Year 3, Day 334: 2 Chronicles 36

Circling the Drain

After Josiah, things go downhill very quickly for Judah.  Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, is made king.  However, he only reigns three months before Pharaoh Neco comes back to Jerusalem and takes him captive back to Egypt.  We don’t have an epitaph for Jehoahaz left to us by the chronicler, but if we look into the record of the Kings we can see that he did evil in the sight of the Lord.  Of course, he didn’t have much time to do evil.  He only ruled for three months before Pharaoh Neco came and asserted his will over the nation.

When Pharaoh Neco came, he appointed Eliakim to rule.  Eliakim was another of Josiah’s sons.  Pharaoh Neco changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim.  The chronicler does tell us that Jehoiakim did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.  It is likely that a portion of this epitaph is left because Judah had become a vassal state under Egypt due to Pharaoh Neco’s involvement.  As Egypt comes into play, things usually go worse for the Hebrew people.

Unfortunately, we begin to see the land of Judah caught in between the two superpowers of the day.  Babylon and Egypt begin to fight over Judah.  Nebuchadnezzar brings his armies to Judah and takes Jehoiakim captive.  Babylon makes Judah a vassal state and Nebuchadnezzar appoints Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim’s son, in his place.

This reign doesn’t last very long at all, either.  Nebuchadnezzar comes back when Jehoiachin rebels.  Nebuchadnezzar puts him in chains and drags him back to Babylon.  We know that Jehoiachin did evil in the sight of the Lord, although it was only three months worth of evil.

Nebuchadnezzar appoints Zedekiah, Jehoiakim’s brother and Josiah’s third son, as a new vassal king.  Zedekiah also does what is evil.  He refuses to listen to Jeremiah the prophet.  Instead, we know that he listens to the prophets who tell him what he wants to hear.  After eleven years, Nebuchadnezzar returns to Judah and finishes the task.  He drags Judah into captivity, leaving the poorest of the poor in an empty land waiting to be repopulated by people from other places in Babylon.

What a sad state of affairs.  I think what I find the saddest about this story is the pathetic spiritual nature of the sons of Josiah.  We know Josiah was a spiritual man – perhaps the second most spiritual king ever among the Hebrew people.  He had three sons come to power – and one grandson.  None of them had what it took to follow the ways of the Lord.

How significant it is that we see in the final days the truth that we’ve been circling for a while now.  Just because a king is righteous doesn’t mean that his sons will follow God.  Or, for that matter, just because a king is evil doesn’t mean that his son won’t follow God.  Genealogy is no guarantee of faithfulness or unfaithfulness.  It is indeed the parent’s job to bring up their children in the ways of the Lord, but the parent cannot force obedience within the child.  Josiah had three children and all of them were caught up in the ways of the world rather than the ways of the Lord.

What makes matters worse is that as the light is fading on the Hebrew kings we have a note that God had also sent prophets to the kings.  It wasn’t just Josiah and the other righteous kings who were ignored by their sons.  The kings had also ignored the very people that God sent to speak truth into their life.  God sent the prophets because He loved them and wanted to be merciful to them.  But they ignored the prophets.

I always find the downfall of Judah so sad – especially the ending here in the Chronicles.  It always evokes a feeling of helplessness within me.  These kings had it all.  They had one of the most righteous fathers to live.  They had some of the best prophets to guide them.  They still stumbled, refused to be humbled, and struck out on their own self-centered agenda.  What an end to the story.

Moving Forward

Unlike the ending of the book of Kings, which was written well before Cyrus comes on the scene, the chronicler sees fit to add a hopeful addendum to the story.  Rebellion is not the end.  Cyrus, the king of Persia, declares that the Hebrew people can go forth from captivity and go home to rebuild their lands.

The chronicler completes the story.  He desires us to see the pattern.  Faith, unfaith, faith, unfaith.  Gradual slide into decline.  But there is hope at the end.  True repentance leads to genuine hope in the Lord.  With genuine hope in the Lord comes a reason to try again.  We can always learn from the past to restore the present and work towards a better future.  That is the great overarching point of the chronicler’s work.

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Year 3, Day 333: 2 Chronicles 35

Celebration of the Passover

In the same year of his reign as Josiah restored the Passover, Josiah also brought the Passover back into the religious calendar.  Hezekiah had celebrated the Passover in his day, but there is no mention of the Passover in the intervening years.  We can hear from the text at hand that this celebration of the Passover was huge, perhaps three to four times as large as the one celebrated in Hezekiah’s day.

We can also see that Josiah released some of the priests and Levites from their proscribed duties.  Since the Ark wasn’t being carried through the desert anymore, there was no need for some of the priests and Levites to carry the ark on its poles.  The Ark could remain in the temple and the Passover could happen around it.

In all of this text, perhaps the biggest point that I think that is made is how the people worked together.  There were assigned duties and assigned tasks.  Each priest and Levite trusted in the other to do their task.  The musicians were able to focus on the music because the priests were focusing on the sacrifices and the Levites were focusing on the butchering and the gatekeepers were making sure everything was happening orderly.

In ministry, it is usually important to work as a team.  Ministry usually works best when we see ourselves as a part of God’s machine, not a single implement upon which everything rests.  When we see ourselves as a part of God’s overall plan it is easier for us to not only focus on the task God desires for us but to also do it humbly, too.

Josiah’s Blunder

At the end of Josiah’s reign, he made a fatal blunder.  Assyria’s power was waning.  Babylon was growing strong in the region and the Babylonians had thrown off Assyrian rule for the most part.  The Egyptians were concerned that if the Babylonians were victorious against the Assyrians that the Babylonians would grow too strong and become a threat.  Therefore, Pharaoh Neco passed through Judah on his way to help the Assyrians at Carchemesh.

Josiah, however, favored the Babylonians.  Therefore, Josiah went out to meet the Egyptians and hopefully delay the Egyptian military.  He went out on his own desire.  He went out disguised.

Pharaoh Neco was not fooled.  Actually, in this instance, Pharaoh Neco was on a mission from God.  God had brought the Egyptians up out of Egypt to play a role in the power struggles between Babylon and Assyria.  As such, Pharaoh Neco even told Josiah about his summons.  Pharaoh Neco gave Josiah reason to stop and return.

