Context No. 3985 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 34:8-13: in context

8Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of the LORD his God. 9They came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that was brought into God’s house, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered from the hands of Manasseh, Ephraim, of all the remnant of Israel, of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10They delivered it into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the LORD’s house; and the workmen who labored in the LORD’s house gave it to mend and repair the house. 11They gave it to the carpenters and to the builders to buy cut stone and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12The men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to give direction; and others of the Levites, who were all skillful with musical instruments. 13Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and directed all who did the work in every kind of service. Of the Levites, there were scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.

As part of his great reforms, King Josiah sends men to repair the neglected temple of the LORD, and the account pauses to note something about the workers: the men did the work faithfully. It is a small phrase, easy to pass over, but it honors an often overlooked virtue.

These were carpenters and builders and laborers, handling money and materials, doing hard, unglamorous work of repair, and the record singles them out because they did it faithfully, with honesty and diligence. There is dignity here for faithful labor of every kind. Their names are mostly unrecorded, their tasks ordinary, but God noticed and Scripture noted that they worked faithfully. Not everyone in God's work is a king or a prophet; most are the faithful laborers who quietly do what needs doing, honestly and well. And that faithfulness matters to God. There is a call here to do our own work, whatever it is, with the same faithfulness, handling our responsibilities with honesty and diligence, whether or not anyone notices.

Do I do my own work, whatever it is, with the faithfulness, honesty, and diligence that God commended in the temple workers, handling my responsibilities well whether or not anyone notices?

Sources

2 Chronicles 34:12: "The men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites."
2 Chronicles 34:8: "He sent Shaphan... to repair the house of the LORD his God."
Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men."