2 Chronicles 29-30; 32; 34

The first chapter of the reading assignment for this week is 2 Chronicles 29. This chapter contains information about King Hezekiah and his efforts to bring his kingdom back into a good relationship with God through correct worship. In 2 Chronicles 29:6–10, he says, “For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.”

The Levites, following Hezekiah’s directions, go into the temple and clean it. Once that’s done, the king and his people gather together and worship God while the priests make a sacrifice.

This temple was the temple built by Solomon. You might want to refer to the Bible Dictionary, which has an article about it on page 782. (A more general article about temples begins on page 780).

I think this is a hard chapter to relate to because it has been a long time since the age of animal sacrifice has been what I would consider to be a mainstream cultural practice. (Have you ever seen an animal sacrifice? I certainly have not.)

In fact, all this material is very old, and reading it feels like watching an old black-and-white movie. Solomon’s temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, who was the King of Babylon from 604–561 B.C. (see page 639, in the Bible Dictionary’s Chronology of the Old Testament.) Hezekiah is listed on page 638 in the same chronology in 726 B.C.; I am assuming that this date refers to the beginning of his reign. Hezekiah and Nebuchadnezzar both lived so long ago that it is hard for me to comprehend their distance from us.

This chapter is also hard to relate to because we no longer live under Mosaic Law, with its emphasis on justice. In particular, I think the idea of doing something (in this case, cleaning the temple and making formal sacrifices to God) is a little hard for me to relate to because it is bargaining with God: “I will be good, and in exchange I expect you to protect me from my enemies.” I understand the general idea, but aren’t we supposed to be good because it’s the right thing to do? And since when has adversity and evil affected only “bad guys”?

On the other hand, there is something direct and pragmatic about King Hezekiah’s approach that I like. The problem with it, however, has always been that we are incapable of keeping our end of the agreement. As Paul puts it in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God….” We can never be completely just; we can never be “good enough.” In a sense, you could look at the entire Old Testament as a witness to anyone’s inability to be perfectly good all the time. The point is hammered home repeatedly. To his credit, King Hezekiah is at least trying, but you know when you read it that ultimately his efforts are going to fail—if not in his generation, then down the line.

In 2 Chronicles 30, however, we are still with King Hezekiah, and he is still encouraging Judah to behave itself. Hezekiah decides to celebrate Passover a month late (verses 2–3) because the preparations couldn’t be finished on time. He sends a proclamation throughout the kingdom, tenderly imploring his people in verse 8 to “yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever: and serve the Lord your God….” He continues in verse 9, saying (in part) that, “the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.”

The result? Some people, from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, “laughed them to scorn, and mocked them” (verse 10). But in verse 11 we read, “Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulon humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.”

The Passover celebration was not done completely according to the rules (see verses 18–20), but it was a great success. The last two verses of the chapter, 26 and 27, are beautiful: “So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.”

Of course, things are going far too well at this point, and it is time for another problem. In 2 Chronicles 32:1, “Sennacharib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.”

Hezekiah shows he is no dummy when it comes to waging war. After counseling with his leaders in verse 3, verse 4 describes the start of his defense preparations: “So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?” In verse 5, the walls and towers are strengthened and built up and the people stockpile darts and shields. (I think the darts are probably arrows.) Finally, in verse 6, he organizes “captains of war” and he gathers the people together for a pre-battle pep talk. In verses 7 and 8, we read, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”

That is a wonderful phrase: they “rested themselves.” If you think about the problems you have, do you think about God fighting your battles for you? Or do you insist on carrying your problems all by yourself? It’s worth thinking about.

Sennacherib tries to do some psychological warfare before the battle, and sends his own message to Judah. In verses 13 through 15, he says, “Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand? Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?”

It’s not a bad argument. The only way out that I see, in fact, is if he is wrong about the nature of God. His argument sounds to me like the argument of an atheist: a powerless God is not essentially different than a nonexistent God, after all.

During the next part of the chapter, in verse 20, Hezekiah and Isaiah (yes, Isaiah) pray to God for deliverance. Verse 21 reads, “And the Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword.” So much for Sennecherib.

I thought the reference to Isaiah was interesting. If you look at the chronology again, on page 638 of the Bible Dictionary, it says he began to prophesy around the time of Jotham in 758. On page 707 there is an article devoted to him, where it says Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was probably responsible for having Isaiah killed.

The remainder of the chapter is tying up the loose ends: Hezekiah was a good king, but he had a flaw, and whoever wrote the record chose to tell us about it in verse 25 (Hezekiah became proud). Other than that, there isn’t anything bad to say, and so the last verse deals with his death, his burial, and his successor (his son Manasseh, as indicated above).

In 2 Chronicles 34, the final chapter of the reading assignment, we have skipped a couple of generations (and a couple of bad kings) to the next good king, King Josiah. He is the great-grandson of King Hezekiah, and in verse 1 he becomes king at the tender age of 8. By the time he is 16, “while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father,” it says in verse 3, and for the next two years he does his best to purge his country of idolatry (verses 3–8). The next step is repairing the temple; during the restoration, a priest named Hilkiah finds “a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses” in verse 14, and verses 18 and 19, a scribe named Shaphan reads the book to the king, and the king is so upset he rips up his clothing.

The king sends Hilkiah to “Huldah the prophetess” in verse 22. She tells Hilkiah that Judah will eventually be destroyed in verses 23–25, but the good news is that it won’t happen for a while. In verses 27 and 28, she tells Josiah, “Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.”

During the remainder of the chapter, Josiah continues to be a good and righteous king who does his best to postpone the inevitable by also teaching his people to be both good and righteous. In verse 33 it reads, “And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.”

The lesson guide emphasizes two things: trusting in the Lord and keeping temple covenants. These are fine things to think about. What I take away from this, however, is the substantial way in which God is described in these chapters. We live in a world that seems to lack miracles, but is that God’s fault? Or ours, because we do not have enough faith to ask righteously for the help we need? I find myself reminded powerfully of Mormon 9:17–21, and recommend it to you for your own review.

Sunday School Notebook -July 2006 - Susan Morgan