Today in our journey along Route 66 we are visiting the book of 2 Chronicles...
Author
1 and 2 Chronicles was originally one book. As we talked about last week, Rabbinic tradition ascribes authorship of part, but not all, of Chronicles to Ezra the scribe; medieval Jewish commentators differed over the scope of the Ezra material. Modern scholarship is divided over the book’s relationship to Ezra. There are similarities in terms of language, outlook, and theology between the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Thus, some scholars refer to the author of all three as “The Chronicler”. But most scholars now reject this position. Most scholars now use the term “The Chronicler” just to refer to the author of Chronicles. Furthermore, some scholars, like Richard Elliott Friedman, believe that the author of Chronicles was an Aaronid priest,[1] but that’s about all we know.
Date
Though there is agreement that Chronicles was written during the postexilic period, the book’s more precise date of composition has been a matter of great debate. Some have dated the book as early as 500 BCE, in line with Ezra as the author. Others date the book as late as the 2nd century BCE. The most likely time of composition probably lies somewhere between these two extremes. The Chronicler was, most likely, writing in Jerusalem, and it is possible that the author was familiar with all the Torah, and most of the prophets and writings of the Hebrew Scriptures as they stand for us today.
Themes
The themes of 1 Chronicles that we talked about last week continue into 2 Chronicles. Some view the book as A Valley of Dry Bones. But I think the Chronicler would have agreed with George Santayana who wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”[2]
The Chronicler is very concerned that we learn certain lessons from history. As we saw last week, Chronicles is not merely a retelling of Samuel and Kings. There are many differences between the two accounts. In a way, the book is an alternative history. And the writer is very interested in the meaning of history. In particular, the Chronicler traces the pattern of Israel’s history as one of failure and judgment followed by grace and restoration.
Chronicles also presents us with a form of popular morality in which the good prosper and the wicked perish. His goal is to demonstrate that divine justice cannot fail. The Chronicler also makes the point that God’s grace cannot fail. The kingship, particularly in the south, goes to those whom God has chosen by his grace. Even the seemingly dull lists of names are all about the binding together of God’s people into one under their covenant-keeping God.
Most people today would never think of Chronicles as the last book of the Bible, unless they were reading in Hebrew, because Chronicles closes the canon of the Hebrew scriptures. There is no agreement among scholars today as to why Chronicles stood in this position in the Hebrew Bible. However, it seems to be an appropriate placement. The Chronicler’s selectivity is not unlike the writer of the last of the Gospels (John) who reflected on numerable memories of the earthly life of Christ and made new selections from those memories to teach, in a fresh way, the old fundamental truths. Like John, and like Revelation, Chronicles rounds off an entire section of Scripture by saying in effect, “This is what life is really about. This is what it has always been about, what it always will be about.”[3]
Structure
- The reign of Solomon (2 Chronicles 1-9)
- Post-Solomonic Kings (2 Chronicles 10-36:16)
- Destruction of the Temple, Exile, and Cyrus’ Proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:17-23)
Key Concept—Exile is not The End
Last week, in covering 1 Chronicles, we talked about the life of David. This week I would like to focus on the way in which Chronicles ends. Listen for God’s word to you from 2 Chronicles 36:15-23…
The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.
He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up and may the Lord their God be with them.’”
One way of looking at this text from the end of 2 Chronicles is to say that God acted toward his people the way any good parent acts towards his or her children…
- God warned his people to stay away from what wasn’t good for them.
- God’s people didn’t listen.
- So, God sent his people into the greatest “Time Out” ever. We call it the Babylonian Exile. (Jerusalem was conquered in 597 BC and Judah ceased to be an independent kingdom in 586.)
- But then, when God felt that his people had learned their lesson, he brought them out of Exile and back into the Promised Land, and God used a foreign ruler, Cyrus, to do it in 538 BC.
In the middle of that four-step sequence, we also see three great continuities… (1) God’s People, (2) God’s Word, and (3) God’s Land. Let’s look at each in turn…
God’s People
We read in this passage that God had pity on his people and on his dwelling place (the Temple). Even though God’s people went into exile, God was still with them. And God eventually brought his people back home. And those people, the Jews, gave birth to the Messiah. And as God promised to Abraham, they were blessed to be a blessing. Salvation has come to the Gentiles through the Jews, specifically through the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. And God’s people are still in existence today. Here we are, and we are part of a worldwide family of God, Jews and Gentiles together, one beautiful olive tree.
