2 Chronicles 25-27,  Psalm 147,  Luke 12:13-21,  2 Thessalonians 2:13-17  

2 Chronicles 25-27:  

More of the same lesson—he who honors God, God will honor—and it begins with Amaziah who did what was right before the Lord but not with a whole heart (25:2). He held something back from total commitment to God and suffered the consequences of his wavering resolve. He listens to a “man of God” and avoids fighting on the same side as Israel (25:7), and so wins a great victory with God’s power (25:11-12). But then having defeated the enemy, he brings back with him the very false gods which they had been worshipping as pagan idols and which had so obviously proved to be vanity (25:14). He then goes up to attempt to defeat Israel, presumably confident that as he had won a battle without them, he was stronger than they were, and found to his cost that he could not defeat them. Choose this day whom you will serve (Josh. 24:15). You cannot serve God and other things too (Matt. 6:24).

Uzziah also does what is right before the Lord (26:4), apparently wholeheartedly, but at the height of his God-given success, he became proud: “when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction” (26:16). He goes up to the temple and attempts to behave like a priest, so confident had he become that he thought could do anything. Such disobedience to God’s word was met with discipline: leprosy broke out on his forehead right in the temple (26:19).

Jotham did what was right before the Lord, but he did not enter the temple (27:2)—perhaps fearing what had happened to Uzziah. Still “Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God” (27:6).

Let us order our ways before God—let us follow him at home, at work, at church, and so, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, have all these other things added to us as well (Matt. 6:33).