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Context No. 1564 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 30:6-12: in context

6So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. 8Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. 9For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.” 10So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. 11Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the LORD’s word.

King Hezekiah sends couriers throughout Israel and Judah with a summons: return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you who have escaped. Do not be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield to the LORD and come to his sanctuary; for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn his face from you if you return to him. The couriers pass from city to city, and most of the people laugh at them and mock them. Nevertheless, some humble themselves and come to Jerusalem, and God gives Judah one heart to obey.

The invitation to return goes out to everyone, and it meets two very different responses. Most of the people mock; the couriers are laughed at, the summons scorned, the call to repent treated as a joke. But some, the text says, humbled themselves and came. The same invitation that the many ridiculed, a few received; the call to return divided its hearers into those who scorned it and those who humbled themselves and answered. There is honor in that little word nevertheless. Nevertheless some humbled themselves and came. It took a certain courage to respond, to travel to Jerusalem to seek the LORD, when most around them were mocking the whole thing; to be among the few who took the call seriously while the crowd laughed. It is often so with God's call to return to him. The invitation goes out, and the common response is indifference or mockery, the summons to repentance treated as beneath serious people; and to answer it, to humble oneself and come, means being willing to be among the few, perhaps to be laughed at oneself. The question the passage puts is which response is ours. When the call to return to God comes, do we join the many who mock and scorn it, or are we among the nevertheless, the few who humble themselves and come, whatever the crowd is doing? And notice the grace at the end: those who came, God gave one heart to obey. The humbling is ours; the enabling is God's. Those who answer the call find God at work in them, giving them the very heart to obey that they came seeking.

When God's call to return to him comes, do I join the many who treat it with indifference or mockery, or am I among the nevertheless, the few who humble themselves and come whatever the crowd is doing, trusting God to give me a heart to obey?

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