BIBLE IN A YEAR
Bible in a Year – Day 140: Speaking Our Language
May 19th
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 35 & 36
Well, we made it. Let’s be honest, 1 and 2 Chronicles can be tough to read, but throughout these two books, God continues to reveal things to me (and additional things to you). Today, I can’t help but recognize the active role that God takes in tracking down and restoring his people. He’s even willing to use the king of another country to bring his people back to their rightful place.
Up to this point, we’ve seen numerous examples of God using other nations to bring punishment against his people and their kings. It’s a common pattern: king does evil, some nations comes looking for a fight, nation defeats Israel/Judah due to the king’s unwillingness to follow the Lord. But the story of the king of Persia is different. In this story, it is the king of another nation that helps to restore God’s people.
Now, in order to do this, God actually has to work against human nature. It’s not too hard to get a nation to fight another nation – a little conflict stirred can grow exponentially and explode into a full-on war very quickly. But in order for the opposite to happen – for the king of another nation to take interest in people that aren’t his own – it requires a very powerful and deliberate move of God on the heart of this individual. God had to speak to Cyrus, king of Persia in such a way as to move him to action.
So, how does God accomplish this (other than through his sheer will, which is enough to accomplish anything)? He speaks Cyrus’ language – the language of power. Just look at the decree that Cyrus makes at the end of 2 Chronicles:
This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.” (2 Chronicles 36:23)
He’s building a temple where God’s people can go and worship and he’s saying a blessing over them. Incredible, right? But look at the first part of the statement: “God…has given me all the kingdoms of the earth…” God spoke Cyrus’ language. It was, in essence, a quid pro quo. God gave Cyrus an enormous amount of power, built up a cache of goodwill and then asked him to build a temple where the people could worship.
Throughout the books we’ve read so far, this is a common theme. God has the ability to reach out to people right where they are. He speaks to our most broken places. He speaks to our simplest thoughts. He stoops low so that we can reach him. In this case, he gave a king a little piece of earthly kingdom in order to gain for his people access to the vast, heavenly kingdom. A pretty decent trade, don’t you think?
Bible in a Year – Day 139: A Utopian Ideal
May 18th
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 32, 33 & 34
The story of Josiah and his response to the newly rediscovered Book of the Law is still fascinating to me. If you remember, I discussed this back when we were reading 2 Kings. (You can find that here.) But something else sort of hit me as I was reading these passages. I realized that there was a whole economy being kept afloat by all these crazy kings.
I mean, think about it, there were craftsmen who built idols and people who destroyed them, people who built Asherah poles and people who tore them down. On the other side of the equation, there were those who destroyed temple walls, altars and the like and those who rebuilt them. Depending on the whims of the king in power at the time, something was almost always either being destroyed or rebuilt.
Now, I don’t think this was God’s perfect plan for his people, but I do find it interesting that, at some level, this was part of the ebb and flow of the life and livelihood of the people of Israel and Judah. It is, in some ways, an economy driven by brokenness – people earning a living off of the messed-up-ness of others.
We have the same thing today. What does a therapist do? He or she helps rebuild the lives that someone else has destroyed. What does a defense attorney do? He or she tries to salvage a life – one that has been destructive of others and/or self. How many ER visits are caused by the unseemly actions of people who hurt others or themselves. We build our economies around our brokenness. In fact, if not for our brokenness, we may not need any “economy” at all, in the traditional sense.
If not for selfishness, who would desire to profit from helping another person? If not for our sin, would we not share freely with everyone? But we do sin and we are selfish. And so, we deem some people worth of our effort and others not. Do attorneys work pro bono for someone they know is guilty? I doubt it – unless, of course, there is some amount of fame to be gained. No, they agree to do pro bono work for those who represent a cause worth believing in or who are the victims of some injustice.
And so, the brokenness that we see around us, combined with our own judgment of others (and our sense of justice) causes us to charge people for things and to occasionally help someone out of the kindness of our heart. What would the world be like if we were whole? What if we did everything out of the kindness of our hearts? Well, I guess we would be more God-like, huh?
I know, it’s a utopian idea and one that can’t be as long as we live in a broken world. But there is a place and time when we will have such an existence and, frankly, I can’t wait!
Bible in a Year – Day 138: God of the Old & New
May 17th
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 28, 29 & 30
When people think about God, many think of two different “versions” of God. There is the Old Testament God – inflexible and sometimes cruel – and the New Testament God – gracious and compassionate. And, perhaps, if you just glance at the Bible or only read the most popular verses, it might be easy to draw that conclusion. However, we’re reading through the entire Bible and as we do, I think we’re getting a clearer picture of the full nature of God.
