Wednesday Night Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 15-5-7

2 Chronicles 15 and the Warning to Keep Seeking the Lord

Name. Amen. Please go ahead and turn to Second Chronicles chapter 15. Second Chronicles 15. I'll go ahead and read verses 1 through 7. The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin.

The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without the law.

But when in their distress they turned to the Lord the God of Israel and sought him, he was found by them. And those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in. For great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the land.

They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city. For God troubled them with every sort of distress. But you, take courage. Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.

The Judges, Division, and the Meaning of No Peace

Amen. Flick, I will ask you again to get a pen for me, thanks. Okay. All right. So here in, okay, see everybody have a booklet? Got a booklet? All right. We are in Second Chronicles 15 beginning in verse 5.

Verse 5 opens up with, and in those times there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in. What times? If you remember, we concluded last time that he's most likely talking about the times of the judges.

Okay. So during the time of the judges there was no peace. There was just constantly war all the time. Now of course there were, there was peace as different judges were raised up. There was peace for a season, but peace was not long-lasting during any of those times.

All right. And there were, there were always just different enemies that would attack them, in part because of their weakness, because they were so divided. That's something that's important to recognize that a lot of these details about being divided, being attacked, etc. all go hand-in-hand.

And when he says those who go out and those who come in, that's just an idiom for everybody. It's not really talking about leaving a particular area or going to a particular area or any by that. That just means everybody, everybody that's out and about experienced trouble.

All right. 5b. But great vexations were on all the inhabitants of the land. Okay. Those great vexations are attacks and division. And then when it says the inhabitants of the lands, that's talking about various areas of Israel.

So it's interesting they describes it in plural, even though you typically think of Canaan as being one land. But I think by describing it as plural lands, he's kind of suggesting their division with that, with that plural word.

So some think that by lands he just means the countrysides, because Judges 5 -6 talks about highwaymen being about, and so people couldn't take the roads because highwaymen would, would attack them. However, it seems much more straightforward to understand this as speaking plurally regarding the land because it was divided.

Okay. And how does it relate to all the preceding context? Provides more evidence for the importance of turning to the Lord. So remember our prophet here, Azariah, is speaking to Asa after Asa has served the Lord in battle, and Azariah is telling him that this is good, but you have to keep seeking the Lord.

You have to keep seeking the Lord, and you will continue having military victory. In other words, you have to keep worshiping the Lord, not turning away to false worship, and you will keep having military victory.

But if you abandon the Lord, then he will abandon you, and the implication being that he will cease having military victory, that he'll be subject to enemy nations just like they were at the time of the Judges.

All right. Verse 6, and they were broken in pieces. So the people of Israel being broken in pieces, not having a lot of unity through the time of the Judges. My understanding is, and I haven't gone and verified this myself by reading every single Judge and kind of analyzing, but in reading other works that summarize the Judges, it seems that none of them were actually Judges over all Israel except Samuel.

Samuel was the only Judge that was actually over the whole nation of Israel. So when you think of these Judges leading the people, a lot of times they're just leading part of the people. They're not even leading all the people.

This is how divided up the the nation was. Even the greatest leaders are not leading the whole of the country. And yeah, why are they broken up into pieces, or sorry, when were they during the time of the Judges?

How? Because they were both divided among themselves, and then on top of that, harmed from the outside by enemy nations. There really is something that is especially cursed about being broken into pieces.

Can anybody think of any passage in scripture that describes judgment as being broken into pieces? Is it at least one that I think should stand out? Yes. Oh, that that might be a good one, but I'm thinking about the idiom just broken into pieces.

Any time where the idiom broken into pieces shows up. Yes. Psalm 2. Right. Right. That the that the Anointed, the Son, this day I've begotten you, etc. smashes the nations with a rod of iron, talks about them being broken into pieces.

And this is something that appears a number of times in scripture. Daniel 2 .35, Proverbs 16 .4, as well as Psalm 2 .9. And then later, when the people get their king, it says in 1st Psalm, or 1st Samuel, excuse me, 1st Samuel 2.

I'll get the actual quote here. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. So this is, this is what they say when they finally, this is what they say when Samuel, or excuse me, this is part of Hannah's prayer, right?

When Samuel is prophesying what's going to happen up through Samuel, is that, because through him is going to come the king, who is going to break the nations into pieces. All right. Now let's look at Matthew 24, 3 to 8.

And this corresponds to the passage that says nation against nation, and city against city. All right. Matthew 24, verses 3 through 8. This is very similar to the text that we've been going through in Luke 21, on Sunday mornings.

And he sat on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming? And at the end of the age, and Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ.

And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of birth pains. Okay. So as I've been preaching on Sunday morning, these signs signify something. They're not arbitrary.

Okay. What does nation against nation signify? It signifies a coming judgment. Being divided against yourself is a very heavy kind of judgments. In fact, the heaviest judgments that you see in the Bible are people turning on themselves, like Gideon against the people of Midian.

