Day 115, or April 25. Don't just reject evil, but embrace good. Our thoughts today are rooted
in 2 Chronicles, chapter 17, verses 3 and 4. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he
followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals, but sought
the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel.
First, the big picture surrounding these verses. When the chronicler wrote God's perspective
of the historical events in the history of the Jews, he concentrated on what happened
to the tribe of Judah, because that is all that remained after the kingdom split and
was subsequently attacked by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
Out of the twelve tribes, the only one that kept its name was Judah. There was probably
many from the other tribes who supported Judah, but in the end they lost their own individual
tribal identities. It is very likely that the Jews are called Jews from an abbreviation
of Judah when they were in exile in Babylonia. After the kingdom divided, there were several
good kings who attempted to get the Israelites back on track, but sadly they were few and
far between.
And now our action step for today. Of course, there are some people who rebel against everything.
They are reactionaries. There is no future in simply negatively rejecting everything.
I remember hearing a politician saying that he was totally against a bill in Parliament.
When questioned about his stance, he had to admit that he was against it because of the
people who were for it. King Jehoshaphat didn't just rebel against the standards of society,
but actively followed the God of David. That is one of the problems of many atheists today.
They are effective at knocking down people's faith, but have no alternative to offer. Jehoshaphat
could just have declared war on the paganism around him, but he took the more positive
approach of promoting the beliefs of his ancestor David, and in that way replaced paganism with
godliness.
Be positive today.