Surrounded: Pegs Will Fall

One Year Bible (July 28)

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21

Surrounded: “Pegs Will Fall”

The Cracker Barrel is one of my all-time favorite places to eat. To me it is more than just an eating place; it is a destination back in time…I love the little gift shop, the rocking chairs, and the little wooden game on each table. Perhaps, you too have played it. This little triangular-shaped game with 15 pegs and one blank hole is called “The Peg Game” or “Peg Solitaire”. It was first invented in 1969 when the store/restaurant opened to draw families together in conversation. It definitely requires patience, skill, and strategy! Some people call it the “Tricky Triangle”.

Our son has been a master of this little game and can complete the entire thing in just seconds. He sees the game as a baseball triangle and can tell you the saying with each master-planned move. It goes something like this, “Build your baseball diamond. Outfielders come in. The batter hits a triple and rounds first, second, and third base. The crowd is cheering now! During the commotion, the batter steals the base and runs for home. The crowd goes wild, and you just won the game!

Today’s lesson is about a “Tricky Triangle”, and much like the game, P.E.G.S. will fall and the crowd will GO WILD!

Now, when I say, “P.E.G.S.” I mean People Engaged in Grievous Sin.

As you remember, FAT FAT JEHOSHAPHAT was FAT and OVERFLOWING in FAITH and FASTING.

His son, King Jehoram, and grandson, King Ahaziah were “LEAN & MEAN”, however!

They were LEAN on knowing about God’s Word, and they were just plain OL’ MEAN!

Jehoram reigned for eight years and when he died these are the words said of him, “No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the city of David, but NOT in the royal cemetery.” (21:21)

Yikes! That is a very sad commentary about this guy! Evidently, he was LEAN on friends and a fan club as well!

Then there was his son, Ahaziah. He reined for a grand total of ONE VERY LONG year before God had him taken out! He had no fan club just like his father.

Let the P.E.G.S. fall where they may!

Let’s look at how King Jehoram operated…

He operated “undercover in darkness”. (21:9)

"Jehoram had abandoned the Lord of his ancestors. He had built pagan shrines in the hill country of Judah and had led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to give themselves to pagan gods and to go astray." (21:10-11)

God brought out “the big gun prophet”, Elijah, to deal with this king, He wrote him a little letter.

Here are the highlights of that “Telegram”', “You have not been a good example like your father, Fat Fat Jehoshaphat, or your grandfather, Avenger Asa”. Oh, and by the way, it has not gone unnoticed that you actually killed all of your siblings in your struggle for greatness. You struck them down with a heavy blow and now, ‘You’ve got to GO’!” (My paraphrase)

Speaking of “You’ve got to GOOOO”. The real version of the Bible is actually MORE graphic than mine, “You yourself will suffer with a SEVERE INTESTINAL DISEASE that will get worse each day until ‘YOUR BOWELS COME OUT’.”

I am speechless, clueless, and a bit faint at the description of this disease!

So, against my better judgment, I looked up the information. What could this possibly be and do I even want to know?

A modern physician looked at the story of Jehoram and says that possibly he suffered from “colorectal carcinoma”. This dude was literally the original “Slip & Slide”.

He “slipped into grievous sin” and “Slid right into destruction”. His bowels followed his life!

Have you noticed all of the violent deaths of those that “lived by the sword and died by the sword”? Those that abandoned God and chose idols were given over to the protection that idols provided. That should tell us all we need to know about making an idol the IDOL of your life!

We might call it the “Tricky Triangle” like the P.E.G.S. game that I mentioned earlier.

There is no room for a triangle in our lives. That is way too crowded! There was the evil King in the middle surrounded on one side by his idol and on the other side by God. There is no question how this game is going to turn out as it isn’t called “PEG Solitaire” for no good reason!

The little triangle may look like random moves to us, but with God, in charge, there is a master plan.

GOD AlONE WILL PREVAIL…So, let the P.E.G.S. fall where they may!