Through the Bible: 2 Chronicles 27; Isaiah 9-12
2 [Jotham] did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he didn’t enter the Lord’s sanctuary, but the people still behaved corruptly. (2 Chronicles 27:2)
Someone has said, “If you think you’re leading, but you don’t have anyone following you, all you are doing is taking a walk.” I wonder if that could have been said by King Jotham. King Jotham, son of Uzziah, who reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He was one of eight kings of Jerusalem who got a good grade.
The statement in 2 Chronicles 27:2 about Jotham not entering the Lord’s sanctuary may be confusing to you if you are only looking at this verse. In the previous chapter of 2 Chronicles, we read that while Uzziah was considered a good king of Judah, his fifty-two year reign didn’t end well. Although the Lord made him strong, in his strength he became arrogant. According to 2 Chronicles 26:16-21, he entered the temple to offer incense to the Lord, which was a privilege reserved for the Levitical priesthood. Azariah and eighty other “brave prists” were willing to speak truth to power, and they called Uzziah on his presumptuousness. Uzziah became enraged with the priests, he broke out in leprosy, and he remained unclean (and thus barred from the temple) until the day of his death.
So it was a good mark on his report card that Jotham didn’t enter the temple in a presumptuous way like his father. In fact, there aren’t any black marks on his report card at all. He fortified Jerusalem’s defenses, expanded the temple, defeated Judah’s enemies, and enriched the national treasury. All because, according to verse 6, “he did not waver in obeying the Lord his God
Except this: “but the people still behaved corruptly”
What are we to make of this? Was it Jotham’s fault? Does everything rise and fall with leadership?
It doesn’t. A leader can do all the right things, and still not have buy in from the people. Conversely, a leader like Athaliah could do her best (or worst) to lead the people away from Yahweh, only to be overthrown (see 2 Chronicles 23:1-14). As JA Thompson writes in the New American Commentary,
Here the Chronicler once again contradicts a superficial reading of his book, one that would assert that all the successes or failures of Judah could be attributed to whether the king had been “good” or “bad.” Instead, the people can contradict the attitudes of their rulers, whether the ruler be the wicked Athaliah or the good Jotham. The rulers of Israel were tremendously important in determining the attitudes and destiny of the nation, but the citizens could not be absolved of responsibility for their actions and attitudes.
J. A. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, vol. 9, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 333.
What ultimately brought about Judah’s fall wasn’t just a succession of bad kings, but generations of stubborn, obstinate people.
What does this say to God’s people today? Personally, I’m challenged to take a hard look at both my leadership of the church I pastor, and the willingness of the members of my church to be led. Reaching our community is not completely up to me, nor is it completely up to them. I’ve got to do everything in my power to “do what is right in the eyes of the Lord,” and our membership has to do everything in their power to obey what God is telling them. That doesn’t mean they blindly fall in line behind me. But it does mean that individual Christians (church leadership included) must do a constant gut check to see whether or not they are “behaving corruptly.”
Good people can overcome bad leadership. A good leader can, to some extent, work with, work through, or work around obstinate followers. But no church, organization, or country can overcome bad leaders and obstinate, rebellious followers.
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