There are also, oh later on, Jehoshaphat looking on the cliffs of Ziz, I guess it's called. I'm trying to remember the the peoples. It's two different peoples. I forget if it was Edom and somebody or who.

But anyway, another scene where the enemy just turns on itself. That is the the worst kind of judgment. I have heard also the speculation, and this is just speculation, or at least so far as much as I've looked into it, that when it talks about biting and gnashing of teeth, given that Galatians speaks of biting one another as division in the church, that when it speaks of biting, does refer to the scene in hell, that it may even refer to people warring against themselves in in hell.

I don't know if that is the case, but it would fit with this pattern that we see of some of the greatest judgments being division against against self. And that's what happens in the time of the judges.

There's so much division that Benjamin almost perishes because the people have, because Benjamin has been so negligent about justice that the people turn on Benjamin, and they almost entirely destroyed Benjamin by the end of judges.

All right, the question here about what is the relevance of Acts 4 should have been a question about Matthew 24. Hopefully that was obvious enough. But yeah, this is the sign that's given here is a picture of judgment.

These are signs of judgment. The fact that there are wars are signs that there is a great judgment coming. And that's why the New Testament has such a significant focus on Christian unity also, is because Christians are receiving the blessing that is salvation, that is the opposite of judgment.

Being unified is salvation. Being judged is division. And think about what happened at Babel, right? All the people split away, go away from each other because they're being judged. And then what happens at Pentecost?

Suddenly everybody can understand each other's languages again, and they're drawn together in unity. It's a picture of salvation. I also think it's interesting, and it only sort of clicked for me when I was studying this passage.

I think it's, I've always found it interesting that Acts 4, 27 to 28 says, for truly in the city there were gathered together against you, against your Holy Anointed Jesus, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

Okay, why does it say peoples of Israel? That's a really weird phrase, especially at this point when all the northern kingdom of Israel is gone, it's just Judah left. Why would you say the peoples of Israel?

It seems that after Acts 2, where suddenly the church is united, and that being stated later in 1 Corinthians as being judgment against the Jews to be surrounded by those who are speaking foreign languages, appealing to Old Testament prophecies, etc., that then it reinforces that by speaking of Judah as being divided, by calling them the peoples of Israel, just like this passage does.

It talks about the lands of Israel. So yeah, just a little subtle hint at that judgment there in Acts chapter 4, 27. All right, 6C, for God vexed them with all adversity. Okay, all adversity meaning the judgment being a very complete, total one.

Of course, He was merciful. He didn't completely destroy them, but it was extensive. And this is from God in that even though it's enemy nations attacking, we see repeatedly that God's the one who sends the enemy nations in order to discipline His people.

In Isaiah 10, it describes Assyria as being the rod in God's hand. You know, the Father disciplines His son with the rod. God disciplines Israel with Assyria. And then the significance of it being from God, remember this is Azariah's message.

His whole point is, if you don't serve the Lord, then you'll, the Lord will not be with you anymore. In other words, you will be attacked. So all these statements about the people being vexed before, etc., that was at God's hand.

That means that God can vex the people again. He can send more enemies against them again, and He will. He will as they turn away from Him, just as I mentioned with Assyria. But be strong and do not let your hands be slack, for your work will be rewarded.

So being strong here means resisting the urge to trust in the power of man. Okay, obviously when we are weak, we are supposed to trust in God, and it's good for us to be weak in the sense of not relying on ourselves.

But being strong here means not relying on others. Okay, the weak person ends up wanting to rely on false things, false gods, nations they're not supposed to make alliances with, etc. The one who is strong does not feel the need to do that.

Of course, they're supposed to find their strength in God rather than in themselves, but this is still appropriately referred to as strength. What work must be done? Very simply put, worship and warfare, right?

They must worship God truly, and then they must engage in the warfare that God calls them to against enemies. The problem often isn't that they are calling for war where there shouldn't be war. The problem is often that they're calling for peace where God says there shouldn't be peace.

Where, yeah, they want alliances and other things like that, and God would have them to have no alliances. And how will it be rewarded? Once again, simply put, peace and prosperity. All right, First Chronicles 28.

Let's go ahead and read verses 20 through 21 there. Then David said to Solomon, his son, be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed for the Lord God, even my God, is with you.

He will not leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. And behold, the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God and with you and all the work will be every willing man who has skill for any kind of service.

Also the officers and all the people will be holy at your command. So David tells Solomon, be strong and courageous and do it, and he tells him to build the temple. If you remember, there were other callbacks here in this prophecy to David's charge to Solomon.

He had said in First Chronicles 28 .9, there had been the statement that, I'll just go ahead and read that again. First Chronicles 28 .9, and you, Solomon, my son, know that know the God of your fathers and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.

