You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. – Isaiah 1:30

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 31, 2013): Isaiah 1

I spent about twelve years in an area that was actually reclaimed desert. Reclaimed desert is usually agricultural or ranch lands that depend on high amounts of irrigation in order to grow the crops that the farmers need. But the thing about reclaimed desert is that it looks like normal agricultural land – except for the presence of irrigation equipment on a lot of the farmland. In this area, it used to amuse me that when I got together with farmers and ranchers early in the growing season, usually the conversation hovered around one thing – the lack of rain. And I would just shake my head with the logic of a non-farmer and say something like – “What exactly were you expecting? It doesn’t rain in the desert. It has never rained in the desert. And yet every year we seem to be surprised at the lack of rain.” Okay, the truth is that it does rain in the desert, but even when it does rain, the land has no idea of what to do with it and the water simply runs off.

Isaiah looks at the people of Judah in amazement and seems to ask the same question that I asked of the farmers. Do you not realize that spiritually all you are is reclaimed desert? You look to the mighty oak trees as symbols (and gods) of fertility and you even gather these trees into groves or gardens of worship dedicated to the Canaanite gods of the land, but you forget that what is really needed is the irrigation that only God can bring. If God stopped sending the rain, then where would your garden be? The leaves of the mighty oaks that you worship would fade and no garden can survive without water.

But the prophet was not trying to teach an agricultural lesson. He wanted to point to the spiritual dryness of the people. Because of their dependence on the gods of the land rather than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their God had stopped bringing the rain to the spirits of the people that was necessary for the people to grow spiritually. They were the withered leaves and Judah herself was a dry garden. And every once in a while, God raised up a prophet (like Isaiah) to bring the rain to the people, but the people no longer knew how to handle the prophets instructions. The teaching just ran off to gather into pools and eventually evaporate back up into the air.

The mission of the nation had always been that they were to be a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:2-3). But that blessing would never become a reality unless the people returned to God. The garden (Israel) that was intended to bring the world together would only rarely bloom. And its influence on the world would be minimized. None of the great purpose that God had always placed on Israel could become a reality outside of God. The garden needed the rain.

As Christians, we do not believe that we have replaced Israel in this purpose – but we have joined them. But our presence will not have any significance outside of the presence of God. We need the rain that only he can bring or we too will be oaks with leaves that are fading.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 2

Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in. – 2 Chronicles 26:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 30, 2013): 2 Chronicles 26

Business philanthropist W. Clement Stone once wrote that we need to “have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are magic keys to living your life with integrity.” Doing right because it is right might be the magic key to integrity, but it is seldom easy. One of my core beliefs is that we are called simply to love. And it is amazing how often I run into good people who are consumed in some area of their lives by hate. In that moment, to remind them that they are simply called to live a life dominated by love, to talk about love as a powerful transforming force in this world, seems weak. It is often met with complaints that all I want to do is to condone sin, but that misses the point of transformational love. Yet still, saying no is hard. If there is a complaint our culture holds against the church, a complaint that the church really needs hear, it is that we are too slow in saying no to hate in our circles of influence. We are much too slow in giving our response of love.

Uzziah, the king and the most powerful man in Judah, walked into a place where he had no authority to be. And what made Uzziah’s action even harder was that Uzziah himself was respected and loved. And Azariah and the priests had a decision to make. Either they could allow the king to go where ever it was that he wanted to go, or they were going to have to do something extremely hard – they were going to have to stand up to the most powerful man in the land and say no.

In my mind, the scene was probably a little comical. Uzziah enters the temple to burn incense before God, believing very strongly (and wrongly) that he had the authority to do whatever it was that he wanted to do – and behind him walked Azariah and eighty scared priests who in this moment wished that they were anywhere in the land besides the temple. But they were here, and someone had to stand up for what was right. Every one of the priests were willing to be courageous in this moment because they loved God – and I believe because they loved the king.

Love allows us to be courageous. And sometimes saying no is the most loving thing we can do. Azariah understood that for the king’s safety, he had to stand between Uzziah and what his pride was driving him to do. He, and everyone that he could bring with him, had to say no and stand up for what was right. For the priests and for us, these actions really are the magic keys to integrity – and to health for us and those around us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1

When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. – 2 Chronicles 25:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 29, 2013): 2 Chronicles 25

A local radio show recently held a phone in episode about reincarnation - in honor of the more than 40% of people who say that they believe in reincarnation. The number is almost twice the results of any credible polls, but I do not necessarily doubt the results. We seem to be a society that is really willing to dabble in anything. We believe in very little, but we dabble in every area of spiritual belief. It is often the excuse we use whenever we read our horoscopes. We really don’t believe, we just want to be entertained. We are just dabbling.

Amaziah was considered to be a good king. Not a great king, but a good one. If we combine 2 Kings 14:3 with 2 Chronicles 25:2 we come up with a description of Amaziah  that says he was a king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but he was not as wholehearted in his religious diligence as David had been. Amaziah was, in every way, an echo of his father Joash. But the idea that Amaziah was good king seems strangely incongruous with the Amaziah as an idolater. After all, do not worship idols made God’s big ten don’t do list.

But the idea that Amaziah was like his father may explain what happened in Edom. Joash failed in that he allowed his lieutenants to follow other gods. Amaziah may have done the same thing. The idolatry that he is accused of might simply be that he allowed idolatry to happen within his group of officers. Because he had not prohibited the practice, in the eyes of God, Amaziah was guilty of the same idolatry that he allowed to happen within his army.

But that is not the only theory. It is thought by some that the idolatry of Edom was the worship of the sun. It might be that Amaziah was simply attracted by the attractive trinkets produced in the worship of that strange god, and therefore he set them up in his house. But because they were set up, again Amaziah was responsible for any worship of the trinkets that happened in his house in front of the trinkets.

Or it might be that Amaziah felt that he was able to control these strange gods. After all, he had defeated Edom, why was it such a stretch to think that he might be able to control their gods? But he was dabbling in something that was well beyond the bounds of his knowledge. And what damage could dabbling do to him anyway?

But God seems to take dabbling very seriously. Dabbling opens the door to something more serious. And whatever the reason for Amaziah’s dabbling, God was not pleased.  There was no room for both the dabbling of the king and the God of the land. One would have to leave and so Amaziah would have to make a choice.

