The Lord Has Chosen You (2 Chronicles 29:11)

 


Monday, August 19, 2024


Psalms 110; 111

2 Chronicles 28:16-29:11

Romans 11:13-24


The Lord Has Chosen You (2 Chronicles 29:11)


What a mess that King Hezekiah has inherited! His predecessor, Ahaz, had turned from the Lord, found failure, and doubled down on it. Not only does Hezekiah need to fix the physical Temple, he has to reform the entire religion!


It sounds like it must have been a very big job. We read that Ahaz had put places on every street corner for demon worship; the rot had gone deep.


Is not our own place and time eerily similar? Walk down any street you like and you will find altars to the gods of greed, money, vanity, and existential dread.


To take our sword and our trowel to our own situation is not an enviable task. Yet this is the time and place in which God has placed us. It is not for us to complain about it; it is for us to rise to the occasion.


Hezekiah chose some interesting words: “do not be negligent”. Usually we would expect to hear words of courage and bravery, such as those which God gave to Joshua before his invasion of Canaan, or those which Jesus spoke to his disciples in the storm. But in this particular situation, Hezekiah is concerned that the people will be half-hearted in their work because it doesn’t seem all that important.


This work is, however, very important; perhaps the most important work anyone could ever be given.


In your own work in building the kingdom of heaven on earth, are you being negligent? Is there any work that you could be putting a little more time and effort into?


God of my redemption and our redemption: fan up the flames of my love for your work, so that I may never be accused of negligence in my love for you.

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