Do What is Pleasing

Read 1 Kings 15-16, 2 Chronicles 16-17
 
1 Kings 15:9-11 Asa Rules in Judah. Asa began to rule over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. 10 He reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. 11 Asa did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, as his ancestor David had done.
 
LET’S remember “Israel” defines a different country than under David’s and Solomon’s reigns. Israel is the northern kingdom consisting of 10 tribes of God’s chosen people. Its capital is Samaria. Sometimes Samaria is used instead of Israel. Other times Israel is called Ephraim because Samaria was in this tribe’s territory named for Joseph’s younger son. Judah is the southern kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. Judah is populated by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
   The accounts of Judah’s and Israel’s kings in 1 & 2 Kings and recounted in 2 Chronicles tells you that many of Judah’s kings and each one of Israel’s kings led God’s people to worship idols. Even as many professed a knowledge and belief in God, they did not believe God’s Word to make it the rule of their lives. You’ll find in these kings a fascinating understanding to know God. And still they completely neglected God’s sovereign rule.
   As a result, God’s nation moved from 80 years of unity, peace and prosperity to division, rivalry, war and often famine. How can sin be so attractive when it is so destructive? Yet, we will continually discover how God works through the nations’ sins to point his chosen people to his eternal promise.
   Unfortunately, there are too many symptoms of Israel’s and Judah’s story in Jesus’ church today. From its beginning, the church has experienced too many ways to reject God’s way to unity, peace and prosperity – strength in its mission. Even as God has chosen each person to come to faith in him, we have fought among ourselves over music, preaching style, purpose, ministries, theology, building, tithing, evangelism and so much more. We read God’s story that reveals how passionately he has demonstrated his great love. Still, we become complacent about what we know. Our preferences prevail to easily become unforgiving, jealous and self-centered. The unchurched see us, and we look just like them. It’s difficult sometimes to see Jesus’ hand on his church.
   Asa was one of Judah’s God-centered kings. He stands out against the accounts of disobedience to be a man who faithfully followed God. He believed God’s law was essential for himself and his nation. Asa did what was right in God’s sight.
          Let’s, then, be as Asa. Read and study the Bible. Learn what is just and true. Be humble to do what is pleasing in God’s sight. Then look for opportunities to engage those pleasing ways into your life, so unbelievers
will know there is a difference.