237th Week, II Chronicles Chapters 15-18 (Click on Title for Video Introduction)

Click on Title for Video Intro

Monday, II Chronicles Chapter 15

II Chronicles 15 

Verse 8 & 17

Bart Strayer

Verse 8:  When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the LORD’s temple.

Verse 17:  Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.

THOUGHT

We can easily say that King Asa was one of the good kings. Although good, he was not perfect. We can see the contrast in these two verses out of Chapter 15. He removed the detestable idols; however, he did not remove the high places. I am reminded again that the most important thing we must do is give our hearts to the Lord. We are imperfect. We are made that way.  Just like we read about David and Solomon, King Asa was not all together perfect in his decisions. Although it lets us down when we read about the failings of these men, the Bible is not without denotation. The message we take away is that these men gave their hearts to the Lord.  They messed up but the Lord was still able to use them, and God was still able to be seen through them. Just like these men, we are very imperfect. That is why we

need the cross.

PRAYER

Lord, we ask again for strength to get us through another week.  We ask for Your guidance and wisdom as we go about our lives. Help us let Your light shine through us. In Jesus Name.  AMEN

Tuesday, II Chronicles Chapter 16A

II Chronicles l6 

Mindy Strayer

THOUGHT

Chapter 16 seems to me a classic story of what can happen to us all after a time when God gives us a season in our life of rest and peace and smooth sailing and just that feeling of “Life is good.” It seems that this season in Asa’s life was about 35 years as the Bible says that there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign. But, in the 36th year of Asa’s reign he makes a treaty with a nation that was likely an ungodly one because he got scared and forgot where his help comes from. Remember that God had defeated the Cushites earlier in Asa’s reign. Why didn’t Asa call on the Lord his God this time around? It is a result of spiritual decline and a falling away from the Lord.

Our lives are no different than Asa’s. At first we start off with hearts fully devoted to the Lord as Asa’s was. Our hearts and minds are full of the promises God has made to us, what He wants to do with our life, and how we are to be used by Him to bring glory to His name. At first, the blessings of the Lord even cause us to be more motivated to serve and love God more because we are able to see and be a part of the benefits and the joys that come from serving our God. But after a time, when His blessings have produced even more fruitful blessings, we tend to turn on the auto-pilot, and we slowly back away from our devotion to the Lord. This is not something that happens overnight.

If you are like me, it may start with simply skipping that morning prayer time and pushing it off until a little later in the day and half hearted at that. Or it may start with forgetting to thank God for something that clearly was His blessing/doing in your life. Or it may start with one decision made without God that normally you would have consulted Him first on.  Whatever it is, it will happen slowly, and it will be subtle - just how the devil wants it to be. He likes to quietly slither, snake-like into our lives and influence us to fall away from the Lord. That little voice we may hear inside our head that says, “God can wait until later.” Or “He knows you’re thankful, you don’t need to take time out of your busy day to tell Him so.” That little voice represents Satan and sin. Remember, it is subtle; the devil doesn’t care if it is a slow process, only that it is a process that is occurring.

 PRAYER

Lord, we thank You for loving us so much. You knew we would have times when our hearts and devotion to You would slip. You knew we would sin against You so You sent us Your Son. Be with us this week, Father. I pray that we Salt Shakers would not have a week of slipping away from You but that we would press into You, walking so close to You that Your footsteps would be our footsteps. Give us strength and courage to speak what You speak, do what You do and walk where You walk. AMEN

Wednesday, II Chronicles Chapter 16B

II Chronicles 16b

Mindy Strayer

THOUGHT

I have one more writing on chapter 16. This chapter on King Asa has caused me to think about the gift of God’s grace in our lives. Verse 11 simply says that the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Wouldn’t it be interesting to read about all of the occurrences that were recorded during this time? Remember that there was no war for 35 out of the 41 years that Asa lived and reigned as king of Judah.  As chapter 15 says, the people sought God eagerly, and Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord so God gave them rest on every side. I re-read some of I Kings, and there were 7 different kings for Israel during King Asa’s reign. That is a lot of turnover of power and everything that goes with having a new ruler.  There was much upheaval and war. What a mess in Israel.

Clearly God’s grace was poured out onto King Asa and the people in his kingdom. I wonder how many people and for how long it was before they forgot about their God and the grace that they were living under? It is no small thing to have rest on every side, yet we forget to acknowledge and thank the One who provides it. 

