May the mumbling commence!
Right worship is essential to the Chronicler. It seeps out of nearly every nook and cranny
of the books. Read a passage from Second
Chronicles chapter twenty-three:
Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the
king and the people that they would be the Lord's
people. And all the people went over to the temple
of Baal and tore it down. They demolished the altars and smashed the idols, and
they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
Jehoiada now put the Levitical priests
in charge of the Temple of the Lord,
following all the instructions given by
David. He also commanded them to present burnt offerings to the Lord, as prescribed by the law of Moses, and to sing and rejoice as David had instructed. He stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the Lord's Temple to keep those who were ceremonially unclean from entering. (Verses 16-19)
Note the importance of following the instructions given
by David, a man after God’s heart. Note
the importance of obeying the Law of Moses.
And note the importance of keeping the ceremonially unclean from the
Temple. Right worship is vital for the life
of Israel. Now read a passage from
Second Chronicles chapter twenty-four:
Over the years, the followers of wicked Athaliah had
broken into the Temple of God, and they had used all the dedicated things from
the Temple of the Lord to worship
the images of Baal. So now Joash gave instructions for a chest to
be made and set outside the gate leading to the Temple of the Lord.
Then a proclamation was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem, telling the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses, the
servant of God, had required of the Israelites in the wilderness. This pleased
all the leaders and the people, and they gladly brought their money and
filled the chest with it. (Verses 7-10)
So much for “Taxed Enough Already”! An old tax was reinstituted and the people
were pleased. They gladly brought their
money to fill the chest and renovate the Temple of the Lord. Perhaps, if we better knew where our taxes
were going, we would give with the same pleasure and joy. Now there’s something to think about, isn’t
it!
After all the tax of Moses was a way for Israel to
rightly worship the Lord. Right worship
is also important to the Apostle Paul.
Read from First Corinthians chapter five:
How terrible that you should boast about
your spirituality, and yet you let this sort of thing go on. Don't you realize
that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected? Remove this
wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure. Christ, our
Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us
celebrate the festival, not by eating the
old bread of wickedness and evil, but by
eating the new bread of purity and truth. (Verses 6-8)
Remove wicked people from the midst of the church. Otherwise, the whole church will be affected…
infected, if you will. The object of
removing wicked people is to keep the church of God pure. Celebrate to the Lord with the new bread of
purity and truth.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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