Original Broadcast: November 2009

Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings

[Azariah said to Asa:] "The LORD is with you while you are with Him.

It's the basic understanding of life. If you seek something, you will find it. If you forsake something, it is forsaken. This is kinda the basic idea that we have in this life. After all, Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).

God called Azariah to speak these words to King Asa, the fourth generation after David. Asa had seen the fruits of the three previous kings in Judah. Something had to be done. God sent His Word through Azariah to instill the need for God in Asa's heart.

God is with those who are with Him. Those who believe in Him have Him in their corner, taking up their needs as their heavenly Father. Those who seek God where He promises to be found find Him. Those who forsake God are forsaken by God. If you don't want God, God doesn't have use for you. However, if you turn and repent of forsaking God, He will forgive you. This is the reformation that Asa began in Judah. This is the reformation God does in your life through His Word. Heed His Word and find Him with you always. Amen.

Original Broadcast: November 2009

Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings

And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD,

It's the fourth generation of the Davidic kingdom and we FINALLY get to someone who does what is right. Asa put away the idols that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had put up in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. He put all the male cult prostitutes out of the land. He destroyed his own mother's idol. "The heart of Asa was wholly true to the LORD all his days" (v14).

Asa demanded a reformation in the hearts, minds and souls of the people of Judah. He demanded that they return to the LORD their God. Asa sought just as the prophet Joel: "Return to the LORD, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (2:13).

Because of Asa's reforms, God forgave the sins of the people. Asa's call for repentance brought about God's relenting of the disaster that awaited them. God forgives all who come to Him in faith and repent of their sins--confessing them and begging for mercy and help to keep from doing them. God is a forgiving God, "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love." This steadfast love drives us to love all those around us, emboldening us to speak about His love shown to us on a daily basis. Amen.

The second half of the look at the marriage of priests. God created humans as sexual beings, seeking relationship with each other. He ordained marriage to house the proper use of those urges. No one is able to demand that anyone give up this genetic wiring. However, that's exactly what has happened in the Roman Catholic Church. Should priests be allowed to marry? Will that fix the problems in the Roman Catholic Church?

Original Broadcast: November 2009

Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings

Nevertheless, for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem,

David was a man after God's own heart. Solomon his son turned his heart away from the LORD. Rehoboam his son did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. Abijam his son wasn't any better. Another generation where God's will wasn't being done by His people. Another generation of people who were walking further away from God.

Everything is going against Him, but God is a faithful God. He had promised David that his descendants would sit upon the throne in Jerusalem as long as the people remained faithful to God's Word (1 Chronicles 17:11-14).

Despite everything going against Him, God continues to hold His promise. Despite everything you do against God's will, He continues to hold His promise to you in your Baptism. With the water and the Word, God called you His own child. Despite everything you might do to anger Him, He still loves you and calls you His child through the sacrifice of His Son for the forgiveness of your sins. Amen.

Original Broadcast: November 2009

Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings

[Shishak] took away everything.

Four years after tearing the kingdom apart by taking the bad advice, Rehoboam faces an outside threat. Pharaoh Shishak attacked Jerusalem and took EVERYTHING from the Temple--the Temple Solomon built. Rehoboam replaced the stolen golden shields his father made with bronze shields of his own making. Rehoboam would cover and handle the error he had made.

Sound familiar? Goes all the way back to the Garden. Adam and Eve sinned, saw that they were naked and were ashamed. They sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. That didn't last long. Same with Rehoboam. The replacements weren't as good in quality or workmanship. It wasn't the same as the original.

Same with us. We do something wrong and instantly try to find a way to cover it up. A child climbs onto the kitchen counter and reaches for a cup in the cupboard. While trying to get the cup, his mother's favorite hot chocolate mug falls to the floor and shatters into a dozen pieces. The son wants to make it better so he grabs a pack of chewing gum, chews it up and sticks the pieces back together with the chewed gum.

Is the mug the same as it was? No. It's worse. Is our lives the same when we try to cover our sins with our own works? No. It's worse. We can't fix ourselves. We are beyond human repair. We require the divine repair shop of Confession and Absolution. There's the only place we can find the fix for our problem. Only through Jesus' words of forgiveness are our sins covered. Don't try to fix yourself. Go where the problem can be fixed. Go to Jesus and His forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.

Original Broadcast: November 2009

Monthly Theme: Judah's Kings

[Rehoboam] spoke to [the people of Israel] according to the counsel of the young men, saying,

Rehoboam, Solomon's son, reigned in Solomon's stead after his death. Like his father, Rehoboam had problems with Jeroboam son of Nebat. When Jeroboam came back seeking Rehoboam's pardon, Rehoboam sought out counsel.

His older advisors, who had served his father, told him to grant the pardon and save the kingdom. He turned to his good friends, all around his age. They told him, "Make it tighter." He liked the younger counsel and took it. The country was split out from underneath him. Jeroboam took all the tribes except Benjamin and Judah.

Rehoboam should have listened to Moses: "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God" (Leviticus 19:32). Had Rehoboam heeded Moses' words and the counsel of his older advisors, he might have been able to keep the Twelve Tribes of Israel together. However, he let his youthful lust for power and dominance take out his inheritance from him.

