Scripture Daily

Context No. 1327 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 27:1-9: in context

1Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into the LORD’s temple. The people still acted corruptly. 3He built the upper gate of the LORD’s house, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. 4Moreover he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built fortresses and towers. 5He also fought with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. The children of Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. The children of Ammon also gave that much to him in the second year, and in the third. 6So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. 7Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s city; and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

Jotham became king of Judah at twenty-five and reigned sixteen years. The chronicler's verdict is brief and good: he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Uzziah had done, though he did not enter the temple presumptuously as his father had. He built the upper gate of the temple, fortified the wall of Ophel, built cities and fortresses, and defeated the Ammonites, who paid him heavy tribute for three years. And the summary explains his success in a single phrase: so Jotham became strong, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. Yet the text notes, almost in passing, that the people still acted corruptly.

The key sentence is the explanation of Jotham's strength: he became strong because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. His success in building and in war is traced not to strategy or fortune but to the quiet, steady ordering of his life before God, keeping his ways set in God's direction day after day. And what makes it worth noticing is the detail that the people around him still acted corruptly. Jotham did not preside over a nation that had turned to God; the people were as wayward as ever, and yet he himself ordered his ways before the LORD anyway, and God made him strong. His faithfulness did not depend on everyone else being faithful. That is a word for anyone trying to walk with God in a setting where few others are. It is tempting to think we cannot really live for God unless those around us do too, to let the corruption of the wider culture, or the family, or the workplace, become the excuse for our own drift. But Jotham ordered his ways before God in the midst of a corrupt people, and his personal faithfulness was neither cancelled nor wasted; God honored it. We are responsible for ordering our own ways before the LORD, whatever those around us do, and that steady personal faithfulness is a thing God notices and strengthens.

Do I let the corruption or indifference around me become the excuse for my own drift, or will I, like Jotham, order my ways before the LORD whatever others do, trusting that God honors the faithfulness that does not wait for everyone else?

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