We have to make the same choice. It is either God or the dabbling – it cannot be both.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 26

Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. – 2 Chronicles 24:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 28, 2013): 2 Chronicles 24

In October of 1919, President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. The stroke was bad enough that the President was left confined to his bed. Thomas R. Marshall was the Vice President at the time, and there was a movement to have him replace the failing President. Historians believe that Marshall should have become the 29^th President of the United States and Warren Harding the 30^th President. But that is not the way that history is written. All because one strong willed woman stood in the way of Marshall ever becoming President – and her name was Edith Wilson.

Edith Wilson was Woodrow’s wife, and from the time Woodrow suffered his stroke, she began to take the Office of President onto herself. Edith memoirs state clearly that she never made a decision on her own. She poured over all of the things that came into the President’s office and she claims to have taken all the important matters to the bedside of the sick President while delegating all other matters to the various department heads - but historians disagree with the assessment of the First Lady. According to many, for two years she reigned as President of the United States. Even if her assessment is correct, she wielded great power just in the deciding of which decisions needed to be taken to the President and which could be delegated to the lower authorities. The degree of her power might be in question, but what is not in doubt is the Edith Wilson was the very real power behind the last years of the Woodrow Wilson Presidency.

It was a position that Jehoida knew well. If Jehoida died at the age of 130, then he was born during the last days of the combined Kingdom under the reign of Solomon. His life would have encompassed six entire reigns before the reign of Joash. As a prominent priest in the Temple, it is possible that Jehoida held a position of influence in all of those reigns except for that of the Ba’al worshipper Athaliah. But whether or not this is true, we know that Jehoida was the power behind the throne during the early years of the reign of Joash. Everything that Joash understood about God and about being king was embodied by Jehoida.

Jehoida’s long life was taken as a sign of this worth to God. During the hard times, Jehoida had been faithfully serving in the temple. His life of 130 years was the longest recorded since the time of Moses – and longer than Moses’ life by 10 years. Unlike Woodrow Wilson who had Edith to help with his final years, Joash had Jehoida for the beginning of his reign – a beginning which was labeled as good. But after Jehoida, the king would fall under other influences – and the goodness of the king would begin to fade. What Joash needed he would be unable to find – a good man of the calibre of Jehoida.

We need good influences in our lives if we are going to accomplish great things. But more than that, we need to be good influences if our communities are going to accomplish great things. We also need to do what Joash never was able to do – be the influence to others that we need for ourselves.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 25

… the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the temple of God. Jehoiada said to them, “The king’s son shall reign, as the LORD promised concerning the descendants of David. – 2 Chronicles 23:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 27, 2013): 2 Chronicles 23

Judah was in trouble. For the first time in her history a Queen sat alone on her throne. Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, the former King of Israel had gained control of the throne of David. And like all of the other Kings of Israel, this Queen was evil. She was bent on changing the religious beliefs of the Kingdom of Judah away from the worship of the God who told Moses that he was “I am,” so that they would be free to commit themselves to the worship of Baal. And in the process, the nation was failing, the people were oppressed, and the future seemed bleak at best.

But Athaliah believed that she was in control. She believed that she had removed all of the possible contenders to the throne. But one contender still remained that Athaliah knew nothing about. He had been a small child on the day that Athaliah had murdered the rest of the family. And the small child had been hidden in the temple apartments. The idea was to that he would be trained by the priests and who would raise him to be king. And so the priests of Yahweh bided their time and suffered under the reign of the Queen from Israel – waiting for the day when the one who had descended from David could be restored to the throne in fulfillment of the prophecy that there would always be a son of David on the throne of Judah.

But the priests could not wait forever. It is possible that the oppression of Athaliah on the nation had reached a pitch where Jehoida, the priest who had been looking after the king’s son, could simply wait no longer. Joash was still a child, it would still be a few years before he would be old enough to reign over the nation on his own, but too much damage would be done if Athaliah was allowed to reign a moment longer.

And so Jehoida calls an assembly. If his plan was going to work, he would need every person that he could find on his side. If the boy was to be protected, the priests and the people would be needed to stand against the Queen. In truth, it was a terrifying plan. The Queen had long convinced the nation that she was the person that was supposed to be on the throne. So Jehoida swore a covenant with the people in front of God reminding them that it was Joash that had the blood of David running through his veins. If the will of God was to be followed, then Joash and the descendants of David would need to be restored to the throne of Judah. And it needed to happen … now.

But the people really didn’t need to be convinced. Athaliah’s mismanagement of the nation had made them ready for the rebellion that would now place a child on the throne of David. The time had come for action, and armed with their covenant made in the Jerusalem Temple, they were sure that God was on their side.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 24

Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged? No, I will not.” The LORD dwells in Zion! – Joel 3:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 26, 2013): Joel 3

Barry Marshall, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology, makes an argument for the positive aspects of unexpected results. He argues that what a scientist (or any other person that is joining in the search for truth) really desires is unexpected results.  After all, if you do something and get the results that you were expecting in the first place, then you really haven’t learned anything - you already knew enough to make the prediction. But, if you do something and something unexpected happens, then you are on the cusp of a discovery. All that needs to be done is to discover the reason for the unexpected results.

Joel finishes off his prophecy with this statement declaring that God will avenge the blood of the innocent – and then he adds these words – “The Lord dwells in Zion.” To the original reader this meant that God would have his revenge on those that plotted against him and against Israel. Proof of that action was that God dwelled in Zion. God’s presence could never be overlooked or taken lightly. In the language of the predominate Messiah Myth, it meant that the Messiah would come with his sword dripping with the blood of the enemies of God. Absolute revenge would be brought down on those who plotted against Judah and Jerusalem. The God of the Universe had spoken.

But a closer examination reveals something a little different. That the Lord dwells in Zion really says that God is capable to do whatever it is that he wants to do. In theological terms, this is the belief that God is sovereign over his own sovereignty – or that God himself decides what it is that is right for him to do. The point is that he defines it – not us. The predominate Messiah Myth preached about a violent Messiah that would avenge the wrongs committed in the world. The major problem with the myth is that we are all the perpetrators of what has gone wrong. If the Messiah of the Messiah Myth were to come to earth, it would be the whole of the earth that would suffer under his sword. No one would be left untouched.

