Finishing Well

I've been reading in 2 Chronicles lately and with all the brief glimpses into the lives of the kings of Judah, it's got me thinking about living life well to the end. Here are three accounts that stuck out to me.

Asa: Does good and right. Tears down foreign altars and Asherah poles. Wins a couple battles by trusting in God. And then towards the end of his life, Asa gets nervous about enemy attacks. So he makes a treaty with the king of Aram, putting his trust in the king to save Judah rather than putting his trust in God. God isn't happy about this. And then Asa gets angry at the prophet who tells him God isn't happy, so he puts him in prison and brutally oppresses people. And then he gets a severe food disease and this is what the Bible says: "Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians." And then he dies. A life well lived except at the very end, when he refused to trust in God.

Jehoshaphat: Does good and right. Follows God, removes high places. Makes an alliance with Israel, and then Israel wants to go to battle against Ramoth Gilead. Now, the king of Israel (Ahab) isn't a good king, but Jehoshaphat is, so he wants to seek the counsel of the Lord. Ahab brings in all these false prophets and they say to go for it. But Jehoshaphat recognizes that they're fake and asks for a real prophet. Ahab says they have one but he doesn't like him because he's always giving them bad news. But they call him in, and the prophet says Ahab will die in battle if they go. So they go. And Ahab dies. Which was what God wanted...but he didn't want Jehoshaphat to be a part of it. So the next time there's a battle, just for Judah, Jehoshaphat seeks God's guidance again and follows it to the T, appointing people to worship God as they basically stand unarmed against the enemy. And they win, because they did what God said.

Jehoram: Bad guy. Never did anything right. Gets a disease in his bowels until they eventually fall out, which kills him. (For real.) And then the Bible says this: "He passed away to no one's regret."

Three kings. Two who started out good, only one who finished well. Finishing well isn't about being perfect. It's about learning from your mistakes and doing the right thing the next time around. Asa didn't get that. He let one bad choice harden him for the rest of his life. He ruined his ending. Jehoshaphat got it. So he followed God the next time. And Jehoram? No one even missed him when he was gone. He'd never done the right thing.