2 Chronicles 34-36 • God’s Steadfast Love Renews Us

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Do you have some stiff-necked people in your life? You and I might give up on them, but God does not. His steadfast love is still wooing those who need to know Him or need to know Him better. When we respond to His love, He renews our hearts and gives us the best He has planned for our future. In the last post, we rejoiced in the unstoppable power of God’s forgiveness. This is post #12 in the Chronicles blog series. In this article, we will see how God’s steadfast love for us woos us to reboot and renew our faith as needed. Josiah is our example.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Reboot Renew Rejoice Bible Study covering the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament. (11 lessons)

October 31 for many people is a day for dressing in costumes and eating lots of candy. But for Christians, this one day in the fall of every year commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles. Did you know that? This work of God led to the reboot of the Christian Church and the greatest transformation of Western society since the apostles first preached the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. That transformation has continued to impact the entire globe of nations.

Reboot and Transformation

Problems surfaced

On October 31, 1517, a monk and law student named Martin Luther nailed to his local church door a hand-written list of 95 discussion topics for debate. This led to what we now call the Protestant Reformation.

The medieval church leaders had gotten very far away from the truth of the Scriptures in their teachings and practices. People could buy salvation for their dead relatives. Church tradition reigned supreme over the study of the Bible. Good works were taught as the means to merit God’s favor. People were held in bondage to fear, guilt, and manipulation.

God’s answer

But God acted. He chose to use ordinary people who were His faithful followers to reboot the Church of Jesus Christ. They returned to what was clearly preached in the New Testament that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Good works result from our faith but are not the grounds for our right standing in the Lord’s eyes. God’s declaration that we are not guilty, forgiven of sin, and righteous in His sight comes through our faith alone. The Father transfers to every believer the perfect righteousness of Christ.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This reboot also confirmed the authority of the Scriptures over tradition and recaptured the biblical view of the priesthood of all believers. We can all go to God on our own without any mediator other than Jesus.

Results

But all of this change came about because the faithful endured God’s painful pruning of the Church. God weeded out those who were not His and preserved a remnant of faithful Christians who were wholeheartedly committed to Him. They and their descendants changed the world. Because of that reboot, I am a Christian living in a nation where we can openly live out our faith as God intended.

Reboot is often associated with pain and suffering. It certainly did with the Reformation. But the renewal that happens leads to much rejoicing. We see that in God’s steadfast love for the nation of Israel.

God’s Steadfast Love Shown to Josiah

Consequences reflect God’s love

I already knew that the ending of 2 Chronicles would be sad. People of Judah and Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon, the city was ravaged, and the Temple was destroyed. But God’s sovereignty and His love used these awful things to purify a remnant for Himself of people faithful to Him.

God did not want to take such drastic measures. Israel’s purpose was to represent God on earth and proclaim His glory and holiness to the pagan nations around them. But the people chose wickedness over and over. That wickedness demanded that God act.

God’s wrath cleans and restores. It is an extension of His love. I know that sounds crazy. But don’t you do everything you can to clean your home of viruses that make your family sick? You do this out of love for your family. God’s wrath is His discipline. It is an extension of His love.

Stiff-necked humans let themselves get absolutely filthy. This filth pollutes God’s creation. But God’s love provides a way for those who want to get cleaned up and restored to their purpose.

Remember what Isaiah said?

When [God’s] judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:9-10)

That is what happened to the Jews.

Josiah’s pursuit of God

When Josiah became king at age eight, he must have had a child-like faith in spite of his wicked father Amon. Maybe he had a great mother. We know that Hilkiah the High Priest was a strong, godly influence in his life.

When Josiah was sixteen, he began to seek God. I have seen that happen in teens and young adults when they turn the childhood faith they got from their parents into a personal faith for themselves. Josiah sought God for himself as a teenager. You probably know some teens who have done the same thing. By the time Josiah was twenty years old, he was prepared to act as a godly leader for his people—one who would purge Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry. It was a mess and took a lot of effort!

