God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 27:1-4 towers on the wooded hills
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, May 11, 2025
27:1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king. He reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD just as his father Uzziah had done—but he did not go into the temple of the LORD. But the people still followed corrupt practices. 3 He built the upper gate of the House of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he did a lot of construction. 4 Also, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and forts and towers on the wooded hills.
Jotham son of Uzziah reigned only a few years by himself. After Uzziah’s death, Jotham reigned alone just about five years before his son Azaz was elevated to co-regent. Jotham did construction work on Jerusalem and the area around it. The “wooded hills” is probably a reference to the wilderness of Judea, the mountains north, south and west of Jerusalem. He enlarged villages into cities and built forts and towers.
He also worked on the Ophel. This was the elevated slope between the lower “old” city of David and the upper city where the Temple was. The word is used of a city’s higher area used for defense, and corresponds somewhat to the Greek idea of an acropolis.
Verse 2 tells us that although Jotham avoided his father’s error and that what he did was right in the eyes of the Lord, the people “still followed corrupt practices.” The root word of that phrase means “to spoil, to go to ruin,” and by disregarding the Lord’s commands they were paving the way for additional sins. The problem was that they were worshiping the Lord, but in their own way. Instead of bringing sacrifices to the temple and praying at the temple, they were doing their own thing outside the city walls, out on the hilltops of Judah. Those are the kinds of actions we still hear today. Many people want to do their own thing, stay away from church, “give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25), and remove themselves from the sacrament. By doing that, they remove themselves from the forgiveness of sins. That’s what the Jews out on the hilltops were doing. By staying away from the temple and the altar, they were staying away from the pronouncement of forgiveness. At the same time, while doing what a lot of pagans were doing, they made it seem to their children that it was okay to be like the idol-worshipers over on the next hill. Some of their pagan priests were pretty good preachers. Some of them seemed like they had divine messages. For example, in the final lines of the Moabite Stone, a monument found east of the Jordan River dating from the time of kings Omri and Ahab of Israel (880-870 BC), and mentioning Omri by name, King Mesha of Moab claims that “Chemosh [god of Moab] said to me, ‘Go down, make war against Horonaim, and take it.’ So I attacked it and took it, because Chemosh restored it in my time….” But just because a pagan god tells you to do a thing does not mean that you should, whatever your apparent success, because as Jesus says, “False Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible” (Matthew 24:24). And Paul warns: “The work of Satan will be displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
When people we love wander away from the Lord, we might be tempted to throw up our hands and say, “That’s their problem.” King Jotham could not go around to every citizen and reason with them from the Scriptures like Paul in Thessalonica (Acts 17:2). But he could be like a grandfather, an uncle, or a big brother, and set a good example for his people, using the temple properly, the way God intended, and not avoiding it, which God had also warned about (Deuteronomy 12:4-6). The tent, the tabernacle, the temple, its altar, and the ark of the covenant, were all symbols foreshadowing the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. We are to worship him and no other as our Savior. We worship, and we set the example of going to worship, first of all to lead ourselves to God’s forgiveness and promises, and also to show the people we love that this is the way of the means of God’s grace, the gospel in word and in sacrament, that God extends, offers, and gives his forgiveness to us. Bring yourself. And bring the people you love.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.