#586 2 Summation of the Chronicles Part 3

A lot of Chronicles is devoted to Hezekiah and his is not a reign without it's test. He does more to reform the government and the priesthood then many kings. He has looked to the provision of Levi according to the law, but has also had a mind towards stewardship. Sometimes we think this must surely be it, time to swipe the clock and rest beside the river, but then the Assyrians show up. We weren't prepared for this, this wasn't on the list for the day, but Hezekiah is learning to trust in God. This is the point where we have done all we can to stand, that those who deny our God would also try to explain our faith, but all we can do is take the letter before the Lord. Find a friend like Isaiah, someone you know and have witnessed giving everything to God, not to an ideal but to the honor and glory of God. You need someone sound and sober, that will pray for you and with you, and when the answer comes back, it may defy local custom and practice. You may be mocked, and what you see may seem to vast too overcome, but trust in the words of God and compare what you see to eternity. There are no big things here, but the test of that can pull at the strings of your heart, the frailty of our human reason and patience, but take it to the Lord. 

Manasseh's encouraging life

For those being saved, it is from sin, and not to sin. Manasseh is passionate about his life, idolatries, and God is kind in His warnings, but we hate the messengers. He is credited with the blood of Isaiah by Jewish scholars and it says he was guilty of much innocent blood, seeking a "better word" from those who commune with demons. I have sadly seen many who say they are God's people, say they love Jesus and go to church, have a thing they call faith that does not come from hearing God's word. They actually talk down the role of study and doctrine that was presented to Timothy, and prefer unity at the cost of truth, which is a price that does not belong to us to bargain, a rite of God not of men. It lacks faith immediately, because true faith is not a crystal ball, it goes into the furnace for the truth, defies kings and cultures. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We see some of the situation, the problem, but while we may see the end, we believe God to be sovereign and that the outcome belongs to Him. We lift Him up in all these things, pray where we don't understand, and pray lest we think we understand more than we do. Though You slay me, yet will I praise You. 

Josiah was prophesied some 300 years before he took the throne, and he did not come from a good father, for Amon was worse than his father and taken early in his reign. He was a king of great reforms, and the people lamented his death. I would say in part for what it represented, the end and yet they themselves were not described as this tender heart. We miss our covering, but do not share in the humility of his life, only fearing our own death. But I think there is also the lament like the past tense of Isaiah 53, where the people here are looking back to the integrity of Josiah's reign, the people of Isaiah's gospel are looking back to Jesus, the suffering servant of God. 

The last of the kings bring us back full circle, all the way back to the land that Abraham first left, Ur of the Chaldees. Not even the best of the kings was able to keep the reform in the land, sometimes not so long in their own hearts and not that of their people either. Lord, give us tender hearts like Josiah, don't let us profane the name of Your Son, to You be all glory, honor and praise. Thank you for speaking to us, for letting us have any part, breath, and the wonder of Your word.