He Included Them

“And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.” (2Ch 34:6 AV)

 

“And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.” (2Ch 34:9 AV)

 

At this time, Israel had been removed from their land into Assyria.  This happened several decades ago while Hezekiah was king of Judah.  Apparently, there remained a remnant of the ten northern tribes to care for the land.  Judah, under the leadership of Hezekiah’s son, fell into idol worship and was the last straw for the LORD.  He pronounced judgment on Judah by the hand of Babylon as the ten northern tribes fell to Assyria a few decades earlier.  Josiah, Hezekiah’s great-grandson took the throne at the tender age of eight years old.  The book of the law was discovered and he went about to cleanse the land of all idol worship.  He hired workmen to repair the temple.  In doing so, he took up an offering to complete the project.  What we see above is the Judean king included the remnant of Israel in his revival.  For several hundred years they had been at odds.  Even though they were all the people of God, they could not always get along.  Having been judged by God and carried away, Josiah would naturally not have included them in their revival.  But a funny thing happened.  Humility!  Josiah realized they were all condemned.  It wasn’t just the ten northern tribes that failed.  It was the whole nation.  By cleansing the entire nation and extending an invitation to participate in the revival, this godly young king associated himself with all who had failed God.  He did not marginalize those who had failed worse than he did because there was no such thing.  They were all condemned under the hand of God’s judgment.  So all are in need of revival.

This really spoke to my heart this morning.  Sometimes we can fall into the temptation of comparing ourselves against ourselves.  Paul warns against that.  Sometimes we can see a situation as worse than our own and we become a bit secluded in our attention to circumstances.  We can begin to think our situation is worse than another so we do not cast a care their way.  Or, heaven forbid, we begin to think that others deserve the unfortunate circumstances of their own making and we have no obligation to pity them.  This is not true.  We are all in the same boat.  We simply are not sinking at the same rate.  But we are all sinking.  It doesn’t matter if we poked a pinhole in the bow or put our foot through it.  There is water coming in and eventually, we will all go down.  Our nature looks at the hardships of others and assesses whether those hardships deserve our compassion.  Not Josiah.  He looked at the condition of all.  Not just those for whom he was responsible.  He looked at his estranged brethren and was moved with compassion to do what he could for them.  He did not assess whether they were worse off than he because their sin was of a greater degree than his own.  As far as Josiah was concerned, the entire nation was at fault.  The degree didn’t matter.

The human race is in sad shape.  We all are!  We can look at those who are suffering for their rebellion against God and react one of two ways.  We can either react self-righteously and take no care to help, or we can do what we can to reach them with the love of Christ.  We are not suggesting tolerance for evil, but rather, compassion that can overcome it.  We do not need to hold back in declaring the truth of the word of God.  These things are truly wicked.  But what we need to do is open our hearts and allow God’s love to change that evil into good.  We are all on a sinking ship.  We have all poked holes in the hull.  Some larger, some smaller.  We are all responsible for the mess we have created.  The degree of fault matters not.  What matters is seeing what lies before the human race and doing what we can to be an instrument of revival.  What will we do?  How far will we go?  What will our testimony be?  Who will we extend a smile to and attempt to win to Christ?  What are we willing to do seeing as we are also responsible?  We were condemned before the grace of God through the blood of Jesus saved our wretched souls.  Now, there are untold numbers in the same situation.  They need our help.  They need our love.  They need our concern.