Dividedness Invites Destruction
Saturday: Eleventh Week of the Year: June
18, 2016
Year II:
2Chronicles 24: 17-25; Psalm 89:4-34; Matthew
6:24-34
In the Responsorial Psalm God promises fidelity to David: “Forever I will keep my love for him” (Psalm
88).
In the Judean kings the pattern
seems to be that God is faithful to David’s line but they are unfaithful to God.
Jehoram “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” “Yet the LORD would not
destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with
David.” Ahaziah, Jehoram’s successor, let his mother Athaliah minister to him
as “his counselor in doing wickedly.”
In 2Chronicles 24: 17-25 Joash becomes king and remains faithful to
God as long as he has the ministry of the prophet Jehoiada. He even restores
the temple that had been desecrated by his predecessor. But in his forties,
after Jehoiada died, Joash “abandoned the Temple of the Lord… for the worship
of idols.”1
Joash’s son Amaziah “did what was
right in the sight of the LORD, yet not with a true heart.” After first
following the prophet who ministered to him he later “set up [the gods of Edom]
as his gods, and worshiped them.” His son, Uzziah, at sixteen was ministered to
by Zechariah, “who instructed him in the fear of God,” but “when he had become
strong he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was false to the LORD his
God.” His son, Jotham, “became strong because he ordered his ways before the
LORD his God.” But his son, Ahaz, worshipped the Baals. 2
How can we explain this pattern?
The good prophets who ministered
to the kings kept them faithful as long as they listened. Without their
ministry the kings went astray. But in the Gospel Jesus gives a more basic
reason: faithful love is undivided love.
In Matthew 6: 24-34 Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters.” He
tells us not to worry about food, clothing, or life itself. For true security,
“Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all
these other things will be given you as well.” Any dividedness in the goal
toward which we direct our lives is like a crack in a wall that can bring the
whole building down. If we allow any desire except loving and serving God to
get a hold on us, there is no assurance for the future. Any one of us can join
the ranks of those who have lost the faith.
In the absence of a personal
prophet, we need to minister to ourselves and check for fatal flaws in the
“breadth and length and height and depth” our love for God. 3
To say like God, “Forever I will keep my love for him,” we
must love with undivided hearts.
Initiative:
Give God’s life: Be a “priest in the Priest.” Embrace the ministry of
wholeheartedness.
Footnotes:
1 For the
historical background details cited see 2Chronicles 21: 6-7; 22:3; 24: 2, 4,
18.
2 For these
details see 2Chronicles 25:2, 14; 26: 3-5,16; 27: 2,6; 28: 1-3.
3 Ephesians 3:18.
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