Crawling Through Chronicles

In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly.

2 Chronicles 31:21, NIV

I am nearing the end of the two books of Chronicles in my One Year Bible reading, and I think I am going to miss them! I used to crawl through those books because of the seemingly never-ending genealogy, along with the repeated history from Genesis through 2 Samuel. But then I thought that God must have had a good reason to repeat certain things for you and me, so we’re wise not to skip over them. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles also contain the rich stories of King David and his son Solomon, as well as telling us about the Temple and how God deals with His people.

I am glad I stuck with these two books, otherwise I wouldn’t have learned so much from the life of King Hezekiah, whose story is found in 2 Chronicles 31–32 as well as 2 Kings 18–20. Tucked in with accounts of many bad kings and a few good ones, we find the report of Hezekiah’s rule. He was a rare leader who did it right. We may miss the lessons of his life if we skip over these chapters. Although Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had betrayed the Lord, Hezekiah called people back to worshiping the one and true God instead of idols; he followed God wholeheartedly and promoted that singular devotion among his people. Although he wasn’t perfect, he repented when God showed him what he’d done wrong (see 2 Chronicles 32:24-26).

Years ago I wrote in my Bible near chapter 31 of 2 Chronicles, “Lord, I want to be like Hezekiah. I want to show wholehearted devotion to You in cooking, cleaning, carpooling, working, playing, discipling, laughing, loving—life!” Honestly, some days my heart feels like the good, the bad, and the ugly instead of the good, the right, and the faithful. On those days, God reminds me with mercy and grace that because of Jesus in me, He sees my heart as good, right, and faithful because Jesus dealt with the good, the bad, and the ugly on the cross. I’m free to live in wholehearted and obedient devotion because my heart is His.

Pray with me: “Here are our hearts, Lord! Help us. We want to seek You wholeheartedly too!”