When truth did finally come to light, it often appeared only when calamity had already struck. We may feel this way about various aspects of our lives. Paranoia may plague our opinions on politics, our neighbors, even our family. Honestly once broken takes a long time to rebuild. Thus, scrupulous honesty in our dealing with others is one of our most valuable assets.
The workers described in 2 Kings 12 realized the value of trustworthiness. They were so well known for their complete honesty that they weren't required to give an account for how they spent the vast amounts of money allotted for the temple's reconstruction.
How different that scene in 2 Kings is from the scene in Genesis 3, where God confronted Adam and Eve and demanded an accounting from them after their fateful encounter with the serpent. For the first time in this first couple's lives-which had been perfect, stress-free and marked by an ongoing, intimate relationship with their Creator-the two garden-dwellers were asked to account for their actions to God himself. Why? Because they had listened to the serpent's lies, compromised what they knew to be the truth of God's Word and allowed sin to invade paradise.
Can you relate? Maybe your lies don't seem serpent-sized, but even so-called white lies can open the door to compromise and sin. Maybe you don't tell the whole truth about the money you've spent or about why you can't take on a project or about the company supplies you took home. But even the Greek tragedians knew that lies don't stay hidden forever. When a lie is discovered, we risk losing the trust of those we most value.
Wouldn't it be better to live like the straightforward workers in this story? Their reputation for "complete honesty" went before them, gaining them the respect of their superiors and even the king.
{Genesis 3:1-24}
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.
3 “It’s
only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are
not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if
you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The
woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit
looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she
took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband,
who was with her, and he ate it, too.
7 At
that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at
their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
Paradise Lost: God’s Judgment
20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.
21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings
have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach
out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live
forever!”
23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.
24 After sending them out, the Lord
God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he
placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to
the tree of life.
Ever since this happened, this world is having all the troubles Adam & Eve had. Only because they disobeyed God. Do we want to live like this?
{2 Kings 12:1-21}
1 Joash
began to rule over Judah in the seventh year of King Jehu’s reign in
Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother was Zibiah from
Beersheba.
2 All his life Joash did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
3 Yet even so, he did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.
4 One day King Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as a sacred offering to the Lord’s Temple, whether it is a regular assessment, a payment of vows, or a voluntary gift.
5 Let the priests take some of that money to pay for whatever repairs are needed at the Temple.”
6 But by the twenty-third year of Joash’s reign, the priests still had not repaired the Temple.
7 So
King Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them,
“Why haven’t you repaired the Temple? Don’t use any more money for your
own needs. From now on, it must all be spent on Temple repairs.”
8 So
the priests agreed not to accept any more money from the people, and
they also agreed to let others take responsibility for repairing the
Temple.
9 Then
Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it
on the right-hand side of the altar at the entrance of the Temple of
the Lord. The priests guarding the entrance put all of the people’s contributions into the chest.
10 Whenever the chest became full, the court secretary and the high priest counted the money that had been brought to the Lord’s Temple and put it into bags.
11 Then they gave the money to the construction supervisors, who used it to pay the people working on the Lord’s Temple—the carpenters, the builders,
12 the masons, and the stonecutters. They also used the money to buy the timber and the finished stone needed for repairing the Lord’s Temple, and they paid any other expenses related to the Temple’s restoration.
13 The
money brought to the Temple was not used for making silver bowls, lamp
snuffers, basins, trumpets, or other articles of gold or silver for the
Temple of the Lord.
14 It was paid to the workmen, who used it for the Temple repairs.
15 No accounting of this money was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and trustworthy men.
16 However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Lord’s Temple. It was given to the priests for their own use.
17 About this time King Hazael of Aram went to war against Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem.
18 King
Joash collected all the sacred objects that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and
Ahaziah, the previous kings of Judah, had dedicated, along with what he
himself had dedicated. He sent them all to Hazael, along with all the
gold in the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace. So Hazael called off his attack on Jerusalem.
19 The rest of the events in Joash’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
20 Joash’s officers plotted against him and assassinated him at Beth-millo on the road to Silla.
21 The assassins were Jozacar
son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer—both trusted advisers.
Joash was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son
Amaziah became the next king.
{Proverbs 16:11}
The Lord demands accurate scales and balances;
he sets the standards for fairness.
{Isaiah 59:12-15}
12 For our sins are piled up before God
and testify against us.
Yes, we know what sinners we are.
13 We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous,
and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
and honesty has been outlawed.
15 Yes, truth is gone,
and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
{Acts 5:1-11}
1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.
2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.
3 Then
Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied
to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.
4 The
property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after
selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a
thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.
6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”
“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”
9 And
Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test
the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband
are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”
10 Instantly,
she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that
she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment