God is ready to receive the fallen sinner. Clip from Revival II: Hezekiah’s Revival

Hezekiah’s Invitation to Return to the Lord

Chapter 30, verse 9b, he graciously invites, quote, for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful. If you return to him, he will not continue to turn his face from you. We hear that same invitation, I think, in maybe different words throughout scripture, Old Testament and new, and it's just such a wonderful reminder that however far we may have drifted from him, God stands ready to welcome us back to him.

And yet you have so many then, as today, who responded, quote, they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. But still the remnant of God's true people who genuinely repented and humbled themselves and came.

And verse 26 of chapter 30, 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. Wonderful picture.

Asa’s Reforms, Repentance, and God’s Help for the Helpless

Yeah, and we see this principle acted out a number of times in the history of God's people. Think of King Asa when he led the nation to really seek the Lord, and he had a good start, and God gave them victory over an Ethiopian army that was a million man strong, and the prophet Oded meets him on the road back home after this wonderful victory, and the prayer that Asa prays before and says, there is no God like you that comes to the aid of the helpless, of the weak, and God does.

Asa's already, like Hezekiah, initiated a number of reforms and national repentance, but on the way back, the prophet says, basically, don't stop here. It's a great start. You haven't reached the stopping place.

And the whole nation presses forward in their repentance and in removing idolatry, and God draws near to them, but it's not just Judah to the south that Asa rules that benefits, but you find that pockets of Jews from the north leave the idolatrous northern territory and come back south because God has returned.

Broken Hearts, Changed Lives, and God Drawing Others to Himself

And so here again, like you said, many in Israel to the north mock Judah's earnest return to the Lord, but some of them come, and what a wonderful picture. One of the evidences that God has granted us broken hearts, has heard our cry, has seen our repentance, is not just that we feel that we have entered into a season of extraordinary joy and walking near to our God, but that God begins to attract other people to Himself through our changed lives.

What a wonderful way that that plays itself out over and over through Christian history. Thanks for watching the clip. We hope it was spiritually beneficial for you. We really do appreciate being able to interact with you through the comments.

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