Ironworks

        In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.  2 Kings 15:8-10                   King Zechariah is yet another blip on the radar of the evil kings of Israel. He did evil in the sight of Jehovah. His short description tells us that he continued in the sins of Jeroboam and influenced Israel to sin. Shallum saw an opportunity and disposed of Zechariah.                   While most of this seems...

    And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the  Lord  had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. And it came to pass, that, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, and found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, that ministered to Ahaziah, he slew them. 2 Chronicles 22:7-8             Where you find yourself has a lot to do with the things through which you go. Our lives are full of choices we make, and they are subject to risk assessment. We do this with such frequency it becomes almost second nature. For instance, when we go shopping, we take into consideration where we go and when we go. We are aware that some locations are not as safe as others; we know that some times are not as safe as others. When we look at Ahaziah of Judah, we certainly see how Ahaziah...

 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 1 Kings 16:33  But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. 1 Kings 20:25-26                   There is a good amount of talk on what makes a good leader. Some love charisma. Some love decisiveness. Some love demeanor. While these are good things to consider, one chief qualification is how they will provoke the governed. The word provocation carries a lot of weight with it. One might provoke others to good things such as the case in regards to our Sunday assemblies. We are familiar with the command found in Heb 10:25 to not fo...

        And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria. But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him . 1Ki 16:24-25              Shakespeare wrote, What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would were he not Romeo called . We refer to men as having a good name when it is deserved. We remember the most famous of names in our history such as Washington and Lincoln; we also remember the most infamous names. Omri, king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was infamous in the same regard.              People with infamous names can have success in their lives in some areas. For instance, Omri built the cit...