Lessons from 2
Chronicles 15
all right well I think
we're going ahead and begin with just a little background
about especially 2 Chronicles it tends to focus on Jerusalem
and the history of Jerusalem the temple and the various
kings that had a role to play in the history. Quite
frequently the temple there in Jerusalem required
restoration and part of what we're going to be looking at
tonight deals with one of those periods and we're going to
be looking at how God used different individuals to carry
out his will on Earth. As we read the Bible we need to
understand that everything in the Bible is important to us.
God didn't put anything in the Bible for us that wasn't
good. Everything is important and so we'll certainly see
that this evening from 2 Chronicles 15 The New Testament
talks about how things that were written before were written
for our learning and there is much to learn from our reading
tonight from 2 Chronicles chapter 15. This chapter is
especially about one of the kings called King Asa. He was
a king who reigned for about 41 years in Jerusalem from
somewhere around 90 BC to around 869 BC.
His father was Abijah,
his grandfather was Rabam. Both of those individuals did
some good at times but overall probably not very good
Kings. But as soon as Asa comes along he is ready to bring
about some reform that had not been done in the past and so
we're going to see how he strikes down different places of
idolatry. He is one that came up against an army of a
million men from Ethiopia and he cried to the Lord for help
and the Lord answered and defeated that huge Army. I know
it's hard for us to imagine a million men being in an army.
We're looking here at chapter 15 of 2 Chronicles, and we
have a Prophet there by the name of Azariah who meets As and
encourages him to keep on doing this restoration and not
stop. We want to pay real close attention to the text and
see these four lessons that we can learn from it.
The first one is that as
a very courageously removed idol. Go back and read a few
verses in chapter 14 which says this in verses 3 and 4 for
he removed the altars of the foreign gods in the high places
broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden
images. We see in the chapter before what he's doing. He's
cutting down these idolatrous images and altars and so forth
to foreign gods. In 2 Chronicles 15:8, "And when Asa heard
these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took
courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land
of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken
in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of
the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord."
In 2 Chronicles
15:16-17, "Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the
king, from being queen mother, because she had made an
obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene
image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 17
But the high places were not removed from Israel.
Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days."
We see here that Asa had
already removed some of the idols back in chapter 14 and so
Azariah the prophet comes along like a lot of the prophets
that we read about in the Old Testament and encouraged him,
motivated him, and urged him to do even more. There was
still work to be done and he needed to put away more of the
idolatry even his mother had set up an idol for Ashra and he
went so far as to crush and burn the very Idol his mother
had set up. Asa was not an idolator like so many others of
that time were but he needed Azariah to come along and just
give him a little push to get more of the work done and
that's what Azariah did.
As a king it was up to
him to take care of this and that's exactly what he did he
didn't put a survey out there and ask the people what they
wanted because he knew what was right he knew he needed to
get rid of the idols. It was his responsibility and in
verse 17 that we read some of the high places were not
removed from Israel. Even though he did a great deal more
than many others he didn't remove all these idolatrous
places and altars. When we think about idolatry today we
think about there being these places where they would sit up
or place wooden images or metal images. Idolatry is just as
much alive and well today as it was back in the day. we
read in Ephesians 5:5-6, "For this you know, that no
fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
God." What is covetousness what does it mean to covet?
It's when you have this desire to possess something that
doesn't belong to you in other words it belongs to someone
else.
Paul there in Ephesians
chapter 5 says those who are Covetous are idolators. That's
what they're doing because their love their desire, and
their commitment to something else has taken the place of
Jehovah and this desire was pulling them away from doing
what they needed to do for God. This is how we need to
diagnose idolatry in ourselves and our families and
friends.
Jesus said no man can
serve two masters in Matthew 6:24. We know this is true and
we need to see if there's something that is vying for first
place in our hearts or our lives; what might be pulling us
away from God. It might be money, might be power, might
even be things like travel or clothes or home renovation,
Family, Friends, School, sports, movies, shows, and video
games. You know how popular they are so any of those
things, are they taking the place of your desire for God?
Moving on to the second
lesson we learned from 2 Chronicles chapter 15 these people
repaired the temple and renewed their worship. Going back
to verse eight again we're going to read, "And when Asa
heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he
took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the
land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had
taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar
of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord."
And then Verse 18 says "He also brought into the house of
God the things that his father had dedicated and that he had
dedicated: silver and gold and utensils." The altar of God
was damaged and Asa saw it needed to be repaired so it was
usable. Many people throughout the history of God's people
have repaired parts of the temple. Josiah, Hezekiah, Joash,
and others, so this was something he saw that needed to be
done. There was something wrong with it in some way. The
Bible doesn't say, it just says He restored it. So whatever
was wrong, he restored it to what it needed to be.
