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Day 115, or April 25. Don't just reject evil, but embrace good. Our thoughts today are rooted

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in 2 Chronicles, chapter 17, verses 3 and 4. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he

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followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals, but sought

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the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel.

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First, the big picture surrounding these verses. When the chronicler wrote God's perspective

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of the historical events in the history of the Jews, he concentrated on what happened

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to the tribe of Judah, because that is all that remained after the kingdom split and

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was subsequently attacked by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

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Out of the twelve tribes, the only one that kept its name was Judah. There was probably

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many from the other tribes who supported Judah, but in the end they lost their own individual

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tribal identities. It is very likely that the Jews are called Jews from an abbreviation

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of Judah when they were in exile in Babylonia. After the kingdom divided, there were several

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good kings who attempted to get the Israelites back on track, but sadly they were few and

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far between.

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And now our action step for today. Of course, there are some people who rebel against everything.

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They are reactionaries. There is no future in simply negatively rejecting everything.

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I remember hearing a politician saying that he was totally against a bill in Parliament.

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When questioned about his stance, he had to admit that he was against it because of the

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people who were for it. King Jehoshaphat didn't just rebel against the standards of society,

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but actively followed the God of David. That is one of the problems of many atheists today.

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They are effective at knocking down people's faith, but have no alternative to offer. Jehoshaphat

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could just have declared war on the paganism around him, but he took the more positive

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approach of promoting the beliefs of his ancestor David, and in that way replaced paganism with

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godliness.

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Be positive today.