Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3063
“So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” 2 Chronicles 27:6.
THIS is a very singular expression which is used here concerning Jotham who is one of the kings of Judah who are commended as having done that which was right in the sight of the Lord. All of them had their faults, yet they were the best monarchs that sat upon the throne of Judah—and concerning Jotham it is mentioned as his peculiar honor that he “became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.”
I want to draw your attention to this ancient king and specially to point out to you, first, the peculiar circumstances of Jotham’s life. Secondly, thepeculiar distinction ofhis character. And then thirdly, thepeculiar honor ofhis career. He “became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.”
I. So let us commence by considering THE PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES OF JOTHAM’S LIFE.
And to begin with, he was the son of a good father and I should suppose, from the mention of his mother here, of a good mother, too. This is a good beginning for a young man and yet, mark you, there are many who have been trained in the ways of godliness who have not continued to walk in them. How often does it seem as if children were dead set against the very things which their parents have loved and although one would almost have expected that they would have gone in the right way, yet since Divine Grace does not run in the blood, we have deplorable proofs of human depravity even in those who can trace a long line of Christian ancestry. However, it was no small advantage to Jotham that he had godly patents. But it would have been no permanent and eternal advantage to him—it would rather have involved him in greater responsibility without corresponding benefits if it could not also have been said of him that “he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.”
And note, next, that he did not commit the great fault ofhis father, Uzziah. Uzziah was a good man, an excellent man in many respects, but in his latter days, he conceived the idea that he would be a priest as well as a king and he therefore thrust himself into the place that was meant for only the priests. The priests, in great alarm, hastened into the Temple of the Lord where Uzziah had gone to burn incense upon the altar of incense and vehemently protested against his intrusion into their holy office. He was very angry with them, but suddenly the deadly leprosy was white upon his brow, for God had smitten him for his daring intrusion—and the priests thrust him out of the Temple that he might no longer pollute the sanctuary of the Lord. “Yes,” we read, “he, himself, hurried also to go out because the Lord had smitten him.” Now, if a father—and especially a professedly godly father—has committed a great fault, it may be a temptation to his son to fall into the same evil. But in the case of Jotham, it was not so. He regarded his father’s sin rather as a beacon to warn him away from that rock on which Uzziah’s life had been wrecked—and so, when he was put upon the throne as regent for his father and Uzziah had to be shut up in a house apart as a leper who could not be allowed to mingle with his family and his subjects, Jotham took that as a daily lesson to himself and he walked the more carefully and humbly before God, preparing his ways as his father Uzziah had not done on that unfortunate, unhappy day when he went into the Temple to offer incense.
It is a great mercy for us when we have seen others sin, if we use their shipwrecks as beacons for ourselves. What fascination should there be in sin? When one bird sees another fall into a snare, we wonder that it should, itself, be so foolish as to fall into the snare that it can see. Yet we have known men who have seen the sins of their parents and the consequent sorrow, thereon, who have fallen into the same sins themselves! Dear Christian young people, if God has
called you, by His Grace, and you have had professing Christian friends whose imperfections you could not help seeing, and seeing with sorrow, also, the evil effects of their wrong-doing—do not run into the same courses yourselves—but let the painful circumstances which have happened in your own family lead you the more carefully, like Jotham, to prepare your ways before the Lord your God!
Jotham also was quite a young man when he came into the position of power For some years he occupied the place of his father, nominally holding the position of regent, yet really acting as the actual monarch. And now, at the age of twenty-five, we find him sitting upon the throne of Judah. How necessary it is, especially in young people, that the heart and the ways should be prepared before the Lord their God! Yet I retract the expression that it is “especially” necessary for young people to do this, for I have lived long enough to observe that the greatest faults that are ever committed by professedly Christians are not committed by young people. Most painful is it to me to remember that the worst cases of backsliding and apostasy that I have ever seen in this Church, have been by old men and middle-aged men—not by young people, for somehow or other, the young people, if they are truly taught of God, know their weakness and so they cry to God for help. But it often happens that more experienced people begin to think that they are not likely to fall into the faults and follies of the young. I care not how old a man may be—even if seven centuries had passed over his head—if he began to trust in himself, he would be a fool and soon he would have a grievous fall! Yes, even if he had lived as long as Methuselah and all that while had been advancing in the Divine Life so that he could even fancy that he had reached perfection—the moment he thought so he would be in imminent danger! And the instant he began to think that he should never fall, he would be the very one, above all other men, who would be likely to fall into sin. They are the strongest who are the weakest in themselves. They are the richest who know how poor they are apart from God. They have the most Grace who know how utterly empty they would be of Grace if the Lord should ever withdraw His hand from giving it to them. Growing Christians think nothing of themselves, but full-grown Christians know themselves to be less than nothing.