Bible In One Year-Day 171 (Friday, June 20, 2014)

Commentary: 2Chronicles22-24. Jehoshaphat was a good king. He made another blunder towards the end of his reign; he allied with the king of Israel because he was his in law. God destroyed the ally but spared his life, 2Chron20:35-37. His son, Jehoram (who died of intestinal cancer) and grandson, Ahaziah, were kings after him but lived horrible lives because of the influence of their in-law’s house;

2 Chronicles 22:3-4 “He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for they were his counselors after the death of his father to his destruction.”

Jehu was anointed to wipe off the house of Ahab for his atrocities. The time Jehu was supposed to carry out the assignment was when Ahaziah, Jehoshaphat’s grandson, travelled to Joram. Little did he know that death was prepared for him there in Joram. Ahaziah had no body to succeed him because after he was killed, the mother, Athaliah, killed all other royal heirs of the house of Judah except Joash who was stolen away by Jehoshabeath. Athaliah was Jezebel’s daughter; exercising evil influence on men in power was something she inherited from her mother. Athaliah reigned in Judah for six years even though she was not eligible to do that but had her way because of the spirit of Jezebel, her mother, which was in her. Such spirit forcefully acquired what belongs to another.

Jehoiada the priest and the husband of the woman who hid Joash in the house of the Lord, raised a priestly coup against Athaliah and entered into political agreement with the elders and military generals of Judah that the king’s son must be the one to reign. This was to overturn Athaliah’s reign. Joahs was hidden in the house of the Lord and military men were made to run shift protecting him;

2 Chronicles 23:8 “So the Levites and all Judah did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest had commanded, and took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that were to go out on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses.”

Joash was made king under heavenly security;

2 Chronicles 23:11 “Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.”

Jehoiada and his wife, Jehoshabeath, were very kind to Joash. He grew up to regard them as his parents and that is why the Bible recorded that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada (2Chron24:2); this means that they gave him good training in the way of the Lord. Jehoiada used the grace God had given him to make Israel enjoy God;

2 Chronicles 24:15-16 “But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.”

What he did made Israel to bury him among the kings, even though he was not one. Unfortunately, Joash and his grandfather Jehoram never enjoyed this grace. Joashed died the death of vengeance because he killed the son of the man who brought him up;

2 Chronicles 24:22 “Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.”

The curse of this dying man came to pass;

2 Chronicles 24:25 “And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.”

Many are under the curse of one dying man or the order. The “dying” might be termed as laboring under undeserved oppression. Ancestors might be guilty of this, only Jesus can safe and deliver one from this curse. The blood of Abel cried and so many bloods are still crying today. The cry of innocent blood in the hand of David, as we discussed earlier, could not make him to build a house for God. Until the voice of the blood of a dying man is silenced by the Blood of Jesus, breakthrough might be difficult. When you deny a poor man of his right, his curse could be regarded as the curse of the dying man. Lying against innocent person, cheating or malicious and evil conspiracy could amount to this type of curse. This curse makes the ground to be barren and the heaven become brass. The curse could be as old as 100 years. But thank God for Jesus Christ, who shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to blot out the stains of such curses;

Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

You don’t have to suffer for nothing, since the prevailing Blood of Jesus is available for your deliverance. For that Blood to work for you, you must change your ways and embrace the way of the cross of Jesus;

Romans 6:6 “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

Matthew 10:38 “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me.”

Let us seek for the old path where we could find rest. Let us listen to the trumpet’s sound, wherewith we could escape the calamity to come. Our reading for today is 2Chronicles25-27. Keep the fire burning and alive.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 5:24 “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”