2 chronicles

2 Chronicles – Friday Night Genesis, Friday, April 5, 2013

Scripture reading: Isaiah 1:2-4, 11-15

I feel like I need to begin tonight with a little disclaimer. I don’t know what your religious
background is and what your religious experience has been, but tonight’s topic has the
potential to turn some well established ideas about God, especially ideas about the Old
Testament God, on their head. So you can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Now that we’re done with the small print, let us turn to the story that we’ll be looking at
tonight. Our story tonight begins in 2 Chronicles chapter 28 with Judah’s king Ahaz. The
reign of king Ahaz represents one of the dark chapters in Judah’s history. King Ahaz had
gone after other ‘gods’ – you know those idols made of wood, stone and metal that seem
to play such a prominent role in the Old Testament. He put up a whole bunch of altars to
different ‘gods’ all over the place, took out the holy articles from the Temple and instead
filled the Temple with junk and then eventually closed it down altogether. Since Ahaz
abandoned God, there was little that God could do for him, and so Ahaz found himself in
a whole lot of trouble. It seemed like he was being attacked from every possible side.
Even their brothers to the north from the kingdom of Israel added to their woes by giving
them a good routing. This is what the Bible records about the attitude of king Ahaz: “In
his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. He offered
sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him; for he thought, “Since the
gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help
me.” But they were his downfall and the downfall of all Israel.” (2 Chronicles 28:22-23).

So this was the situation in Judah when king Ahaz died and his son Hezekiah
succeeded him on the throne. With Hezekiah’s accession to the throne, Judah begins a
whole new and exciting chapter in its history. “In the first month of the first year of his
reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them. He brought in
the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side and said:
“Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the
LORD, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.” (2
Chronicles 29:3-5). It took the priests and Levites 16 days to clear out and consecrate
the Temple so that it was usable again! I mean, can you imagine the state of things so
bad that it would take a team of people working 16 days straight to get this church ready
for use again?! But they did get it ready and what followed was Hezekiah and the
leaders coming together before God at the Temple with a whole lot of burnt offerings and
sin offerings. And so the Bible records “So the service of the temple of the LORD was
reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for
his people, because it was done so quickly.” (2 Chronicles 29:35b-36).

The next thing Hezekiah wanted to do was to celebrate Passover. “Hezekiah sent word
to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to
come to the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD,
the God of Israel. The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem
decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month. They had not been able to

celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves
and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem. The plan seemed right both to the king
and to the whole assembly. They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from
Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover
to the LORD, the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to
what was written.” (2 Chronicles 30:1-5)

Passover, you may remember was the commemoration of the night when God led Israel
out of Egypt, when the Angel of Death saw the blood sprinkled on the door posts of the
Israelite households and passed them over. So this was a holiday that commemorated a
specific event and as such it was tied to a specific day. Clear back in Exodus, God gave
specific instructions about the Passover. “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in
Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the
whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb
for his family, one for each household.” (Exodus 12:1-3), and then He proceeded to give
them specific instructions on how to prepare the lamb, door posts etc. In verse 14 He
then says: “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall
celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14) Following this
was more instructions on how to celebrate it and who may celebrate it. These
instructions were then repeated in Leviticus 23, Numbers 9 and 28 and Deuteronomy 16
and every single time the time specified for the celebration of the Passover was in the
first month.

But, as we have read Hezekiah and his officials decided to celebrate the Passover in the
second month! You may be forgiven if you expect that what follows in the story is
lightning bolts from heaven striking Hezekiah or at the very least a prophet coming to
Hezekiah to express God’s serious displeasure. Because, translated into our language,
what Hezekiah was essentially proposing was equivalent to celebrating Independence
Day on 4th of August instead of 4th of July! And since God gave them this holiday and
specific instructions when, who and how to celebrate it, would you really want to mess
with that? I mean, isn’t God all about the rules and following the rules? Are there not stiff
penalties for not following the rules? There are times in the Old Testament when that
certainly seemed to be the case!

But nothing like that happened. Instead the messengers went out all over Judah and
also some tribes of Israel calling people to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And the
Bible records: “Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled
themselves and went to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to
give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following
the word of the LORD. A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate
the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month.” (2 Chronicles 30:11-13). The
hand of God was on the people to carry out what the officials have ordered?! Whoa!
Wait a minute! So the rules that God set out are being broken and instead of
condemning, God is actually supporting it?! Like I said at the beginning, this story does
turn a lot of things upside down!

