For My Name

Day 70: 2 Kings 11–15; Ezekiel 37–42; 2 Timothy 1–2

The roll of kings continues. 

In Judah a wicked Queen Athaliah took the throne after she heard that Jehu had killed her son King Ahaziah.  She killed all his brothers and sons.  She intended to wipe out all the competition and rule Judah.  Her grandson, Joash, was saved from her wicked greed by Ahaziah’s sister, Jehosheba by hiding the boy at the temple.  When the time was right the priest Jehoiada anointed Joash king and Queen Athaliah was executed.

Joash under the coaching of the priest Jehoiada reformed Israel and tore down Baal’s temple, repaired the temple and begun the tradition of a chest for donations for the temple to be placed by the altar at the entrance to the temple. When the Arameans attack Jerusalem Joash gives away all the gold and silver consecrated things from the temple and palace in order to appease his enemies. Joash was murdered by his servants.

Amaziah, Joash’s son took the throne. He went up against Israel in battle and was taken captive to Samaria.  When king Jehoash died, Amaziah was released and lived another 15 years, but he too was assassinated by men from Jerusalem.  His son Azariah (Uzziah) took the throne in Judah.

Uzziah did right, but not completely.  He did not put a stop to the idolatry practiced by the people.  Uzziah was stricken with leprosy. Jotham succeeded him. He rules 16 years, is a decent king, but not perfect.  He has to deal with attacks from Aram and Israel both.

In Israel, the 10 tribes to the north, Jehu dies and is succeeded by Jehoahaz.  He is a bad king leading the people in idolatry like many before him. 

“Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz, but the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was not willing to destroy them. Even now He has not banished them from His presence (2 Kg 13:22-23).” 

Jehoahaz was succeeded by his son Jehoash.  Elisha the prophet died of a sickness during his reign, but before he died he prophesied to Jehoash that God would deliver Israel from the Arameans three times.  Jehoash defeats a challenge from King Amaziah of Judah and takes him captive to Samaria. Jehoahaz was succeeded by his son Jeroboam II.  He is succeeded by his son Zechariah. All these kings are unfaithful to Yahweh.

Zechariah was the fourth generation from Jehu who executed God’s design to eliminate the house of Ahab.  Shallum murdered Zechariah and ended the Jehuite dynasty at just the time God had said.  

Shallum last a month and was killed by Menahem who then became king.  His son Pekahiah lasted two years and was assassinated by his officer Pekah.  The Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser took much of Israel’s territory, a sign of things to come for this rebellious kingdom.  Hoshea, son of the former King Elah, son of King Baasha, leads a conspiracy and killed Pekah and assumed the throne of Israel.

The one constant in this list is that Israel’s kings are bad and Judah’s kings are sometimes good, but mostly bad or at least not too bright. If it weren’t for God’s choice to save them because of his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they would be erased by their enemies.  His compassion and grace to them saves them.

Ezekiel tells of the restoration of fallen Jerusalem.  The Israelites weep that they are like dry bones and cut off from God.  God gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley of dry bones and tells him to prophesy to the bones.  They come together, connect with new tendons and flesh and skin and the Spirit is breathed into them and they rise.  So God promises to open the graves of Israel’s dead and raise them so they will know that Yahweh is God.  

Ezekiel then describes a vision for a new temple.  It is symmetry and majesty.  The message is hopeful because the Lord is doing this for His name.  God promises to bring the exiles back and to defeat their enemies all around them. By doing so the nations will all know that He is Yahweh.

“I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezk. 39:7)

God has a reputation to uphold among the nations because He wants the many nations of the world to know and revere Him.  When they do they all will know life through obedience to His right ways.  God longs to bring shalom (wholeness) to the world.  But look at all the bloodshed and violence getting to peace!  God uses the violence to work His peaceful purposes, to reveal Himself to the world through His dealings with Israel and her enemies.  Kings rise and fall, but the Holy One remains constant.

Paul writes his final letter from his prison in Rome.  He will be executed in the same year that Timothy receives his mentor’s encouragement.    Paul tells Timothy to suffer for the gospel and without shame knowing that he will reap reward for his dedication and obedience. 

Paul tells him plainly, “Keep in mind Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, according to my gospel (2 Tim. 2:8).”  Only with this single-minded commitment can Timothy hope to gently correct the people in the church who enjoy debates over words, over whether the resurrection has already come (2 Tim. 2:18).  Timothy will suffer for the gospel, but it is by “relying on the power of God (2 Tim. 1:8).”

God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Tim. 1:9).”  

In essence God’s purpose in calling the church to holiness is the same work He did through Israel.  We are called to “righteousness, faith, love and peace (2 Tim. 2:22).”  

For His namesake, God continues to call all the world into holy community where righteousness is at home.  The world is far from what God desires, yet God does not abandon this great work.  I, for one, am deeply grateful. For if God were to lose patience with me I would have perished long ago.  But because God is gracious and compassionate remember the prayers of my youth and the prayers of my mother and father and my church family, I was delivered from my sins. If it were for my effort, I would not be alive.   

God has a purpose for us and a grace to give us, if we will learn to live by it, to accomplish all He desires for us.  Not for our glory, but for His name.