Following God


1 Kings 15:1-8
1 Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.
2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.
3 And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father.
4 Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem,
5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
6 Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
7 The rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 And Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place.

For the next several chapters, we will witness a back and forth between the stories of Judah and Israel. This serves to help us understand the path that these chosen people followed and to place both stories into history. With each king’s story, we are given the counterpart from the other kingdom. Thus chapter 15 begins with what was happening in Judah during the reign of Jeroboam in Israel. If you will recall, Jeroboam reigns for 20 years in Israel. During that long reign, there were several kings over Judah. Today’s reading deals with the brief reign of Abijam. He is the son of Rehoboam and the logical heir to the throne. God grants him honor out of respect for his great grandfather, David. But he walked in the evil ways of his father and did nothing to improve the faith-life of his people. He has one shining moment where he does call upon the name of God while in battle with his brothers from Israel. In this bloody battle which had hundreds of thousands of casualties Judah defeats Israel, which had a much larger army because God hears Abijam’s prayer and wins the day for them. If you would like to read that story, see 2 Chronicles 13:3–22.
http://www.biblegateway.com/2 Chronicles 13:3-22

It would be great if God’s people turned this thing around and returned to Him. But over the centuries of life with Him, they do not. Their lives become increasingly difficult as they pull further and further away from Him. Kings come and go, and there isn’t one single king from Israel who follows God. There are a scant 2 or 3 in Judah who do so, but in the end, that isn’t enough to turn the nation back to God in any kind of meaningful fashion. If we aren’t going to teach our children the faith, how can we expect them to love God? In the next several hundred years, very few people seem to find passing on the faith an important thing to do. As a result, the faith dies in the hearts of the people. God does maintain a remnant for Himself (as He promised He would do), out of which we find the birth of Christ. But overall, the people leave God and the nation rebels against Him.

As always, we do well to examine our own lives and culture in light of what happens to the nations of Israel and Judah. The similarities cannot be ignored. We walk away from God to our own peril and our nation seems bent on a path that leads away from God rather than toward Him. What actions can we take that will lead us back to God? Prayer, sharing your faith, and living publicly with an authentic faith. Seems like a simple answer, but of course life is more complicated than that – or is it?

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