Journal the Journey

“King Hezekiah, his officers, and all the people in Jerusalem agreed to celebrate the Passover in the second month. They could not celebrate it at the normal time, because not enough priests had made themselves ready to serve the Lord…” (2 Chronicles 30:2-3)

When reading through the stories of the Old Testament kings, you will typically see the king being introduced as one who “did what the Lord said was right” or who “did not do what the Lord said was right.” I always get excited when I see a king’s name followed by the first description, and I hope to see endurance in his holiness and passion for God as I continue on and read about his life and the way he ruled the kingdom. (To my disappointment, even those described as doing what the Lord said was right usually end up messing up big time before their reign is over.)

Hezekiah reigned after Ahaz, and Ahaz was a king that did not do what was right. Hezekiah went to work setting things right again, for when a king didn’t do the right thing, the whole kingdom went into shambles. They would get defeated by their enemies. Chaos, disorder, and strife were prominent.

As King Hezekiah made preparations and sent out invitations to all the people to come celebrate Passover, a sacred time that reminded them of God’s power and faithfulness from when He delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt, the priests were busy getting themselves ready to serve the Lord. I can only imagine why they were unfit, for the scriptures do not say. I imagine that when the temple was shut down and its holy possessions given away to others by King Ahaz, the priests were not able to do everything they had to do in order to serve the Lord according to their religious laws. I want to research it, but for now I also wonder if the priests were not ready simply because they had strayed from their faith when Ahaz ruled. Did their hearts close the door on their faith when they saw their temple’s doors closed by Ahaz? Did the exterior circumstances cause them to fall into a life of sin and unrighteousness?

Probably my biggest hindrance in drawing nearer to God over the many years of my journey as a Christian has been a constant tension in me to do more to be accepted by God. It’s a performance-based salvation, and it is not right. It’s not God’s way, and it goes against the Gospel of Christ even though I did not realize this for so many years. I am thankful I have been delivered from thinking I have to do and not do certain things in order to be made right with God. I understand now that my faith in Jesus’ powerful work on the cross is literally all I need to be cleansed from my unrighteousness and brought into beautiful relationship with our magnificent, incredible, loving God.

But before Jesus’ work, salvation was works-based; not that they could ever follow every single law perfectly, for that was (and still is) not possible for us humans. Their failure to obey showed them their sinfulness. And the law as a whole was intended by God to point the people to their need for a Savior, for in and of themselves they could not earn or deserve salvation.

(To be continued…)