Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of Yahweh’s house and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together into the wide place on the east, and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in Yahweh our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment and a hissing, as you see with your eyes. For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, don’t be negligent now; for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers and burn incense.””
(2 Chronicles 29:1-11)

“Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord.
    Apart from you I have no good thing.”
As for the saints who are in the earth,
    they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god.
    Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
    nor take their names on my lips.
Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup.
    You made my lot secure.”
(Psalm 16:1-5)

When the people of the Lord turned back to Him and relied on Him and made covenant with Him in the ways that He said were appropriate and good and right, there was nothing that stood in their way. Hezekiah turned toward the Lord in one of the most heart-felt ways that any king of Israel or Judah ever did. He worked continuously to enable the people to be able to worship the Lord properly by removing all the impediments and doing things the way the Lord had laid down for them. And when the people weren’t absolutely perfect about it, he sought the Lord on their behalf. Asking for mercy because it had been such a long time since they’d done it properly and they were trying. He led his nation toward the Lord and when they got in that blessing zone, they enjoyed JOY and PEACE and SECURITY in Him.

Every single king that turned away from the Lord and every single time the people chose other gods, other practises, and to put their trust and their hope in wordly systems and materials they regretted it. They violated their covenant and got the punishment that was told them they would receive. When they rebelled, they paid the price. But God is merciful and loving and full of grace. When they turned back, they were welcomed home. When they did it right, they got the benefits of doing it right. God’s treatment of them never changed. He treated them according to the covenant. THEIR behaviour is what determined what they received. If they did it right, they got good things. If they did it wrong, they got bad things. What they received is exactly what they chose.

Summary

We don’t need a tabernacle or a Temple to go and worship God. We don’t have to make sacrifices of blood. We don’t need to ritually purify ourselves before we interact with an altar and receive from God. We have Holy Spirit living inside us. We are covered by the Blood of Jesus and are resting in Him. We have a better covenant. But it IS a covenant. We need to REMAIN resting in Jesus. We need to CONTINUALLY put our trust in Him. In every way. We need to REMEMBER what Jesus did for us and what He made available to us. We need to keep an eye on our words and actions and thoughts. When they are out of alignment with Him, we need to repent and re-educate ourselves so that we are united with God, hand in hand, going in the same direction with the same mind. WITH God, all things are possible. WITH Jesus as our focus, we’ll find ourselves obeying simply because we love Him so much.