Day 33

It's really astonishing to see the great difference between the kings of Judah. Just look at three we read about today.

Hezekiah ruled for 29 years and did a great work toward bringing the hearts and minds of Israel back to God. But Manasseh reigned after him for 55 years. His rule was nothing more than a path of destruction. He basically went around undoing and destroying all the work Hezekiah accomplished. But after him we see Josiah who ruled for 31 years. It wasn't till the 18th year of his ministry that radical reformation took place. So in the course of these 115 combined years of leadership the country went through a drastic and constant change. We may say, "How is that even possible?!"

Change doesn't necessarily have to be sudden and extreme. It can be a slow process. If you change just a little bit at a time it will add up to a huge change over the course of several years. The problem becomes that we don't always see the change because our lives are always adapting until one day we have something that is very far away from the Lord.

The word of God has never changed. It never will. We can base our life on that standard. Just look at the reform that took place when Josiah's priests found the lost book of the law. Has your Bible slowly been getting lost in a growing see of books and papers?

One day you don't read your Bible so you put it on the table. Then you clean the table off so you put it on the shelf. Your shelf gets cluttered so you box it all up. The boxes get overwhelming so you store them away. Years latter you go through those boxes and discover... your Bible that was long lost and not read.

I hope this will not describe our life. Lets echo the words of the translators of the English Bible: tolle lege tolle lege!

In Christ,

Jay