But, the Lord dwells in Zion. God gets to decide what is right and what needs to be accomplished. And so he sent the Messiah in the form of his son to come and to die on the cross – it was a totally unexpected result, but a result that we would learn from. Because of the cross, the violent prophecy of Joel is rewritten into a statement of grace and mercy. God would send the Messiah but rather than being the perpetrator of the violence due to those that opposed the rule of God, the Messiah would receive the violence and pay the price for us. The result of the unexpected result was that those that were guilty could now be redeemed. And that is good news for us all, because we all stand in need of God’s redemption.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 23

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. – Joel 2:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 25, 2013): Joel 2

Appearances matter. It is simple the truth of life. The first thing that we notice about someone is what they look like. It is very superficial, on a very real level it is unpredictable, and yet it is exactly what we do. And as much as we deny that reality, we prepare for it. On Sunday mornings I can walk into any church in the world and the people will look good. I know the truth, a lot of the people that are occupying the seats looking great are simply messed up, but they have worked hard to hide that – and the result of the hard work is that they look good. But what we see is what they are presenting on the outside. So we often make important assumptions about their lives on a facade that they have worked hard to create – but that is not true.

On the other side of the coin, when things are going bad we often work hard to recreate that in our behavior and the way that we look. And sometimes, when bad happens we try to recreate that in our behavior – even if we are not really feeling the moment.

It is not a new behavior. Jesus got really descriptive in his portrayal of the religious leaders of his day. He told the them that they were like a cup that had been cleaned on the outside but were filthy on the inside. They might look good in the cupboard, but no one would want to drink from them. He also said that they were like a tomb that had been painted to look good on the outside, but inside something was dead and decaying. He also pointed at the practices the professional mourners, the people that were paid to dress as if they were sad and mourn the death of someone that someone else had loved. They would mourn and cry, but it was all really just an act. They weren’t really feeling it.

Joel is speaking to a nation that is going through a disaster. Part of the reason for the disaster is that they had turned their heart away from God. And now, they were turning back to God, they were repenting of their sins and they were actively mourning the things that they had done that had brought on the disaster. But God spoke through Joel the truth of the situation. You are sorry because of the situation that you are in, but not really sorry for the behavior that brought on the disaster. The truth was that they were just trying to appear the way that they thought they were supposed to appear – but for God that just wasn’t good enough. God wanted them to be real – for the outside to match the inside.

Being real just might be the biggest gift that we can give to those around us. Letting the inside match the outside releases the expectation of the façade and allows the people around us to be real back. And if we don’t like the way the inside looks, being real gives us the opportunity to admit something needs to change that. Appearances matter. But true spiritual health does not happen until the outside and the inside begin to match each other.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joel 3

Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness. – Joel 1:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 24, 2013): Joel 1

There is an argument that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 was not the real reason for the Great Depression – it was simply an unhappy coincidence. The reality of the Great Depression is that there probably was not a single cause. The Stock Market collapse in 1929 was just one of the events that became the cause of the Depression. Another factor was the drought that struck the prairies of Canada and the United States. The combination of a lack of rain and increased mechanization on the North American farms created a situation where the wind would simply blow away soil. Black Blizzards roamed the prairies as the wind churned up the dust of the fields to the point where the dust storms blackened the sky. In 1935, Edward Stanley coined the word “Dust Bowl” to describe the Black Blizzard that had happened in Boise City, Oklahoma. The name stuck. Officially the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres of land – or over 400,000 km².   For a time, it seemed as if Creation herself was crying out against the people of the world.

Joel was describing a time of deep problems in Israel. Joel himself does not seem to anchor his writings in any single time period, but one of the suggestions by scholars is that Joel lived and prophesied during the days at the end of the reign of Athaliah and in early in the reign of Joash of Judah – a time when Joash was still too young to reign for himself and it was considered to be a time of national panic in the nation.

Which is exactly what Joel seems to be describing. It is a time when Creation herself seems to be crying out against the people – or more concisely, it is a time when Creation herself seems to be crying out to God for relief. It is more than just a time of political oppression or just a time of national insecurity. The people are crying out for a relief that they know comes only from God, but they are not the only ones. All of the earth is crying out – the animals of the field pant for God, the streams have dried up because God has not sent the rain, and because the streams are dry, fire consumes the fields – everything is waiting for the next move of God.

It is one of the main themes of Joel. We, everything and everyone on this entire planet you have created, are waiting for God to move. Joel understands that there is no relief that we can have unless it comes from God. It is one of the great misconceptions of our time. We think that relief comes from the Government. We seem to believe that all of the bad that happens in our life is because of some decision our government has made – or has not made. But that places too much power in the hands of a group of fallible people sitting in a capital city. And because we believe that, we cry out to government officials for relief that they cannot give to us, because the power is not in their hands – it is in God’s.

I am convinced that creation is now, in this moment, crying out to God. Whether we know it or not, we are very much like the ones that Joel was writing to – we are the ones waiting impatiently for the next great move of God – waiting for a deliverance that can only come from him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joel 2

He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom. – 2 Chronicles 22:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 23, 2013): 2 Chronicles 22

In 1789, Louis XVI, king of France, declared an Estates General. The Estates General was a general assembly representing the three Estates of the French society. It was the first time that an Estates General had met since 1614. So the Estates General brought together representatives from the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobles) and the Third Estate (the common people). The meeting was called to propose the kings solution for the country’s economic problems. The Estates General sat for several weeks during May and June 1789, but they could not come to a solution. In fact, there was an impasse because the Estates themselves could not agree on what it was that they were supposed to do and what each Estates rights and responsibilities were. The First and Second Estate were convinced that the final answer to the financial problems of the nation was to raise the taxes on Third Estate – the common people of the nation.  The Third Estate disagreed. The result of the impasse was that the Third Estate decided to declare itself a National Assembly, excluding the First and Second Estates, and the ten year period we know of as the French Revolution had begun.

