Weve been running strong in 2024 with the motto, 'Lets build a place to live.' Do you remember any of the guests who have come to visit you over the past year? Some are welcome and appreciated, others are unwelcome. Today, Vega, king of northern Israel, and Jotham, king of southern Judah, both welcome unwelcome guests in their lives. Today well consider the judgment that the Lord sends to strike them.
First, living in our own way comes as an unwelcome guest.
Vega was so strong in his sense of right and wrong that when Menahem died and his weak son, Pekahiah, became king, he killed him within two years and made himself king of northern Israel. When Vega became king, he claimed, 'The Menahem dynasty is fake! They dont deserve to be Israels dynasty!' and incorporated the 12 years of Menahems reign into the history of his reign. So Vegas reign was 20 years long. The political interpretation and use of history is the same as it has always been. Vegas policy of anti-Assyrian diplomacy led to an alliance with Israel and its natural enemy, Aram. Pekah was ostensibly trustworthy enough to be the captain of the bodyguard, but his strange sense of history and cause led him to rebel against Assyria on his own accord. The Assyrian army took all of the northern territory of Naphtali, and the Israelites were taken captive by Assyria. There is no mention of God sending the Assyrians to northern Israel. But South Judah is said to have been sent by God. They fought the same war, and the end result for Northern Israel is Gods judgment, and the end result for South Judah is David and Jesus Christ. Why? Because all the kings of Northern Israel followed the way of Jeroboam and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and they were taken captive and carried away so that they could do nothing of their own accord.
Second, even good conditions cant stop you.
When Pekahs anti-Assyrian policy leads to the loss of the territory of Naphtali and the capture of all who lived there, Hoshea, the son of Elah, the last king of Israel, rebels, defeats Pekah, kills him, and ascends to the throne himself.When you need to see yourself before God, but you keep repeating the rebellion of self-rationalization over and over again, blinded by your human mind, crying out for reform, you stand at the door of destruction.
In Southern Judah, Uzziah spent the last 14 years of his life sequestered in a separate palace, living as a leper, and his son Jotham took his place on the throne. Jotham, born into a good family, well educated, and raised to be a good man, a descendant of David, is said to have walked uprightly in the eyes of the LORD, but todays verse says, 'But he walked uprightly. Theres a twist that turns the tables on our stereotype that if you have good conditions, you must be a good person, and then things must work out. We dont know what life is until we get to the end.The judgment that God sends us to face can never be prevented by the conditions we have.
Third, but again, it is love that calls to repentance.
On the surface, Jotham was a man who had everything going for him: good conditions, honest behavior, and even success, but he didnt remove the shrine. He was the king of construction and helped build the temple, but he didnt enter the temple.Worse still, he didnt interpret the judgment of his father being struck with leprosy in the temple. He should have realized the love of God who wanted to turn his father around, even by striking him with leprosy, but he was stuck in the wound he received there that day and said, 'What have we done wrong? Because the king did this, the people naturally neglected their worship, and they remained in a state of corruption.We need to lead by example with morals and ethics for the unbeliever, and we need to nurture the believer with the Word within our sphere of influence, not say, Itll come, itll grow!For Jotham, Diglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came as an uninvited guest, but for Pekah, the Lord sent an uninvited guest, Rehoboam, king of Aram, an allied king of Israel, to smite him. This is not an unfortunate event, but a fierce, smiting guest that God sent to Jotham, to the people of Judah. Why would God send such a frightening uninvited guest, and when He says He will send him in His time, when is that time?When we dont seek God, when we dont ask God, when we dont worship God, when were busy covering up our guilt with good terms and honest good deeds, thats when God sends the uninvited guest to strike. He gives us the Word to let us know that this is not an event of destruction, but an event of salvation, a wake-up call to repent and return. Because we are unwilling and unable to live on our own, God spares no effort and sends us a terrible uninvited event to strike us.Its the privilege of the elect, and if we dont listen, it ends in judgment.In 2025, the 'sent to smite' events will continue to come, but may we all remember that they are sent by the One who knows us best and loves us most, and may we all grow more mature and stronger in spirit and in body.
This weeks community confession is from a new deacon. He says he cant stand to imagine his wife cheating on him, and he gets angry, but his anger subsides when he thinks that she is toiling for my sake, and if she ever comes back, the only thing he can say is that she is more right than me and that he has toiled for me. He says he is doing a lot of love ministry service, but when he sees a 6-year-old autistic child who cant sit still for an hour and a half, he thinks how hard it must be for his family, and he learns a lot and receives grace.When you have people who are saved, you dont think of it as right or wrong because the purpose of life is salvation. When the deacon realizes it and repents, he is doing a good job because it is an event sent by the Lord and leads to salvation.Thats what salvation is.
Dont believe that everything is monistic, dont be surprised by anything, and dont believe that what you repent of, what leads you to repentance, is what leads to salvation.
