Today’s reading: 2 Kings 15; John 14
It kind of feels a little wrong to not write about John 14 this morning. It is such an important passage of Scripture, and has so much weighty truth in it, but as I’ve prayed about what to write about, my thoughts just keep coming back to the same thing in 2 Kings 15. No matter how many times I’ve said, “No, the stuff in John 14 is more important, what should I write about out of there?” I still come back to 2 Kings. So I guess I’m writing about 2 Kings 15 this morning 🤷♂️
What consistently amazes me about our God throughout the Scriptures, and especially in reading the Old Testament, is just how faithful He is. When God makes a promise He can be counted on to keep that promise, no matter how faithful, or not, the people are He made the promise to.
Jehu was faithful to the Lord and, as a result, God promised him that his sons would sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. While we maybe tend to think of dynastic kings (like David’s line in Judah), and think that four generations isn’t all that much of a dynasty, it’s important to realize that there was nothing at all dynastic about the northern kingdom’s rulership. While Judah’s throne had passed from father to son for generations by this point, Israel’s throne had been taken by murder and military coup more often than it has been passed down. So for God to promise Jehu that his sons would hold the throne to the fourth generation was a significant promise in that kingdom.
What’s even more amazing about this promise though is that the first generation after Jehu immediately went off the rails. The first thing we were told about Johoahaz, Jehu’s son on the throne after him, was that he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoked Him to such an extent that God was continually bringing Syria against Israel in punishment. In fact, the same thing was said about each of the four generations of kings following Jehu, that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And yet, despite the consistent faithlessness of Jehu’s lineage, it is not until God’s promise to Jehu is complete that He allows the throne to be taken from his family.
Realistically, there was nothing to say that, if they had stayed faithful to God, Jehu’s line couldn’t have held the throne indefinitely. God didn’t promise Jehu that his family would lose the throne after the fourth generation, only that they would hold it until the fourth generation. But what is consistently amazing to me is not as much when we see God keep His promises to those who are faithful to Him, but is instead instances like this where God keeps His promise despite every benefactor of that promise working against His purposes.
If God can be counted on to keep His promises to those who are actively opposed to Him, how much more so can we count on His promises to us today in Christ? Jesus’ entire life on this earth, and His entire existence, is characterized by faithfulness, so if our identity is wrapped up in Him, through our faith in Him, what promise of God to us could ever fail??
God is faithful even when we are faithless. We could never deserve the amazing goodness of our God.
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