And the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
Hezekiah's messengers went north out of Judah into Ephraim, Manasseh and Zebulun. They carried a royal letter inviting the survivors there to come to Jerusalem and keep the Passover, and the people laughed at them.
The letter went to the whole nation, not to Judah alone. It called them to one place of worship that still stood in God's eyes.
The letter called the people of Israel, not merely the people of Judah: "Return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel... yield yourselves to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever." God's principles do not change. It is a complete mistake to think that because the apostles are gone, the apostles' truth is gone. Not so; it remains, and forever. It is always binding on the people of God. So it was here with the sanctuary in Jerusalem.
Their scorn answered an offer, not a threat.
The message was one of kindness and grace (v. 9). But when it reached Ephraim, Manasseh and Zebulun, most of the people met it with nothing but contempt and mockery (v. 10). The Lord had broken down much of their false worship. Yet when they had the chance to return to God's true centre of worship, Jerusalem, they foolishly and proudly refused.
Hezekiah saw Israel as God saw it. The truth driving him meant nothing to the men who read his letter.
The nation was one in the purpose of God. Hezekiah looked at it from God's side, as faith always does, and he acted on what he saw. The actions of faith are sure to call out the scorn and contempt of those who are not up to the standard of God's thoughts. No doubt these men of Ephraim and Manasseh saw Hezekiah's message as presumption, or as wild nonsense. Perhaps the great truth that was working with such power on his soul was in their judgement a myth. At best it was a worthless theory to them — a thing of the past, with no use now. But faith is never moved by the thoughts of men, so Hezekiah went on with his work and God owned and blessed him.
The next verse records the opposite answer: some humbled themselves. One message produced both.
But notice the two-fold effect of Hezekiah's message: "they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves." (2 Chr. 30:10-11.) This is very instructive. Different groups answered the invitation in very different ways. Yet each answer proved the message was divine — that it came from the sanctuary. Grace must either humble the heart or call out reproach and scorn. Either way it proves itself genuine. "To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life."
Hezekiah's couriers were not the last to meet these two answers. The same split met Paul in Athens.
Some, as we see, were glad of the appeal — probably those who had suffered most from the Assyrian. This is not the only time God's message met these opposite answers. Seven hundred years later, and seven hundred miles away, Paul brought a more serious message from his God at Mars Hill in Athens. The result was the same: "some mocked," while certain ones "joined him and believed" (Acts 17). And it is the same today. Have you, my reader, believed God's gospel message? Have you, like some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun, "humbled" yourself and come to Jesus?
The mockery was loud, but it was not the whole answer. Those who came were from places nobody would have predicted.
The truer a thing is, and the more it agrees with God, the greater the contempt of men who have chosen to mix the world with Christ. "However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." In the most unlikely and far-off places, where no one would think to look, there are those who have humbled themselves and have come.
Those who came found a full blessing waiting. The ones who lost out would not bend.
People do not understand the actions of faith, because they do not understand the precious grace of God. But "some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem," and their reward was rich: they came in for a feast of good food such as Israel had not held since the days of Solomon. There is no limit to the blessing grace has in store for the broken and contrite heart. If all Israel had answered Hezekiah's moving appeal, they would have shared in the blessing. But they were unbroken, and therefore unblessed!
- Sent — The couriers carried a call to return to the Lord and come to His sanctuary. A nation's decline does not cancel God's principles, so the invitation still stood.
- Scorned — They mocked a message of kindness and grace. Pride, not cruelty, produced the laughter.
- Sifted — Grace either humbles a heart or draws out contempt. The split in answers showed that the message came from God.
- Repeated — The same two answers met Paul at Athens: some mocked, some believed. The verse puts the question to every reader.
- Rewarded — Some humbled themselves and came, from the least likely places, and sat down to a feast. Those who stayed unbroken stayed unblessed.
Nevertheless certain of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
Hezekiah sent letters north to tribes that had long left Jerusalem behind. Most of them laughed at the invitation. But a scattered few from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and made the journey. Why did one message produce mockery in some and humility in others?
The scorn was no surprise. One writer treats ridicule as the normal response of people who fall below what God has said:
This was very sad, but it is only what we must expect. The actions of faith are sure to call out the scorn and contempt of those who are not up to the standard of God's thoughts. No doubt these men of Ephraim and Manasseh regarded Hezekiah's message as presumption or wild extravagance. This great truth was working with such power on his soul, forming his character and ruling his conduct. Yet in their judgment it was perhaps a myth, or at best a worthless theory — a thing of the past, an institution of a past age with no present use.
Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun were the last names anyone would expect on a list of pilgrims to Jerusalem. One commentator sees the same thing still happening:
As it was then, so it is now. The truer a thing is, and the more it agrees with God, the more men who have chosen to blend the world with Christ despise it. "However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." In the most unlikely and distant quarters, and where no one could possibly look for them, there are those who have humbled themselves and have come.
Their humbling refused a reasonable excuse. The nation was in ruins, and they could have said so:
Those who humbly bowed to Hezekiah's appeal gathered themselves together on God's ground, and owned God's centre. They did not say, "It is pointless to take such high ground when you look at the nation's actual condition. It is sheer folly and presumption for Hezekiah to try to carry out such principles in the middle of hopeless ruin." No; they "humbled themselves," and came up to Jerusalem. In true humility they gathered together to carry out God's object — to keep the Passover.
The mockers had a ready excuse. Others looked at where God's house stood:
Some scorned the letter-bearers and laughed (30:10). Of course, they missed the revival. But others responded. "Let Hezekiah look after the few in Judah," the mockers might say, "we belong to the ten tribes." Others, however, recognised that the house of God was at Jerusalem. It was the place of the Lord's name and presence. So they went up out of the ten tribes.
The few who came were rewarded. The many who stayed away could have shared in it:
But "some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem," and they came in for a rich reward — a feast of good things such as no one had celebrated since the days of Solomon. There is no limit to the blessing which grace has in store for the broken and contrite heart. If all Israel had responded to Hezekiah's moving appeal, they would have shared in the blessing. But they were unbroken, and so they went unblessed!
The blessing also did not stay in Jerusalem. Those who came went home changed:
The majority mocked at their efforts. Even so, the rest humbled themselves, came to Jerusalem, and shared in a time of great blessing. It went so deep that when they returned home they started cleansing work on a larger scale and of a more thorough kind than ever.
The split reaction is not confined to this chapter. One writer sets it beside Paul preaching in Athens:
It is not the only occasion on which God's message received this opposite treatment. Seven hundred years later, and seven hundred miles away, Paul stood at Mars Hill in Athens. He delivered a more solemn message from his God, but with the same result: "some mocked," while some others "joined him and believed" (Acts 17). And it is the same today. Have you, my reader, believed God's gospel message, and, like some of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun, "humbled" yourself, and come to Jesus? — have you?
- Scorn — Ridicule is the expected reply when someone acts on what God has said. The mockers judged the message a worthless theory from a past age.
- However — The answer came from the most unlikely and distant places, where nobody would have looked for it.
- Humbling — They refused the excuse that high ground is folly in a time of ruin. Instead they owned God's centre.
- Blessing — Grace has no limit for a broken heart. The many who stayed unbroken stayed unblessed.
- Overflow — Those who came home from the feast cleansed the land more thoroughly than before. The same two answers, mockery or humbling, still face every reader.
The hand of God was also upon Judah to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of Jehovah.
Most of the northern tribes laughed at Hezekiah's invitation to the Passover, but Judah answered as one. The verse credits that to God's hand, and raises two questions: what makes God's people one, and what authority can claim their obedience?
Judah's unity did not come from enthusiasm or good organisation. One writer turns the verse into a test for any movement that gathers believers today.
…the hand of God was on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD. And is the hand of the Lord not seen today, gathering souls to Christ and giving them one heart? If it is not that, it is only another sect following its own will. Yes, it is the hand of the Lord. Reader, are you asleep or awake? Can you see the Lord's present heart and hand? If you can, being laughed at is a small thing.
The command came from Hezekiah and his princes, but its weight rested on something higher than a throne. One writer asks what gives such a call a claim on other believers.
If we are only arguing for doctrines of our own, it is a lot to expect other people to accept them. If it is only my own doctrine, I had better be content with my own affairs. But if it is God's grace, God's worship, God's way — has it not a claim on all who are God's?
The same writer notes that Hezekiah did not use the invitation to rebuild his own kingdom. The ten tribes had broken away from David's line, and he left that alone.