Unfortunately for Josiah, in this one instance he let his pride get ahead of him.  He goes out into battle anyway.  In this brash moment he positions himself in such a place as to be antagonistic towards God.  Unfortunately for Josiah, he pays the price for it.  Josiah is shot by archers on the battlefield.

Josiah does manage to get off of the battlefield and survives long enough to return to Jerusalem.  But he dies once he gets back to his capital city.  So shocked are the people to have lost their godly king that they whole country mourns.  In fact, the laments mentioned here in this passage could very well be the book of Lamentations written by Jeremiah.

Here we can see truth in life.  It is good to be aligned with God.  But we have the free will to align ourselves in another direction.  When we do, there will be consequences.  Sometimes the consequences are manageable.  Sometimes the consequences of our actions take our life.  But there are always consequences to our actions.  It is best to align ourselves with God so that when consequences come we can rely upon God to help us bear the consequences of life.

In the end, though, Josiah was a great king.  His little blunder in the end does not take away from all the faithfulness that he had earlier in life.  He is buried with the righteous fathers who had come before him.

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Year 3, Day 332: 2 Chronicles 34

Josiah as King

Josiah is often considered the second greatest king, second to David.  Some people also put Hezekiah into this mix.  But from a spiritual perspective, David, Hezekiah, and Josiah easily for the top three.  These are the iconic spiritual kings.  If you want to see spiritual leadership at its best in the midst of flawed human nature, these are the three kings that you want to know.

Josiah reigned thirty-one years.  What is interesting is that he began to reign as a boy.  In his eighth year of reign he was still a boy.  It is in this year that he truly begins to seek out the Lord in earnest.  But he doesn’t actually start to go against the wickedness of the people until his twelfth year!

I have two things to say upon this point.  First of all, note the patience of God.  Josiah reigns for twelve years before enacting reforms against the ways of the evil kings and the Canaanite gods.  God takes His time in developing leadership.

Second, how quick are we to not want to take our time?  How quick are we to want things now?  How quick are we to want God to move and shake and create culture now.  But this is not often the case.  God takes His time creating culture.  It is not something that can be rushed.  Lasting culture is molded, shaped, and grown.

However, when Josiah is unleashed upon the earth he is truly unleashed.  Josiah doesn’t just cut down the places of worship.  He made the poles and the idols into dust and spread them over the graves of those who worshipped them.  Of course, this implies that he killed those who worshiped at these places.  We hear that he burns the bones of the false priests upon the altars.  This was a violent purging of the land.

Sometimes we think of reform in idealistic terms.  However, true cultural reform is messy.  It is ugly.  It is involved.  There is battle and conflict.  There are hard decisions and sacrifices to be made.  I do not know of a single reform movement that actually changed culture that was not ugly and messy and filled with blood, sweat, and tears.

Temple

Six years after beginning his campaign of reform across both Judah and what was left of the northern kingdom of Israel – for by this time they had been taken away into captivity – Josiah then commissions repair to the temple.  Note again we have that cycle of restoration, fall into disrepair, and another time of restoration.

As Josiah goes about repairing the temple, his chief religious officials come to him having found an important book.  They have discovered the book of the Law.  This brings up an interesting point.  If the book of the Law hadn’t been found up until now, can there be any wonder that there was so much vacillation among the kings who came before Josiah?  If the book of the Law wasn’t found, how on earth did any of the kings follow in obedience to God?  Granted, we don’t know how long the book had been lost.  But it seems to have been lost long enough that Josiah and his chief religious officials didn’t know to look for it!  They seem to have stumbled upon it unexpectedly!  {However, we can know that Hezekiah is responsible for making copies and copies of the Hebrew Scriptures.  So they cannot have been lost for too long.  But perhaps from the beginning of Manasseh’s reign … which would be the better part of a century from then until this point!}

As Josiah hears the book of the Law read in his midst, he tears his clothes.  He realizes that something has gone terribly wrong in his beloved kingdom.  He fears for the ways held by his father and the people who lived in the time of Manasseh’s rebellion from God.  He knows that if they did not have access to this book because it was forgotten or destroyed that there would be very little reason to think that they could escape God’s anger.  Suddenly the weight of rebellion from God falls upon Josiah’s shoulders.  They had this book at one time and it had been lost, forgotten, or worse – attempted to be destroyed.

Josiah demands that the book be studied.  Josiah demands that the ways of the Lord be discerned.  Josiah does not want to live contrary to God’s ways any longer.  This move initiates a great moment in Josiah reign.

A Prophesy for Josiah

As the book is studied, Josiah receives a message.  The people who have worshipped foreign gods will be destroyed.  There can be no doubt that as Josiah hears this he remembers his history and the Assyrian invasion.  Josiah understands why his people have fallen into judgment against Assyria.  He understands why his grandfather went into bondage under Assyria.  All of these things must have begun to make sense to Josiah as he hears the warnings.  He also must have begun to look forward into his own time of rule as well.

However, the prophetic message coming back to Josiah likewise tells him that God will spare him because his heart was tender.  When God’s word spoke he was moved.  When he heard the words from the book of the Law, Josiah listened.  He humbled himself and listened.  For that, he was to be commended by God.

When Josiah hears this message, he gathers all of the Hebrew people together and reads the covenant to them.  He tells them that they are in a covenant with God and that unless they adhere to the covenant they will be destroyed.  Josiah takes the people through a time of renewing the covenant among them.  In a great act of obedience, Josiah makes sure that any sign of worship to false gods is removed from the land.  Now we begin to see why it is that Josiah is considered a great king.

Huldah

I cannot leave this chapter without at least acknowledging the role of Huldah.  Huldah is the person who comes before Josiah and tells him the bad news of what will happen to the people who worship other gods besides the one true God.  Huldah is the one who enters into Josiah’s presence with the news.  Huldah is brave indeed.

However, note one thing about Huldah.  She is a prophetess.  This great reform movement begins under the political authority of Josiah.  But this great reform movement begins under the spiritual momentum of Huldah.  God uses this woman in an incredible way to bring together the hand of the Lord.  God uses this woman to bring His truth into the mind of Josiah.  God speaks willingly through man and woman as He brings His truth to the people.

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Year 3, Day 331: 2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh as King

Manasseh is a king that does a complete turn-around from all the work that Hezekiah had done.  Yes, we can see that Hezekiah had some issues with pride.  But pride isn’t Manasseh’s downfall.  Manasseh falls into the habit of venerating the gods of the Canaanites and the surrounding countries.  Again we see Manasseh construct the Asherim that Hezekiah and the people tore down a few generations earlier.

