Ron Clower writes on 2 Chronicles 27 The Prejudice of Jotham, King of Judah Jotham is third in the line of those whom we consider as good kings, for the text again reads, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done.” However, there is one very interesting thing said here about Jotham: “He did not enter the temple of the Lord.” Recall that his prideful father, Uzziah, intruded into the Holy Place to burn incense and as a result, the Lord afflicted him with leprosy. Consequently, this young man Jotham, though he did right in the Lord’s sight, chose to stay away from the temple. We may feel somewhat sorry for him, but his actions (or lack thereof) set a bad example for the nation, and thus we see at the end of verse 2: “The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.” The people did not return to God. This young king had a great opportunity to lead his people back to God, but he had this hang-up. He may have even festered a bit of resentment and animosity. You see, since his father was made a leper in the temple, he simply did not want to go there. There are many people today who do the very same thing. They choose to stay away from God’s house – the church – because of some prejudice. This may be as a result of some unfortunate incident that occurred years before or may have involved a loved one. Now they call it hypocrisy and choose to stay away from the church. Consequently, I believe most of these people are moving further away from a relationship with God and our Savior Jesus Christ. The church is the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ is its head, and it is of divine origin (Ephesians 1:22-23). The purpose of the church is to worship God, to pray, and to edify fellow believers. The mission of the church is to evangelize the world. There is a slightly understandable background for Jotham’s prejudice; however, today we must keep our sights locked on Jesus, and not allow the fallibility of man to keep us away from a loving God and the salvation offered through the atoning sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:10:49 +0000
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