II Kings 15:9 “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fa-thers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”
Active and Passive
It is a sobering thought to realize that God summarizes the lives of the majority of the people you read about in the Bible in one verse. Many times we fly right through the passages without thinking about them at all! The vast majority of people, even kings, only get one verse for their entire life.
II Kings chapter 15 says the same thing about four kings (verses 9, 18, 24, 28): “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD . . . he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. . . .” God’s epitaph for their entire life is exactly the same! They did evil in the sight of the Lord by not departing from the sins of Jeroboam. What Jeroboam did by design, four generations of kings did by default. Jeroboam followed his sin on purpose; those after him followed his sin on precedent.
So many times, we do what we do because of precedent. We take the “script” someone has given us and blindly follow it without taking thought. That’s not half smart! What one man does actively, others will follow passively. Centuries of kings did wrong by simply being passive and doing nothing.
Sometimes to do nothing is to do wrong. In fact, the easiest wrong to do today is to do nothing! Remember that your actions and decisions today will chart the course for people you will never see or meet. Jeroboam never saw King Zachariah, King Menahem, King Pekahiah, or King Pekah, but they surely followed the pattern he had set. Be purposeful in what you do today. What you do actively today will be done passively tomorrow.