I’ve said it before, but this point keeps coming back to me.  Isn’t it amazing how culture vacillates between virtue and vice?  Culture is a pendulum, often with one generation swinging back in an adverse reaction to the direction their parents swung.  Momentum is gained for a time – and then lost as the counter-revolution of the next generation comes into view.

Reading through the book of 2 Chronicles, it almost feels hopeless against it.  Human culture is a constant cycle of reformation and counter-reformation.  Humbleness in one generation leads to a self-centered quest for independence in the next.  It is a back-and-forth, a give and take.  Reading through Chronicles, it seems inevitable.

Of course, reading through Kings forces a person to realize that we should be lucky to have a culture that at least vacillates.  The northern kingdom of Israel started rebellion after Solomon and never looked back.  So I suppose that there are worse options than living in a culture that vacillates.  Living in a culture that vacillates at least has an occasional swing into obedience to God.  There is something to be said for that!

Okay, back to Manasseh.  In addition to worshipping Asherah and the other Canaanite gods, he worshipped the stars above, in violation of Deuteronomy 4:19.  We hear that he gave up his own children in sacrifice; we’ve already spoken about how God feels about that.  He used fortune-tellers and oracles and listened to omens.  He even placed a carved image of an idol in the temple of God!

Manasseh seems like he did it all – and not in a good way.  His rebellion was profound.  There were not many things that were abominable to God that Manasseh does not do.

However, let’s look again back at verse 1.  Manasseh reigned in Judah for fifty-five years.  Here again we see that success and longevity is not a sign of God’s blessing.  Here is a king who most-likely does the most vile and abominable things before God and he prospers in the midst of it.

Manasseh’s Repentance

Here’s the kicker, though.  Manasseh does eventually repent.  Although Manasseh was the most evil and vile king to ever live, he does repent.  Unlike some of the evil {but not-quite-so-evil-as-Manasseh} kings, Manasseh does actually come to a place of repentance in his life!

So let’s look at how that comes about.  The king of Assyria comes to town and defeats Manasseh.  Remember that the king of Assyria came under Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, and Manasseh spared Judah.  But here Manasseh is taken into captivity and humbled.  Everything he has is stripped away.  But it is in this pit of despair that Manasseh finds humble repentance.  It is in this pit of despair that Manasseh submits.  Manasseh has to hit rock bottom before he repents.  But at least he repents.

This is a great story for me to hear.  Manasseh does repent.  The worst of the worst kings of Judah repents.  God forgives Manasseh in spite of all the ways that he has screwed up.  What a great story – even if it had to have been a hard life for Manasseh to live!

Manasseh’s Reform

God sees Manasseh’s repentance and knows that it is genuine.  God allows Manasseh to return home.  Manasseh destroys the carved image that he had put in the temple.  He gets rid of the false worship.  The people still worship at their high places, but at least they worshipped God there instead of the false Canaanite gods.

Manasseh came back to Judah humbled and reformed.  God was great to give him a second chance.  I long to hear Manasseh tell his story in the time in which we will live together with God.  I think that as bad as he was in the beginning that his story of repentance will be quite moving.  It will be impressive to hear how God moved in his life – even as difficult as that movement must have been.

There is something really interesting to note here, however.  Manasseh is buried at his palace, not among the kings.  Although God accepted his repentance and allowed him to come back and try to reform the land, the people apparently did not accept it fully.  Manasseh is not buried with the other righteous kings.  He is buried by himself with some honor.  Isn’t it interesting to note how God can forgive, yet we human beings around the person have a difficult time forgiving genuine repentance?

Amon’s Reign

Manasseh’s son Amon reigns in Manasseh’s place when he dies.  Unfortunately, Amon has learned only the bad ways of Manasseh.  Amon reverts back to the worship of the foreign gods.  He undoes whatever reform Manasseh could have done when God allowed him to return.

In fact, Amon is assassinated before things can get too bad.  But it seems as though things had gotten fairly bad as the people who assassinate Amon are likewise assassinated themselves.  The world reigns in corruption when repentance does not keep it in check.

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Year 3, Day 330: 2 Chronicles 32

Sennacherib Invades

Here we find the danger of works based salvation.  We see in this story the pitfall of believing that “if things go well God must love us.”  Because the flipside of this argument is that if “things go poorly God must be angry with us.”  The reality is that while this is occasionally true, it is not always true.  We cannot look to the people in the world who are incredibly successful and declare that God is with them.  God is with some of them, for sure.  But God is not with every successful person.  For the record, we cannot look at the poor in the world and assume God is angry with them.  Sure, God may be angry with some of them who are not following Him.  But for sure, God is with some of them as well.  Success in this world is not a measure of God’s love.

Let’s bring this concept back to Hezekiah.  Shortly after Hezekiah brings about all of this religious reform, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, comes to Judah’s doorstep and invades.  You see, I highly doubt that God is angry with Hezekiah after he made all of these reforms and brought the people back to a relationship with God!  It would be easy – if Hezekiah had the wrong frame of reference – to think that God was displeased with him because Sennacherib came to invade.  In fact, it would have been easy for Hezekiah to assume that the gods of the Assyrians were stronger than God because Sennacherib comes at what Hezekiah knows is the height of his reform!

But this is not Hezekiah’s reaction at all.  At the moment that Sennacherib’s forces surround Jerusalem, Hezekiah pronounces that God is with them and God will fight by their side.  Hezekiah announces that Sennacherib has a vast army, but the army that fights with Judah eclipses the might of the Assyrians.  Hezekiah could have seen the coming of Sennacherib’s army as an omen of God’s anger; instead, he sees it as an opportunity for God to demonstrate His glory.

Here we have the effect of eliciting a worldview that is not based on prosperity.  When we assume that prosperity equals God’s approval then we are blind to many of the opportunities for God’s glory.  After all, God is not only capable of demonstrating His greatness in the moments of our success.  He is quite capable of demonstrating His greatness in the moments of our weakness.  In fact, Paul Himself says that when he is weak, God is strong.

