Walking in our Parents’ Footsteps
The books of 1 and 2 Kings are filled with the accounts of many rulers who reigned over the nations of Israel and Judah. Most of them were bad kings, with varying degrees of disobedience to God’s laws and exhibiting evil.
A few, however, were good rulers, mostly following God and doing what he commanded.
Amaziah was a good king.
A Father’s Example
The son of Joash, another good king, Amaziah followed his father’s example (2 Kings 14:3). He was not, however, as good as King David.
The chief criticism of King Amaziah is that he did not remove the high places and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
This was contrary to God’s expectations of right worship, and Amaziah took no steps to correct their inappropriate action.
Nevertheless, the Bible characterizes Amaziah as a good king. He followed his father’s example of seeking God and obeying (most of) his commands.
Amaziah’s son, Azariah, did the same thing. He, too, followed his father’s example and did what was right in the eyes of God. But he also failed to remove the high places, allowing the people to continue to worship there (2 Kings 15:1-4).
In this respect he followed his father’s example, both the positive ones and the negative. This repeats what Amaziah did when he made the same mistake.
This pattern goes back another generation to Joash, when Amaziah followed his father’s example in both good and bad ways. Joash, too, failed to remove the high places (2 Kings 12:1-3).
Here we have a string of three overall good Kings, with the similar fault of not removing the high places where inappropriate worship took place.
As parents we are to train our children in God’s ways, teaching them to do what is right, to obey him, and to worship him. We also need to model godly behavior to them.
This is because they will mimic us in both positive and negative ways.
With God’s help, may we be good examples for our children to follow.
[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 2 Kings 14-16 and today’s post is on 2 Kings 14:3.]
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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