2 Chronicles 34-36

Today in reading these final chapters of 2 Chronicles there are overall messages that are very evident.

One of these that stands out for me is the saying that “as the leader goes so the people go”. There were kings that sought after God and followed the words of the Book of the Law and then there were kings that did evil in the sight of the Lord. Chronicles is a record of what happened to each of these kings and to the kingdom they were put in charge of.

Royalty is a family business and each successor or heir carries on the business from his father before him. But you can see at times that some heirs did not quite agree with the way that the previous business owner ran things. The kings I enjoyed the most were the ones like Josiah that chose not to run business as usual but took a look at the original business plan set out by the founding owner and gave the present business a whole overhaul. He threw out excess things that had been accumulated over the years, such as false gods and extra altars that were not necessary. He did some major renovations to certain structures and brought in a cleaning crew to take care of piles of junk that had been left in some very high places. Due to his excellent business sense and loyalty the company’s finances prospered and the company was in good standing in the community.

He reinstated practices that had been forgotten or overlooked that were central to the original way that the business was to be run. He also made sure that every employee and volunteer was doing their job correctly and were compensated accordingly. He threw great staff parties to celebrate the past victories that the company had accomplished. He sought good counsel and had many past company rules and policies re-established as he made every employee and volunteer listen to these. This was to ensure that the business would be run successfully in his absence or even his death. Because the sad truth is that all kings, good and evil do eventually die and when the crown is passed to the next successor it will now fall on their shoulders to keep the business prospering.

Unfortunately all that king Josiah did, though it pleased the Lord, it did not absolve the kingdom from the judgement that would be passed against them – there would be a hostile take over and a change in senior executive management. The heirs after king Josiah would continue to lead the company into bankruptcy by their evil deeds. They were sent many warnings, verbal and written by many messengers prior to their eviction notice. But due to their lack of response to an original decree over the company that can be found in 2 chronicles 7:14. The restoration of this company would not occur right away.

The beautiful thing about the word of the Lord is that to gain the fullness in understanding you can’t just read one place- you must put all the words of the Lord found in The Book together. And when we add the books of Kings and Jeremiah to 2 Chronicles we see and understand the fulfillment and redemptive plan that will begin with the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia in Chapter 36 verse 23 where a new company is to be rebuilt and established.