Scripture
1 Kings 15:1-15
2 Kings 18:1-8
1 and 2 Kings tells the story of many, many kings of Israel, and after Israel split, Israel and Judah. Sadly, the majority of these kings after Solomon were very bad. Israel had all bad kings—20 out of 20. And in Judah, they had 8 good kings out of 20. As I studied this, I found it interesting that so much carried over from generation to generation, and usually that was all of the bad stuff.
We see that Rehoboam was a really bad king, and then his son, Abijah took over for him. Abijah was also a bad king. It says in 1Kings 15:3, “He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.” Abijah committed all the sins his father did. Like father, like son.
The kings of Judah were often compared to David, like we see here. They had an example of a great king, one who followed God and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, most of the time. They even say that a couple verses later that David failed to keep God’s commands in the case of Uriah the Hittite, which was Bathsheba’s husband. But we saw how David repented and turned back to God.
Most of these kings didn’t do that. They just did so much evil and never turned back to God. But every once in a while, a king come along and break the cycle and was more like David than their father. Asa for example, did not follow in the ways of his father, Abijah. Instead, he did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, like his father David. Now David wasn’t literally his father, but he was his forefather, his great great grandfather to be exact.
Hezekiah was another good king and he trusted in the Lord. It was even said in 2 Kings 18:5 that, “There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” That is because he never stopped following the Lord. He was nothing like his father, who did so much evil and even sacrificed one of his sons in the fire and did some really messed up stuff. Then there was Manasseh and Amon who were bad, evil kings as well. But then Josiah came along and was a good king, even though he became king when he was just 8 years old!
Generational cycles are tough to break, whether that is of just practicing evil, addiction, abuse, and other forms of trauma. We see that the majority of these kings followed in their father’s footsteps, which did not send them down the right path. It’s so easy to do that because that’s what they grew up with, and maybe was all they knew. They didn’t have a great father figure to look up to. I mean some of them literally threw their sons in the fire. So, when that is all they knew, it was natural to do the same things.
But some of them saw all of that evil and brokenness and decided that they wanted to do things differently. Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah, and a few other kings chose to live and lead differently, and not like their fathers. Instead, they followed in their ancestor, David’s footsteps. They chose to follow and trust God instead of following and trusting in idols or the world.
We see this today all the time. Generational cycles of addiction, abuse, and more. But the reality is, each person has a choice of how they will live and who they will follow. They can follow that same cycle of brokenness, following in the footsteps of their parents, or they can choose to follow God and break that cycle.
You have that choice as well. Hopefully you have parents who love you so much and are following after the Lord, ones that you can follow. But maybe you have a lot of brokenness, hurt, or trauma that you’ve experienced from the hands of your parents or family members. If that is you, I am so sorry. I also want you to know that you get to choose how you will live. You can choose good. You can choose love. Be a good king (or queen) in a line of bad ones.
Prayer
God, you know my story, my family’s story, my hurts, my brokenness. Help me to choose to follow you and not the ways of this world, or maybe even in the ways of my family. Help me to break any generational cycles of brokenness and follow in your ways.
Questions/Journal Prompts
Feel free to use these questions as a guide as you journal and/or pray.
1. What generational cycles do you have in your family (good or bad)?
2. How would you do things differently in your life from those before you?
3. What would you do the same in your life?
4. Do you feel like you have the choice to do things differently? Why or why not?
Songs to listen to
Spend some time listening to this song, reflecting on the words, and sitting with Jesus.
“I Will Follow You” by Kristene Dimarco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Sx_U0Ztr8
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