2 Chronicles 29: 20 – 36

At the re-establishing of the services in the temple (35) there was a lavish offering of sacrifices. I am reminded of someone saying that Old Testament worship resembled ‘an abattoir’. This shedding of the blood of animals on a large scale may seem barbaric to us. But God established this system as a way for people to be forgiven and reconciled to Himself. Innocent victims were offered in the place of guilty people, and the animal’s lives were sacrificed for those who had sinned. Taking the Bible’s teaching as a whole, it is clear that all this was preparatory for the coming of Jesus. After His death on the cross there is no more need for sacrifice. He has offered His own perfect life as the final sacrifice. Through faith in Jesus we are restored to God. Every animal sacrifice was an imperfect offering of an imperfect life. It was a temporary measure and could only ‘cover over’ sin. Hence many sacrifices were made throughout the Old Testament era, and they had to be brought repeatedly. But Jesus came to remove sin altogether by His ultimate sacrifice.

Note three things here about this offering of sacrifices:

  • It was accompanied by music and singing (25-31). (It is a beautiful picture, by the way, to see the king kneeling down and worshipping alongside everyone else. What a great leader he was! We need more like him in political/national life: leaders not ashamed to bow before Almighty God, to publicly confess their need of Him and willingly obey Him.) There was joyful, thankful worship. When we know we are forgiven and our consciences are cleaned, this is a cause for deep happiness. Even in the days before Jesus came; at a time when He could only be dimly anticipated, corporate worship was supposed to be over flowingly delightful (25, 26). It was what God wanted. A man who worked for a time at the Garden tomb in Jerusalem told a story. One day he was pointing out to visitors the skull-like rocky cliff which may have been the site of Golgotha, where Jesus died. He also indicated the vicinity where Jesus may have been buried before rising from the dead. A young hippie was in the crowd that day. He was roaming the world looking for meaning. He suddenly said something like this, ‘If what you say is true, this place should be filled with singing every day of the year!’ He got it. All that Jesus is and has done is cause for the most profound joy.
  • All this great musical outpouring came in obedience to God (25, 26). Through their Scriptures; through the proclamation of God’s Word by the prophets they saw what God required of them, and they were quick to obey. ‘Whatever He says to you do it.’ It is not too early to prepare yourself from now on for next Sunday (or for the next occasion when you will gather with other Christians to hear God’s Word taught). Pray for the preacher. Pray for yourself that you will hear and understand and be swift to obey.
  • The people gave God all the glory for what had happened (36). I am reminded of the story of a Vicar walking down the road one day. He came across one of his parishioners tending his garden. ‘Ah, the Lord can do wonderful things with a garden,’ said the man of the cloth. ‘Yes Vicar,’ came the reply, ‘but you should have seen it when the Lord had it to Himself!!’ I wrote a note in my Bible when I read the thirty sixth verse a little while ago: ‘Clearly, all the emphasis thus far (in the chapter) has been on them and their work. They had put so much effort in but knew where the glory should go.’ We discover in our reading of the Bible that God works in, with, on and through people. We are His instruments and we are fully involved. It’s what a friend calls the 200% principle: 100% of God and 100% of me.

Prayer: Help me to labour with all your energy that so powerfully works in me (Colossians 1:29).