Over the next three months the authority of the King was transferred completely to the elected representatives of the people. Eventually the King and many in his court would be executed. But there was a problem that the common people had not anticipated. None of them were able to step up and fill the leadership vacuum that had once been occupied by the King. The result of the vacuum created at the top of French society by the French Revolution that it created the opportunity for Napoleon Bonaparte to rise to power. And Napoleon became a self-styled emperor of France – a replacement for the executed Louis XVI.

In one of the weirdest turns in the Bible, the houses of both the former King of Israel and the current King of Judah were murdered. Jehoram, King of Judah, had sought a treaty with his northern brothers and so he had married the daughter of Ahab. Her name was Athaliah. But when her Father’s family was eliminated, Athaliah decided that what needed to happen was that the house of Jehoram, the very house that she had married into, also needed to be destroyed. In one swoop she hoped to end the reign of David.

In some ways she succeeded. The Chronicler says that as the king, Ahaziah – the son of Jehoram and the stepson of Athaliah – dies, there was no one left of the house of David who was strong enough to lead the nation. And because nature abhors a vacuum, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, the former ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, became the Queen of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The vacuum had to be filled, and Athaliah was pleased fill the vacancy.

But God held another plan. And unknown to Athaliah, there was someone who would grow into his position as the rightful King of Judah, and the Kingdom of David would be restored. Because while we may fill a vacuum temporarily, it is only God that fulfills it permanently.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joel 1

Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him. There will be no survivors from Esau.” The LORD has spoken. – Obadiah 1:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 22, 2013): Obadiah 1

I have to admit that I love comic book superheroes – especially Spiderman. My line has always been that everything that I learned of any consequence in life, I learned from Spiderman. It is definitely an over statement, but probably closer to the truth than I really want to admit. I think part of what I like about comic superheroes is that it is usually easy to draw the line between right and wrong in a comic book. Only in a comic book world is it really possible to have a hero that embodies the idea good and an enemy that embodies the idea of evil. This is the world of arch enemies. But even in a comic book world sometimes the lines get a little blurred.

So in the Spiderman series, one of Spidey’s arch enemies is the Green Goblin. But the Goblin provides a problem for Spidey. In his original form, the Green Goblin is Norman Osborne, the father of Peter Parker’s (Spiderman’s alias) best friend Harry Osborne. To fight against his arch enemy, Spidey is continually reminded of who he really is – and how important he is to Harry. But the struggle does not end there. After the death of Norman Osborne, Harry himself takes up the persona. Now it is not his best friend’s father that Spidey has to do battle with, it is his best friend himself. It is a fight in which Spiderman finds conflicted motives battling within him.

Biblically this is a good description of the battle between Edom and Israel. Of all of the nations of the world, it was Edom who was the closest to Israel in many ways. In proximity, Edom was a border nation. It bordered the Kingdom of Judah to the south. But the nations were connected relationally as well. Both Kingdoms descended from two brothers – Jacob (who was later renamed as Israel) and Esau (Edom means red from the red hair and beard of Esau.) Throughout the history of the nations, these arch enemies were continually reminded that they were also brothers.

When Judah was beaten by the Babylonian Empire and taken into captivity, it was Edom that came in and took the spoils of war. Edom looted the deserted Judean settlements taking everything that they could find that was of any battle. It was an act that the people of Judah found hard to forgive, a betrayal coming from one who should have been a brother.

Spiritually, the battle between Edom and Israel has been seen as a metaphor for the constant battle between the flesh and the spirit – or between the way of the world and the way of God. And while that might be a bit of a stretch, it is possible to understand the battle in those terms. Especially if we remember that Herod the Great and his successors were of Idumean descent (Edomites.) In the time of Christ it was Herod that ruled over the nation. But while the physical and political control of the nation was in the hands of Edom (and ultimately, Rome), the spiritual life was in the hands of a Judean descendent of David, Jesus. On the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, it seemed like finally Edom had won. But when Rome finally defeated the nation of Israel after the rebellion of 70 C.E. and destroyed the temple, Israel lived on in both those that claimed allegiance to God through Judaism and Christianity. In that moment, it was only Edom that completely disappeared.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 22

In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors. – 2 Chronicles 21:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 21, 2013): 2 Chronicles 21

On the evening of October 18, 1216, King John of England died. The cause of the King’s death was most likely dysentery that John had picked up during his travels around the country. Since his death, John has been labelled the most hated King of the English monarchy. But the veracity of that claim is hard to discern. Most of what we remember of King John, we know from the legend of Robin Hood, in which John becomes the antagonist to his older brother Richard the Lionheart, and the characteristics of John in the story only serve to highlight the best characteristics of Richard.

But we do know a few things. John was at best ambivalent to the message of the Gospel, an extremely serious charge at the time. We know that his reign seemed to be filled with disagreements that he had had with the people of his own country, as well marred by many skirmishes with other powers. We also know that John and such a vehement argument with Pope Innocent III, that John was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and that later he was forced to return to the Pope on bended knee to regain admission to the church, and act which cost him a extra yearly tax that had to be paid to the Pope and the Church. And it is very likely that King John died a painful death during that October night almost 900 years ago. He was mourned, but no one really knows how sincerely.

Jehoram was the son Jehoshaphat biologically, but it would seem that that is the only way that Jehoram resembled his father. While Jehoram’s father and grandfather both honored their commitments to God, Jehoram did not. And the end result was that while the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat were honored by the people, the reality of Jehoram’s death was that no one really cared. This passage stands as a direct testimony against Jehoram – and is probably meant to stand in contrast to 2 Chronicles 16 concerning Jehoram’s grandfather. “They buried him in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid on him a bier covered with spices and various blended perfumes, and they made a huge fire in his honor” (2 Chronicles 16:14.) As the story of the death of Jehoram is told, the reality is not that there were no perfumes needed to cover up the stench of the decaying body, but rather that no one in the city could come to respect the body of Jehoram enough to place the perfumes on the body.

