The Short-lived King

2 Kings 15:13 ¹³ Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned in Samaria one month.

And so time marches on. It is hard to keep track of what day it is in the middle of this “Stay at home” order, isn’t it. Our daily routines are put on their heads. The ‘normal’ has now become abnormal. For me every day feels like a weekend, almost. I can’t do my regular work because of the order.

Other things that order my week have also stopped. There isn’t any church on Sunday, or at least we don’t gather in the same building and greet each other. There are no “welcome back’ hugs, no “I’ve missed you’ squeezes. We don’t get to sing with a thousand of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Schools aren’t happening as ‘normal’. No bus stops, no drop-off lines, not school lunches. Paychecks for some have shrunk or ceased. The news cycle seems to be the same. The world still blames the same people for the things going wrong. Inflammatory statements are still being made.

In the middle of the rushing of history in the book of Kings in the Scriptures, a few reigns of a king stand out. Some for their length, 52 years of the reign of King Azariah of Judah, and some for their brevity, one month for King Shallum of Israel. So many details are not included in the narrative. They are found in the book of the annals of the kings, or at least that is what we are told.

We don’t know much of anything about either one of these two kings regardless of the length of their reign. For Azariah, his reign is overshadowed by the fact that he had an incurable skin disease that forced him to live separately from others. His son did most of the ruling. He was a pretty good ruler.

For Shallum we know he reigned one month! Not much could be done in one month. There isn’t enough time for history to know whether he was a good or evil king. This is very unusual. In the summary of almost every king’s life the quality of their reign, measured by their faithfulness to the LORD, is stated. Shallum doesn’t even get a score.

With our current shift in schedules and routines this is the perfect time to reevaluate our lives. We have been bumped out of ‘normal’ into ‘abnormal’ with the resulting rise in stress. Why not take the time and effort so see if we are moving in the right direction, not just generally in the right direction, but specifically, with focus, determination and perseverance.

Our lives will also get a summary statement attached to it some day. There will actually be two statements, one made by humans and one made by the LORD. One doesn’t really count for much, and the other counts for everything.

I want to hear “Well done, you good and faithful servant.” That is my life’s goal. How about you?