When the Good Guy Finishes

1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 13 to 16

One chapter of Kings, and 4 Chapters by the Chronicler!  

I often have trouble keeping track of Israel and Judah’s kings.  

Their names are often close (Rehoboam, Jeroboam) (Abijah, Ahijah) or the same (both Rehoboam and Jeroboam had sons named Abijah).  Who can keep track? 

Reading Kings and Chronicles side by side helps, because the Chronicler is so bent and focused on David’s family tree and God’s Covenant with Israel.  And yet the lines seem to get drawn and then crossed and terrible things happen.  

This divided kingdom of all the people of Israel, now given to two kings.  Both given by God, so all of this belongs in God’s Story.  Tearing and building, and longing for the people to seek him with their whole heart.  God’s Promises of blessing for obedience. 

In all of this Judah seems to be the little guy. The little kingdom God remembers because He made a promise to David, that there will always be someone on his throne. That thread holds. In the midst of all the danger and the threats and the wars and the rebellion…and now this civil war between the tribes.  

Judah throws open its doors to all those who want to live near the temple and live a life pleasing to God.  People who couldn’t stand to be close to the Asherah poles, and the high places, and the rules that were designed to keep them from pilgrimage.   Upending your whole life to serve the One and Only. Consecrated.   

The Chronicler, loves this theme.  Especially that of Divine Retribution, where God honors obedience, and punishes disobedience.  He calls it like he sees it.  Almost with glee.  But with a lot of words and reverence and celebration when a king is wise and does what is right in God’s eyes.

So we get to read all about Abijah and Asa. I kind of love Abijah’s speech who went to war with Jeroboam. 

He addresses the crowd on the battle field.  2 Chron 13: 4 “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me!  5 Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? 6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David rebelled against his master.  7 Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist him.”    8 “And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David’s descendants.  You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. 9 But didn’t you drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aron and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the people of other lands do? “ 10 But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him.  12 God is with us; He is our leader.  His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you.  Men of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed. “

And they did not succeed. 

They moved forward, with numbers on their side and failed.

Because God heard this battle cry and God routed Jeroboam (vs 15)

Abijah. 

Was so strong and so confident. 

He brought God’s priests and trumpets onto the battle field.  

It all seems so simple and so clear.  

Abijah lived.

He grew in strength.

And then he rested with his fathers. 

And his son, Asa succeeded him on the throne.  

And that was the blessing of a good king. 
That his son was crowned after him, and not the throne not taken.  

2 Chron 14:2 “Asa did was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.”

I have been noticing that in these writings, we see the possessive pronoun again, “the LORD his God”.

Asa. Who cleaned up the land.  Who cut down the Asherah poles and burned them. He took drastic measures to seek and find what is right and true. To find God. To be Holy again. And received peace and rest on every side.

2 Chron 15: 9 “Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 10 They assembled at Jerusalem in the 3^rd month of the 15^th year of Asa’s reign.  12 They entered in to a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. 13 All who did not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. 

15 “All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly.  They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them.”

Such a beautiful sound that must have been. That rejoicing.

And all of this familiar language again of covenant promise and blessing and Promised Land living.

And there was peace until chapter 16.  Where Asa did something human, and trusted in his own strength and his own army and made a treaty.  Taking the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD”s temple, right after he had worked hard to restore all of it….. instead of trusting God to deliver him. 

Only from the Chronicler do you get three chapters for doing the mostly the right thing.