The Old Testament readings lately in the Bible-In-A-Year plan are quick, glancing blows about the kings of Israel & Judah. They simply give the name, how long he ruled, and whether or not he did what was “pleasing” or “evil,” “in the Lord’s sight.” Sometimes, they spent many years in power, and still, only one thing seems to be important. (Of course, if you want to read more, the author repeats, you can look that up somewhere else.)

[Violence is always present. Some of the kings assassinate their predecessors, then are assassinated by successors. Some win wars, some lose wars, against the same enemies. This is the insanity of human beings, the story of Samson (in the book of Judges) on a loop, where only the names change. Samson does something (what he does doesn’t really matter, but someone gets offended and/or killed), then the Philistines retaliate, then, “because you did this to me,” Samson raises the ante, then, because he did that to them, they retaliate. Both sides think they’re right, obviously, only paying back evil for evil, an eye for an eye (or a head for an eye), but the story is one of an unquenchable vengeance and bloodlust. No one knows who started it, no one cares, really. At the end of the story, Samson and a building full of Philistines are all dead in the ruins. And then, the next ‘Samson’ and ‘Philistines’ believe that this time, it’ll be different. That we (whoever ‘we’ is) can bring peace through victory, but it’s not peace – the shalom of the Bible – and it isn’t lasting. It’s strange how we don’t like to read about the violence and war in the Bible, while we perpetuate the story generation after generation. Anyway, that’s not what I meant to write about today, it’s just a momentary digression.]

[Speaking of digression, we’re about to move into a few chapters in 2 Corinthians that scholars refer to as “The Great Digression.” Isn’t that awesome??]

The kings are graded on just one thing: did they do the things, govern the people, in such a way that it would please God or not? That’s probably enough to think about, but that is also not what I want to get into. What I do want to get into is another familiar refrain in these chapters (and I’ll specifically use just one example, from June 29, The Angel’s birthday, 2 Kings 15:3-4): “[Uzziah] did what what pleasing in the Lord’s sight…But he did not destroy the pagan shrines and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.” Good kings, pleasing in the Lord’s sight, often leave pagan shrines and/or asherah poles, behind. This is fascinating to me. Why would they stop? Why would they leave such an offensive symbol of disobedience and idolatry standing? And how are they still considered “pleasing” to God?

The Bible leaves a lot of questions unanswered, doesn’t it? That is on purpose, by the way. The idea is that we enter in, wrestle with it, turn it like a diamond with many facets, discover ourselves in the story and then notice as the characters we are change with subsequent readings.

What do I notice? I was a bad king for much of my life, following in the footsteps of the culture around me, walking the roads that have been smoothly paved over hundreds, thousands of years, leaving so much damage (to myself and others) behind. Then, as I fell more and more in love with Jesus, my eyes began to open and I started to see new ways, take small steps from that wide path onto a new, narrow one. I was a king that might have followed some of the Law, might have followed Him a little, one foot on each path. I’m moving in a direction, growing, becoming. It’s that passage, Uzziah’s epitaph, that disturbs me. He was pleasing, but…

Where are the pagan shrines, the asherah poles, in my life? I wonder if all of the kings even knew they were there, I wonder if Uzziah could see all of the altars. Do I? Do I even want to know?

Uzziah left them, and was pleasing anyway. This is the message of grace, I think. We are new, redeemed, and we still leave some of the past standing. The old us still hides in tiny, secluded caves in our land. We still carry that “but…” but maybe the sentence gets reversed in Jesus. We may have, so far, left the pagan shrines, BUT we are pleasing to Him. We are loved anyway. We keep living these ridiculous loops of Samson, but… We keep going back to the wide path, even if just for a second, but…

When we read the Old Testament, it can be maddening. Why do they keep doing this?!!!? Why don’t they get rid of the shrines and poles?!!!?It doesn’t take much awareness to realize that we are them, and once we see that, we see the exile and the return (we see all of these stories) in a whole new Light, through new eyes of tremendous, overwhelming gratitude.