Josiah’s work of purging and restoration

At twenty-six, Josiah tackled restoring the Temple. The Bible says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and what was right for his people. Those who were cleaning the Temple found the books of Moses. These were read to the king. God’s Word always causes a response. Josiah was so moved that he inquired of the Lord what to do.

Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum … She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District. She said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people-all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’ … ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.'” So they took her answer back to the king. (2 Chronicles 36:22-28)

God’s answer through the prophetess Huldah spurred him to bring the people together so he could read God’s Word to all the people. Don’t you love that?

After reading it, Josiah renewed the covenant with God for himself then had the people do it for themselves. That is a good leader. As long as he lived, the people obeyed God. Leadership makes such a difference to the direction people take. During this time also, the Passover was celebrated in huge fashion with great attention to detail. What a time of rejoicing!

Josiah’s disastrous decision

Yet, as he grew older, Josiah got more confident in his own decisions and seemed to rely less on the Lord. At the age of thirty-nine, Josiah acted against the better judgment of Pharaoh Neco, a pagan king, who said that coming out to fight him was actually opposing God. There were several prophets of God readily available in Jerusalem—Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Huldah. Instead of seeking them to inquire of God about what to do, Josiah foolishly fought Neco’s army anyway and was killed in that battle. This left his nation reeling in shock and mourning, unprepared for what would take place next.

The prophet Habakkuk wrote during this time period. His book teaches us a lesson on how to know the difference between lamenting and whining. Read more about this in the blog, “Habakkuk • Lamenting is good; Whining is bad.”

God Steadfast Love Offers a Better Ending

The downward spiral

Then comes the downward spiral. Two of Josiah’s sons and even a grandson were placed on the throne—one by Pharaoh and two by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. All of them did evil in God’s eyes. One ended up as a captive in Egypt. The others were taken captive to Babylon.

Do you see a pattern here? Who would have willingly raised his hand next to become king? Not me!

Well, Nebuchadnezzar chose Josiah’s son Mattaniah (who would have been about six years old when his father died) and gave him the name Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar was the boss. Zedekiah was the puppet. But God was still sovereign.

God’s offer to Zedekiah

Picture this. Enemy soldiers surround the city. Jeremiah the prophet was actively bringing God’s Word to the people of Jerusalem and the king throughout the eleven years that Zedekiah was on the throne. Jeremiah delivers one particular message from God to Zedekiah. This is God’s offer to him,

If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.” (Jeremiah 38:17-18)

Zedekiah could have prevented the death of many and the burning of the city and the temple by surrendering to God through Nebuchadnezzar!

Zedekiah’s refusal of God’s offer

The young king and his officials inside the city walls stubbornly refuse to leave, saying, “We won’t lose. We won’t give up our special city.” Jeremiah kept giving them the real news. “You won’t win. God has given this city to Nebuchadnezzar. The people will die of starvation and disease. The city will be burned. Your family will be destroyed unless you surrender.”

Zedekiah’s response was not to accept God’s protection if he surrendered. Instead of obeying God, Zedekiah chose to protect himself and listen to his peers, to ignore the conflict and hope it would go away. It did not. Zedekiah’s entire family was killed. He was blinded and held in chains. Even up to the last minute, God’s steadfast love offered a gift to a stiff-necked king.

I have often thought about God’s offer to spare Zedekiah and the whole city of Jerusalem from destruction. All Zedekiah had to do was simply surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. He could have saved the lives of many people and perhaps the Temple from being destroyed! But he refused to follow Jeremiah’s counsel! He became stiff-necked. He hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord. Sin has such hold on humans.

That reminds me of the simplicity of the Gospel message. It says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” So simple yet so hard for many people to accept. They hang onto their own way to live life and face the future rather than God’s way. Just like Zedekiah did.

God Steadfast Love Purifies His People

What really grabbed my attention is that the leaders of the priests—the chief priests—became idol worshipers again, defiling the Temple. Within twenty years of Josiah’s death, the evil cancer of idolatry had returned. God had to clean up the filth—again!

The cleaning process begins

This is how He cleaned and purified His people.

