Read 2 Chronicles 30 and Revelation 18.
This devotional is about 2 Chronicles 30.
Are you intimidated by people who don’t know our God? Do you find it difficult to speak about the Lord to others because you expect to be rejected, maybe even mocked for your faith?
If your answer is yes, you’re in good company. There is something very human about wanting to be accepted by other people. We need other people in our lives for love, for friendship, and for help when we have something to do that is too big for one person. We also need people to buy from and sell to, so there are real risks to social rejection of any kind.
It also hurts our confidence and feels terrible to be rejected for your ideas or for what you believe. So, most people are guarded about revealing what they believe, think, and feel and most of us fear being rejected.
Here in 2 Chronicles 30, Hezekiah continued to reform Judah, leading God’s people back to obedience to the Lord and the practices of worship that God’s word commanded. In this chapter, he re-introduced the Passover, which commemorated and taught God’s people about how God miraculously delivered them from Egypt. Although God commanded his people to observe the Passover feast annually, verse 26 told us that “…since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.” So, a few people in Judah had kept the Passover, but according to the end of verse 5, “It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written.”
Hezekiah decided to change that. Though he was king of only Judah and, therefore, only control what Judah did, Hezekiah decided to invite all of the people from the 12 tribes of Israel. He sent messengers to other tribes inviting them to come to Jerusalem for the Passover, according to verse 1.
But verse 10 says this: “The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but people scorned and ridiculed them.” Instead of feeling honored to be welcomed to the feast, these tribes of Israel made fun of the idea of worshipping the Lord God in this way.
But verse 11 goes on to say, “Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.” Though Hezekiah’s messengers were rejected by some, others received the invitation to worship the Lord, “humbled themselves” and came. The result was that God blessed this time of worship for his people, as we read in verses 12-13, 21, 23, 25, 26. The words “joy” and “rejoice” are repeated in these verses, so a good time, spiritually speaking, was had by all. This would not have happened if Hezekiah and the men he sent allowed rejection by some to stop them from spreading the message. But because they were willing to speak for the Lord, even though it meant enduring scorn and ridicule by some, God used them to bring glory to himself and blessing to those who received the message.
If God’s glory is going to grow in this world, God’s servants need to talk about him. We need to tell the world about sin and call people in the world to turn from their sins and find forgiveness, love, acceptance, joy, and grace in the Lord. If you talk to enough people about God, God will use you to reach some of them. But, admittedly, many people will reject the gospel and some of them may even attack you personally, even physically in the most extreme cases. Don’t let the negative response you will receive keep you from being used by God. Keep speaking about Christ, keep reaching out to others with the good news of the gospel. God will use you to reach some and joy will be result.