Biblical Kingdoms

Following some messed up leaders

Recently I studied the books 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles; the study of the Kings. What an enlightening study this has been. It has always been a blur of a section of books to me. I know that Saul is bad, David is good, and Solomon is almost good…then goes off his rocker. After those kings I don’t know much. Through this week however, I feel like I have such a clearer description and idea of the kings. But more than that, I see God’s ever present forgiveness and mercy through these kings. These were men, power hungry, simple, angry, and some were servants and true leaders.

I know for many people, it may not be their cup of tea to just learn a lot of history. Learning history to me is like taking a big gulp of Coke Zero, I may like it too much, for good or bad. When I take a deep look at Saul, this man is so relatable, so dumb at times, but so wonderfully human. I see God reaching out to Saul through David. I see David living a life trying to follow God while having his mistakes here and there. Yet you see David’s persistence to purify himself for God, to be open with his mistakes so that they don’t hold him in silence. There is so much to learn from all of these kings lives in what has to be done to be a good and excellent leader. I look at the kings following Solomon, the kings of the divided Kingdom. They are flesh lived out. Selfishness abounds.

The most encouraging and beautiful story however is the story of Manasseh. In my opinion at least. This king is utterly human. One of the worst kings of all the Southern Kingdom. He opens up all the other pagan gods to the people of God, he lives his life how we live today in America. We worship everything we can EXCEPT God. We follow TV, movies, news, politics, gossip, ourselves, sin, we turn to so many things other than God. Similarly in his own darkness of idol worship, Manasseh is humbled. He is taken captive and in his most hopeless moment, he finally gives up. He gives in to God. Then something beautiful happens, God FORGIVES him. All the junk that Manasseh had done to spit on God, God forgives him and shows mercy. God stays His righteous judgement. This is the story of me, of you, of all of us. We worshipped everything except God, until finally through the brokenness of our world, we leaned on God. God didn’t owe us anything, yet He is merciful and forgives us. He stays his hand of judgment because we have Christ as our righteousness. Our faith in Christ is our Savior. But this faith in God has been His plan all along. God has always wanted our hearts. All He wants today is our hearts to trust in Christ, in the Cross where He died for our sins, and rose again to DEFEAT death. Amen.

Zach