For King John, modern historians recognize that while John had some serious deficiencies in his character, he probably was not as bad a king as we think that he was. There is no doubt that John was an unsuccessful monarch, but his evil tendencies were most likely exaggerated by 12^th and 13^th Century scholars. The biblical Scholar does not have the same luxury as they study the life of Jehoram. Jehoram is remembered as an unsuccessful monarch that no one was sorry to see die – and who no one was willing to honor on the day of his death.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Obadiah 1

As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. – 2 Chronicles 20:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 20, 2013): 2 Chronicles 20

Swedish football manager Sven Eriksson once commented that “the greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” It is one of the guiding rules of sports – fear will stop you from winning. A couple of weeks ago I sat down to watch a young professional hockey team in the midst of a rebuilding process play a game. The team that they were playing were much more experienced, and the names of the players they were playing were well known. On that night, very few people would have even recognized more than a handful of the names playing for the rebuilding team. And the commentator at the beginning of the game made a comment concerning the way that the younger team had to play against the older team. The comment was that if the younger team respected the older team, they would lose. What he was saying is that if this team of kids comes out and is in awe of being on the same ice with their hockey heroes, if they recognize the talent, if there first concern is that we need to make sure that we don’t make any mistakes – if they fear the ability of the players that they are playing against, the game is over before the first puck is dropped. Fear stops us from succeeding.

But the fear that stops us the quickest is the fear of failure. When we are afraid that we are going to fail, we stop trying. We simply give up. Because of the fear of failure we never venture out beyond the walls that we have built around us. It is one of the biggest problems of the contemporary church. The people who are in love with Jesus inside the church are afraid of the world that surrounds the outside walls of the church. And because we are afraid, we push back, we attack the world and try to destroy it – rather than being willing to pray to the God that we say that we love and watch what God wants to do in the world. And fear also stops us from dreaming about how we could be part of the process.

Three kingdoms gathered outside of Jerusalem ready to take down the capital city of Judah. The king looked out and saw the armies gather and he had no confidence in his armies, but great confidence in his God. And so he gathered the people together and they began to simply praise God. They apparently made no plans for the defense of the city; they made no plans to attack the enemy, they simply had a church service. The band got up and started to play and the people of the city began to sing. We are not talking about a crowd at a game singing “na-na-na-na, Hey, Goodbye.” They were singing “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”

What I find incredible about this story is the first words of our highlighted verse, as the people began to sing – God began to move. Too often we seem to want God to move and then we will cheer him on. If God would give us the money, then we would use it to do incredible things – but the reality that this story highlights is that we have that in reverse – if we praise, if we commit to a vision of God, then God will move.

I have no idea what happened in the confusion that was evident outside of the walls of the city. But the Bible says that God moved as his people praised. Maybe the next great move of God is simply on hold as God is waiting for us to praise. And the only thing that is holding God back right now is that his people are afraid to praise (and afraid to do what God has asked them to do) because we are afraid that we might fail.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 21

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) message "Inheriting the Eternal" from the series "Fall In ..." is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here.

Now let the fear of the LORD be on you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.” – 2 Chronicles 19:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 19, 2013): 2 Chronicles 19

On January 22, 2008, Heath Ledger died. Ledger was found dead in his bed early in the afternoon by his housekeeper. When the autopsy came back the cause of death was listed as an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. It seemed that during the last days of Ledger’s life, Ledger had been suffering from a few ailments, and the medication that he was taking interacted with each other in a negative way causing the young actors death.

But something else was uncovered during the investigation of the final days of Heath Ledger. Ledger was just finishing up his portrayal of the Joker in the Batman saga. People close to him said that he was deeply disturbed by the portrayal of this fictional villain. The role had infected him in a very real way – and it had almost tried to change him and the way that the actor reacted to life.

There is a truth in Shakespeare’s words from “As You Like It.” Shakespeare wrote this –

                        All the world’s a stage

                        And all the men and women merely players:

                        They have their exits and their entrances;

                        And one man in his time plays many parts …     

The truth is that we are all playing a role. And if we are honest we know that is a role that we have chosen. There was no casting director that invited us to come and play the role – we have chosen the path for ourselves. And just like Heath Ledger, the part that we have chosen has infected us and it is threatening to change us.

The words of King Jehoshaphat recognize the same truth. He reminds the judges that he has appointed that they are standing in the place of God. It is a role that they get to play. But there is also a warning in his pronouncement. The role of God and the character of God is to be reflected in the decisions that they make. God is just, so they must be just. God would not consider a bribe so it should be unthinkable for them to take a bribe. God must be reflected through them, and the role that they are to play must infect their own character.

Sometimes we forget that the roles that we choose to play have the potential to infect us. And that is why we must choose those roles carefully. The roles could (and maybe should) change our lives. And as Christians, the only real role that we have to play is that of Christ. And it is as we choose Christ and begin to reflect him in our cultures that we become infected and begin to become more and more like Christ. What starts as a role that we decide to play will begin the transformation process inside of us – until our character reflects the very character of Christ – and of God. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 20

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” – 2 Chronicles 18:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 18, 2013): 2 Chronicles 18

A number of years ago I read Jim Collins book “Good to Great.”  I found it such a good read, and it connected with what I felt inside was true.  I also found that the book reflected the world that I wanted to live in. And one of the things that Collins said in the book was that we have to get good at looking at what is wrong in our lives.  As he put it, we have a choice between leaving the rock stuck in the sand, or picking up the rock and looking at the squiggles hiding underneath.  If we want to succeed, we need to see the squiggles.

At the same time, we also have to admit that not everything that someone says against us is really wrong.  Sometimes people will speak against what is right.  But if we are to succeed in life, we have to know the difference between the truth about the squiggles in our lives and someone who is just trying to bring us down.  But our truth is that it is often difficult to discern the difference. I had a conversation with the son of a good friend last week, and he had found something in school hard to understand so he had just given up. And my message to him was that he had to continue in the struggle, giving up is not an option when life presents us with something that is hard. And somehow we have to learn to discern the difference between what is right and what is wrong in our lives.

It was obvious that Ahab hasn’t discovered how to know the difference.  Instead, he just shut it all off.  He was the master of the ostrich strategy – he has learned to hide his head in the sand with the secure knowledge that what he doesn’t know will not be able to hurt him.  Unfortunately, the strategy never works. If we don’t know what is wrong, then we can’t fix it. We cannot resort to the practice of blocking the comments of those who might want to criticize what it is that we do. We need to learn to honestly evaluate the criticism.  If it is something that needs to be addressed – then address it.  It might be God speaking through a prophet into your life. 