I thought that this was just a great chapter for us to take time to see, in our own lives, the grace God has poured out. If we don’t take time to recognize it and give thanks, our own hearts will begin to deceive us.  The grace that God surrounds us with will be accredited to simple works of the world, and the work of the Holy Spirit will be discredited and ignored. Oh how that must grieve our Lord. 

I am not going to write a prayer for the group. This is a time I think when we must each personalize our prayer to the Lord. He has blessed us with so much and for so long. His desire is that we acknowledge and love (actively) Him. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (Verse 9) 

My question to myself today and every day is and should be, “Is my heart fully committed to the Lord?”  How about each of you?

Thursday, II Chronicles Chapter 17

2 Chronicles l7

Verse 4

Mindy Strayer

Verse 4:  but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel.

THOUGHT

The Bible says that the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed. At this time Jehoshaphat must have held his life completely open to God.  Perhaps Jehoshaphat realized the enormity of being King of Judah, and he knew that he could not be king of a great nation without the Lord God on his side. 

So he started off on fire for God; his heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord. One of the really neat things that Jehoshaphat started was initiating the nationwide religious education program. Jehoshaphat must have seen and experienced the spiritual decline in the nation enough to know that education was an absolute must. I consider kings/queens somewhat sheltered from the common people so for Jehoshaphat to notice the individual people’s ignorance of the Lord tells me that it was extremely widespread and had a negative impact on the nation of Judah. The amazing thing that happened seemingly after educating the people about God was that the fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so they did not make war with him. 

What a change that must have taken place in the lives and the nation of Judah for other nations to notice at least that the God of Judah was mighty and powerful and that you did not want to make war with His people. How cool is that! I wish that the United States was known around the world as a country where Jesus Christ reigns, and that it would cause them to fear the Lord. Sadly this is not the case. Not until the citizens, living in the US, political and common people, follow the Lord with all their hearts, loving Him and obeying His commands, will this ever happen.

PRAYER

God, we give thanks for Your establishment of this great nation that we live in. You have provided a foundation of government, unlike any other, by using Godly men who helped to write our Constitution. Within those documents is the freedom to worship You freely. We thank You.  On behalf of our nation today we ask Your forgiveness for not honoring the blessing You provided and allowing our nation to fall into spiritual decline just like Judah did so many years ago. We have not loved You with our whole hearts, and we have not followed Your commands. Forgive us. God, help us become that nation with a reputation for having God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ on our side.  We ask for a great move of Your Holy Spirit within us all for You are our only hope. Start with us. Revive Your church we pray. Speak truth into our hearts and minds.  AMEN

Friday, II Chronicles Chapter 18

II Chronicles 18

Mindy Strayer

THOUGHT

I consider Jehoshaphat a good king as far as the kings of the Bible go. He made a lot of really good decisions that were in line with God as the king of Judah.  The alliance with King Ahab is baffling to me though. Did he just blow off the fact that Ahab did not follow the Lord? Did he not understand just how truly evil he was? Did he think that God would protect him and his kingdom from the evil that King Ahab could impose on him and Judah? Did he want to try and be the positive influence for this king hoping to help him to change? I don’t know. What I do know is that buddying up with this guy Ahab was the worst mistake he could have made.  Unfortunately the fruit of that alliance was catastrophic for the nation of Judah as Ahab’s evil daughter Athaliah becomes queen for a time with devastating consequences. 

Chapter 18 explores some of the interaction between the two kings. So here we have Jehoshaphat traveling up to meet with the in-laws. This has disaster written all over it.  Right?  HA!  Evil King A says to good King J, “Hey, I want you to go to war with me.” Good King J, perhaps wanting to show loyalty to “family” says, “sure”, but urges evil King A to first seek the counsel of the Lord. There’s that positive influence. All 400 guppy prophets of Ahab tell him what he wants to hear except for the one True Prophet who finally tells him the truth and says that going to war is not what he should do. 

I don’t know why King Jehoshaphat continued to go to war with King Ahab after hearing from the Lord that it is not what they should do, but he did. Maybe by that time refusing to do so would have meant signing his death sentence as I don’t see evil King A taking the refusal too lightly. Who knows? 

What is great about this chapter is although King Jehoshaphat did not follow the counsel of the Lord, he still called on the Lord when in trouble during battle. Though we sin against God, it is still His desire to save us. What a merciful God we serve. And though we were sinners, Christ died for us. 

PRAYER

Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Thank You Jesus for saving us! We love You.  AMEN