Week of Monday October 14 – October 20
Radical Return - Man as Chaplain
“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, [King Hezekiah] opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs...” - 2 Chronicles 29:3-6 ESV
For those who had lived long enough to experience the roller coaster of kings whose leadership brought blessings or judgments to the nation of Judah, there is something refreshing and hopeful when a godly leader takes the helm and proceeds to right the ship. Proverbs 29:2 ESV underscores this truth, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” There had been a whole lot of groaning in the land until King Hezekiah began to rule.
When this 25-year-old came to the throne, he was obsessed with one obsession, he was ablaze with one fire, he was consumed with one great passion! After 16 years of disobedience and decline, he and his nation would know a renewal of their relationship with the Lord, a revival. In v 3, the Scripture says that “in the first month of the first year of his reign,” he led the people to return to the Lord in repentance. For Hezekiah, returning to God was priority one.
Why? Look back at v 6-9: “Our fathers were unfaithful and have done what is evil in the sight of the LORD…Therefore the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem…” They looked at their deplorable circumstances, wondered why they were weak as a nation, wondered why they were in fear of their enemies. They came to a conclusion: They had forsaken the Lord, and they were experiencing His discipline. When we feel the heat of God's discipline, that is often when we get motivated to make a radical return to God.
Men, what do you see when you look at America today? If you’ve been around for a while like I have, we are definitely not what we once were as a nation. Not that we have ever been perfect, far from it. Yet, the decline is unmistakable and the downward spiral seems to be escalating. Other than living a life that is close to and clean before the Lord and leading our families to do the same, what can we do? We can take a page out of the Book and follow Hezekiah’s prescription: Humble ourselves before the Lord in repentance and plead for His mercy on behalf of this sinful and broken nation.
What happened when Hezekiah and the people did this? In chapter 30:26-27, we read: “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.” God heard their cries of repentance and they experienced great joy.
There are many who say that this nation can no longer rise to what the founders envisioned when America began or even to what it was a generation ago. However, Hezekiah’s story should offer to us a glimmer of hope. For when the timeless principles of repentance and obedience to God mark a civil leader and spills over into the general culture, a new direction for the nation can take place. May God in His grace give us godly civil leaders, who see the need to lead a radical return to the Lord! Yet if He does not, may we do our part as spiritual leaders to call our families and friends to cry out to God in repentance on behalf of our broken nation.
- Do you pray, vote and stand for civil leaders who acknowledge God and whose policies line up with biblical values?
- Regardless of what our civil leaders may do, are you shepherding your family and friends in the urgent priority of returning to the Lord personally as well as crying out to God for our communities and our nation?
- Pray that God in His grace would give us righteous civil leaders who would lead a radical return to the Lord in America.
Radical Return - Man as Chaplain
“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, [King Hezekiah] opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs...” - 2 Chronicles 29:3-6 ESV
For those who had lived long enough to experience the roller coaster of kings whose leadership brought blessings or judgments to the nation of Judah, there is something refreshing and hopeful when a godly leader takes the helm and proceeds to right the ship. Proverbs 29:2 ESV underscores this truth, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” There had been a whole lot of groaning in the land until King Hezekiah began to rule.
When this 25-year-old came to the throne, he was obsessed with one obsession, he was ablaze with one fire, he was consumed with one great passion! After 16 years of disobedience and decline, he and his nation would know a renewal of their relationship with the Lord, a revival. In v 3, the Scripture says that “in the first month of the first year of his reign,” he led the people to return to the Lord in repentance. For Hezekiah, returning to God was priority one.
Why? Look back at v 6-9: “Our fathers were unfaithful and have done what is evil in the sight of the LORD…Therefore the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem…” They looked at their deplorable circumstances, wondered why they were weak as a nation, wondered why they were in fear of their enemies. They came to a conclusion: They had forsaken the Lord, and they were experiencing His discipline. When we feel the heat of God's discipline, that is often when we get motivated to make a radical return to God.
Men, what do you see when you look at America today? If you’ve been around for a while like I have, we are definitely not what we once were as a nation. Not that we have ever been perfect, far from it. Yet, the decline is unmistakable and the downward spiral seems to be escalating. Other than living a life that is close to and clean before the Lord and leading our families to do the same, what can we do? We can take a page out of the Book and follow Hezekiah’s prescription: Humble ourselves before the Lord in repentance and plead for His mercy on behalf of this sinful and broken nation.
What happened when Hezekiah and the people did this? In chapter 30:26-27, we read: “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.” God heard their cries of repentance and they experienced great joy.
There are many who say that this nation can no longer rise to what the founders envisioned when America began or even to what it was a generation ago. However, Hezekiah’s story should offer to us a glimmer of hope. For when the timeless principles of repentance and obedience to God mark a civil leader and spills over into the general culture, a new direction for the nation can take place. May God in His grace give us godly civil leaders, who see the need to lead a radical return to the Lord! Yet if He does not, may we do our part as spiritual leaders to call our families and friends to cry out to God in repentance on behalf of our broken nation.
- Do you pray, vote and stand for civil leaders who acknowledge God and whose policies line up with biblical values?
- Regardless of what our civil leaders may do, are you shepherding your family and friends in the urgent priority of returning to the Lord personally as well as crying out to God for our communities and our nation?
- Pray that God in His grace would give us righteous civil leaders who would lead a radical return to the Lord in America.