2 Chronicles 14

“So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David.  Then Asa his son reigned in his place.  In his days the land was quiet for ten years. Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.” 2 Chronicles 14:1-5 (NKJV)

I must confess that I do not know much about the stock market.  When I was a child, I recall sitting at my grandparent’s kitchen table and my grandfather being very interested in the stock pages, but he never turned to me and explained what all those numbers and plusses & minuses meant.  Sure, I get the basic concept of the stock market, but my greatest understanding comes from the idea of “trends.” You cannot look at a snapshot of a particular stock and simply focus on its value today.  It may spike upward today, only to fall sharply tomorrow.  If you buy high today, but it goes low tomorrow, you lose money!  You must focus on the stock’s trend, the broader view, to understand whether a company is gaining (or losing) value as it moves into the future.

That attitude of “trending” is how we must view the southern kingdom of Judah to adequately understand whether we want to buy into their brand of YHWH worship.  We already know that the northern kingdom of Israel is a losing stock!  (A laughing stock, were it not so tragic.)  They have forsaken YHWH altogether and went with the diversified portfolio of two golden calves.  Consequently, they are trending sharply DOWNWARD.  It will not be long before Assyria defeats the destabilized kingdom of Israel in a hostile takeover, toting the Israelites into exiled captivity.

Now, let’s look at the southern kingdom of Judah.  If we take a snapshot of Judah’s stock performance today, they are up and to the right, exactly where you want to be.  Kings are seeking the Lord, reforms are being made, and mandated anti-idolatry measures are employed by the king.  But before we declare a “bull market,” is there still a market for golden bulls in Judah?  Perhaps, and one sentence bothers us.

“He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment.” 2 Chronicles 14:4 (NKJV – Compare with Jeremiah 31:34; Heb. 8:11)

Morality cannot be legislated.  Sure, you can make sin illegal, but has that ever transferred into a value system that people adopt?  Tear down the “high places” on the hills, but does that remove the high places in people’s hearts?  While we are glad to see a snapshot of a moment of revival, we can predict the morality trend of Judah is moving downward.  Idolatry still lives in people’s hearts; you just can’t see it because morality is being thrust upon them.  But what if the next king advocates idols?  Will they oust or embrace him?  Time will tell the trend.