July 29: 2 Chronicles 24 – 25; Psalm 22:19-31; Proverbs 20:8-9; Romans 12



Overview

            2 Chronicles: Joash was 7 years old when he was made king. He reigned 40 years. Joash restored the temple. He told the Levites to gather the tax, but they didn’t do it quickly so he had a chest put at the door of the temple for people to pay their tax. When the box was full it was emptied and they paid the workers. When the work was done, the overflow of money was made into silver and gold utensils for the temple.
            When Jehoiada died at 130 years old, Joash stopped following the Lord. Instead he listened to the princes of Judah. They led him and the people into serving Asherim and idols. God warned them to repent. When Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah warned them by the Spirit of God, they killed him at Joash’s command. The warnings came true and the Syrians routed and looted Judah using only a small army. They left Joash wounded and his servants killed him. They didn’t bury him with the other kings.
            Amaziah, his son, began to reign at 25. He reigned 29 years. He did right, but not wholeheartedly. He executed the servants that killed his father but didn’t harm their children per the Law.
            Amaziah gathered his troops, 300,000 and hired 100,000 from Israel. A prophet told him to send the Israelite troops home because the Lord was not with Israel. God could take care of him without them. He could also give him more than the 100 talents he lost sending them home.
            He sent them home and they were angry for not being able to go into battle. Amaziah went to battle against the men of Seir and won. But the Israelites raided cities in Judah on the way home. Amaziah brought home the idols of Seir and set them up as his gods. A prophet started to warn him but Amaziah told the man to stop or he would kill him.
            Amaziah then challenged Joash the king of Israel. Joash replied that he shouldn’t try just because he beat Edom and had become proud. But Amaziah would not listen and lost the battle. Joash took Jerusalem, broke its walls and took the treasures of the temple and the king. He took hostages and went back to Samaria. Amaziah was killed when there was a conspiracy against him.
            Psalm: This portion of the Psalm begins with “But.” In spite of all this horror, David entreats God to rescue him (Ps 22:19-20). This is still messianic and continues as he declares how he will tell everyone about God, to praise and glorify God who doesn’t abhor the afflicted (Ps 22:21-24). It becomes even more evident of messianic prophecy as the Messiah will be praised in the congregation and he will satisfy those who seek him (Ps 22:25-26). The Messiah’s millennial reign and beyond can be seen in (Ps 22:26-31).
            Proverbs: Rulers who act as judges look at the evidence to expose evil. No one can say he has made himself righteous.
            Romans: Because of all that Paul has written before, we need to offer ourselves to God in worship. We need to be transformed from the world’s ways to God’s. Paul then list many ways of doing that in the way we think and act. We have gifts from God to be used in the body of Christ. He tells us ways to behave toward each other and to those who persecute us.

What Stood Out

            2 Chronicles: “But as he was speaking, the king said to him, ‘Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?’ So the prophet stopped, but said, ‘I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel’” (2 Chron 25:16). 
            Psalm: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you” (Ps 22:22).
            Proverbs: “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin’?” (Prov 20:9).
            Romans: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom 12:18).

Insight

            2 Chronicles: We see that Joash, was one to take counsel with whoever seemed to be strong. This led to his downfall after his mentor, Jehoiada died. This started a chain of events that led to his forsaking the Lord and killing Jehoiada’s son, Zachariah when he warned him about forsaking the Lord. Judah paid the price.
            His son, Azariah didn’t do much better. He started out good as well but turned to idols after beating the very people that had trusted in those idols. He also spurned God’s warnings. Judah also paid the price for his unfaithfulness.
            Both of these men responded in the same way when prophets warned them and predicted disaster for becoming wayward. They are very much like any of us who love sin more than the Lord. We really don’t want to hear the truth and will do what it takes to keep from hearing God’s warnings. It will only get worse as the end of the age approaches. Paul tells us that people will seek out those who will tell them only what they want to hear (2 Tim 4:3). We need to be alert to our own desires that would lead us astray to those who will teach us what we want instead of what God has to say.
            Psalm: There will come a day when the Lord returns or when we go to be with him. That is good news for us. But there are some who believe they are Christians and it will not be good news. In Psalm 22:22, the promise is that the Messiah will tell our names in the midst of the congregation. However, those who have been ashamed of Jesus’ name will not have their names listed in heaven. Jesus told us that it is only those who have not been ashamed of him and his words who will be the ones who will be able to rejoice with him when his glory is revealed (Mark 8:38). The reason some are “ashamed” of Jesus or his words are those who deny that Jesus is the only way to salvation. They are the ones who gather teachers that will tell them what they want to hear and that will not lead to salvation.
            Proverbs: One of the big things that false teachers of our day tell people is that they don’t need a Savior. They tell us that we can either become good enough. Others even say whatever we believe is relative. Therefore, if we believe God will accept us, then he will because we are sincere or we are being true to ourselves. Well, that is not going to cut it with God. It is clear from Proverbs 20:9 that we can’t be pure or cleanse ourselves from our sins. That is why we need Jesus. He is the one that cleanses us from our sins by the blood of his sacrifice.
            Romans: Paul has just finished his theological treatise explaining about sin, salvation, grace, conflicts with the flesh, and now he tells us what that should look like in our lives. We do this in two ways. The first is totally yielding our bodies to the Lord as an act of worship. We are doing it because of who he is and all that he has done for us. It is the least we can do. The second thing we do is to stop conforming to the world. We can only do that when we let God transform our minds to his will. That means we have to dig into his word and let the Holy Spirit work in our lives to clean up all the false teaching that the world has been throwing at us (and we wanted) and that we believed and did before coming to Christ. That means finding good Christian counselor and teachers like Jehoiada who will help us to understand God’s word. Unfortunately, the only way we will be able to know if they are good teachers is to know how to study the Bible for ourselves. So, good teachers aren’t a substitute for our own study. When we do these things, we’ll be on the road to putting into practice the many directions for godly living that Paul provided in the rest of the chapter.

Application

             I want to make sure that my teachers are godly people. I can’t be sure they are unless I study what they say by being in the Word myself. I also want to offer myself completely to the Lord and get rid of the world’s ways from my mind.

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