Therefore, a moment of life where I struggle against the world needs not necessarily be a bad thing.  In fact, a moment of struggle might be God’s opportunity to demonstrate his power in life.  That is how Hezekiah relates to Sennacherib’s approach.  That is what a man of faith looks like.  The people around Hezekiah are strengthened in their own moments of weakness because of Hezekiah’s faithfulness.

Sennacherib’s Folly

Upon seeing the people of Judah shut themselves into Jerusalem and divert the water supply so that it cannot help Sennacherib’s army, Sennacherib becomes arrogant.  Sennacherib tries to threaten the people into believing a false reality.  Sennacherib tries to intimidate the people of Judah.

Notice the logic and the reasoning that Sennacherib uses.  He has a mindset that success equals divine will.  He tells the people of Judah not so much about all of his military victories but rather how none of the other nations’ gods have been able to protect them.  In other words, Sennacherib believes that because he has been able to dominate other nations that his gods are stronger.

This is a very deceptive and unhealthy mindset.  It simply feeds the human ego.  When we believe that success equals God’s approval we set ourselves up for living under the wrong agenda.  Sometimes the reason we aren’t successful is because God works through our weakness, not because God doesn’t love us.

That’s actually the lesson that God has planned for Sennacherib.  Hezekiah prays to the Lord.  The Lord hears him.  The Lord sends out an angel to cut him off from his army.  Sennacherib returns home.  Mind you, this was no small miracle.  The author of 2 Kings informs us that 185,000 soldiers perished in the onslaught of the Lord’s angel.  {See 2 Kings 19:35}  When Sennacherib returns home defeated, his own sons cut him down in the temple to his god.  It would seem that they have an issue with a theology that equates divine favor and success, too.

Hezekiah’s Folly and Recover

As we close the chapter, we have a summary of the remainder of the rest of Hezekiah’s life.  We know from 2 Kings 20 that Hezekiah has a moment of pride.  He falls into illness and is told that he will die.  But he humbles himself and repents to the Lord and the Lord gives him an additional 15 years to live. 

It is during this time that Hezekiah sets about the task of copying and distributing the copies of the Law.  As we hear here in 2 Chronicles that this is the time that Hezekiah places wealth back into the temple and his own palace.  We know that he creates storehouses for the harvest so that the people can live without fear of drought.  We also hear in the account in 2 Kings that at this time the Lord gives Hezekiah an heir so that the lineage of David can continue.

Even the greatest of kings falls into sin.  Especially the greatest of kings would fall to pride.  It is nice to know that we who sin are not alone.  It is also nice to remember that God is a forgiving God.

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Year 3, Day 329: 2 Chronicles 31

Effects of Passover

As the festival of Passover comes to an end, we see a very powerful testimony.  All of the people who are gathered and who experience God in their lives go back out into Judah and remove the poles and altars that have been set up to Asherah and the other false gods.  The people are cut to the heart.  They experience a genuine repentance.

Again, let’s remember what made the experience great.  It wasn’t that Hezekiah was a skilled leader – this was in his first year of being a king!  It wasn’t that the Levites had incredible practice at what they were doing – the Passover had been neglected and not held as often as it should!  It is not the skill and the artistry that make this event great.

What made the Passover great was that the people came before the Lord and laid their sins before Him.  They came to the Lord in honest confession and humbled themselves before Him.  What made this Passover great was the humbleness with which the people came before the Lord.  Because the people came with contrition on their hearts, God moved among them in mighty ways.  It is God moving through their broken hearts that is powerful, not the skill and majesty of the celebration.

Restoration of the Worship

As Hezekiah sees that the people are changed, he reestablishes the worship in the temple.  He appoints the priests and the Levites to do the jobs that they were supposed to do.  He makes sure that the priests and the Levites understand all of the sacrifices that they were supposed to make in obedience to the Lord.

Of course, I can’t help but pause here for a second and ask how they got to this point.  After all, they are God’s people.  They had God’s Word.  They had priests who were supposed to keep them accountable.  They had prophets who were supposed to keep the people accountable.  How is it that the duties of the temple ever stopped in the first place?

The answer, I believe, lies in the human heart.  It is difficult for us to continue to do things and not have them become rote practice.  As human beings we are always looking for the new things.  We are always looking for the excitement.  We are quick to give up on things when they lose meaning and we lose interest.  Human beings are slaves to many things, but most of us are not good slaves to obedience.  We are slaves to our own will.

As the kings fell away from God, the temple leaders fell away, too.  As the people fell away, it made it easy for the kings to stay away.  As the temple leaders fell away, it made it easier for the people to fall away, too.  What we can see is a general failure of leadership and people alike.  It is hard to establish genuine spiritual practice for any great length of time.  As human beings, we truthfully just don’t have what it takes most of the time.  I give credit to those reformers among us like Hezekiah who have what it takes to move the people back into relationship with God.

As we turn back to the chapter at hand, notice that once the temple practices have been reassigned then Hezekiah sends out a decree for sacrifices to be brought to Jerusalem.  Also notice that Hezekiah is one of the chief contributors to the sacrificial system.  It is out of his own herds that Hezekiah brings the burnt offering sacrifices for atonement.  Hezekiah is not just a reformer; he is a part of the movement himself.

God is good as His Spirit continues to move among the people.  The people receive the news of the sacrificial system with joy.  They bring the first fruits of the harvest to Jerusalem.  Soon it becomes clear that there is a surplus among the people.  The temple begins to have more than it needs and piles begin to form.

Let’s step back again for just a second.  Remember what we said yesterday about the reason Hezekiah offered for all Hebrew people to come and celebrate the Passover.  The Assyrians had just come through and plundered the land.  Hezekiah was merely attempting to gather the poor souls who had been left behind after Tiglath-pileser III gathered up everyone he could find and bring them home as slaves.  It was into that mindset that Hezekiah calls for the Passover.  Now – after becoming obedient to God – they find themselves living in abundance!  They should have been living in poverty as their wealth and neighbors were stripped from them.  But they find themselves living in abundance because they turned to the Lord.

Continued Faithfulness

As we close this chapter we see that Hezekiah is inspired by the faithfulness of the people.  He continues to seek the Lord.  He continues to follow in the ways of the Lord.  Yes, he is not perfect and we will see that tomorrow.  But for today it is enough to see how the faithfulness of the people continues to inspire faithfulness in Hezekiah.  As we saw in Hezekiah’s account in Kings, here we do have one of the great reformers.  It is great to see how God is at work within the people simply because they come to Him broken and repentant and ready to start over again.

