Psalm 97, 99, 100; 2 Chron. 29:1-3,30:1-27; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Matt. 7:1-12
Was the Passover about religion or religious activity? It seems here that the reality is that the Lord simply wanted a people yielded to Him, with their hearts turned to Him rather than those who did the right sacrifices. Hezekiah saw that many had come to this Passover festival and were not consecrating themselves with the proper sacrifices and so he, the king, prayed to the Lord for their forgiveness based on their having set their hearts to seek the Lord, “even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness." The Lord heard this prayer and blessed the people, just like He had promised in 2 Chronicles 7 to Solomon after the dedication of the temple, He would hear, forgive, and heal if they would humble themselves, pray and seek His face and repent. Because of this, the festival continued for two solid weeks and at the end the priests and the Levites blessed the people, their voice was heard and their prayer came to God’s holy habitation in heaven. What a concept!
We spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the sins or flaws of others, it seems part of human nature. Imagine what it would have been like to be Jesus and have full knowledge of other people while being perfect yourself. In spite of that, we rarely see Him speaking these things to people except to point out their hypocrisy. If He didn’t conduct Himself that way when He had every right, should we not take a lesson from Him? It is far easier to deal with someone else’s sin rather than our own. Hezekiah decided that the best way to deal with the sins of others was to ask the Lord to see their hearts seeking after Him and forgive on that basis. He could have insisted that they refrain from participation in the feast but instead he asked the Lord to forgive, which is exactly what Jesus did. Love is the key.
Paul’s desire for the people is that they experience undivided devotion to the Lord. He has personally experienced this joy and knows that nothing on earth compares to that bliss. It is not that he believes there is not “good” in marriage, the Lord has ordained that to be a good thing but he believes there is something better even than marriage, undivided devotion to the Lord. In both this passage and yesterday’s Paul speaks also of self-control. He understands the difficulties of passion and says that those who cannot control those passions should indeed marry but he believes that it is better to remain free to love the Lord with all your being. Indeed, there is nothing like the devotion to the Lord and we do have divided hearts. Let us set ourselves, whatever our situation, to loving the Lord and seeking His face that we might know the blessing of His presence.
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!
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