Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Keith Simon.

Sometimes Christians are bothered by the fact that people who don't follow God's ways, who don't follow God's instructions, who maybe don't even believe in God,

seem to live a better life than Christians who are doing their best to serve God as faithfully as they can.

Have you ever looked around and thought, why do people who don't follow God seem to have better lives than people who do?

Well, today's passage in Second Kings takes us into that

tension that we've all experienced one time or another. The chapter tells the story of a man named

Jeroboam II. He was king in Israel during a time of deep spiritual darkness. And at first reading,

the summary of his reigns reads like a success story.

I mean, he lived a long life. He spent a long time sitting on the throne. He expanded Israel's

border. They had strong military. He had political stability. But underneath the surface,

it's not a story of great leadership. It's a story about how God's mercy can show up in the most undeserving places and be extended to undeserving people.

Before we read the passage, let's pray.

Lord, I pray that you would open our ears so that we would hear your word and open our hearts that we might learn to love you.

Amen. Well, 2nd Kings 1423 introduces Jesus. your word and open our hearts that we might learn to love you amen well second kings fourteen

twenty three introduces jeroboam the second he ruled israel for 41 years in a city called samaria

now that's a long time for any king to rule over a nation think about it an entire generation of

israelites grew up under jeroboam the second's reign but verse 24 tells us

everything we need to know about the kind of king he was it says he did what was evil in the side of the

lord he did not depart from the sins of jeroboam son of nebat which he made israel to sin now that name jeroboam son of Nebat, it's a red flag in the biblical

story. Jeroboam is the one who led the northern kingdom of Israel into idolatry after they split

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