"A Little Leaven..."


BIBLE READING:  2 Kings 12-13; 2 Chronicles 24
                In the book of Galatians, Paul is surprised that the Christians in Galatia had already turned aside to a different doctrine.  It seems that part of their problem had been they had allowed some false teacher to creep in and confuse them by saying that they had to adhere to specific aspects of the Mosaic Law; namely circumcision.  As he finishes up his letter, he makes this statement in Galatians 5.9 “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”.  What he meant was, it doesn’t take much of something to corrupt the whole thing.  The same could be said of King Jehoash in 2 Kings 12.  Revival seems to be on the horizon as Jehoash begins to do the kinds of things that will lead God’s people on the straight and narrow.  In fact, 2 Kings 12.2 says that “Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days…”.  However, there was one little thing that Jehoash failed to do “Nevertheless, the high places were not taken down” (2 Kings 12.3).  These high places were places where worship would be offered to idols.  Although Jehoash did very well in striving to do what was right in the eyes of God, the one small thing he forgot is the one thing that came back to haunt him.  In events that are recorded in 2 Chronicles 24.17-19, Jehoiada the High Priest and Head advisor of King Jehoash, dies.  When this happens, some princes from Judah come and pay homage to the King and butter him up to accomplish their own agenda.  In the end, Jehoash listens to them and the people abandon the house of the LORD to serve Asherim.  Consequently, the Asherim were synonymous with (you guessed it), the “high places”.  In this respect, it only took a small thing to corrupt the whole group.  Today, we cannot afford to allow the world to even have a little of our heart.  Even if we allow the world to have a little, we risk that little ruining our hearts; turning us away from God.
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