How often do we take the road of youthful exuberance that goes against even common sense? Too many times. St. Paul writes about this in the seventh chapter of his epistle to the Romans. It's an issue with authority. We want to be our own authority and rid our lives of all others. We take pride in ourselves and our viewpoint. We want nothing else. If that's the case too often, we end up not wanting Jesus.

Jesus isn't what we generally want. Often He leads us the opposite direction. Why? He has the wisdom not only of gray hair but being with the Father when the world was created. Jesus has seen everything because He is God. His way is the right way. May we follow that through our lives. Amen.

Original Broadcast: October 2009

Monthly Theme: King Solomon

[Solomon] had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines.

What was Solomon thinking? 700 wives? 300 concubines? 1000 wives total? That's absolutely insane! No one man needs that many wives!

Solomon's wives were all wonderful women I'm sure, but they weren't a good influence on him. Among his wives were Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. With each new wife, a new god or goddess was brought into the palace. Many times Solomon would see the paltry workmanship of the handmade idol and order a new one to be crafted in gold and silver and all of his other riches.

God became angry with Solomon and wrenched part of the kingdom away from him. God continued to keep His promise to David. One of Solomon's sons would continue David's perpetual kingdom, but he would only have part of the kingdom. Only one of the Twelve Tribes, the Tribe of Judah. It was a grievous punishment for a grievous sin.

Solomon wasted his riches on his own personal pleasure. He reflects on this in Ecclesiastes. But his story is a reminder that everything we have is a gift from God. Our gift to use as we see fit. We can be a blessing by using it or a curse by wasting it. God calls you to use the gifts He gives you wisely. Amen.

Original Broadcast: October 2009

Monthly Theme: King Solomon

Now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD,

Solomon's reputation had spread clear to Sheba, somewhere south of Canaan. She came on her own errand. She wasn't like the rulers of other nations, seeking to court Solomon's favor. She was there to settle her curiosity. She had heard about Solomon and wanted to see for herself what this great king was really like.

Reputations become legendary for powerful figures. Look at all the things being said about President Obama. Is he the Messiah or the Antichrist? He's neither. He's simply a man elected to rule his country. The hardest part of the job is the extreme expectations of those he governs.

That's all the Queen of Sheba had for Solomon: high expectations because of his reputation. And she was blown away once she got there. When she saw everything that was Solomon's, "there was no more breath in her" (v5). When she caught her breath, she said, "The half was not told me" (v7).

Reputation can be a good thing. While it might bring about instant labels and preconceived ideas about you, you still have the ability to overcome or excel these ideas and labels just as Solomon did.

The biggest label you can have in this life is "Christian." Everyone has preconceived ideas as to what "Christian" means. Strive to be so Christ-like in your Christian walk that you blow away the preconceived ideas so that there's no more breath in them. This is the work of Christ-like faith following in Christ's footsteps. Amen.

Original Broadcast: October 2009

Monthly Theme: King Solomon

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt,

Four hundred eighty years after God called Moses from the burning bush, His house was finally being constructed. It's not that God needed a house. He was fine with the Tabernacle, but it was the solemn desire of both David and Solomon to build a more magnificent structure to be the central point of Israel's religious life. Certainly the Temple far exceeded the simple elegance of the Tabernacle.

As we learn from St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, "Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands" (Acts 7:48). God, however, does wish to be among His people. He wants to be the central focus of their lives. He wants to be the central focus of their communities. Therefore many towns and cities were built with the church building first and then the members' homes. Having a designated place to worship was the central desire for building a new settlement.

The desire to worship God comes to all people. Our church buildings look nothing like Solomon's Temple, but we treat them with the same dignity and respect. David wrote in the Psalms, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD'" (122:1). That joy should permeate our lives so that we see worship not as something we can check off our "to-do" list, but worship is time that we get to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father and bless Him for all the things He has given to us. Amen.

Original Broadcast: October 2009

Monthly Theme: King Solomon

And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."

In one of the most popular stories of Solomon's wisdom, two prostitutes come before him. They're suing each other for the custody of one of their children. Both had children but one rolled over on top of hers and crushed it to death. She then switched the babies in the middle of the night. The other found out and they went to court.

In a spark of divine wisdom, Solomon saw a way to get right to the heart of the matter. Both women claimed the living child to be theirs. He ordered a sword to be brought and the child split in half. Both women would get half. Of course, the real mother stopped the proceedings and said to give the baby to the other woman. Solomon awarded the giving mother custody of the child.

It wasn't just common sense that brought Solomon to this solution. It was truly wisdom from above. From that time on, "all Israel ... stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of OGd was in him to do justice" (v28). Solomon's wisdom became legendary. This wisdom compiled the book of Proverbs at his hand. This wisdom made there be no world ruler like Solomon in all of recorded history. This wisdom is also available to you if you make God's Word available to your heart and soul. This wisdom brings you Jesus. This wisdom brings you the forgiveness of all your sins at His Word. May you seek this wisdom today. Amen.