If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. That is the, that's the thesis statement of Azariah's message. So Azariah, basically with the first sentence and the last sentence, is giving David's charge to Solomon to Asa.

Okay, Asa being another son of David, who he's getting a reminder of this very same call with the first sentence and the last sentence of Azariah's prophecy to him. Once again, this is the the repeated thing that you see here in Chronicles that you don't see as you read the same passages in Kings, either in adding the earlier text so that you see that they're callbacks to those things, or in giving details in the later ones.

The Chronicler wants you to know the repeated requirement of the people of the king to be that one who is going to sit on the throne forever like David, or like God promised David his son would do. Solomon didn't truly do it, none of them truly do it, ultimately it needs the Messiah and he will.

But that charge keeps giving, keeps being given, and the callbacks to David, the callbacks to Solomon repeatedly by the Chronicler are supposed to let you know we need someone like David and Solomon who is going to sit on the throne forever, who's going to truly seek the Lord and not fail in doing so.

So here we have this with Asa, things will not continue perfectly with him, but he receives that charge once again. All right, reflection. What does division look like in the church? How does forsaking the Lord lead to division?

And how can you uphold unity in the church? So questions about this here. Hopefully given this passage it can help you think a little more deeply about unity than most people do. Most people think about unity just in terms of being nice to each other, or maybe in terms of, well let's not talk about the things that might divide us, when ultimately that can be more divisive.

If you stray away from truth just to not hurt feelings, you won't have the thing that unites anymore. But what is the cure for unity here? If unity and division are things that come from the Lord and not things that come from man, then they aren't found by going for those things directly, right?

What if Asa were just to go for military victory directly and not heed what he's saying here, right? If he was just to go for military victory directly, he would be destroyed. But if he seeks the Lord, if he engages in right worship and then is strong and courageous in going into battle, it'll be successful.

A lot of people try to pursue unity as its own thing, as a distinct thing, something that it's just one piece of a formula of other things, right? But that's not really how it is. It's an outflow of something that happens before, where we orient our hearts to God rightly, we're praying to him, we're seeking him in worship truly, we seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all the other things get added.

A lot of people, the reason why they, you know, I was mentioning this on Sunday, the reason why people doubt whether or not someone is going to repent, they're going to be able to repair some relationship or whatever, is because they're thinking about it in terms of their own power to affect that thing, and they aren't thinking about God's power of the Holy Spirit in them to affect that thing, and they aren't thinking about how it's related to their faithfulness to the Lord being rightly attended with the fruit of that.

So as we seek the Lord, we really pray for him for unity in the church, so we pray for him for reconciliation, etc., he produces these things. So let's not neglect right worship as being the key part of the formula for unity, whereas, yeah, for a lot of people, right worship seems too strict and divisive, and we should just be more free-flowing, it shouldn't matter really, you know, everybody's gonna approach God their own way, and if you want to be unified, you just let everybody approach God their own way instead of, you know, having requirements about the right way to approach God, either in formal worship or in private worship.

Okay, any questions? Yes, right, yeah, mission, I mean, that's very practically unifying, and that can be one of the things, a lot of times God uses things that naturally bring people together in addition to the actually supernaturally drawing people together.

Yeah, and why would the people be zealous to fight the enemy, etc.? It's because they are trusting in the Lord together for great answers. That's what you've seen with some of these supernatural battles, is they recognize the Lord is on their side as they call out to the Lord, but yeah, if you don't have a, if you aren't standing for a particular truth and you're kind of devolving into a club and it will not, yeah, of course you won't have the supernatural power of God, but then even the natural things that he might give of giving you confidence won't be there because you're not standing for anything in particular, so.

You're not actually tasting victory. Yeah, right, right, and of course I would, I.

Would hesitate for people to think, to use that metaphor a little too literally, right, to imagine themselves like a gas tank that needs a certain level of spirit or something, as though he's not a person.

It does talk about being filled with the Spirit as something distinct to just being indwelt with the Spirit. Every believer is indwelt with the Spirit, and Jesus says at the end of the Lord's Prayer in Luke that whoever prays for more of the Spirit will receive, so yeah, we should, it is, it is good to think of the Spirit's work as not something that every Christian has just by virtue of being Christian in the same measure, right, that it's something where as you pray more you receive that work in greater measure, but so yeah, just one caution though about the, about thinking about in levels.

So what does it look like? Well, yeah, you're gonna have less of the fruit of the Spirit, right, less work of the Spirit, less fruit of the Spirit. You're gonna be more joyless, you're going to have less self-control, you're going to have more anxiety, etc., right, and the works of the flesh are gonna be more active.

That's really the short of it. Then there's other things. You're going to have less unity with other brothers and sisters, things like that. Oh, is there anything else you are looking for? No? Okay, okay.

Well, I mean, yeah, if you've got a more specific question I can answer that too, but any other questions?