“8 Elah son of Baasha began to rule over Israel in the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. He reigned in the city of Tirzah for two years.

  9 Then Zimri, who commanded half of the royal chariots, made plans to kill him. One day in Tirzah, Elah was getting drunk at the home of Arza, the supervisor of the palace.

  10 Zimri walked in and struck him down and killed him. This happened in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. Then Zimri became the next king.

  11 Zimri immediately killed the entire royal family of Baasha, leaving him not even a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends.

  12 So Zimri destroyed the dynasty of Baasha as the LORD had promised through the prophet Jehu.

  13 This happened because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed, and because of the sins they led Israel to commit. They provoked the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, with their worthless idols.

  14 The rest of the events in Elah’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.

  15 Zimri began to rule over Israel in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah, but his reign in Tirzah lasted only seven days. The army of Israel was then attacking the Philistine town of Gibbethon.

  16 When they heard that Zimri had committed treason and had assassinated the king, that very day they chose Omri, commander of the army, as the new king of Israel.

  17 So Omri led the entire army of Israel up from Gibbethon to attack Tirzah, Israel’s capital.

  18 When Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went into the citadel of the palace and burned it down over himself and died in the flames.

  19 For he, too, had done what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam in all the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.

  20 The rest of the events in Zimri’s reign and his conspiracy are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.”

In my daily Bible reading, I am slogging through a dismal section of 1 Kings, in which there is more sin and palace intrigue than you can encounter in an afternoon soap opera.  It is not an encouraging section of the Bible.  It is too realistic to be encouraging.

Evaluations are given to each of the kings, but these evaluations are rarely positive.  A corrupt king follows a corrupt king, who follows a corrupt king, who . . .  Well, you get the picture.

Zimri had assassinated Elah, who had reigned only two years.  However, Zimri’s reign was somewhat shorter.  He reigned for seven days.

Seven days isn’t a lot of time.  Yet the narrator of 1 Kings sums up Zimri’s reign in verses 18 and 19 as follows: “. . . [He] died in the flames.  For he, too, had done what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam in all the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.”

It would appear that “God’s summarizer” (the narrator) can pronounce God’s judgment on even a seven-day reign.

I decided to pause and think about this a moment.  I’m glad that I did pause.  It is early Monday morning, the beginning of my work week.

I asked myself an uncomfortable question: What would be God’s evaluation of me, based on my upcoming week?

And then, I asked myself an even more uncomfortable question: How should I live this week, this day, this hour, so that I will have a shot at a good evaluation?

Ouch!

So, what are my basic goals for the week, in light of the fact that I believe in an Evaluator with a capital “E”?  How will I live, so that, if God had only this week to go on, God could give me a good evaluation?

I suppose that I ought to put God first.  If there is such a being in and beyond the universe, that might be rather important.

Then too, there is loving other people—even (especially?) those who are difficult to love.  After all, they probably need more love than other people.

There is also the matter of denying my worse self and cultivating my better self.

In many ways, my seven-day evaluation would boil down to this: Am I making good decisions moment by moment.

I am not the king of Israel, but I am the ruler of my moments.  By God’s grace, perhaps I can rule them well.