2 Chronicles 27King James Version
Jotham reigns briefly and well. He builds the upper gate of the house of the Lord. He becomes mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord. A quiet bright spot between two worse reigns.
Jotham becomes king at twenty-five and reigns sixteen years, doing right. Unlike Uzziah, he does not enter the temple. He builds the upper gate of the temple, fortifies cities, and defeats the Ammonites who pay tribute for three years. He grows mighty because he orders his ways before the Lord. The chapter is brief, the evaluation positive, the reign stable.
A king who learns from his father's mistake, stays within his proper role, and orders his life consistently before God receives stability as the result.
6: "So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God." The most concise success formula in Chronicles: ordered life before God, and the strength follows.
Jotham reigns alongside his leprous father for years and then in his own right. His is a transitional reign between two of the most famous kings in Judah's story, Uzziah and Ahaz. The Chronicler gives him dignity by recording his building projects and his victory, small landmarks of faithfulness during a period when the larger story is preparing for catastrophe.
Jotham, who inherits his father's capacity without his father's pride; the Ammonites, who pay tribute when Jotham defeats them.
Jotham's brevity in Chronicles is itself significant. The Chronicler does not need much space for a king who does right consistently. The drama belongs to the failures. Jotham is the control case: a good king during the prophet Isaiah's ministry, during a time when the northern kingdom is beginning to collapse. His stability is a gift to his people during an unstable period.
For when you are doing the right things quietly and without recognition and wonder if it adds up to anything. Jotham's chapter does not have a dramatic moment. It has a summary: he prepared his ways, and he became mighty. The preparation came first.
1Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
2And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly.
3He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.
4Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
5He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.
6So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.
7Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
8He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
9And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.