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Year 3, Day 328: 2 Chronicles 30

Passover Held

As Hezekiah makes reforms, he also makes plans to celebrate the Passover.  As the chronicler explains, the Passover had not been celebrated as often as it should have been.  Given Ahaz’s reign prior to his own, there is little doubt that it hadn’t been celebrated in a long while.

However, notice something in Hezekiah’s invitation to the people.  Hezekiah sends the invitation from Beersheba to Dan.  Beersheba to Dan is a way of referring to the southernmost city in Judah and the northernmost city in Israel.  In other words, Hezekiah invited the whole of the Hebrew people to attend Passover.

Don’t miss the significance of this point.  By this time Israel and Judah had fought often against each other.  They had plundered each other.  But now Hezekiah invites all the Jews – even those in Israel – to come and celebrate the Passover.  Hezekiah is interested more in religious purity of the people than he is interested in political machinations.

I love this image of Hezekiah that we found here in scripture.  Obviously Hezekiah is a king of reform – we spoke about that yesterday.  But in this invitation we can see what Hezekiah is really after.  Yes, Hezekiah desires to impact his own people.  However, Hezekiah is interested in reforming all Hebrew people, not just the people of Judah.  That’s an awesome perspective.

Furthermore, don’t lose sight of the initiating circumstance of this invitation.  Ahaz had drawn the attention of the Assyrians.  Tiglath-pileser III has come into the region and dominated it.  He has plundered the land.  He has taken slaves into captivity.  Both Israel and Judah has been ravaged.  Hezekiah sees this as a time to come back before God and repent and step forward in the right direction.

You see, Hezekiah has a vision.  He knows where stiff-necked people end up.  He knows where rebellious people end up.  He knows that the only real way out is to be humble before God.  Thus he calls the people back to the temple.  His vision is that in their repentance, the Lord will find a way to bring the people back and allow them to rebuild.  Hezekiah’s vision is a country that once more depends upon God.

Unfortunately, most of the people in Israel laughed at Hezekiah’s invitation.  They weren’t interested.  The invitation was genuine, but the reception wasn’t.

The people of Judah, on the other hand, accepted.  They came and did as Hezekiah and his princes desired.  The people of Judah were willing to follow their king.  The hand of God was upon them.

Hezekiah calls the people together and purifies them.  Notice what the Bible tells us on this account.  There were so many people who showed up at this point that there was not an ability to purify them all with sacrifices because the people themselves were ceremonially unclean.  At this point something quite interesting happens.  Hezekiah prays over them. 

You see, it is at this point that Hezekiah demonstrates a simple policy.  God’s grace is greater than His demand for the Law.  God’s ability to forgive is more powerful than His desire to condemn.  Hezekiah prays that God will honor their desire to make their relationship with the Lord right.  Even if they could not do it perfectly, Hezekiah prays that God would see their repentance instead of their imperfection.  The Passover celebration continued uninterrupted as God healed the people.

The Passover celebration is a success.  It is success, though, not because of the skill of the officiants.  Yes, the Levites handle themselves well and they are praised for it.  But what really makes the event a success is the humbleness and the willingness of the people.  The people wanted to come.  They desired to restore their relationship with God.  They were not perfect, but they were willing to ask God to forgive.  They wanted to reform their ways and came to God for help.  That is what makes Hezekiah’s celebration of the Passover a success.

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Year 3, Day 327: 2 Chronicles 29

Hezekiah as King

As we learned when we studied 2 Kings 18, Hezekiah is considered one of the greatest kings of Judah.  Sure, he might not measure up quite as high as David, but he certainly has incredible success in his day.  This is even truer when we consider the rule of Ahaz before him.  Not only did Hezekiah follow God, he had to overturn the momentum of the horrible worship of Canaanite, Ammorite, and Syrian gods that Ahaz had initiated.  What makes it even more difficult is that Ahaz was his father.

I will say that as I have gone through the study of the works of the chronicler that this is one concept that has legitimately impressed me about the good kings of Judah.  The good ones always had bad examples come before them.  But these weren’t just high ranking officials.  The good kings had to actively go against the ways of their fathers.  It wasn’t just “following God” to these good kings.  It was going against the “family way.”  Granted, you can make a strong case for the fact that in being obedient to God they were actually going “with the family” in that David was their ancestor.  But I can only imagine how difficult it would be for a king to actively countermand the practices established by the kings before them – even their father.

Reform

Speaking of reform, in the first year of Hezekiah’s rule he reopens the doors to the temple.  Hezekiah doesn’t waste any time.  He starts reform right away once his father is off the scene and the right to rule is his own.

As Hezekiah begins his reform, he begins with the Levites and the priests.  He tells them in no uncertain terms that their fathers have neglected the worship of God.  They have not burned sacrifices.  They have shut the doors.  They have turned away from the God.  In reforming the practice of the land, Hezekiah begins with those who are guilty and calls them to task.  He holds the priests accountable and expects change.

What a profound witness, isn’t it?  Here is a brave leader.  I can only imagine the courage that it took to stand before the leaders of the temple and call them to task.  Yet, it is an effective ministry practice. 

The Levites and the priests respond.  Hezekiah’s challenge is met.  They cleanse the temple.  They bring out all of the filth from the practice of the worship of foreign gods.  They consecrate the space.  They report back to Hezekiah and inform him that the worship of God in the temple is ready to resume.

Hezekiah Restores Worship

At this point, Hezekiah takes a serious turn.  He now has a course of action.  The first thing that Hezekiah does is to gather a sacrifice before the Lord.  He gathers the animals.  He gathers the leaders.  He makes the sacrifice happen as it should have been happening all along.

But, notice where Hezekiah starts.  The first sacrifice that is offered up in the restored temple is a sin offering.  The people are guilty of offending God through their ways.  Hezekiah knows it.  He knows that their relationship with God cannot go forward unless the sinfulness of the people is atoned.  The relationship cannot go forward unless the people acknowledge their guilt before the presence of the Lord.

What an incredible testimony of how to do things the right way.  They recognize their sin before the Lord as a foundation.  What a humble place to begin!  As we see in all of the godly kings, humbleness before the Lord is a trait that is common.  That doesn’t mean they are perfectly humble; but they are humble before the Lord.

