In 2 Chronicles 30, king Hezekiah realizes that Israel has been unfaithful to the Lord and has not kept His commands. One of the commands that God gave the Israelites was that they keep the Passover every 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew year. They had not celebrated it in a long time—and that was symptomatic of the spiritual state of Israel. It was not only that they had forgotten the feast, but they had forgotten the Lord.
That is the tendency of our fleshly humanity. We don’t mean to forget the Lord, but life gets busy. We get bogged down with the worries and cares of this life and all of the sudden, our daily time with the Lord is out the window. We mean well and we feel bad when we remember how often we forget the Lord, but it is hard to “get back in the routine.” I have found that when I “forget” the Lord, things very quickly get misaligned in my life. I start sinning much easier. I am tempted more frequently. The fruit of the Spirit begins to look more fleshly than spiritual. Has this ever happened to you?
Hezekiah then sent out a letter to all of Israel to invite them to the Passover feast at Jerusalem so that they would return to the Lord. This was a gutsy thing to do. Remember that in the time of Hezekiah, Israel was divided into two kingdoms: the Northern tribes and the Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Hezekiah, the king of the south, went out of realm of authority to call ALL of God people back to serve the Lord! He wrote a letter that went to the entire land of Israel. In that letter he said, “Do not be like your fathers and brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord…for the Lord you God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn His face from you if you return to Him,” (2 Chron. 30:7,9). This was not only a call to a feast, it was a call to repentance.
Repentance is the heart of the Gospel message. Repentance is necessary for our salvation. We need faith in Christ Jesus, repentance from our sins, and payment for our sins. Jesus provided the payment, but we must come in faith and willingness to turn from our sins. God will not despise or reject those who will turn from their sins. We as believers in Jesus Christ, must live a lifestyle of repentance in the fear of the Lord. “Forgetting” Him is not an option. We must continually test ourselves to make sure we are in the faith, as 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 says, and are not living in willful and unrepentant sin. There is not place in our lives where we can forget the Lord and allow sins like jealousy, envy, anger, unforgiveness, selfishness, pride, sexual impurity, slander, gossip, deceit, or disorder (see 2 Cor. 12:20-21). Far too often, we justify gossip, selfishness, or pride and continually live in those things--as if they weren't as bad as the other sins. I invite you to examine your own heart today and let the Holy Spirit convict you of sin and persuade you of His righteousness (see John 16:8-11). Repentance is a lifestyle, not a one time event. God will not despise those who come to Him willing to turn from sin!
Blessings!
Pastor Kyle Bauer
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