Kings Come and Go, but God Remains

About ten years ago, I had the privilege of teaching chapel once a week in a Christian school.

One day, while teaching about the divided kingdom, I decided not to simply tell the students what happened. I wanted them to discover the lesson for themselves.

I divided the class into two groups.

One group tracked the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. Beside each king’s name, they were to draw a smiley face if he was a good king or a frowny face if he did evil in the sight of God.

The other group tracked the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah using the same system.

As the lesson unfolded, something interesting happened.

The students tracking Judah occasionally called out, “Put a smiley face by him!”

The students tracking Israel never did.

Not once.

King after king received a frowny face.

Before long, they were peeking over at the other group’s chart, trying to figure out why they weren’t getting any smiley faces.

By the end of the lesson, the message was unmistakable.

Every king of the northern kingdom did evil in the sight of God.

Every. Single. One.

That chapel lesson has stayed with me through the years.

In fact, every time I read through Kings and Chronicles, I find myself thinking about that day—and about another lesson God taught me years later while standing at Tel Lachish in Israel.

Today’s picture was taken there.

Lachish has quite a story to tell.

It was a powerful Canaanite city in Joshua’s day. It was later fortified by King Rehoboam as part of Judah’s defense system.

Yet today, all that remains are ruins.

Scattered across the tel are chairs representing the kings of Judah. The height of each chair corresponds to the length of that king’s reign.

Some chairs are tall.

Others are short.

The taller the chair the longer that kings reign.

Some ruled for decades.

Others reigned for only a brief season.

As I stood looking at those chairs, I realized they were telling a story.

Not primarily about kings.

But about God.

Kings came and kings went.

Some were faithful.

Many were not.

Through every generation, one thing remained unchanged.

God was faithful.

Those chairs reminded me that every king eventually left his throne.

Their reign ended.

Their influence faded.

Their names became part of history.

But God remained exactly who He had always been.

Faithful.

And that same faithful God is still on His throne today.