Besides the ultimate descendent of David, Jesus, which godly (or sometimes godly) king do you respect most?
Poll Results
Besides the ultimate descendent of David, Jesus, which godly (or sometimes godly) king do you respect most?
David Votes: 5
Hezekiah Votes: 3
Josiah Votes: 6
Asa Votes: 0
Uzziah Votes: 0
Joash Votes: 0
Jehoshaphat Votes: 0
Solomon Votes: 1
Which godly king do you respect the most? David, for example, is honored to be the progenitor of the royal line and a man after God’s own heart. Hezekiah followed the Lord after a long period of decline. The text might imply that Josiah exceeded David in his dedication to God (2 Kings 23:23).
Of course the others had their strong and interesting points, too.
So what are your thoughts? You can comment on as many kings as you like as we sharpen and edify one another.
"The Midrash Detective"
Should be 2 Kings 23:25
Sorry about that, chief.
"The Midrash Detective"
Despite his many sins as a king, David acted more kingly before he was a king than Saul did as a king.
I could easily flip this to David or Josiah, but Solomon made his own tremendous contributions to the culture and kingdom of Israel that are hard for me to ignore. Plus I take the view that his fall was not permanent, but that he repented toward the end of his life when he penned much of his writings like Ecclesiastes, which is underrated for its devotional and exhortative content.
Allen, I so agree with you about the importance of Solomon, which is why he made the selection list. I, too, have been profoundly impacted by Ecclesiastes — it is the core to my philosophy of life. Sadly, Ecclesiastes might well as not be in the Bible, the way most Christians think of life. I don’t know if it is that crazy Anglo-Saxon/Germanic thing that has so entrenched itself in our churches or what.
The whole perfectionist thing should be viewed as a personality type, not an ideal to strive for, as opposed to the type of righteousness Jesus taught, which was to be blameless before God but not tedious about life.
Ecclesiastes emphasizes balance, the importance of rest (not just work) and enjoying the simple pleasures of life as a gift from God, not a concession. It even encourages us to avoid “rightness” Eccl. 7:16 reads:
Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
It tells us that workaholism is wrong, that enjoying life with your wife is a major reward in life, and that all the feelings and experiences of life are to be expected and part of the equation. It’s realism is sobering. I think one reason it is ignored is because it seems to contradict the teachings of the. The problem, however, IMO, is how we interpret the New Testament, ignoring the pre-existing Jewish idea of weighing one concept against another. You see this a lot in Ecclesiastes, whether it is to choose to be in the House of Mourning rather than the house of feasting, on one hand, then to wear white (celebration) all the time, on the other.
Anyhow, David has left us the beautiful Psalm and an example of an imperfect man who never let go of God even when he failed. Solomon left us the above. Josiah, I think, left us the best example of a godly man in an already established situation (though stability was threatened). David conquered and built, Solomon solidified, secured, and built even more, while Josiah had to deal with a crumbling, weakened, and compromised people. It is apples and oranges, so I very much appreciate your thoughts, Allen.
"The Midrash Detective"
Ed,
I am preaching through Ecclesiastes, and it has been a wonderful study. I think that you summed up my thoughts well in the above. How can we appreciate the one greater than Solomon if we don’t understand the basis for that comparison?
I think that one problem people have is that Ecclesiastes has difficult sections that are quite hard to master. Viewing the life from God’s perspective is harder than yielding to the under the sun conclusions that Solomon lists. Yielding to God completely in all things is hard for people to do, but that is the message of Ecclesiastes to a large extent. “You don’t know what God knows. so trust Him and follow His Word.” could be a paraphrase of some of the exhortations of the book, Ecclesiastes really stresses the limitations of humans and the vastness of God. It is beautiful in poetry and prose. Studying it is one reason I am so intrigued by Solomon’s story.
I have been studying more about Josiah in recent weeks and find him in an unusual spot. Here he is tearing his robes, weeping about the sins of his father and their generation. God informs him that because of his repentance, the judgment will not come during his lifetime. Josiah could have just stopped there and praised God for it. He could of said that hey, I am okay and be happy with that as some other king was earlier.
No, he took upon himself to reform his kingdom. He put all of his heart into reforming the people. I think and believe that he does this in hopes that more people would come to salvation and maybe God might relent His judgment. He essentially was doing a task that as far as God was concerned would have not effect on the outcome happening after Josiah dies.
Pastor Shaun, I agree with you completely. He was not concerned about his lifetime ONLY. We see this tendency sometimes in older believers; they figure they raised their kids, they have one foot in the grave… they don’t really give two cents for what will happen after they are gone.
How different this is from realizing we have a part to play in God’s everlasting kingdom, and our concern should be that generations after us praise his name. Psalm 145:4, 13 makes the point:
One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
"The Midrash Detective"
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