I’m in Matthew right now in my quiet time. Even the genealogies of the Bible are worth reading, so I hope you don’t breeze right past these things. For instance, isn’t it baffling how such wicked kings in the Bible could grow up with such godly examples for fathers and still blow it?! Or visa-versa?
Seriously, some of the most wicked kings were followed by some of the most godly and some of the most godly saw their legacy torn apart by evil sons. It’s almost as though no one ever learned a thing from history!
One of the most vivid examples is king Ahab. Some of you might remember him more by his wife, queen Jezebel. She was a real piece of work. Now he didn’t have great examples to follow (in terms of his family) but he did have one of the greatest prophets to ever set foot on the earth as a potential spiritual leader. Ahab chose to ignore Elijah the prophet and try life without God. Here’s a run down of how the monarchies of Israel went:
KINGS OF ISRAEL:
Jeroboam, bad, 930-909 BC
Nadab, bad, 909-908 BC
Baasha, bad, 908-886 BC
Elah, bad, 886-885 BC
Zimri, bad, 885 BC
Tibni, bad, 885-880 BC
Omri (overlap), extra bad, 885-874 BC
Ahab, the worst, 874-853 BC
Ahaziah, bad, 853-852 BC
Joram, bad mostly, 852-841 BC
Jehu, not good but better than the rest, 841-814 BC
Jehoahaz, bad, 814-798 BC
Joash, bad, 798-782 BC
Jeroboam II (overlap), bad, 793-753 BC
Zechariah, bad, 753 BC
Shallum, bad, 752 BC
Menahem, bad, 752-742 BC
Pekahiah, bad, 742-740 BC
Pekah (overlap), bad, 752-732 BC
Hoshea, bad, 732-722 BC
Not a very good track record. You can pretty much sum it up in one word…BAD.
But Judah (the other half of the divided kingdom) was a bit different.
Abijah, bad mostly, 915-913 BC
Asa, GOOD, 912-872 BCJehoshaphat, GOOD, 874-850 BC
Jehoram, bad, 850-843 BCAthaliah, devilish, 843-837 BC
Joash, good mostly, 843-803 BCAhaz, wicked, 741-726 BC
Hezekiah, THE BEST, 726-697 BCAmon, the worst, 641-640 BC
Josiah, THE BEST, 639-608 BCJosiah, THE BEST, 639-608 BC
Jehoahaz, bad, 608 BC
It didn’t always go this way, sometimes there were 2 good kings in a row and often there were several bad kings in a row, but isn’t it amazing how often a good example wasn’t enough?