After the burnt offerings for the sin offering were made, Hezekiah brings forth the thank offerings.  With their sin atoned, thankfulness is a great place to turn.  The people no doubt realize that they have done enough to cause God to forsake them and to be just in doing so should He have desired to forsake them.  Rather than forsake the people, God receives their sacrifice and forgives them.  They have much for which they can be thankful.  Don’t we all!

As a final note with respect to this chapter, notice that the people recognize God’s provision for them.  They recognize that God had even provided for the sacrifices.  The reopening of the temple had come together quite quickly, and the people were grateful that God had provided for it to come together quickly.  The people are thankful indeed at their restored relationship with the Lord.

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Year 3, Day 326: 2 Chronicles 27-28

Jotham as King

When Uzziah dies, Jotham takes over.  Jotham reigns for sixteen years, but we really don’t have all that much information recorded about him by the chronicler.  We do know that for the most part he was obedient to the ways of the Lord.  The only mark against him is that the people did not follow in his obedience.  He may have led the people, but he was not a leader.  The people did not follow.

I don’t believe that we can necessarily lay this issue at the feet of Jotham.  After all, he cannot force the people to comply.  Sure, he might not have been very charismatic or have strong leadership traits.  However, that still is no excuse for people to not follow godly leadership.  The people bear their own responsibility for not following the godly leaders that God places in their midst.

We know that in the end, God is pleased with Jotham as king, which helps us determine that it may not be Jotham’s fault that the people aren’t following him.  We can see this because God causes Jotham to prosper.  God goes before Jotham and makes his battles end in victory.  We shouldn’t equate success with God’s favor, but in this case we can.  Verse 6 tells us that because Jotham ordered his ways before God that God caused Jotham to prosper. 

It isn’t Jotham’s skill that is of use to God.  It is Jotham’s humbleness.  Jotham humbles himself before God and organizes his life around God’s ways.  God causes those ways to prosper.

Ahaz as King

Ahaz becomes king after Jotham.  It is quite clear that Ahaz’s rule is not pleasing to God.  However, Ahaz goes further in his evil than most.  Ahaz not only allows the worship of Asherah to grow but he takes part in one of the most despicable parts of the native religion of the Canaanite people.  Ahaz begins to offer up his children in sacrifices to the gods.  This practice was often a part of the worship of Molech, the god of the Ammonites.

Ancient cultures believed that the gods controlled every aspect of life.  The more the gods were appeased, the better life would be.  As an aside, don’t we live the same way in spirit?  Don’t we assume that when life goes well that God must love us and when things go poorly God must be angry with us?  We’re not really that far from superstition than ancient religions.

Back on topic, the ancient people believed that the gods could be appeased by sacrifices.  The ancient people also believed that the greater the sacrifice, the more the gods would appreciate the sacrifice.  To be fair, there isn’t much difference in that belief than our typical modern relationship with God, is it?  Don’t we believe that great sacrifices on our behalf appease God more and will bring more of His love?  As if we could honestly have more of His love than was bought by His Son…

Okay, back on topic again.  Here we have the underlying premise behind human sacrifices.  Ancient people believed that if they gave a great sacrifice to the gods that they would appease them more.  What sacrifice could be greater than giving some of the things closest to you to the gods?  If that thing is alive, the sacrifice is believed to be even bigger.

I admit it is a rather sick mindset.  I also acknowledge that it is completely against the Lord’s ways.  In fact, God finds this practice abominable.  But there is a disconcerting logic behind it.  That is the logic behind it.  Ahaz begins to live by that mindset.  God loathes the practice.

God loathes the practice so much that the he allows the Syrians to have military success over the people of Judah.  When that doesn’t get their attention, God allows the people of Israel to have military success over the people of Judah.  As the people of Israel begin to win the military victories, they take prisoners.

Of course, God does not approve of the Israelite people taking the people of Judah captive.  It is one thing for God to use the people of Israel as slaves.  It is another thing entirely to take advantage of God’s plan and do what He does not intend.  Fortunately, there are prophets among the people who convince the military leaders to return the captives and send them back to Judah.

However, the misfortune does not end here.  Instead of repenting of his failings and turning to God, Ahaz turns instead to the king of Assyria, Tiglath-pileasar III.  Ahaz believes that he can find salvation in human terms.  Rather than trust in a god – or better yet, The God – Ahaz turns to human agents of power.  Ahaz gives the king of Assyria some money so that he would send aid to him while being afflicted by the military advances of Syria and Israel.

Unfortunately, it backfires on him.  Instead of sending him aid, Assyria decides to come and plunder them himself.  There go the best laid plans of men.  We think so often that we can find our own way out.  Sometimes – in fact, I daresay usually – the best answer is found in turning to God and relying upon His strength and wisdom rather than our own.

Ahaz’s Complete Undoing

When Ahaz sees that he isn’t in any better place for having reached out to Assyria, Ahaz cracks under the pressure.  Again, rather than repenting Ahaz reaches out and grasps at straws.  Ahaz begins to set up even more places for worship of foreign gods.  He branches out in order to include even more foreign gods, thinking that one of them might come to his rescue.  It only leads to his downfall.  He falls hard.  He dies and is buried, but not with the righteous kings of Judah.

It’s easy to condemn Ahaz, isn’t it?  But in many respects, Ahaz does exactly what most of us as human beings are guilty of doing from time to time.  As our life spirals out of control, don’t we tend to reach out and grasp for straws?  As things that once thrilled us suddenly begin to bore us, don’t we reach out and grasp for new things?  We do what Ahaz does, but perhaps not quite on as grand of a scale.  The next time our life seems to spin out of control, rather than grasping at straws it would seem that we would be better served to remember to repent and humble ourselves before God.  If we turn back to Him, He can bring order to our life regardless of how far we have fallen.

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Year 3, Day 325: 2 Chronicles 26

Uzziah as King

Uzziah is also known as Azariah in the account found in 2 Kings.  Azariah is an alternate spelling for the name, so there is no need for concern between the different accounts.  Furthermore, the chronicler is writing a few hundred years after Uzziah lived, meaning that linguistic differences are also sure to occur.

Uzziah is said to have sought the Lord, at least in his youth.  In fact, he is said to have followed the Lord as Amaziah had done.  However, it would seem that Uzziah actually had more in common with his grandfather, Joash.

