What's The Difference?

“And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.” (2Ch 36:4 AV)

This is the first time that a foreign country chose the leader of God’s people.  The only standard they had was the oldest should be king.  Jehoahaz was the people’s choice.  However, he was two years younger than Eliakim.  The choice didn’t much matter.  Both sons did evil in the sight of the LORD.  It wasn’t like one was an improvement over the other.  Both were equally wicked.  What this does show is God’s hand of protection and guidance is officially removed.  When the people choose the same quality as the world does, then God is nowhere to be found.

It is a sad state when the world becomes the authority over God’s people because God’s people have failed in ruling themselves.  It reminds me of the condition of our churches today.  We cry against the immorality of our world, yet we will not deal with it in the body of Christ.  We complain of the filth in movie and TV, yet we support it with our finances.  We rightly point out the evils of substance abuse, yet when given a choice, we make no preference for a business that does not serve or sell alcohol over one that does.  We complain about our drop in attendance at church, yet we frequent business on Sunday making it impossible for those who work to be in church.

In the verse above, the only difference between these two brothers was their age.  This is so sad because their father was a very godly man.  When God’s people do not even have a decent choice for a leader, then we are in a sad shape.  Godliness matters.  Holiness matters.  We are not perfect.  We often fail!  But our general direction should be towards holiness.  Not away from it!  When the church becomes like the world, then the world will govern it!