God has asked that we
give of our time, talent and treasure to
invest in and work on our relationships with each other and with God.
Throughout 2 Kings, Israel and Judah do not live up to their covenant
agreement; King after King does what is evil in the sight of the Lord,
interspersed with Kings that do what is right in the sight of the Lord ….
except the high places were not taken away.
The faithful Kings try to clean their spiritual house and in several
cases set up building funds (sound familiar?) to repair God's house. The
situation continues to spiral out of control as Israel is carted off to Assyria
and Judah is besieged in Jerusalem.
Israel and Judah seem to be obsessed with Power, Prestige and
Possessions to the point that they forget their covenant and in the end they
lose all three. Josiah is made King at age 8 and finally he does what is right
in the sight of the Lord and walks in all the ways of his father David. At
age18, Jerusalem is on the verge of collapse when during a house cleaning to account
for cash to pay for repairs to the house of the Lord, or possibly to buy their
way out of trouble, they rediscover the Law.
Josiah reads the Law to all of the people and they rededicate themselves
to their covenant with God. But their
efforts are too little too late and Jerusalem falls twice to the Chaldeans, the
temple is burned and the people are carted off to Babylon. The great exile
begins....
What covenants have I
forgotten? Am I doing the hard work of establishing and maintaining right
relationships with my family, the people of my community and with God? Am I a good steward of God's temple, his
church, his creation earth that we are called to care for as his
representatives? Will my actions or inactions result in my exile?
Dan Ries
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