• The wicked and unrepentant died at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
• Those whose hearts were pliable were taken captive to Babylon until the seventy years were finished (605 B.C.–536 B.C.). There, they learned to trust God alone and give up any idolatrous behavior.
• After the seventy years were over, the faithful were allowed to return to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and resettle their homeland.

God’s discipline has purpose

Isaiah was dead by this time. But he had spoken of God’s plans to discipline His people in order to purify and strengthen them. Listen to these familiar words in Isaiah chapter fifty-five and place them into this context:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:8-12)

God’s discipline of Israel had a purpose. His words spoken through the prophets would accomplish the purpose. And there would be rejoicing!

As bad as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple looked, God caused it to work for good for His people that eventually benefited you and me. He had a greater purpose than purifying His people.

God’s Steadfast Love Planned for the Future

The faithful remnant

God’s steadfast love brought back a remnant of faithful Jews to regain their land and their purpose to once again be a light for the Gentiles. Israel clung to their God for the next few hundred years, thus preparing them for the coming of their Messiah. I would have given up on such a stiff-necked people. God did not. His steadfast love planned a future for them. Thankfully in His steadfast love, He is still wooing those whose hearts are pliable towards Him. He planned a future for us as well.

The synagogue

The Jews were captive in Babylon, cut off from the Temple, and surrounded by pagan religious practices. So, they concentrated on what they had—their God and the Law, what they call the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). While they were in exile, they kept their identity as God’s people and learned how to live out their faith through personal piety and prayer rather than the sacrifices that were no longer available to them.

The center of worship became something new—the local synagogue. As a result, Judaism became a faith that could be practiced wherever the Jews could meet and the Torah could be read.

The Diaspora

The dispersion of Israel that began with the exile accelerated during the years that followed so that by the time of Jesus, Jews filled every land in the Middle East. Those Jews living outside of the land of Israel were called the Diaspora. This prepared the way for the Christian gospel.

The missionaries of the early church began their Gentile ministries among the Diaspora, in their synagogues, using the Greek translation of the Old Testament prepared in the third century B.C. that nearly everyone could read. Within many Jewish synagogue congregations were “God-fearing” Gentiles—the non-Jews who believed in the Jewish God and followed the Law to some extent.

God had the bigger picture. He turned something that looked bad into something that was great for not only the Jews but also for Gentiles throughout the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. God is so good in everything He does!

The Pharisees

One more historical nugget: During the time period after the exile, a religious group formed to keep Israel pure from idolatry. They did this by promoting the keeping of the Law as the only way that the Jews would be able to live righteously before God in a world that had changed drastically since the days of Moses. We know them in the Gospels as the Pharisees. Even though they had become petty and legalistic by the time of Jesus, they had helped to make sure Israel never again turned to idols thus purifying it for the coming of Jesus Christ.

God’s Steadfast Love Sent Jesus

When Jesus came to earth, the power of God’s presence was manifested in a very personal way. As well-known Bible teacher Tony Evans says, “Jesus is God’s selfie.” Jesus said, “When you look at me, you see the Father.” Jesus lived His life in dependence on God so that we would know how to do that, too.

Jesus gave His life for us on the cross so that we could become new creatures with complete forgiveness of our sins and a reconciled relationship with our God. Jesus rose from the dead so that He could give His life to us through the Holy Spirit that lives inside of every believer. Because of the power of God’s presence in us, Jesus can live His life through us.

Dear reader, be like the men and women of the Reformation. Take the truths of Scripture to heart. Come to God and be saved by His grace alone through your faith alone. Commit your life to following Him, renewing that commitment every day, and rejoice because of what He has done and is doing in your life. Our God’s powerful presence helps you to do that!

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with the power of His presence. Then, live in that power!

All of the above information is covered in the  Reboot Renew Rejoice Bible Study of 1 and 2 Chronicles.

Related Resources:

• Reboot Renew Rejoice Bible Study
• Satisfied Series 6 Podcasts (Chronicles series)
• Simple Things to Know When Studying the Old Testament
• 1 and 2 Chronicles—The Value of a Reboot
• Chronicles blog series
• Habakkuk • Lamenting Is Good; Whining Is Bad

AI was not used to generate this post.