Readings for today: 2 Kings 8:16-29, 2 Chronicles 21:1-22:9
One of the main reasons I try to change versions and/or translations each year when I read through the Bible is get a fresh read on the text. It keeps it from becoming rote or boring. For example, this year I’ve chosen to read using the Message version. Admittedly, it’s not word for word or even phrase by phrase. It’s a paraphrase which means the translator is doing their best to translate the original language into modern idioms that we can better understand.
For example, look at how 2 Chronicles 22:4 is translated…“After the death of his father, Ahaziah attended the sin school of Ahab, and graduated with a degree in doom.” Isn’t that good? It helps us understand why God was growing so angry with the kings of Judah. They were abandoning His laws and His ways and were choosing to follow the pagan ways of their northern cousins. The “sin school of Ahab” must have been very enticing. After all, Ahab ruled the northern kingdom of Israel for over twenty years. He was a successful warlord who won several victories that strengthened his kingdom. He made alliances through marriage with powerful city-states. His own father admired Ahab so much, he had started to imitate him and even married into Ahab’s family. So it must have felt very natural for Ahaziah to look to his older cousin as an example. Sadly, he couldn’t have chosen a worse role model.
How often do we make the same mistake in our lives? How often do we choose the popular, the rich, the powerful, the influential to imitate rather than people of character? Isn’t this one of the main problems we have in politics right now? A recent poll found that a majority of Americans across both parties believe our political system and political leaders are corrupt. It make sense when our airwaves and newsfeeds are filled with stories about laptops, classified documents, ethics violations, double-standards, tax evasion, violent rhetoric, hate speech, etc. It is further confirmed by the number of political leaders whose personal wealth increases dramatically while they are in office. And yet each election seems to be a race to the bottom when it comes to character. We jettison principle in favor of power. We excuse the egregious sins of our candidate as the “lesser of two evils.” It’s a brutal, Darwinian system that simply isn’t sustainable. Like Ahaziah, our leaders have gone to “sin school” and “graduated with a degree in doom.” It cannot end well.
There is a better way. It requires us to relinquish our obsession with power and instead look to men and women of godly character to lead us and set an example for us. This starts in our own personal lives with the role models we choose. Are we choosing men and women who fear the Lord? Who walk in wisdom? Who love others unconditionally? The next step is to think about the leaders we lift up in business, education, healthcare, churches, and the non-profit world. Are we choosing leaders who place the welfare of others before their own? Do we give the right voices airtime? Are we celebrating the right people for the right kind of success? Finally, we have to reconsider the way we elect our political leaders. Are we choosing men and women who have a heart to serve rather than be served? Are we looking for humility over arrogance? Respect over contempt? True patriots over those who are out for themselves? God honors those who seek to honor Him. The only role models worth following are those who put God first in their lives.
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 9-11, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12, 23