He was a man of faith. He knew well that the tearing away of the ten tribes from the house of David was God's own doing. So he did not ask the tribes for himself; he asked them for God… The closer you come to God, the more you love the people of God.
The phrase "by the word of the LORD" makes Scripture the measure of what they did next. One writer shows what Judah found when they turned to that authority.
In Hezekiah's reign, there was remarkable blessing when they turned back to the authority of the sacred writings. They soon found that for a long time they had not kept the solemn and important feast of the Passover in the way it is written. So we are told that God had given the men of Judah one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.
One writer sees more in Hezekiah's reforms than a reward for a good king.
Yes, the temple service was restored because Hezekiah was good. But I think there is a deeper truth to grasp. The Lord made Hezekiah a good king because He was about to give a little sample of the grace and power He will show in full in His own time.
The one heart did not stay a feeling. The next verses show it at work, tearing altars down.
The next point in order is this. When the Lord had gathered a company to keep the Passover, "They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the brook Kidron" (2 Chron. 30:12-14). So where the Lord has now gathered a company to break bread as Scripture directs, their first task is to put away everything that does not fit the holiness of His presence.
One writer sets the two chapters side by side, with this verse in the middle of the movement.
Chapter 29 gives us revival in its inside working — confession, cleansing, and consecration. Chapter 30 shows the revival in its outside power and effect: great humbling (v. 11), great unity (v. 12), and great joy (v. 26), together with people reaching for God who had been strangers to God's sanctuary for centuries (v. 11).
- Hand — Judah's unity came from God's hand, not from the messengers' skill. Without that hand, agreement among believers is only "another sect following its own will."
- Heart — God gives one heart, and He gives it for obedience. The gift and the doing belong together in one sentence.
- Word — The king's command bound consciences because it came "by the word of the LORD." Our own doctrine has no such claim. God's way has a claim on all who are God's.
- Clearing — The one heart proved itself at once: they tore down the altars. A people gathered by God first put away whatever does not fit His presence.
- Joy — Humbling leads to unity, and unity to great joy. One writer sees in Hezekiah's reign a small sample of the grace God will display in full in His time.
And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to hold the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation.
Hezekiah had invited all Israel to keep the Passover, and many in the north met the invitation with contempt. Yet a huge crowd gathered at Jerusalem, and they kept the feast a month late.
This crowd did not come because the invitation was popular.
The truer a thing is, and the more it follows God, the more contempt it draws from men who have chosen to mix the world with Christ. "Nevertheless, some of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." In the most unlikely and far-off places, where no one would ever look for them, there are people who have humbled themselves and come. "Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of Jehovah." And there they assembled.
What they refused to say matters as much as what they did.
They "humbled themselves," and came up to Jerusalem. In true humility of mind they gathered together to carry out God's object: to keep the Passover.
The date is not an accident or a convenience. The law itself had made room for people who could not keep the feast at the proper time.
This feast was so urgent a duty for every member of the congregation that Numbers 9 makes a special provision. It covers those who fell short of keeping it in the appointed order. They were to keep it "on the fourteenth day of the second month." This was grace's provision for every case of unavoidable uncleanness or distance.
Hezekiah did not pretend that the nation was in good order.
Faith always sees the true condition of things, yet it counts on the full provisions of God's grace. Hezekiah felt that the people fell short of God's standard. But he knew that God's grace could meet them where they were, if only they took their true place.
Meeting late is not the same as meeting loosely. The second month was mercy toward weakness, not a relaxing of the rule.
How good is the word of the Lord! They must keep the Passover; but, on the other hand, they could not keep it if they were unclean. So this provision came in when they knew they were unclean. They could purify themselves and keep it now. But there is no lowering of the standard. Their weakness deserves consideration, and God gives them time to learn. Still, no one may lower the standard.
Hezekiah could have argued that the ruin around him made the old standard impossible.
The Lord calls His people back to the original standard, to what they had received at the first. Hezekiah goes back to Moses. Moses is his authority for holding to the divine standard in keeping the Passover. Many might have said, "Oh, it is all hopeless; your national unity is gone." ... The devil suggests lowering the standard because of the ruin; but Hezekiah did not listen to that.
Unleavened bread means bread made without yeast. Why did God tie that feast so tightly to the Passover lamb?
