Speaker Sermon/Lesson Title Audio   Video  Text     MS Word Bobby Stafford Lessons From 2 Chronicles 15

Lessons from 2 Chronicles 15

all right well I think we're going ahead and begin with just a little background about especially 2 Chronicles it tends to focus on Jerusalem and the history of Jerusalem the temple and the various kings that had a role to play in the history.  Quite frequently the temple there in Jerusalem required restoration and part of what we're going to be looking at tonight deals with one of those periods and we're going to be looking at how God used different individuals to carry out his will on Earth.  As we read the Bible we need to understand that everything in the Bible is important to us.  God didn't put anything in the Bible for us that wasn't good.  Everything is important and so we'll certainly see that this evening from 2 Chronicles 15   The New Testament talks about how things that were written before were written for our learning and there is much to learn from our reading tonight from 2 Chronicles chapter 15.   This chapter is especially about one of the kings called King Asa.   He was a king who reigned for about 41 years in Jerusalem from somewhere around 90 BC to around 869 BC. 

His father was Abijah, his grandfather was Rabam.  Both of those individuals did some good at times but overall probably not very good Kings.   But as soon as Asa comes along he is ready to bring about some reform that had not been done in the past and so we're going to see how he strikes down different places of idolatry.   He is one that came up against an army of a million men from Ethiopia and he cried to the Lord for help and the Lord answered and defeated that huge Army.  I know it's hard for us to imagine a million men being in an army.  We're looking here at chapter 15 of 2 Chronicles, and we have a Prophet there by the name of Azariah who meets As and encourages him to keep on doing this restoration and not stop.  We want to pay real close attention to the text and see these four lessons that we can learn from it. 

The first one is that as a very courageously removed idol.  Go back and read a few verses in chapter 14 which says this in verses 3 and 4 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods in the high places broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.  We see in the chapter before what he's doing.  He's cutting down these idolatrous images and altars and so forth to foreign gods.  In 2 Chronicles 15:8, "And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord."

In 2 Chronicles 15:16-17, "Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days."

We see here that Asa had already removed some of the idols back in chapter 14 and so Azariah the prophet comes along like a lot of the prophets that we read about in the Old Testament and encouraged him, motivated him, and urged him to do even more.   There was still work to be done and he needed to put away more of the idolatry even his mother had set up an idol for Ashra and he went so far as to crush and burn the very Idol his mother had set up.  Asa was not an idolator like so many others of that time were but he needed Azariah to come along and just give him a little push to get more of the work done and that's what Azariah did.

As a king it was up to him to take care of this and that's exactly what he did he didn't put a survey out there and ask the people what they wanted because he knew what was right he knew he needed to get rid of the idols.  It was his responsibility and in verse 17 that we read some of the high places were not removed from Israel. Even though he did a great deal more than many others he didn't remove all these idolatrous places and altars.  When we think about idolatry today we think about there being these places where they would sit up or place wooden images or metal images.  Idolatry is just as much alive and well today as it was back in the day.  we read in Ephesians 5:5-6, "For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."  What is covetousness what does it mean to covet?  It's when you have this desire to possess something that doesn't belong to you in other words it belongs to someone else. 

Paul there in Ephesians chapter 5 says those who are Covetous are idolators.  That's what they're doing because their love their desire, and their commitment to something else has taken the place of Jehovah and this desire was pulling them away from doing what they needed to do for God.  This is how we need to diagnose idolatry in ourselves and our families and friends. 

Jesus said no man can serve two masters in Matthew 6:24.  We know this is true and we need to see if there's something that is vying for first place in our hearts or our lives; what might be pulling us away from God.  It might be money, might be power, might even be things like travel or clothes or home renovation, Family, Friends, School, sports, movies, shows, and video games.  You know how popular they are so any of those things, are they taking the place of your desire for God?

Moving on to the second lesson we learned from 2 Chronicles chapter 15 these people repaired the temple and renewed their worship.  Going back to verse eight again we're going to read, "And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord."   And then Verse 18 says "He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils."  The altar of God was damaged and Asa saw it needed to be repaired so it was usable.  Many people throughout the history of God's people have repaired parts of the temple.  Josiah, Hezekiah, Joash, and others, so this was something he saw that needed to be done.  There was something wrong with it in some way.  The Bible doesn't say, it just says He restored it.  So whatever was wrong, he restored it to what it needed to be. 

