, you have your list.

Blessings to you and yours.