God does not allow one day to come between the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. Here is why. The blood of the Lamb brought in the remission of our sins, and God will not let that be separated, even for a moment, from our responsibility to holiness. The Israelite now stood under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb. From that moment God forbade him to eat leavened bread, or to keep leaven in any form in his house.
What came of this late, imperfect gathering?
Here, then, was the answer of God to the faith of Hezekiah, for He never disappoints a heart that counts on Him. The congregation spent fourteen joyful days around the Passover feast. Those days gave the fullest proof of what it means to count on the living God, despite all the failure and ruin that always mark the history of man and his ways. "Since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem." God can fill His people's hearts with joy, thanksgiving and praise, even when everything around them is confusion and ruin.
- Humbled — the people who came took the low place. Men who had mixed the world with Christ only felt contempt.
- Gathered — God's hand gave Judah one heart. Others came from places where no one would have looked for them.
- Late, by grace — the second month was the law's own provision for the unclean and the far-off. Hezekiah used it instead of pretending all was well.
- Unlowered — grace met the people where they were, but the standard never moved. Hezekiah's authority was Moses, not the state of the nation.
- Joyful — they counted on God in a time of ruin, and Jerusalem had joy unmatched since Solomon's day.
And they rose up and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem; and they took away all the incense-altars, and cast them into the torrent Kidron.
A great crowd came to Jerusalem to keep the Passover. But first they tore down the city's altars and threw them into the Kidron valley — whose altars were they, and why did they have to go?
These altars were not foreign imports left by an invading army. Kings of Judah had raised them, and Ahaz most of all:
About Ahaz we need not say much. He openly opposed God and His truth. He neglected the temple. He shut the doors, put out the lamps, cut up the vessels, and set up altars to idols in every corner of Jerusalem. He also went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria. There he saw an altar, and he sent a copy of its design to Urijah the priest, who made one like it at Jerusalem. So he put the true altar out of its place, and in a word, overturned the whole order of worship.
There was a royal command, but that is not what moved them. God worked first:
In the most unlikely and distant places, where no one would look for them, there are people who have humbled themselves and have come. In Judah too, the hand of God gave them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD. And there they assembled. Then they arose, took away the altars in Jerusalem, and threw them into the brook Kidron.
They left no altar standing, incense altars included. This removal belonged to the feast itself:
When the Lord had gathered a company to keep the Passover, they took away the altars in Jerusalem and threw them into the brook Kidron. Where the Lord has now gathered a company to break bread, as it is written, one thing comes first. They must put away from themselves everything inconsistent with the holiness of His presence. Just as when the doors were opened, the clearing away of the rubbish began in the very holiest place.
The place they chose was not random. Other kings had used the same valley:
This valley is a wide dry riverbed between the east of Jerusalem and the west of the Mount of Olives. It is called a brook, but it is now almost always dry. One reason may be the amount of rubbish lying in the valley. In Old Testament times people treated it as a defiled place. Asa burned his mother's idol there, 1 Kings 15:13. Josiah also burned there the symbols of idolatry, 2 Kings 23:4, 6, 12.
Those altars had stood through more than one reign. Planning the Passover settled their fate:
But as soon as they planned the Passover, it was clear that the idolatrous altars raised by former kings must be allowed no place. They took these away and threw them into the Brook Kidron. It is the same with us. When we want to honour the Lord by remembering Him in the breaking of bread, we shall want to get rid of all those forms and relics of worship devised by men. And we shall want to give the Lord Jesus His place of supreme honour.
The same question comes to each reader. An altar in the heart need not be a religious one:
Dear young Christian, is there some altar built in your heart? Not an altar to the Unknown God, but one to a well-known idol — the idol of worldly pleasure, or of money, or even of religious ambition? Search and see. If there is one, go out in divine strength and cut down this altar in the name of the Lord.
- Inherited. Ahaz left those altars behind. He shut the temple doors, put out the lamps, and overturned the whole order of worship.
- Given. The people did not find the zeal in themselves. The hand of God gave them one heart, and then they arose.
- Removed. A feast to the Lord and altars to other gods could not stand together. Everything that did not fit the holiness of His presence went out first.
- Disposed. The Kidron was the city's dumping ground for what was defiled. The altars went where other kings had burned idols — not into storage.
- Repeated. Worship today needs the same clearing out of what men have added. So does the heart, where pleasure, money or even religious ambition can hold an altar.