27:1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.
Most of Jotham’s sixteen years of reign were spent as a co-regent with his leper father.
27:2 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done. (He did not, however, have the audacity to enter the temple.) Yet the people were still sinning.
Jotham’s father entered the temple and was inflicted with leprosy. Therefore, Jotahm refused to enter the temple. As king, he should have led the people back to worshiping at the temple.
Often, immature believers will get mad at some incident and refuse to enter the doors of the church. This is a violation of Hebrews 2. Believers are to find a strong biblical church that teaches strong bible doctrine and support it. They are to witness to those around them. They must realize that the church is a hospital full of sick men who need Christ. When one takes himself out of ministry, then Satan is the victor. Satan enjoys removing carnal Christians out of strong bible teaching churches.
Even though Jehovah approved of Jotham and considered him as a good king, the people still remained in sin.
27:3 He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple and did a lot of work on the wall in the area known as Ophel.
King Jotham continued to repair the temple.
27:4 He built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.
Jotham built additional cities in the hill country and strengthened military fortresses throughout the land. People in all nations are not basically good. They are totally depraved and evil. The best defense against these evil nations is a strong military. It is unblblical for a nation to destroy their weapons. Satan wants Christian nations to destroy their weapons so that he can send in a communist nation to defeat them and outlaw the Word of God.
27:5 He launched a military campaign against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites paid him 100 talents of silver, 10,000 kors of wheat, and 10,000 kors of barley. The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years.
The Lord did exactly what He promised he would do in 1 Chronicles 25:9.
27:6 Jotham grew powerful because he was determined to please the Lord his God.
Military power in Mosaic Israel came from obedience to the Law, not on the number of soldiers, wives, and horses.
27:7 The rest of the events of Jotham’s reign, including all his military campaigns and his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.
Jotham was greatly influenced by the prophecies of Isaiah, Hosea and Micah. They were all prophets during Jotham’s reign, so their tenure kept Jotham out of trouble.
27:8 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem.
Jotham reigned for 26 years without any negative instances recorded against him. He was the third good king of Judah in succession. This was very rare, since Israel had 19 bad kings and no good kings. Israel had 8 good kings and 12 bad kings. Of the 8 good kings, only 5 of them led revivals.
27:9 Jotham passed away and was buried in the City of David. His son Ahaz replaced him as king.
In Ezion-Geber, archaeologists have excavated a signet ring with Jotham’s seal.