But things get even more mixed up. Many people were not consecrated or ceremonially
clean. They did some fancy footwork around this by having the consecrated Levites
slaughter their Passover lambs and present their offerings. But then came the eating of
the Passover meal. Now you couldn’t very well have a Levite eat a meal for you. So
people had to eat the Passover themselves. The Bible records that “Although most of
the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not
purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But
Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who
sets their heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of their ancestors—even if they are
not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and
healed the people.” (2 Chronicles 30:18-20). What followed was a huge party at the
temple that lasted a whole week. After the week was over, the people decided they had
such a good time praising God they would do it for another week! So two weeks of
partying at God’s house! At the end of the two weeks “The priests and the Levites stood
to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy
dwelling place.” (2 Chronicles 30:27).

So let’s recap – they celebrated the Passover at the wrong time, those who weren’t
suppose to eat the Passover ate it and then they had a two week party. And God
condoned and blessed all this?! How is this possible?

It seems that God is completely inconsistent. It was God who gave all those rules and
regulations, and we spent a good deal of time laboring through them in the early books
of the Bible. We even saw a number of examples where God dealt quite severely with
people who broke the rules. After all, isn’t sin breaking the rules? So how come that He
was now okay with people breaking the rules and even blessed them in doing so? The
clue to unraveling this conundrum is found in our scripture reading from Isaiah 1.
“The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12
When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them. (Isaiah 1:11-14)
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my
courts? Why, you asked for it God! You prescribed all the offerings, festivals, holidays

and assemblies! So why is it that all of a sudden God is sick and tired of the very things
that He asked for? Because it was all a charade.

Your hands are full of blood! - He continues.
16
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” - some translations say ‘let us reason together’,
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
19
If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good things of the land;
20
but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 1:15-20)

So what is ultimately important to God? Obviously, just following the rules is not it! The
Israelites were observing the rules and going through the motions, but obviously it made
no difference in their lives. They were mistreating one another and carrying on with all
kinds of evil, and then showing up at the temple, going through the motions and
assumed that this made them okay with God. But what God was looking for was a
relationship. A life-changing relationship. The meetings at the temple were never
intended to be just actions and phrases that were carried out by rote in order to
propitiate the favor of God. They were intended to bring the people into a meaningful
relationship with God. And as that relationship grew, the people themselves would grow
into the image of the God they worshipped. In the beginning people needed a structure,
a “standard way” of relating with God as it were. When our kids are young, we put house
rules and structures in place to teach them how to relate with us. But the ultimate goal
here is not for them to just follow the rules. It is to enable a relationship that will grow
well beyond merely observing the rules. It is the same with God and us. It is not about
the rules. Rules are only there to make possible a relationship that is to grow well
beyond merely following the rules.

And that is the key to understanding the apparent discrepancy between God’s actions in
the early books and His response to Hezekiah and the people celebrating the Passover
against the rules. In the early books, the only reason someone didn’t follow the rules was
in rebellion. It was like a little kid basically flipping the bird and saying “I’m not going to
do it”. And I don’t know how you handle it, but if I had done something like that as a kid,
my behind would have been a bit warmer. When Hezekiah and the people celebrated

Passover, there was no such sentiment. In fact, the whole point of that Passover was the
return of Judah and Israel to God after many years of rebellion. This wasn’t a “screw
you” to God, this was a “we want to come back” to God. It was a whole different attitude!
And this is what was important to God. Not that the people were breaking the rules, but
that they were coming back to Him, they were genuinely seeking to re-establish a
relationship with Him. It may have been at the wrong time and in the wrong way, but it
held a lot more meaning than just going through the right motions by rote ever could
have.

This story perfectly illustrates for us the nature of sin. Sin is not so much about following
the rules. It is about attitude. Sin is an attitude of rebellion – flipping God the bird and
saying I don’t want to, I know better, I can do better, leave me alone. Even if we follow
the prescribed motions – show up to church every week, say the right phrases and
prayers, but we have no interest in what God is saying, let alone in following - it means
nothing. But if we are set on seeking God, getting to know Him and following Him, even
if we are doing it clumsily, not saying the “right” things, not doing the “right” motions, God
ultimately honors and values our genuineness far above any ritual.

What God is saying in this story is quite simply “Come”. I am not interested in the form
so much as I am interesting in the fact that you come to Me. Come and be My children
once again. Come and be My friends. In the years to come Hezekiah and the people
celebrated the various festivals according to regulations, but what was important at that
time was that they simply came back to God and rejoiced in His presence. And that was
surely worth two weeks of partying! Because once their hearts were turned towards God
and God accepted them their relationship was healed. Healed from years of neglect and
outright rebellion. Their relationship was re-established and it was this relationship that
gave meaning to the festivals that followed which were celebrated “by the book”.

I’d like to encourage you tonight that God is not looking for perfect people, following
rules perfectly. He is simply saying “come”. Come any way you know how, no matter
how clumsy it may seem to you – all that God cares about is that you come to Him. He
will accept you. He will accept and bless your genuine desire to establish or re-establish
your relationship with Him. So don’t let the rules hold you back. Just come.

2 chronicles

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