The Final Verdict

A lot of my reading recently has been in 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. The other day I was reading in 2 Chronicles 12:12-14 in The Message about Solomon's son Rehoboam. It says, "Because Rehoboam was repentant, GOD’s anger was blunted, so he wasn’t totally destroyed. The picture wasn’t entirely bleak—there were some good things going on in Judah... But the final verdict on Rehoboam was that he was a bad king—GOD was not important to him; his heart neither cared for nor sought after GOD."

I couldn't help but think back to Rehoboam's Grandpa, King David. David's deal with Bathsheba is well-known. He also had moments of terribly weak faith where he trusted in the scope of his own human power over the power of the God who had given him everything he had (1 Chronicles 21:1-3). But, the final verdict on David is that He was a "man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 16:22).

For the leader with a pristine record of faithfulness to God, the temptation is to rest on our laurels and relax, failing to finish well. For the leader with failures in the past, the temptation is to believe that God cannot or will not use us in the future. 

What an encouragement for every leader to remember that the final verdict is not out on the legacy we will leave.