January 9 - Righteous King

Read: 2 Chronicles 29

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord , according to all that David his father had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord , the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. (2 Chronicles 29:2-6 ESV)

Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord , the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him. (2 Chronicles 29:10, 11 ESV)

Hezekiah was the 14th king of Judah and the 13th successor to David. He came at a time when the Jews were in turmoil. Idolatry, rebellion, and greed had created a prevailing culture of shameless sin leading to the abandonment of the Temple. Eventually this godlessness led to God's pronounced judgement on the Jews and they were taken away into exile. But not before Hezekiah became king and asserted himself as a righteous man who longed to reestablish God's covenant with his people.

You and I find ourselves in a situation incredibly similar to Hezekiah. The prevailing mindset of our time is not one of Godliness. Idolatry, rebellion, and greed in there many forms still usher the vast population through a life of lostness and tragedy.

Jesus came to change that. He came as a King of Kings. Hezekiah's efforts did not offer a permanent solution to the sin problem of his people, but Jesus did and does. What you experienced yesterday does not have to be your experience today. Allow Christ to guide you into a new, and everlasting, covenant with him.

January 8 - The King

Read: 1 Samuel 16

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 ESV)

Samuel the Prophet was told by God to visit the house of Jesse and anoint a king to replace Saul who had began to live in disobedience. When the old prophet showed up he was struck by the appearance and presence of Jesse's eldest sons. However, God passed all of Jesse's sons up until Jesse reluctantly introduced his youngest boy David. Immediately God showed Samuel that David was the one meant to be king.

From that point in the story of the Jews an epic tale unfolded. The house of David arose and took a huge role in the historic shaping of the Jewish people, but it wouldn't end with just the Jews. For eventually Jesus would be born a descendant of David. Just as David, the youngest shepherd son of Jesse, was an unlikely candidate for the crown of Israel, Jesus was born into a lowly earthly family.

Often we make judgements about people based on a plethora of preconditioned variables. God looks at none of that. He sees straight into the heart of a man. Jesus was pure in heart and great in faith, though poor of wealth and small in all of the trappings society uses to measure worth and success. We follow a faith established on the person and work of God who came to live as a homeless traveling preacher. When you think about it that way it makes our methods for measuring the success of life seem oh so meager in comparison.