But whatever you do, don’t just leave the rocks in the sand.  Kick them over and look at the squiggles that are hiding underneath. The practice will begin to change your life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 19

They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people. – 2 Chronicles 17:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 17, 2013): 2 Chronicles 17

I was recently reading a political blog when I found some good advice – In these troubled times we need to turn to the one whose advice has been read by more people and any other wise sage to whom we could turn. Now, he was not referring to Jesus – or even Shakespeare or Dr. Seuss. This wise sage is read much more widely than any of these. He was referring to the guy who writes those wise messages placed within our fortune cookies (Wonton foods, the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies makes four million of those wise treats a day.) When all else is lost, maybe it is to him that we need to turn to find the wisdom we need to move into the future.

Admittedly, the advice is very tongue in cheek. But apparently there is trouble brewing inside of those wise treats. You see, apparently we don’t seem to like what the cookies are telling us. There are too many problematic fortunes being produced. And the fortunes that we want removed from our cookies, the fortunes that are really freaking us out are the ones that contain messages like “Love is in the near future.” After all, we don’t want out want our children to get any ideas. So there is a movement to have these messages removed from our cookies.

It is the temptation that we have with any man made advice. Several years ago I had a conversation with a friend who wanted certain Bible verses removed from worship – never to be mentioned again. It has been a temptation from the very beginning. Just a few decades after Jesus’ life there rose a bishop named Marcion of Sinope. Marcion was offended by the messages of the Hebrew Bible, so he created a Christian Bible (actually it was the first Christian Bible in existence.) But his critics remarked that he wrote not with a pen, but a knife. He carefully excised out of the text anything that he found offensive – including all mentions of the Hebrew Bible. Now the Bible could agree with only his theology. But when we do that to the Bible, it ceases to be a canon – which is simply a ruler against which we measure our lives.

This verse has been described as the pinnacle of the book of Chronicles. It was a reminder that there was an objective rule against which the descendants of Abraham were to order their lives. We are not sure if it was the full Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) or just the book of Deuteronomy (which is a summary of the law) that the teachers carried. But there was something against which the people’s lives were to be measured. This was not a book that was to be negotiated with, but rather one that was to be followed.

And this was an important message that the descendants of Abraham returning from their exile in Babylon needed to hear. The Bible does not stand in need of being harmonized to match our belief system – it needs to be struggled with so that we can understand the full extent of its meaning.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 18

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. – 2 Chronicles 16:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 16, 2013): 2 Chronicles 16         

Someone once wrote - Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart. The core of the message is that it is okay to follow our dreams, but sometimes following our heart really means acting on feelings alone without really considering the direction that our feelings are likely to carry us in. Sometimes our heart is simply comfortable with the “status quo.” In my dealings with people I regularly recognize that change is hard, and our heart seldom leads the charge toward change even when change is what is necessary for our health. So the advice of the unknown author is that there just might be two levels of the heart. The first level is that of our impulses. It is the direction of the heart that we often recognize in the spur of the moment. But somewhere deeper down, our heart knows the direction of need. Following that level of the heart is sometimes hard, but we will be better off if we wait for the deeper areas of our heart to guide us. If we wait and ask questions, rather than just move at the first impulse of our heart we will find the true desire hidden somewhere underneath.

Personally, I am convinced that most Christians move on a very superficial level of the heart. We seldom seem to take the time to really examine our actions and desires, we rarely ask the questions that we need to ask, or wait for the deeper areas of our heart to answer. Instead, we allow our hearts to be guided by rules and regulations because in a very real way our hearts are comfortable there. But comfortable is seldom a good thing.

There is absolutely no question that Asa has led a good life. For most of his life he has been the man of peace that his heart desired, and even in these later years as war has been brought to his doorstep he has reacted well for the most part – but there have been some dents in his armor revealed by the war. His heart has tended to lead him into what is pragmatic rather than into the path that his heart really believed was true. And one of these instances is in the sickness of his legs.

Scholars believe that the sickness of his legs was gout. And the comment that the sickness was severe really means that the sickness was going up through the body, and we know that when that happens with gout, death is likely to follow. But the author of Chronicles mentions that Asa did not go to God for deliverance from the sickness, but rather he just went to the medical doctors of his day. And in this comment part of what is revealed is the Jewish mistrust of physicians. But for Asa, who was a man of the world and had seen so many things, this was just his immediate reaction of the surface of his heart to the sickness. Of course he had gone to God when his enemies had attacked the nation, but when he got sick, well, did not God give the doctors to him in the first place.

I actually understand Asa’s reaction because, if I am honest, it is often mine. I get sick and surface of my heart leads me to doctors without a thought to God, but if I had paused and questioned my heart, I would be led to the reality that deep down I really do believe that God is the author of all healing – even if it is a doctor that treats me. And when I wait and realize that, it will be to God that I will go first.

Asa believed in God, his life was a testament to that belief. But the surface of his heart still had the potential to lead him into error. What Asa needed more than anything else was for someone to remind him to pause and ask questions so that he could get at the depths of the belief of his heart. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 17

They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. – 2 Chronicles 15:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 15, 2013): 2 Chronicles 15 

        

It has been a little hard to watch the New York Giants play football this fall. I am not a Giants fan, but there always has been something about Eli Manning that I have to admit that I like – there is some sort of magic in the way that he plays the game that is simply fun to watch, no matter which team you cheer for on a regular basis. But this year it has been different. The Giants have started the season with six straight losses and Eli has thrown a league leading fifteen interceptions – definitely not a stat in which you want to be the league leader.

And so the haters have also come out. All those guys that have been waiting for this moment to chime in and say that Eli has always been an over rated quarterback. We recognize them for what they are – haters. But we also recognize that there might be a kernel of truth in what the haters are saying. One of the messages of the haters is that it was never Eli, it was always the team. And there they are actually right. In football it is always the team. One thing that I wish the haters would give Eli credit for is that he always seems willing to take the blame. But even in this horrible start to a season, it is not just Eli that is the problem. It is the team. It is painful to watch receivers drop passes or tip the ball into the waiting arms of a defender. It hurts to watch the defense struggle with trying figure out to rush in a passing situation. Success or failure is about more than just Eli Manning. The team as a whole is missing on the fundamental elements of the game.