Remember Joash?  He was the boy king who was faithful to God under Jehoida.  But when Jehoida died, Joash was swayed away from the Lord into the worship of Asherah.  We have the same situation going on here with Uzziah.  So long as Zechariah was guiding him and directing him to seek the Lord, Uzziah did right.  But the day comes when he no longer seeks the Lord.

I think this story speaks into the heart of why spiritual mentoring and spiritual relationships are important.  There is an old cliché.  Two heads are better than one.  Having people to help you think through important decisions can be important in life.  Having people who can walk beside you through joys and troubles can be beneficial.  When left to our own thinking, we end up succumbing to our own logic.  In this issue we can see the logic of Ephesians 4:10.  If two people walk together, they can help each other when they fall.  But if a person walks alone, who will help him when he falls down?

We can see this in evidence here in this story.  When Uzziahs listen to Zechariah, he seeks the Lord and his ways are true.  But when his heart goes elsewhere, he forgets to seek the Lord and he falls from grace.

Uzziah’s Success

When Uzziah looks to the Lord, things do go well indeed.  Uzziah is aided by the Lord to extend his territory into the land of the Philistines.  Uzziah is aided by the Lord to extend his territory towards the border of Egypt.  Uzziah is aided by the Lord against the people of the Arabian Peninsula.  Uzziah’s flocks grow, his wealth increases, his ability to provide for his people grows.  With the guidance of the Lord, Uzziah’s army grows, his fame grows, and his power is strong.

When we listen to the Lord, He can prosper us.  When we turn to God, humble ourselves before Him, and follow His ways for life He can do His will through us.  The key isn’t working out of my strength.  The key is working out of my humbleness and availing God to me in the way that He empowers me.  God desires us to lead out of our humbleness, not out of our strengths.  This is what we see here in Uzziah.

Uzziah’s Stumble

Unfortunately for Uzziah, he doesn’t stay this way.  He doesn’t remain focused upon the Lord.  He allows other things to creep into his vision and take his attention away from God.

Uzziah’s success is actually his downfall.  Verse 16 is clear on this point.  Uzziah grows proud, and this pride leads to his downfall.  Uzziah considers himself bigger than he truly is and he takes too much personal credit.

Uzziah goes into the temple of the Lord and intends to burn incense.  The only problem with this is that burning incense in the temple was a duty specifically reserved for a priest, not a king.  This move is so offensive that the high priest Azariah and 80 other priests stand up to oppose him.  They tell Uzziah to leave and to not do what is not for him to do.

Uzziah becomes angry.  As he becomes angry, God strikes out against Uzziah.  His forehead breaks out in leprosy.  All of the priests can see the leprosy.  In a single act of anger, Uzziah becomes unclean in the temple of the Lord!  Imagine the priests’ reaction when the iconic symbol of uncleanliness occurs in the most sacred space known to mankind!  No wonder they usher him out of the temple immediately.  To his credit, Uzziah hurries himself out of the temple, too!

Unfortunately for Uzziah, he remains leprous for the rest of his life.  He cannot live in his palace anymore.  He is forced to live in a separate dwelling so that his leprosy doesn’t affect others around him.  In a single moment of pride before the Lord, Uzziah’s life changes.  Yes, we can indeed go and be angry before the Lord.  But when we opt to be angry before the Lord we must accept the consequences, too.  Uzziah learned that lesson the hard way.

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Year 3, Day 324: 2 Chronicles 25

Amaziah as King

After Joash’s assassination, we have an opportunity to see Amaziah.  Amaziah walked in the ways of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.  I wonder: can this epitaph not be used for any follower of God when we get down to brass tacks?  Do any of us follow the ways of the Lord with our whole heart?  Do we not all stray?  Do not each of us have our own idols and sacred cows that we do not let God touch?  Oh, how I long for the day when the Lord remakes us and we no longer have the sinful nature at war within us.

The chronicler uses the killing of his father’s assassins as a case for why Amaziah walked in the ways of the Lord.  We see Amaziah kill those who killed his father.  Clearly this is an act of vengeance.  Amaziah does not let God handle these men.  Instead, Amaziah takes matters into his own hands.

However, Amaziah allows the children of the assassins to live.  In the culture of that day, Amaziah could have killed the children and nobody would have thought anything about it.  However, Amaziah is familiar with Deuteronomy 24:16.  Amaziah allows the children to be spared in spite of their fathers’ sins.

Amaziah’s Stumble

Amaziah prepares for battle.  When he musters his force, he finds that he has 300,000 men of battle age.  However, Amaziah makes two mistakes as he prepares for battle.

First, Amaziah hires troops from Israel.  He pays the mercenaries in silver.  A prophet of the Lord comes before Amaziah and tells Amaziah to release these men.  After all, God does not want His people relying upon foreign alliances.  God can protect His people.  God can lead His people forth into victory.  God does not need foreign alliances – particularly foreign alliances with people who worship false gods!

Amaziah hears the advice and sees the wisdom in it.  Naturally, Amaziah wonders about the silver that he had already paid the mercenaries.  The prophet tells Amaziah to let it go, for God can provide more than what he will lose if Amaziah just trusts God.  In an unusual stroke of brilliance, Amaziah lets the silver go and releases the mercenaries.  Amaziah chooses God over the silver!

However, the soldiers of Israel go home in a rage.  You might wonder why it is that they are angry about going home after receiving silver and not really having to do anything about it.  The reason is because the mercenaries would have likely been able to keep the plunder from the battle in addition to the silver that Amaziah paid them.  In fact, the plunder would likely have been far greater than their share of silver.  So while they receive silver for nothing, they are missing out on the plunder from war.  They go home back to Israel angry.

This leads us back to Amaziah’s second mistake.  Amaziah takes his force out to war.  He doesn’t leave a force back home to protect anything.  He leaves his land open for attack and the disgruntled mercenaries return to Judah and plunder the land.  God allowed Amaziah to experience a great victory against the people of Mount Seir; but his own foolishness caused him to experience defeat in his own land.

Amaziah’s Third Stumble

When Amaziah returns from battle, he brings back the foreign gods of the people of Mount Seir.  Had he melted them down, that might have been okay.  But Amaziah doesn’t do this.  Amaziah takes these foreign gods and sets them up in his own household and worships them.

As modern and monotheistic people, this practice seems weird.  Why would you as a conqueror willingly worship the gods of a people that you just conquered?  After all, if you were victorious, would it not mean that your God was stronger than their gods?

