May 15 - 2 Chronicles 18-20: Late in Life

It is very curious to me that there's a pattern among these good kings of following God early in their lives and then later in life, choosing to do their own thing.

• Solomon openly defied God...(1 Kings 11:6)
• In the 39th year of his reign, Asa came down with a severe case of foot infection.  He didn't ask God for help... (16:12)
• Late in life Jehoshaphat form a trading syndicate with Ahaziah king of Israel - which was very wrong of him to do. (20:35)

Not exactly the "older and wiser" rule of aging.  You may have heard the saying that as you get older, who you really are leaks out or,  "You can't hide your true colours as you approach the autumn of your life"  (Author Unknown). That concerns me.  Will I be a cynical, critical old woman or a joyful, peaceful one?  What sin in me will be on full display in my aged years that I no longer have the filters to hide from others? I hope that as I grow older, the Holy Spirit's transformation in my life will cause me to speak like this psalmist:

Psalm 49.  A Psalm of the Sons of Korah

(associated with Jehoshaphat's victory over Moab, Ammon,and the Meunites)

Listen, everyone, listen -- earth-dwellers, don't miss this.  All you haves and have-nots. All together now listen.

I set plainspoken wisdom before you, my heart-seasoned understandings of life.  I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise, I solve life's riddle with the help of a harp.

So why should I fear in bad times, hemmed in by enemy malice, shoved around by bullies, demeaned by the arrogant rich?

Really! There's no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.  The cost of rescue is beyond our means, and even then it doesn't guarantee Life forever, or insurance against the Black Hole.

Anyone can see that the brightest and best die, wiped out right along with fools and dunces. They leave all their prowess behind, move into their new home, The Coffin, the cemetery their permanent address.  And to think they named counties after themselves!

We aren't immortal.  We don't last long.  Like our dogs, we age and weaken.  And die.

This is what happens to those who live for the moment, who only look out for themselves: Death herds them like sheep straight to hell; they disappear down the gullet of the grave; they waste away to nothing -- nothing left but a marker in a cemetery.  But me?  God snatches me from the clutch of death, he reaches down and grabs me.

So don't be impressed with  those who get rich and pile up fame and fortune.  They can't take it with them; fame and fortune all get left behind.  Just when they think they've arrived and folks praise them because they've made good, they enter the family burial plot where they'll never see sunshine again.

We aren't immortal. We won't last long. Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.