Week 27, June 30–July 6: 2 Chronicles 19–36; Ezra 1–3

• Sun      6/30     2 Chron 19–21
• Mon     7/1       2 Chron 22–23
• Tue      7/2       2 Chron 24–26
• Wed     7/3       2 Chron 27–29
• Thu      7/4       2 Chron 30–32
• Fri        7/5       2 Chron 33–36
• Sat       7/6       Ezra 1–3

Circumstances in Judah continue to decline as we reach the end of 2 Chronicles. Remember, this account parallels the account in 1–2 Kings but with a few significant differences that contribute to the unique message of 1–2 Chronicles. The focus has been on the southern kingdom of Judah, which includes the tribe of Benjamin. The northern kingdom of Israel is made up of the other ten tribes and often referred to throughout the OT as Ephraim, which is the most prominent tribe in the northern kingdom. Israel/Ephraim is really only mentioned in Chronicles when the Judahite king or kingdom has interactions with Israel and its kings, either in alliance or in conflict with one another.

The theme that runs through the whole book, and indeed the whole OT, is the expectation of a king from Judah and, more specifically, from the line of David. God has made an irrevocable covenant promise to David that one of his descendants will reign on an eternal throne (2 Sam. 7:1–17; 1 Chr. 17:1–15). Members of the royal line of David remember this promise, and we are meant to have it in our minds too as we read along.

As kings come and go in Judah, each king’s reign is marked by their actions and their devotion to the Lord or their sin against him. Early in our reading for this week, Jehoshaphat is an example of one of the kings who, generally, followed the Lord and his ways. It says of that the Lord was with him, “because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the practices of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand.” (2 Chr. 17:3–5a)

Later, after being reprimanded by Jehu for allying with Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, he takes further steps to lead Judah in repentance and in following after the Lord (19–1–11). As he is making these reforms, several enemy nations mount an attack on Judah (20:1–2). Jehoshaphat’s prayer in response to this dire situation is exemplary and worth looking to as a model for our own prayers. With Judah assembled before him, he stands in the assembly and prays this prayer.

“O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

He begins by simply praising God and extolling him for who he is. When we pray like this, when we worship God with our words and with our hearts, we are not telling him something about himself that he doesn’t already know. Instead, we are giving him the credit he deserves and proclaiming the Lord’s praiseworthy character to our own hearts and minds and to all those within the hearing of our words of praise.

After extolling God’s virtues and greatness, king Jehoshaphat recounts the Lord’s goodness to his people, the descendants of Abraham. Only after these several lines of praise does he then cry out and petition the Lord to help them against the enemy hoard they are facing. The last line is wonderful and worth repeating every day as we face our own challenges.

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Unfortunately, there is a negative turn at the end of Jehoshaphat’s life. As is often the case with these kings, he is enticed to join those who are wicked, the Israelite king Ahaziah in this case (20:35–37). This kind of pattern repeats itself throughout these final chapters of 2 Chronicles, such that the clear takeaway for us as readers is that, when Judah’s kings rely on the Lord and follow him, he blesses their faithfulness and gives them success against their enemies; but when they don’t trust the Lord and they join with wicked kings or nations or their false gods, the Lord’s righteous judgement comes against Judah and they suffer defeat and even disease.

By then end of 2 Chronicles, the state of affairs in Judah has finally declined to the point where the ultimate consequence ensues. Like their estranged sister nation Israel earlier, Judah is wiped out and brought into exile. The Babylonian army comes against Judah and brings their king, Jehoiakim, the Davidic heir, to Babylon as a prisoner of war (36:5–7). Then the Babylonians destroy the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem (v. 19).

This would be the tragic end to the story were it not for the final paragraph of 2 Chronicles, which is perhaps the most important paragraph in the whole book. The author concludes this account of Judah’s time as a nation and eventual demise by jumping ahead to the time after the Babylonian empire, when the Persian empire supplanted it. We are told that the Persian king Cyrus issued a decree, recognizing the Lord as the God in heaven and acknowledging God’s charge to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. He issues an edict to any among his kingdom of the exiled Judahites to return to Jerusalem (36:22–23).

In our read through, following the order of our English Bibles (1–2 Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Bible order), Ezra follows immediately after this edict from Cyrus. In fact, Ezra begins with the edict repeated verbatim (Ezra 1:1–3a). Then Ezra and Nehemiah recount the initial attempts of the returned exiles to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. However, it is clear quite early in Ezra that this attempt at restoration is quite feeble. There is a mixed crowd with a mixed response at the ceremony marking the newly laid foundation to this second temple. Some are rejoicing and praising God, while the older men among them, who had seen the first temple, are mourning when they see the sad replica this second temple is compared to the one Solomon built. The sounds of joy and the sounds of sadness are indistinguishable (3:12–13).

This situation leaves us with a sense of longing for a complete restoration. The fulfillment of God’s promises to his people—including the promises to establish an everlasting kingdom for an heir of David—await a future fulfillment that has not yet arrived with the return from exile led by Ezra and Nehemiah. Only when we turn to the NT and meet Jesus do we see the real fulfillment begin to take place. Throughout the whole historical narrative of 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, and 1–2 Chronicles we have seen an anticipatory tension building. With each passing king in the line of kings ruling in Jerusalem, and with the steady decline of both Israel and Judah, we are left longing for God to do something to fulfill his promises to his people. For this to happen, it is clear, God must act graciously on behalf of his people. Without these OT stories we miss such an important aspect of the gospel message.