Judah needed a time of reform. Unlike in Israel, there really does not seem to be a great period of apostasy in the story of the nation as of yet. But they have fallen away from the fundamentals. So Asa calls a meeting of the city of Jerusalem and announces a time of recommitment to the fundamentals. He recognized the truth that if Judah and Jerusalem were going to accomplish great things, it would only be because they had covenanted to do right things together. This was not just about Asa, it was about the heart and soul of the entire community. Asa knew that they needed to be of one mind in all of what they were about to do.

I recognize that this pushes against the teachings of our individualistic society, but this is a truth of life. History and team sports both stand as a testimony to a fact that we have sometimes forgotten. We do not do life alone, and anything great that we are able to accomplish is because of the community that comes around us and agrees with us. In our prayers, it is the power of the communal amen, which simply means, “God, your people stand in agreement with you.” Nothing great happens because we as individuals are special. Everything is really about community.

I am not saying that Asa (and Eli Manning) are unimportant. That just is not true. Asa was and Eli is very special. But part of the challenge is and always will be to pull the community together in order to accomplish what is great. Great just does not happen any other way.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 16

He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the LORD gave him rest. – 2 Chronicles 14:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 14, 2013): 2 Chronicles 14

Beginning with the rise of Augustus in 27 B.C.E., the Roman Empire entered into a 200 year period of peace that is often called the Pax Romana or the Pax Augustus. The Pax, meaning treaty or agreement, but more commonly translated as peace, was a period in which the borders of the Roman Empire remained relatively stable. There were minor border skirmishes during this period, but the major expansion of the Empire was halted.

But while the expansion of the empire was halted during this period, the Roman military was far from silent. Their attention had simply shifted from an emphasis on the expansion of the empire to the maintaining of peace within the empire. This was a period when the safest place to be was well within the borders of the kingdom. The military spent their time dealing with of the citizens, pirates, and other threats that sought to intrude on the peace. For most outsiders, the Roman Empire was simply too daunting a force to attack. The peace was kept, but only because the force was present. It was the common method of keeping the peace in the ancient world, and it is often a logic that we fall back into in the modern world.

History has recorded Asa as a man of peace. There were no major wars to be fought during the first 35 years of his reign, and when the wars did come, Asa was not the perpetrator. But the Bible makes it clear that during the times of peace, Asa was not still. He removed the places where idols were worshiped inside of the kingdom, he fortified the walls of the cities, and he built up the sitting army of the kingdom. He was not seeking a fight, but he wanted to be able to keep the peace that his own character demanded and be strong enough to repel attacks from foreign governments. Peace was important, but peace was not a time of inactivity. Peace was a time of preparation for whatever the future might hold.

Life comes at us in cycles. There are times of stress and trouble that are simply part of life, but there are also pauses, “paxes” that give us a chance to breathe. But it would be a mistake to believe that these times are just periods of inactivity. Actually, they need to be times of intense activity. Times that we spend on the formation of our character so that when the trouble comes, we will be ready for it. We will have the moral strength to move through it according to our character rather than in a way that is shaped by the stress.

Asa’s character was formed during this time of peace. But when the stress would finally come and the peace was broken, Asa would also know the path that his character demanded that he take to come through the times of war - the character that Asa had developed during the time of peace, a time we might call the Pax Asa.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 15

Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages. – 2 Chronicles 13:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 13, 2013): 2 Chronicles 13

On June 22, 1940, France fell to the German army and the British were forced to leave their weapons and flee home across the English Channel. The Battle of France lasted just over a month. France was one of the best equipped and prepared nations for war in Europe. With the support of British Forces and the Maginot Line defense as well as a dense forest, it was unthinkable that the German tanks could penetrate the French defenses. And yet they did. The defeat came quickly and indicated that there was a change in power structure of Europe.

Jeroboam was confident that Abijah and Judah would never be able to defeat the forces from the north. Not only did Jeroboam think that the north was better prepared for war, but Jeroboam and placed a golden calves, the gods that Israel had chosen to serve, on the border of his nation in the north and in the south. It was believed that these gods would secure Israel from defeat. For Judah to win the war and invade Israel, they would not only have to defeat the army of Israel, but the god of Israel as well. The southern calf resided in Bethel.

But the northern armies were routed in the war between the two nations, and armies of Judah followed the northern army home. And on the way, Judah attacked the city of Bethel – and Bethel fell. The unthinkable had happened. Israel had believed that they held a military advantage over Judah, but there was about to be a change in the military fortunes of the two nations.

But the southern rout stopped soon after the fall of Bethel. Abijah’s dream of reuniting the nation of Israel stopped at Bethel. Apparently the plan of reunification was not in God’s plan. And there might be a reason. As careful as Abijah was trying to be in his worship of the God of Abraham, if the golden calf was left in the Bethel Abijah did not destroy it. It might be that what Abijah would do with the god of Bethel was a test that Abijah had failed. God required obedience in everything, and that often seems to be a price we do not want to pay. It might have been more than Abijah was ready to pay.

Today’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 14

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) Message "By the Rivers of Babylon" is available on the VantagePoint website. You can find it here.

They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.” 2 Chronicles 12:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 12, 2013): 2 Chronicles 12

Entrepreneur Roger Babson gave a speech on September 5, 1929 in which he said that “Sooner or later a [Stock Market] crash is coming, and it may be terrific.” He was not the first financial expert to be concerned with the way the Stock Market was being run in 1929. Stocks were routinely being bought on margin, a practice which allowed for stocks to be purchased by borrowing a majority of the purchase price (a prohibition against buying on margin had long been one of Babson’s Ten Economic Commandments.) It has been estimated that at the time of The Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 there was more money owing on stocks then there was in circulation in the nation. Babson’s prediction produced a sell off of 3% of the stocks in the market (this sell off became known as the “Babson Break.”) The market soon recovered. But trouble was still brewing. The Great Crash came at the end of October, less than two months after Babson’s pronouncement, proving Babson right in his prediction of a Great Crash.

