READING FOR JANUARY 20, 2026: 2 CHRONICLES 28, JOHN 13, PSALM 145:1-9 2 CHRONICLES 28 Once again we jump to another book that deals with the same period of time we have just been studying about in the book of Micah. King Ahaz had a miserable 16-year rule in Judah, as we read about here and in Micah. Despite being the son of the great king Jotham, Ahaz may have been the worst king in Judah’s history. Here is what not to do as king:
- Don’t learn from history and follow in the ways of King David (vs. 1).
- Take Israel’s wicked kings as examples to follow (vs. 2).
- Make images of the totally discredited so-called god named Baal (vs 2).
- Offer your sons as burnt sacrifices in the manner of the countries driven out of Canaan (vs. 3-4).
God eventually stopped Ahaz by handing Judah over to Aram and Israel, no boy scouts them- selves. In addition, 120,000 warriors from Judah were killed in one day, along with some key leaders. Israel also took 200,000 captives from Judah as well as significant plunder. According to the prophet Oded, God was angry with Israel this action (vs. 9). Those who haven’t read the Old Testament may not believe God gets angry at people. In fact, there was an early influen- tial theologian who rejected the Old Testament altogether, Marcion (85-160 A.D). He was ex- communicated in 144. Those of us who don’t take the Old Testament seriously are in effect following in his footsteps, not those of Jesus or Paul. Thanks for hanging in there with us!
Interestingly, Obed the prophet met the troops from Israel as they returned home. He told them they went too far by taking captives and plunder; they were now subject to God’s anger themselves. Amazingly, Israel left all the captives and plunder at Jericho. An effective prophet! This is instructive because it shows God calibrates His discipline. Not too much nor too little. The entirely clueless King Ahaz sought a partnership with Assyria to fend off Edom and the Philistines instead of looking to God. He also tried to buy Assyria’s support with items from the Temple. It got worse. King Ahaz “reasoned?” because Aram defeated Judah, Aram’s gods must be stronger than the Lord. So, he sacrificed to them. Mercifully Ahaz finally died.
One curiosity is a sentence in verse 19: “The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel.” Many times, the text states Ahaz was king of Judah, not Israel. Even the context of this sen tence suggests this. Listing Israel could possibly be a copyist error, a reference to His walking in the ways of the kings of Israel, referring to Israel generically as God’s people, or another reason. Ahaz was clearly the king of Judah, although it would have been better had he not been.
JOHN 13 We have moved now into the second half of John’s gospel account and are heading toward the crescendo, the fulfillment of Jesus’ ministry. The first three verses of this chapter give us a detailed introduct- ion to the story of foot-washing that follows, but also to the whole rest of the book: “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” The time had come for Jesus to complete the FOR JANUARY 20, 2026 CONTINUED: JOHN 13, PSALM 145:1-9 work he had come to earth for and to return to the Father. The hour had come that would lead to his final tender, pastoral teaching with the disciples, to the cross and his death on behalf of the world, to the resur-rection into new life, to his encounters with the disciples after the resurrection, and finally to his ascension to the Father from which he had come. The time had come, and he understood the path before him.
This final night with his disciples began with an incarnation of love itself. It was a small act of humble love (washing the feet of his followers) that led to the supreme act of humble, sacrificial love (laying down his life for the salvation of the world). This act of humility came because of who Jesus was. We might be tempted to say, “Even though Jesus had come from God, he washed their feet anyway.” But the truth is that because he had come from God, Jesus washed their feet. The foot-washing, just like the crucifixion itself, was incarnation- al; it was Jesus’ way of showing the world who God really is. This other-serving life was a demonstration to the disciple of God’s love and a model for them to follow. How do we bear God’s image into the world? We serve, we love, we lay down our lives for one another. How do we love even our enemies? We serve them as Jesus did in washing Judas’ feet and sharing bread with him.
When Judas took the bread and went out into the night (notice John’s use of imagery, as we can imagine Judas stepping from the room lighted with candles and the warmth of love into the darkness of night, the darkness of betrayal), we feel the mood shift. It is as if Jesus draws the remaining eleven closer, telling them the most important things, things he couldn’t say when the betrayer was present. The plan of betrayal had been set into motion and the time was short, and Jesus used the next hours – and the next three chapters – to care for and pour into the eleven. Jesus is being so pastoral here – he is calmly and tenderly shepherding the disciples in these last hours before going to the Father. We can hear his love for them come through in every passage as he attempts to convey with his every word, who the true God is and what he is doing in the world.
But before anything else, he gives his new commandment to love. This, of course, was not really new. It was as old as the book of Leviticus (19:18) where the Israelites were commanded to love their neighbors as themselves. What is new about this commandment was that they were to love one another as I have loved you. He was telling them to look back at him washing their feet, to look back even farther to the way he lived his whole life, and to keep watching as he approached and endured the cross – and to find in him a pattern, and example, and a power to love just like he did. This sacrificial kind of love was to become the trademark of those who followed Jesus. Is this kind of love the trademark of Yorktown Methodist Church? Is it the trademark of your life? Let’s ask Jesus through the Spirit to make it more and more so. PSALM 145:1-9 David commits to praising God everyday forever. Why should we do this? We should and can because His greatness is unsearchable (vs. 3); we can never get to the end of it. We can because we will have forever available to us; “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). David sees this praise as transgenerational (vs 4). Consider if Yorktown Methodist Church has told of God’s greatness to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that they will pass along an unbroken chain of praise. Do we take time to meditate on His greatness so that our conversations naturally erupt in extolling God’s greatness? David states, “The Lord is good to all” (vs.9). Is that true? “He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). All people have experienced God’s goodness. Yet many still reject Him. Thus, their refusing God’s grace of salvation will then leave them in a condemned state.