We also read that his father had given things to the temple.   These things need to be restored.  In the New Covenant now for us, we don't have a physical temple with a physical altar or physical utensils.  The Bible says Christians are the Church of God, the Temple of the Lord.  Our worship, our giving, our lives, and all of that are our sacrifices and offerings to the Lord.  Romans 12:1, Hebrews 13:15-16, 1 Peter 2:2

It is very appropriate, necessary, and needful for us to examine our worship assemblies, our classes, our conduct, how we live, and ask if any places need to be repaired.  Is there something that needs to be restored that's not what it needs to be?  Are our sacrifices, our offerings in our classes and our lives, and our worship acceptable to the Lord? 

In the Old Testament times like we're reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 15, when they offered sacrifices on the altar they had to bring unblemished animals.  There are probably a lot of reasons but certainly one was their sacrifice was to be costly and of course, unblemished animals would be the costliest, the ones with the greatest value and it was the best they had.  That's what God wants from us.  He wants our best again whether it's in the worship assembly, whether it's our daily Bible study, whether it's in our conduct and our morality and ethics, he wants the very best from us.  That has never changed from the beginning of time.  He's always wanted the very best of people regardless of what time or age they lived in. 

Now we're going to look at the third thing.   They listen to God with a proper teaching priest.  Go back first of all to chapter 13:9 and then we'll go back to chapter 15.   2 Chronicles 13:9, "Have you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests, like the peoples of other lands, so that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of things that are not gods?"  Now keep that in mind as we read and go back to chapter 15 verses 3 and 4 for a long time Israel has been without the true God without a teaching priest and law.  But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him he was found by them.   It doesn't come out in detail and say how it did this but Azariah in some way is getting the people to come back to listening to God, and turning back to the Lord.   It says that for a long time, the people did not have the law or a teaching priest.  How long again it doesn't say but this was something very significant that had to be changed.  We can read about how that was done.  You can go back to Chapter 13 to see this was something that needed to be done.  Azariah says that Israel was without God. They were without Law, without a teaching priest.  This was something that people needed badly.  This was something that was greatly important to them and so if they were determined to seek God then they had to do that.

With the Bible in hand, the only way you can seek God properly is through the scriptures.  If you don't know what the scripture says about coming to God, seeking God, and following God, then you're not going to.   That's why knowing the scripture is so important and that's why this is so important there in chapter 15.  For a long time, they didn't have it and so they needed it and they needed it badly we should never forget how greatly important today is for good solid faithful teaching and preaching.  It will never go out of style.  First, it's commanded but also because people need to know how to live and how to worship.  People need to always remember how important that is.

Then the last thing fourth thing they promised they made a covenant as a community. Let's go down to verse 9 of our chapter which says in 2 Chronicles 15:9-15, "Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.  10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14 Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams' horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around."

They came together as a solemn assembly.  They came together as a community.  They came together as a group and as a group, they made this Covenant and how important it was for the whole to make this commitment, to make this promise, to make this Covenant that they would seek the Lord of God their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.  Not only did they make that promise but they also said that whoever would not do that would be put to death.  So within this Covenant agreement within this promise of the whole Community if anybody turns from it and says I'm not going to seek the Lord God with all of my heart and all of my soul then he would be put to death.  He would no longer be a part of God's family and I think we learned from that how important it is for the church today to seek the Lord with all of our heart and with all of our soul.  Jesus on more than one occasion said you know the greatest commandment love the Lord your God with your whole heart soul mind that's the greatest commandment and so that's what these people were doing.  They made this promise, this Covenant that that's what they would do. They would seek him with all their heart and with all their soul and the result was the Lord God gave them rest all around.   And like I said, I love that little part at the very end.  He gave them rest all around.   The only real peace the Bible talks about is having peace with God and that comes through Jesus Christ.  And that comes when we decide to obey him and become a Christian and then continue to live a Christian Life by confessing wrong when we sin and that's the only kind of peace that is lasting.  Jesus is called the Prince of Peace.  He brought the kind of peace that was never found before but certainly is available now and like that verse 15 says he will give us rest all around.  I hope you've enjoyed this lesson from the Old Testament on 2 Chronicles chapter 15.  It's another example of how these things were written before so that we could learn from them.  Hopefully, we've learned a lot from 2 Chronicles chapter 15. 

 

 

 

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