Musings in 2 Kings and then 1 Kings

So, my reading today was 2 Kings 21-25. Reading about the lives of the Kings of Israel and Judah is so very interesting to me. Studying leaders, their styles, their character, their flaws, their excellence, really floats my boat. The actions of leaders determine many of the circumstances for the rest of us.

Anyway, today's inspiration is Josiah. One of the seemingly few really good ones. A man of swift, sure action. As SOON as he discovered his kingdom had not been following God, he took action to rectify the situation. He did not wait a day, a week, a month. He didn't try to overanalyze the situation. He took action. Repented right away and began making restitution so to speak to the Lord. I love people of action like that and want to be with them.

As Josiah was tearing down altars and pagan shrines, he ran across some graves. One in particular was the grave of a man of God who had long ago predicted Josiah's actions in the area. So, Josiah left that grave alone.

I looked up that reference to the man of God who spoke to King Jeroboam. In my reading then in 1 Kings, I ran across this little tidbit for today. Jeroboam was very, very evil. God spared none of the rod in his punishment. At one point, Jeroboam's son was very ill and Jeroboam sent his wife to a prophet to see if the child would live. God spoke through the prophet Ahijah: "Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the Lord, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam."

I guess what is interesting to me is the value we put on life here on this earth, and the constant reminder in the bible of how little that value is. God declared that the child was the ONLY good thing in the entire family. And yet, God allowed the child to die. I would venture a guess that if you or I knew a family down the street, say a large drug-selling, drug-taking, law-breaking family, and we knew there was one child in that family that was good, we would seek to have that child live and the rest die, so to speak. Am I wrong? Honestly, we would send in troopers to rescue that child, notwithstanding casualties among the rest.

God, on the other hand, sometimes appears to rescue the child by having him/her live in HIS world, and the rest he leaves to suffer here in THIS world. I am reminded again, that death on this earth -- death of dreams, death of plans, death of jobs, death of families, death of anything -- is not the end. Death on this earth is just the beginning.