Today’s reading includes Esther 4:1-7:10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-26, Psalm 36:1-12, Proverbs 21:21-22

To truly understand the story of Esther, we must go further back in history to a time that God gave a very specific instruction to King Saul.  This instruction, found in 1Samuel 15, was that he was to lead the Israelites in battle and that, with God’s help, they were to completely destroy the evil people called the Amalekites.  The instructions were so explicit that they could not confuse the purpose of the battle.  They were to totally obliterate the Amalekites, allowing no one to live.  They were also to leave all of the riches and spoils alone, taking none for themselves as was the usual custom.  God did not want them to have anything to do with any of the Amalekites or their possessions, and He made that very clear.

Now, King Saul was obedient to an extent.  He led the people in battle against the Amalekites, and as God promised, they won.  However, he did not follow the instructions fully and made the decision to leave a few of the Amalekites alive, taking them as slaves.  He also disobeyed God when he allowed the people to take, and keep, various riches and spoils of the war.  God spoke to Samuel, Hannah’s son, about Saul’s disobedience.  Samuel boldly confronted Saul about his lack of complete obedience.  And Saul responded much like we all do when first confronted with sin…he rationalized.

“When Samuel reached him, Saul said, ‘The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.’  But Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?’

Saul answered, ‘The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.’

“’Stop!’ Samuel said to Saul. ‘Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.’  ’Tell me,’ Saul replied.

“Samuel said, ‘Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.  And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’  Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?’

“’But I did obey the LORD,’ Saul said. ‘I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.  The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.’

“But Samuel replied:

       ‘Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

       as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ?

       To obey is better than sacrifice,

       and to heed is better than the fat of rams.’”  (1Samuel 15:13-22)

Saul did not obey completely.  I like to think of it like cooking chicken or pork.  “Almost” done will still make you very sick!  Saul did just enough right to try to justify his actions.  And he assigned some of the plunder to go to God to make himself feel better.  But God does not need our token acknowledgements.  He sees right through that.  We may fool many people, but we can’t fool God.  Being completely honest with God and with youself is one of the first steps to being prepared for God’s extraordinary plan.

God demands complete obedience, not because he is a dictator-type God, but because only He can see past, present and future.  Only He can look behind and ahead and trace the thread of our actions in the tapestry of our life story, and the story of the generations to come.  Now, I have to stop for a moment and remind you that this is not a call to legalism.  Jesus reprimanded the legalistic Pharisees much more than the overt sinners.

Always remember the principles of God’s Grace: we don’t deserve it; we can’t earn it; Jesus bought it for us; It’s free!  But once we experience God’s Grace first hand, we want with all of our hearts to please Him and show Him how much we love Him.  He is a holy God who can’t dwell with sin.  That’s why we turn to Him to set us free from sin, and to give us the power to live a life pleasing to Him.  It is His grace that also shows us our sin, so that we can be relieved of it and released from it.

He does sometimes allow consequences for our sins, even consequences that are revealed further down the road.  The consequences that Saul faced were both immediate and far reaching.  God removed His favor from Saul and eventually replaced him with King David, who, though not perfect, yet, nonetheless, was a man after God’s own heart.  And it was through King David that God’s Ultimate plan of salvation was fulfilled when generations later Jesus was born in the lineage of David.

I believe the difference that we see between these two examples of sinful people is the heart with which they faced their sin.  In Saul’s story, he never really received a mighty redemption.  David, on the other hand, turned his whole heart to God, acknowledged and truly repented of his sin—not just because he was caught, but because he was convicted and grieved by what he had done.

The full repercussions of the sin of King Saul were not seen immediately.  However, years down the road, the ancestors of those Amalekites who were left alive caused great problems for the people of God.  The Israelites were eventually taken captive from Jerusalem and carried into exile in Persia.  We will see later in the week that the sin of King Saul–the sin of not obeying completely and the sin of not being completely repentant—nearly caused the destruction of his descendants. But God…

Don’t you love those two words:  But God…  Many times in my life I could have taken a destructive turn.  I could have ended up in a much different place.  But God…

Today, let’s praise Him for the times He has saved us, not just that one time of eternal salvation, but the many, many times He has saved us, rescued us from ourselves and our own sinful choices.  Today, let’s choose to obey Him completely.  Is He asking you to do something, to give up something, change something in your life?  Just do it.  Don’t wait.

Today’s reading includes 2 Kings 15:1-16:20, Acts 19:13-41, Psalm 147:1-20, Proverbs 18:4-5.

Today, we continue to see the division of the tribes of Israel, along with the history of their various kings.  To recap, the kingdom of Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.  The kingdom of Israel consisted of all the other tribes.  The division took place when Rehoboam went to Shechem to be crowned the new king of Israel.  Jeroboam, who used to have a high place of honor in the kingdom, approached the new king asking for reduced taxes and kinder conditions.  Rehoboam arrogantly and harshly replied to them, announcing that the burdens would be even greater under his kingship.  The majority of the people revolted and made Jeroboam the king of Israel.  Only the tribe of Judah (and then the tribe of Benjamin) remained loyal to Rehoboam.  They became the kingdom of Judah.

When Jeroboam led the people, he set up his capital in Shechem.  Fearing that he would lose his power when the people went to worship at the Temple of the Lord, he decided to set up two golden calves and convinced the people that the Temple of the Lord was too far away and they should content themselves to worship the golden calves.  This, of course, was grievous sin before the Lord.  This idolatry led by Jeroboam had great and devastating effect on the people of Israel for many generations.  Throughout many generations, we see words similar to these repeated over and over:

² But he did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat, continuing the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit. 

                                                                                    2 Kings 13:2

And in the next generation…

¹¹ But he did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit.

                                                                        2 Kings 13:11

And so, the idolatry continued from generation to generation.

In the Kingdom of Judah, we see a more righteous line, though they, too, struggled with idolatry.  They did not, however, give themselves over to it.  They still tried to follow God and His ways.  For example…

³ Amaziah did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, but not like his ancestor David. Instead, he followed the example of his father, Joash. ⁴ Amaziah did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.

                                                                                    2 Kings 14:3

In the kingdom of Judah, the leaders still sinned.  But they tried to please God.  Yes, it is important to try to please God.  We just need to realize that on our own, we can’t.  We will never be good enough, holy enough.  The kingdom of Judah had an advantage in the holiness department.  They carried the seed of the Savior to come.  And it is only Jesus, who can redeem us, reform us, and equip us to serve God in a holy way.  It is not in our righteousness that we are able to stand as holy and beloved children of God—it is in the righteousness of Jesus that we are able to stand.

And still, we have a responsibility to submit to the process of sanctification—to grow more holy and righteous through the help and covering of the Holy One.  And it matters that we continue in this process of sanctification.   It matters for our lifetime and it matters for future generations.  Our choices, our allegiances matter, for they will likely be passed on to the next generation and the next and the next, just as the evil choices of Jeroboam were passed down, and just as the righteous choices of David were passed down.  Sadly, we can’t ever let down our guard in this endeavor.  And we learn this truth through the example found in today’s reading.

Uzziah^[a] son of Amaziah began to rule over Judah in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. ² He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.

³ He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his father, Amaziah, had done. ⁴ But he did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. ⁵ The Lord struck the king with leprosy,^[b]which lasted until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house. The king’s son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the people of the land.

                                                                        2 Kings 15:1-5

We will read more of the story of King Uzziah in the book of 2 Chronicles, as well as in the book of Isaiah.  But what we know from this passage is that Uzziah started out strong.  He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as he had been taught.  But along the way, he got arrogant and proud.  Along the way, he began to trust in himself and in his own abilities and power.  And along the way, he messed up a righteous heritage.  He disobeyed the Lord when he arrogantly tried to play the role of priest and as a result, he was punished with leprosy, which took away his authority and thrust him into isolation.

What can we learn from all this?  We can’t rest on our previous laurels.  We can’t rely on our past record of sanctification.  Sanctification is an ongoing process which must be tended to and guarded throughout our entire lives.  Lest we be overwhelmed by this baton we must guard and then pass on, meditate on these words:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

                                                                        Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

                                                                        Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT

PS  I found a condensed list of the kings of both kingdoms on www.gotquestions.org.  Compare the following lists of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah:

KINGS OF ISRAEL: Jeroboam I, bad, 931—910 BC
Nadab, bad, 910—909 BC
Baasha, bad, 909—886 BC
Elah, bad, 886—885 BC
Zimri, bad, 885 BC
Tibni, bad, 885—880 BC
Omri (overlap), extra bad, 885—874 BC
Ahab, the worst, 874—853 BC
Ahaziah, bad, 853—852 BC
Joram/Jehoram, bad mostly, 852—841 BC
Jehu, not good but better than the rest, 841—814 BC
Jehoahaz, bad, 814—798 BC
Joash, bad, 798—782 BC
Jeroboam II (overlap), bad, 793—753 BC
Zechariah, bad, 753 BC
Shallum, bad, 752 BC
Menahem, bad, 752—742 BC
Pekahiah, bad, 742—740 BC
Pekah (overlap), bad, 752—732 BC
Hoshea, bad, 732—722 BC

KINGS OF JUDAH:
Rehoboam, bad mostly, 931—913 BC
Abijah, bad mostly, 913—911 BC
Asa, GOOD, 911—870 BC
Jehoshaphat (overlap), GOOD, 873—848 BC
Jehoram/Joram (overlap), bad, 853—841 BC
Ahaziah, bad, 841 BC
Athaliah (queen), devilish, 841—835 BC
Joash/Jehoash, good mostly, 835—796 BC
Amaziah, good mostly, 796—767 BC
Uzziah/Azariah (overlap), GOOD mostly, 790—739 BC
Jotham (overlap), GOOD, 750—731 BC
Ahaz, wicked, 735—715 BC
Hezekiah, THE BEST, 715—686 BC
Manasseh, the worst, 695—642 BC
Amon, the worst, 642—640 BC
Josiah, THE BEST, 640—609 BC
Jehoahaz, bad, 609 BC
Jehoiakim, wicked, 609—597 BC
Jehoiachin, bad, 597 BC
Zedekiah, bad, 597—586 BC