We have very limited knowledge about King Jotham, the eleventh king of Judah. His life and reign was recorded in the chapter we read today in 2 Chronicles 27 as well as 2 Kings 15:32-38. From these passages, we know that Jotham was the son of Uzziah. He began reigning as king at the age of 25, and he reign the nation for 16 years.

Like King Uzziah, Jotham did much fortification of the land. He built walls of Ophel. Ophel was a term given to a city that is elevated from its surrounding and in the context, it was probably referring to the walls of Jerusalem. He built cities in the mountains of Judah and castles and towers in the forests area. Like King Uzziah, he also won battles against the surrounding nations, specifically the king of Ammonites and began to collect an annual tribute from them. (2 Chronicles 27:3-5)

The bible tells us that King Jotham was a mighty man because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. The word “ordered” in the original text can mean “to prepare or to make ready of something”. It can also mean to be “determined or to be firmly resolved”. There are two ways we could infer about Jotham’s way before the Lord. The first is that his actions were intentionally planned, and carefully set in order that he can come to the Lord. His attitude was not “come what may”, nor did it happened by chance, he took time to prepare in order to draw close to God. Secondly, he was resolved and convicted to please God as His first priority rather to bend in changing circumstances.

One of the chief ways we know that he order his ways before the Lord was that he built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. The upper gate both separated and connected the temple from the palace and this speaks volume of his desire to be right in the eyes of God. The gate served as a reminder to Jotham that he had limited restriction to the temple (even though he was the king) because he was not the priest. He had learnt from his father’s prideful mistake never to enter the temple thinking that he had priestly authorities. At the same time, King Jotham rebuilt a direct link from where God’s presence was to where he resided because of his desire to access the throne of the Most High God as often as he could. He made adjustments to his environment and thus shaping his habits to draw strength and power from the Great and mighty God, and the Lord blessed him.

Dear brothers and sisters, how do you prepare your ways before the Lord your God in order that you may please Him? I assume it is the hearts of every one of us to draw close to the Lord. It is in many of our prayers that we are able to delight in the Lord and grow in our spiritual maturity. However, we are not intentional in building our environment and habits to devote time to God daily. Someone recently shared with me that in order to devote himself to the Word of God in the morning, he worked on “no bible, no breakfast” policy. It was his resolution to feed his spiritual being before his physical well-being. While it might not be the same for all people, how do you order your ways before the Lord? In my recent reflection, I had realised that my social media intake at night was too high and it had affected my sleep and my morning time with the Lord, so I had to take intentional steps to restrict social media at night before I sleep. What would you do today in your environment and habits intentionally to draw close to the Lord?

Prayer: Dear God, you see my desire to draw close to you. Please search and show me how I can make intentional adjustments to my environment and habits in order that I may draw close and be pleasing to you. Please help me not be half hearted, but keep me accountable to these changes in order to love you more. In Jesus name I pray, amen.