2 Chronicles 30:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is a passover resolved on. That yearly feast had been given as a memorial of God bringing Israel out of Egypt. The revival of temple worship happened during the appointed days of that feast, on the seventeenth day of the first month. That brought the forgotten holy day back to mind.

Hezekiah asked what should be done about the passover. It was a comforting ordinance, and it had been neglected for a long time. How could it be restored? The time for that year had already passed, so they could not begin at once. The congregation was small, the people had not been notified, and the priests were not ready (2 Chronicles 30:3). Should they wait until the next year?

Many likely wanted to delay it. But Hezekiah saw that by next year the people’s good feelings would cool, and they would go too long without this blessing. He also found a provision in Moses’ law that allowed people who were unclean in the first month to keep the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month and still be accepted (Numbers 9:11). So he believed the same allowance could be extended to the whole congregation. They decided to keep the passover in the second month. It is wise to make room for the main thing, rather than lose the thing itself over a small question of timing. It is good to act while people are willing. Delays can be dangerous.

A proclamation was then sent out to announce the passover and call the people to it. Letters were written to Ephraim and Manasseh, two leading tribes in the northern kingdom of Israel, inviting them to Jerusalem for this passover (2 Chronicles 30:1). This was not done for political gain, to draw them back under the house of David. It was done for a godly purpose, to bring them back to the Lord God of Israel. Let them choose whichever king they want, Hezekiah seems to say, so long as they choose the Lord as their God. Differences between Judah and Israel, whether civil or religious, should not keep back anyone who truly wants to return to the Lord.

Messengers were sent quickly through all the tribes of Israel with earnest reminders, urging the people to take this chance to return to the God they had left. Hezekiah showed great concern for God’s honor and for the good of a neighboring kingdom that had often treated Judah badly. He was repaying evil with good.

He pressed them, first, to give themselves to the Lord (2 Chronicles 30:8). Before they could enjoy fellowship with God, they had to come into covenant with him. The phrase means, “Give the hand to the Lord,” that is, agree to take him as your God. A bargain is confirmed by giving the hand. So he calls them to enter an everlasting covenant, to sign themselves over to God, and to devote themselves to his service. To yield to God means to come under his rule, and no longer resist him. It means being ready to be, do, have, and suffer whatever he chooses. To do that, they must not be stiff-necked, like their fathers. Human hearts are naturally stubborn and unwilling to obey God. That stubborn will must be broken, and the proud neck must be bent to his yoke.

He also urged them to enter his sanctuary, meaning to come to the place God had chosen, where his name was set, and to worship there in the services he had appointed. The doors of the sanctuary were open again, and they were welcome to join in. The king said, “Come.” The princes and priests said, “Come.” Anyone willing could come. He calls this turning to the Lord God (2 Chronicles 30:6), because they had left him and worshiped other gods. They needed to repent and turn back. Those who, by God’s grace, have turned to him should do all they can to bring others back as well.

Hezekiah gave them several reasons to come. First, they were children of Israel, and therefore belonged to the God of Israel, the one they had turned away from. Second, the God they were being called back to was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their covenant God. Their first fathers served him and yielded themselves to him, and it was both their honor and happiness to do so. Third, their recent fathers who abandoned God had been left in ruin, and their idolatry had destroyed them. Their example should warn the present generation (2 Chronicles 30:7). Fourth, the people themselves were only a remnant, barely escaping from the hands of the kings of Assyria (2 Chronicles 30:6), so they needed the protection of the God of their fathers or they would be lost.

Fifth, this was the only way to turn away God’s fierce anger from them (2 Chronicles 30:8). If they stayed stubborn, that anger would surely consume them. Finally, if they returned to God in duty, he would return to them in mercy. He begins with that promise in (2 Chronicles 30:6) and ends with it in (2 Chronicles 30:9). In general, they would find him gracious and merciful, and ready to receive all who sought him. In particular, they might hope that he would restore their brethren who had been carried away and bring them back to their own land. It is hard to imagine a more moving appeal, or a better cause more earnestly pleaded.

We are not told that Hoshea, the king of Israel at that time, objected to these letters or tried to stop them from being spread through his kingdom. He does not seem to have forbidden his people from accepting the invitation. He left them free to go to Jerusalem and worship if they wished. Though he did evil, he was not as bad as the kings of Israel who came before him (2 Kings 17:2).

He saw the ruin coming on his kingdom, and if any of his people would try this way to stop it, he gave them full permission. But most of the people ignored the call and turned a deaf ear to it. The messengers went from city to city, some to one place and some to another, urging the people to come up to Jerusalem and keep the Passover. Instead of obeying, many insulted the messengers, laughed at them, and mocked them (2 Chronicles 30:10). They did more than refuse, they refused with contempt.

Tell them about the God of Abraham, and they did not know him. They had other gods to serve, Baal and Ashtaroth. Tell them about the sanctuary, and their high places seemed good enough. Tell them about God’s mercy and his anger, and they feared neither one nor wanted the other. It is no surprise that the king’s messengers were treated this way by this rebellious people, when God’s own messengers, the prophets who came with his authority, were treated the same way.

The destruction of the ten tribes was now very near. Only two or three years later, the king of Assyria would besiege Samaria, and that would end in the captivity of those tribes. Just before that, they had not only a king of their own who allowed them to return to God’s sanctuary, but also a king of Judah who earnestly invited them to do so. If most of them had accepted that invitation, it might have kept them from ruin. Their contempt for it made their guilt greater, hastened their fall, and left them without excuse.

Yet a few did accept the invitation. The message was, to some, a warning that brought death, but to others a message that gave life (2 Chronicles 30:11). In the worst times, God has always kept a remnant, and he did so here. Many from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. That means they were sorry for their sins and submitted themselves to God. Pride keeps people from giving themselves to the Lord, but when pride is brought down, the work is done.

A command was also given to the men of Judah to attend this holy feast, and they obeyed it fully (2 Chronicles 30:12). They acted with one heart and were all of one mind, and God gave them that one heart. It is in the day of his power that Christ makes his people willing. God works in people both to will and to do. Whenever people show an unexpected readiness to do what is good, we should recognize God’s hand in it.