The #1 Enemy of the Victorious God Filled

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Today’s reading is 2 Chronicles 26-30.

How can these good kings who sought the Lord and achieved victory keep abandoning the Lord? Uzziah is another example (2 Chronicles 27). Because of God, Uzziah defeated the Philistines and the Arabians and built towers, fortitudes, cisterns. Things were great. What happened? “But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction” (2 Chronicles 26:16, ESV). He entered the temple to offer the incense only authorized for the priests to burn, and God struck him with leprosy that lingered until his death. This is the inherent danger of the victory God provides us: pride that the victory was ours instead of God’s. We start taking shortcuts, doing things that are dangerous because we think we can handle it, or we start adopting actions that are not authorized because we believe we can’t be wrong. The #1 enemy for the Victorious God Filled is pride; don’t give in to it today.

Tomorrow’s reading is 2 Chronicles 31-36.

Obedience for a Lifetime Won’t Help if You Forsake the LORD

Today’s reading is 2 Chronicles 21-25.

In Chronicles it happens again and again; in today’s reading alone it happens twice. People who served the Lord faithfully end up going nuts and abandoning Him. Joash did great things for the Lord, serving Him with a whole heart, repairing the temple, but then forsook the Lord when his counselor Jehoiada died. Amaziah served the Lord achieving victory over Edom, but then forsook the Lord when he was somehow enamored with the idols of the Edomites. Why is this theme repeated in Chronicles again and again? Because the readers were the Israelites returning from Babylonian captivity. They needed to remember what caused their captivity in the first place. The author is saying, “Don’t let it happen again. Just because you’ve done well returning to Israel is no reason to rest on your laurels and abandon the Lord.” They needed to learn what we need to learn: obeying for a time does not pave the way for abandoning the Lord. If you forsake Him, He will forsake you; if you hang on to Him, He will never let you go.

Tomorrow’s reading is 2 Chronicles 26-30.

From God Filled to God Forsaken

Today’s reading is 2 Chronicles 11-16.

Azariah the son of Oded cried out, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2, ESV).

What commentary could I add that would make this more clear? Are you seeking?

Monday’s reading is 2 Chronicles 16-20.