However, from an ancient mindset the picture is vastly different.  The ancient people believed that there were many gods.  The more gods you could successfully appease and not draw the ire from the others the more successful you could be.   Furthermore, ancient people believed that each god had an arena of influence, but no god had omnipotent power over everything.  So Amaziah likely brings these false gods home with him believing that it will cause him to benefit from greater protection and greater influence.

This point shows a significant flaw in Amaziah’s understanding of God.  If Amaziah saw God as omnipotent and omniscient, he would have seen the error of his way.  But by bringing in these false gods, Amaziah demonstrates that he does not believe God is all-powerful and capable of seeing everything.

Believing his influence to have increased, Amaziah turns to Israel and looks to repay them for their raids upon Judah while he was in battle with the people of Mount Seir.  The king of Israel comes out to battle Amaziah and is victorious.  The people of Israel scatter the army of Judah and chase Amaziah all the way back to Jerusalem.  The city and the temple are once more plundered.

Humiliated, he is forced to flee his own people and go to Lachish.  However, even in Lachish he is not safe.  Assassins find him, kill him, and bring him back to Jerusalem.  Once more we see a king who starts off on a good foot and in obedience to the Lord.  However, once more we find a king who gets sucked into the trappings of the world and falls away from God’s grace.  It is scary to see how easy it is for people to turn from God, especially when they are given prosperity and success.

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Year 3, Day 323: 2 Chronicles 24

Repair of the Temple

Joash became king when he was seven years old.  Jehoida served as a counselor to the king in addition to being a priest.  For the people of Judah, this is a great move.  Jehoida had protected Joash from Athaliah and her wicked pursuit of the worship of Ba’al.  Jehoida would help keep the young king from being impetuous and falling into the pitfalls of youth.

Eventually – perhaps as many as twenty years after he took the throne – Joash gets around to restoring the temple.  {See 2 Kings 12, where Joash is called Jehoash.}  There could be a couple of reasons for this delay – and not all of them bad.

• It is possible that it was low on Joash’s and Jehoida’s priority list.  If this is true, then it would indicate a lack of faith.  I find this possibility hard to swallow as Jehoida would need a strong faith to keep Athaliah’s wrath at bay while he was hiding Joash from her presence.
• It is possible that Joash needed to wait until he was an adult in order to make the changes to the tax policies that were required.  Again, this possibility seems unlikely as Jehoida was a strong man of faith and could have helped bring about the changes if desired.
• Most likely, the country had to have time to lay at rest between the turbulent rule of Athaliah and the young king Joash.  There can be little doubt that Athaliah’s reign would have made the people suspicious of leadership.  Furthermore, there would have been the need for time with respect to acceptance of the change from worshipping Ba’al to returning to worship God.  Joash was a young ruler, and he likely didn’t have the strength of character or the maturity to win over the leaders of the people while he was young.  As he becomes an adult, the time would be more right to bring back the changes to God and the restoration of the temple.

Eventually – no thanks to the slowness of the Levites – the people of Judah do bring the money required to restore the temple.  This policy of Moses can be found in Exodus 30:12-16.  The people willingly contribute to the effort.  Stonemasons and other craftsmen come to repair the damage that had been done to the temple.

I do find it interesting to note that the temple had been plundered by the priests of Ba’al.  Of course, this was under the leadership of Athaliah, who learned the worship of Ba’al from her father, Ahab.

What I find sad about this is that we are beginning to see a cycle among the people.  When the people are obedient to God, the people prosper and the temple is adorned out of their prosperity.  However, eventually the people fall away.  The temple is robbed by worshippers of false gods or invading foreign armies.  Thus, the adornments of the temple are lost and the next time a faithful king comes along the process has to start all over again.

I wonder how much of our own lives are governed by this cycle.  We get things straightened up and begin to follow God.  Life begins to go well.  The next thing that you know, our focus shifts onto something else.  Soon the godly things in life are being robbed to make way for the ungodly.  Eventually we fall into disrepair.  God humbles us.  As we look around our life and begin to pick up the pieces we realize we have much work to do.  Eventually we get things back in order through God’s help.  But wouldn’t it have just been easier to stay faithful to God?

I know.  That is easier said than done.  But I still feel as though I need to name it.

Joash Turns from Truth

Eventually Jehoida dies.  Remember the opening verses from this chapter?  Joash was faithful and walked in the ways of the Lord as long as Jehoida was alive.  But once Jehoida dies, Joash’s heart is swayed.  Joash meets with the princes of the land and they persuade him to follow the false gods instead of the one true God.  Remember that cycle I was just talking about?  Here we go again.  This time it’s even the king who restored the temple in the first place who begins to let things go astray!

With Jehoida’s death we get to see the true nature of Joash.  Joash simply isn’t a strong leader.  He is malleable, capable of being formed by the strong leaders around him.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I think we should be malleable enough to allow God to use the leaders around us to form us according to His ways.  There’s nothing wrong with becoming a better person.  But that isn’t what we see here in Joash.  What we see in Joash is not a man who is malleable enough to improve.  We see a man who is spineless enough to be formed into whatever the people around him want him to be.

It is good to have a spiritual mentor as Joash had in Jehoida.  But at some point the faith must become personal.  If I am faithful only because I am surrounded by faithful people, then is it really me who is faithful?  If my relationship with God is only strong because I am in relationship with someone else who has a strong relationship with God, then is my relationship with God all that strong?  Our relationship with God must be personal and we must take personal responsibility for it.

Vengeance Paid Back

 To make matters worse, Jehoida’s son Zechariah steps up to try and bring the focus of the land back to God.  You would think that Joash would have relationship with Zechariah.  After all, Zechariah was probably in the house while Jehoida was hiding Joash from Athaliah!  At the very least you would think that Joash would have respect for Zechariah because of all that Jehoida did for Joash in his life.  But this is not true.  Joash is so malleable that when the princes desire to do away with Zechariah on account of his message, Joash gives the order to have him stoned.

Zechariah’s words are haunting.  “Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.”  These words take me back to the prophet Shemaiah’s warning before Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 12.  God desires to love us and embrace us.  But He also must give us the ability to reject Him if the relationship is to be genuine.  When we push against Him hard enough, He will allow us to be forsaken.  What a scary place to find oneself!

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