But by the time Babson’s pronouncement, there was probably not much that could be done but let the crash happen. The money had already been borrowed and could not be readily paid back. Babson and others were fairly adept at reading the writing on the wall, but by the time they began to vocalize their concerns the setting for the crash was already in place. The “Babson Break” was just evidence of the foundation that was lacking under the market in the first place. New policies needed to be developed to govern the market. But the policies would not come until after the crash had happened. Finally Babson’s warning about the purchase of Stocks on margin would be understood, but that understanding would come too late.

As Israel came out of slavery and began their journey toward nationhood, God began to lay out the guidelines for the new country. One of the rules was that the people were not to back to Egypt (Deuteronomy 17:16.) God’s fear was that if the people were to return to Egypt, that they would become slaves once again. But beginning with Solomon, Israel began to ignore the warning signs and return. And finally they found themselves in a battle with Egypt – one that grew out of selfish pride rather than listening to the voice of God. The result of the disobedience was that God would turn his people once more over to be servants of Egypt. There was a redemptive hope in the action. God was not giving up on his people. He hoped that through the experience they would learn the reason behind the rules that he had given to the nation; that through the experience they would learn of the dangers that Egypt held for Israel.

It would be better if we could hear the warnings before the danger appears, but reality is that often we turn a deaf ear to the warnings rather than sacrificing for what is good. Gain that comes easily is seldom good. One of the practices that we need to develop within ourselves is to recognize the wise and be willing to listen when they speak.

Today’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 13

Personal Note: Happy Birthday, Mom.

He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them. – 2 Chronicles 11:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 11, 2013): 2 Chronicles 11

The Swiss writer, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, once wrote that “man never has what he wants, because what he wants is everything.” The quote is sometimes used to indicate the greed of the human race. As a group of people we always seem to be stretching out our hand and grasping for more. For most of us, the world is not enough. And so we are terminally unhappy. Most of the world’s religions would tell us that our greed has taken away any of the joy that we want to experience in life. That we should learn to just be content with what we have.

But there is another side of the coin. To be content with what we have often means that we will not struggle against the injustices of life. If we are content with cancer, we will not struggle to find a cure. If we are content with what Bono would call the “stupid poverty” in the developing world, then we will do nothing to fix the problem. During the Second World War, the Christian Church in Germany was content with Hitler’s spoken message that he wished to return the nation to its Christian moral roots, and therefore they were more than willing to overlook the obvious problems with the regime. In each of these settings, contentment was really the enemy. It is a condition that rulers have long recognized. Sometimes the best way to pacify problems is to allow them the simple ability to be content.

Rehoboam seemed to understand this principle. He had decided that his son Abijah would succeed him. Now, there was a problem. It does not appear that Abijah was the oldest son of Rehoboam (the traditional successor in a hereditary system.) But when the oldest person, the traditional inheritor of the position, is overlooked, not only is the oldest son upset, but every son is now angry because every son is wondering “why not me.”

Rehoboam chooses Abijah as his successor, and then he takes his sons and makes them governors over all of the areas of his kingdom. Rehoboam’s action placed people that he could trust (his sons) into the various areas of the kingdom. But it also separated the sons and kept them out of conflict with each other. And Rehoboam richly supplied each one of his sons. And they became content with where they were in life. Dad had richly given to them so that they were not looking to change things.

When we are content we don’t want things to change – even when things should be changed. If we are content, then we stop growing. And that is a problem. And it is not what the Bible teaches. We are not to be content with the way things are, but we are supposed to be a transformational source in the world. But the power structure of this world wants everything to stay the same – so, like Rehoboam, they want to give us things so that we will be content.

Our world needs to change, but change will never happen with people who are content.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 12

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. – 2 Chronicles 10:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 10, 2013): 2 Chronicles 10

In 1933, Albert Einstein took a vacation away from his home in Germany. He never returned. The newly elected German government (the Nazi’s) had decided that what Einstein had been teaching in the universities was wrong. This belief was not based on empirical data and experiments that had proved Einstein’s theories incorrect (we still have not been able to do that.) The new German government had decided that Einstein was wrong simply because of his Jewish background. It is still hard to believe that Albert Einstein was the subject of book burnings in Germany in the 1933. All of the product from this phenomenal and original mind was lost to a generation of German students.

Albert Einstein was also a noted pacifist. Even with everything that he was watching develop on the world stage, Einstein simply thought that war was wrong. A group of Hungarian scientists, who were refugees in the United States, had tried to warn the American government in 1939 that the German scientists were working on the Atomic Bomb. Their thought was that the United States needed to turn up the effort on their research toward the bomb. But the scientists were not taken seriously by the government officials. So they approached Albert Einstein to join with them in their effort to convince the President of the danger that was lurking in the not too distant future. Einstein ignored his own personal convictions on war and put his signature on a letter to President Roosevelt in regard to that state of the German research. Roosevelt took Einstein seriously and started to put more money in what was being called then “The Manhattan Project” – and the United States ended up winning the race to the bomb. All of this was made possible because they were willing to listen to the advice of a scientist that the Germans had discredited.

Unfortunately, the reality is that our decisions and mistakes often come back to haunt us. Jeroboam had been an official in King Solomon’s government. But he began to be tempted with the idea that he could be the ruler over the Northern tribes. The idea led Jeroboam to rebel against Solomon. And Solomon was forced to put down the rebellion. But the reality was that Jeroboam and his compatriots were never really dealt with – and the issues that caused the rebellion in the first place had never been resolved. Jeroboam himself simply left the country to live in exile in Egypt.

But when Solomon died, all of the issues came back – including Jeroboam. And what Jeroboam was unable to do under Solomon, he was more than ready to do during the reign of his son, Rehoboam. The problem that had never been dealt in the past with caused a significant problem for the future. For Nazi Germany, the problem was never Einstein, it was an unhealthy view of foreigners – specifically the Jews of central Europe. For Solomon, the problem was not really Jeroboam, but rather a significant feeling of disconnect that was growing among the Northern tribes – It had been present from the beginning of David’s reign but was now coming to head, possibly because of the massive commitment of resources that was necessary to build the Temple in Jerusalem in a single generation (Solomon’s Temple was one of a handful of major structures that was completed by the same ruler who started the process. Normally these projects in the ancient world took generations to complete.) It was this disconnect that set the stage for both Jeroboam’s rebellion under Solomon and for his return to Israel at the beginning of the reign of Solomon’s son.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 11