The Bible tells many truths that we don’t want to face. One is that it is not easy to finish our life well. The book of Second Chronicles provides examples. In this book, of course, we find bad kings like Ahab who don’t follow in the “ways of the Lord.” But what we also surprisingly find, are the kings that start well by doing what God desires but don’t finish well failing by ingratitude or pride.
King Amaziah is one of our first examples. He had been a King who followed the God of David and did “what was right in the sight of the Lord.” However, after a significant victory over the Edomites we learn that he did not do it with a true heart. We read in 2 Chronicles 25:14-16,
After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. Therefore the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?” But as he was speaking, the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop!
How often does God give us something good, and we are ungrateful and turn around and use it on our own ambition? And when we are called out on this misuse, instead of fessing up and repenting, we try to stop the messenger.
Amaziah had a son Uzziah who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” and reigned well, but he was brought down by pride at the end of his life. We read in 2 Chronicles 26:16,
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Uzziah had been a great reformer but appears to have gotten caught up in his success. Our success can make us think we have to run the show and go beyond the boundaries God has given us to enjoy. It was the priests job, and not Uzzaih’s, to burn incense on the altar. God punished him by humbling him with leprosy. God may allow those who defy him to stand for a long time in their pride, but if we are on God’s side. Have mercy on us! Our God will typically find a way to let us be humbled.
This can happen to even the best. One of the greatest Kings in the old testament was Hezekiah. After leading a great revival and having seen God deliver him miraculously from Sennacherib and the Assyrians. He lived his last years chastised for his pride. We read in 2 Chronicles: 24-25,
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud.
No King of Judah did a better job of bringing on revival more than Josiah who revived true worship of God in Israel starting as an 8-year-old boy. But when he got older, his pride led him to quit listening to Godly counsel causing his premature death as he defied God who had told him not to enter into battle. We read this in 2 Chronicles 35: 22-23,
He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers.
We can take comfort that we have one thing that the ancient kings of Judah did not have. We have Jesus and the new covenant. This is our real hope for finishing well. Our best examples are not the kings of Judah in Chronicles, but the common men who were Jesus’ disciples. The ones who started off not-so-good but ended up finishing strong. So strong that they literally changed every core of humanity as we know it.
How did they do it? They saw Jesus Christ die on the cross and rise from the dead. They had witnessed, and put their faith, in something amazing and beyond what the world had known or seen and it made them almost fearless. Tradition has it that all but one died a martyr’s death sticking to the truth of what they had witnessed and to Jesus to the very end. If we want to finish our lives well, it seems there may be two things to remember.
The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.” Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.
The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.” Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.
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