I’ve already talked about God’s willingness to be flexible and meet the people in ways that they could understand. But check out these verses from 2 Chronicles, chapter 30:
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)
Do you see what happened there? These people hadn’t followed the rules. By eating the Passover meal while they were unclean, they had defiled the Passover, according to the law. A “by the book” king would have banished these people and begged God to forgive him. But Hezekiah somehow understood the heart of God. And so, rather than trying to save his own hide (and his kingdom), he went to God on behalf of the “lawbreakers,”
Hezekiah understood that the desire of the heart is more important than the outward acts. As God would later tell Samuel, people look on the outside, but God looks on the inside. Or, as Jesus would put it when criticizing the Pharisees:
“You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (Matthew 23:25)
You see, God wanted the people to “clean the outside of the cup,” (he had given them orders to do so) but the more important thing was the inside. To put it another way, God would rather get his hands dirty (on the outside of the cup) than to drink filth (from the inside). And so, God gave the “unclean” people a pass. He showed the kind of grace and flexibility that most people associate with the “New Testament God.” In fact, when you read through the New Testament (I know, we’re a ways away from that in this reading plan) check out how many times “New Testament grace” is linked to the Old Testament.
The fact is, there is one God and his nature is and has always been the same. He is a God with high standards, but he also is and has always been a God who is eager to offer grace to those who seek it and to those who seek him.
Bible in a Year – Day 137: A Little Better Than Dad
May 16th
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 25, 26 & 27
Well, I would say we’re moving in the right direction. As we have seen over and over in our reading thus far, patterns of behavior are easily and often passed from parent to offspring. And whether you attribute these patterns to spiritual influences, environmental ones, or both, the fact is that they are very hard to break.
In fact, probably the best that any of us can hope for (without a life-changing intervention) is that we are able to make modest improvements on the actions of our parents. We can become a little better at the things they were bad at. We can make minor improvements. And that is what we see happening with Amaziah, Uzziah and Jotham.
Here are three guys who actively sought to improve on their fathers’ actions in the area of faithfulness to God. Amaziah’s father, Joash, was a wicked man, so the fact that Amaziah followed the Lord at all was a huge improvement, even if he didn’t do so “wholeheartedly.” Uzziah followed the Lord, but had a weakness that reared it’s head when he became powerful. Jotham, then, having seen his father’s error, did not let his power go to his head in the same way.
You see, the actions of each person (whether an ancient king or a modern day mother of three) are determined by a myriad of factors, both internal and external, past and present. The things that we’ve been exposed to, experiences we’ve had, people we’ve met along the way and countless other factors have all helped shape us into who we are today. They have, in part, caused us to be weak in certain areas and strong in certain areas. And, I believe, no factor shapes us as much as the “parental factor,” that is, how we were raised, the household we grew up in and the environments we were exposed to during that time.
Understanding this – that these factors help shape the person – will give us a better understanding of, and more grace for, those around us. Do you have a friend that is not a great parent? What were her parents like? If her parents were absent or neglectful or abusive, but she is none of those things, then she has made an improvement. Now, she might not win any “Mom of the Year” awards, but she doesn’t hit her kids, doesn’t leave them alone for hours on end while she goes clubbing and she plays an active role in their lives. The fact that she feeds them too much junk food or lets them watch TV isn’t even on her radar. She’s just trying to be sure she doesn’t do to her kids what her parents did to her.
You see, knowing that information helps us to be less judgmental. But here’s the hard part: we don’t always have all of the information. We don’t always know the factors that have helped shape a person. That is why we must lean toward grace – we must err on the side of understanding, rather than judging. That is why the only true judge is the one who knows all, has seen all and can view our lives with the kind of perspective that we can’t ever hope to have. Let’s leave the judging up to him!
Bible in a Year – Day 136: To No One’s Regret
May 15th
Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 21, 22 & 23
“I don’t care what people think of me!” It’s a common refrain for rebellious teens and egotistic leaders the world over. In some circles, not caring about the opinions of others is a badge of honor. But should it be seen more as a sign of insanity? I mean, who actually doesn’t care what other people think of them? Well, for his sake, I hope that Jehoram didn’t care, or that he had thick skin, because this guy was really not liked.
He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. (2 Chronicles 21:20)
Ooh. He passed away to no one’s regret. Considering the level of respect and honor typically given to kings of that time, Jehoram must have seriously failed as a leader to not have at least someone mourn his passing. Sure, he did a lot of bad things, but the way he was treated postmortem suggests that this guy had no noticeable redeeming qualities. What an incredibly sad legacy.
Contrast that, then, with the honor and respect given to a seven year old boy named Joash. Now, I’m sure that all of the people protecting Joash and installing him as king had their own reasons for doing so. But, given that his grandfather was so detested, his father was such a poor king and his grandmother was a tyrant, it seems interesting that there would be so much interest in making this boy king.
I supposed they thought that if he was isolated from the influence of his family members, he might have a shot at becoming a decent human being. Whatever the case, what we see here is, within two generations, a whole group of people who go from detesting their king to risking their lives to defend his grandson and install him as king. It’s an interesting contrast and one that points out how important “what other people think” can be in a person’s life.
Unfortunately, Joash was unable to break the cycle of his family and ultimately forgot how and why he became king. Ultimately, Joash would suffer a similar fate as his grandfather and father – wounded in battle and given a burial in an area other than the one reserved for kings.
