Day 129: 2 Kings 10-13

 Under what circumstances is it the best and godliest course of action to overthrow a monarch? Have soldiers execute a woman with swords? Circumvent the normal donation methodology of the people? When these kinds of things are happening in Israel and Judah, you know things have gone from bad to worse. It takes courageous, decisive people like Jehosheba (2 Kings 11:2), Jehoiada (2 Kings 11:4-12, 15, 17) and Jehoash, King of Judah (2 Kings 12:7,9) to restore some order; still, it's a time of confusion, a time when things that must be done to correct cours
e would not ordinarily be the right thing to do. Perhaps this is part of the apparent ambiguity in Elisha's lesson to Joash, King of Israel: beat the ground with arrows. Nope, you only beat the ground three times. You should've done it five or six times. When everything is in a bad place, it's hard for people to know what to do. It makes me think of a situation yesterday in the city of Plano, where our ministry is headquartered. A protest group had blocked the freeway, an illegal act. They were armed. A motorist exited his vehicle and confronted the group. He was the one accosted by a police officer, instead of the rioters. What is a citizen to do in such a case, when officers of law enforcement are siding with the lawbreakers? When cities are declaring themselves "cities of refuge" in defiance of immigration law? When mayors and governors are abdicating their responsibility to protect private property and the lives of citizens? Like Israel and Judah in the days of the two Joash's, it's a confusing time in America, and we are in dire need of leaders who will act righteously and courageously, in defiance of the inevitable name-calling and illegal actions against them.

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