We also read that his
father had given things to the temple. These things need
to be restored. In the New Covenant now for us, we don't
have a physical temple with a physical altar or physical
utensils. The Bible says Christians are the Church of God,
the Temple of the Lord. Our worship, our giving, our lives,
and all of that are our sacrifices and offerings to the
Lord. Romans 12:1, Hebrews 13:15-16, 1 Peter 2:2
It is very appropriate,
necessary, and needful for us to examine our worship
assemblies, our classes, our conduct, how we live, and ask
if any places need to be repaired. Is there something that
needs to be restored that's not what it needs to be? Are
our sacrifices, our offerings in our classes and our lives,
and our worship acceptable to the Lord?
In the Old Testament
times like we're reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 15, when
they offered sacrifices on the altar they had to bring
unblemished animals. There are probably a lot of reasons
but certainly one was their sacrifice was to be costly and
of course, unblemished animals would be the costliest, the
ones with the greatest value and it was the best they had.
That's what God wants from us. He wants our best again
whether it's in the worship assembly, whether it's our daily
Bible study, whether it's in our conduct and our morality
and ethics, he wants the very best from us. That has never
changed from the beginning of time. He's always wanted the
very best of people regardless of what time or age they
lived in.
Now we're going to look
at the third thing. They listen to God with a proper
teaching priest. Go back first of all to chapter 13:9 and
then we'll go back to chapter 15. 2 Chronicles 13:9, "Have
you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron,
and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests, like the
peoples of other lands, so that whoever comes to consecrate
himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of
things that are not gods?" Now keep that in mind as we read
and go back to chapter 15 verses 3 and 4 for a long time
Israel has been without the true God without a teaching
priest and law. But when in their trouble they turned to
the Lord God of Israel and sought him he was found by
them. It doesn't come out in detail and say how it did
this but Azariah in some way is getting the people to come
back to listening to God, and turning back to the Lord. It
says that for a long time, the people did not have the law
or a teaching priest. How long again it doesn't say but
this was something very significant that had to be changed.
We can read about how that was done. You can go back to
Chapter 13 to see this was something that needed to be
done. Azariah says that Israel was without God. They were
without Law, without a teaching priest. This was something
that people needed badly. This was something that was
greatly important to them and so if they were determined to
seek God then they had to do that.
With the Bible in hand,
the only way you can seek God properly is through the
scriptures. If you don't know what the scripture says about
coming to God, seeking God, and following God, then you're
not going to. That's why knowing the scripture is so
important and that's why this is so important there in
chapter 15. For a long time, they didn't have it and so
they needed it and they needed it badly we should never
forget how greatly important today is for good solid
faithful teaching and preaching. It will never go out of
style. First, it's commanded but also because people need
to know how to live and how to worship. People need to
always remember how important that is.
Then the last thing
fourth thing they promised they made a covenant as a
community. Let's go down to verse 9 of our chapter which
says in 2 Chronicles 15:9-15, "Then he gathered all Judah
and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim,
Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great
numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was
with him. 10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the
third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11
And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred
bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had
brought. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the
Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all
their soul; 13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of
Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great,
whether man or woman. 14 Then they took an oath before the
Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams'
horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had
sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their
soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest
all around."
They came together as a
solemn assembly. They came together as a community. They
came together as a group and as a group, they made this
Covenant and how important it was for the whole to make this
commitment, to make this promise, to make this Covenant that
they would seek the Lord of God their fathers with all their
heart and with all their soul. Not only did they make that
promise but they also said that whoever would not do that
would be put to death. So within this Covenant agreement
within this promise of the whole Community if anybody turns
from it and says I'm not going to seek the Lord God with all
of my heart and all of my soul then he would be put to
death. He would no longer be a part of God's family and I
think we learned from that how important it is for the
church today to seek the Lord with all of our heart and with
all of our soul. Jesus on more than one occasion said you
know the greatest commandment love the Lord your God with
your whole heart soul mind that's the greatest commandment
and so that's what these people were doing. They made this
promise, this Covenant that that's what they would do. They
would seek him with all their heart and with all their soul
and the result was the Lord God gave them rest all around.
And like I said, I love that little part at the very end.
He gave them rest all around. The only real peace the
Bible talks about is having peace with God and that comes
through Jesus Christ. And that comes when we decide to obey
him and become a Christian and then continue to live a
Christian Life by confessing wrong when we sin and that's
the only kind of peace that is lasting. Jesus is called the
Prince of Peace. He brought the kind of peace that was
never found before but certainly is available now and like
that verse 15 says he will give us rest all around. I hope
you've enjoyed this lesson from the Old Testament on 2
Chronicles chapter 15. It's another example of how these
things were written before so that we could learn from
them. Hopefully, we've learned a lot from 2 Chronicles
chapter 15.
Free to use to the
furtherance of the Kingdom and for the Glory of God.
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