There are an awful lot of things that we can’t take to heaven with us. But we can take people there, by introducing them to Jesus who can save them for all eternity. God’s people will be one of the great continuities for all eternity. And we can be among those people that God saves as we trust in Jesus.
God’s Word
The second great continuity that we see in this passage is God’s Word. This passage talks about the fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah. God always has and always will remain faithful to his word. And his word will last forever. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
We have talked before during this series about the three-fold form of the word. There is God’s word spoken by the prophets and apostles of old and spoken by preachers down to this day. There is the written word of God in Scripture. And there is the living word, Jesus. The only value of the spoken and written word is the value of pointing people to Jesus for salvation.
God’s Land
The third great continuity that we see in this passage is God’s Land. The Chronicler says,
The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.
Isn’t that a beautiful picture? Not only did God’s people need a time out, but God’s land needed a time out, a sabbath rest. And that’s what God provided for the Promised Land for seventy years.
I have said this before, and I will say it again… the Israelites were God’s chosen people. But we must ask: chosen for what? I believe they were chosen to be the vehicle of God becoming a human being. They were chosen to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus. And the land of Israel was special, is special, because it was the place where the Messiah was born and lived, and died, and rose again. Galatians 4:4-5 says,
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
God had his Son born at just the right time and just the right place to just the right people to accomplish the salvation of the world.
The Meaning of History
Everything we read here at the end of 2 Chronicles, in fact, everything we read in the whole of 1 and 2 Chronicles, involves an interpretation of the meaning of history. Some people say there is no meaning to history. They say, “stuff happens” and that’s it. But that is not the way the writer of 2 Chronicles views history. He sees the hand of God in everything. It would be easy to look at the Exile and say, “It happened because the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carted the Jews off to Babylon and that’s all there is to it.” Likewise, you could say, “Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland because it benefited him, end of story.” But again, the writer of Chronicles sees the hand of God behind all these human events.
We encounter the same thing when we get to the New Testament. It would be very easy to explain the crucifixion and death of Jesus along human lines. The Jewish leaders had their reasons for wanting Jesus executed. And the Romans had their reasons for going along with the plan. But the New Testament writers see the hand and purpose of God in the whole event. Peter puts it this way in his sermon in Acts 2, “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
What I am suggesting is that one can look at every event in history and give a human rationale for why it happened. And one can look at the same event and see the hand of God in it. From my humble perspective, both things are true. Humans act and God acts. Theologians call this “dual agency”. Often, we do not know “why” certain things happen in life. I am not suggesting that we can always find answers to those “why” questions in this life. Still, I believe that God is at work in all things for our good.
Paul puts the point this way in Romans 8:28… “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
The same truth is expressed this way by Joseph in the book of Genesis, commenting on his brothers selling him into slavery… “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20)
I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech entitled, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution…
Yes, we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right: “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.[4]
God is at work in human history. He is at work for the good of his creation. The only question is, “Will we join God in this great project of working for the good?”
A Note of Hope
The book of 2 Chronicles ends on a note of hope. It is true that God has spoken, time and time again, and his people have failed to listen. It is true that his people have gone into exile in a foreign nation and that was a depressing time indeed. In Psalm 137 we read their lament…
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
Exile was a time of great sadness for God’s people. But Exile is not the last word. The last word is deliverance. The end of the story is a new beginning.
Years ago, I performed a graveside service for the mother of a member of my congregation. That member sent me a thank-you note with this quote from the novelist, Louis L’Amour, on the cover of the card. I loved it so much I have displayed it in my office ever since…
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.
That will be the beginning.
I have seen that truth borne out in my own life. There have been times I thought everything was finished. I saw no way forward. But as the song by Don Moen says,
God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me,
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way,
He will make a way
I know God has made a way forward for me. I believe he will make a way forward for you, not just in this life, but in the life to come.
Many years ago, I stood at my mother-in-law’s bedside as she lay dying. I read her favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11…
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
When I finished reading, my mother-in-law said one word: “Home.” She knew she was headed home to heaven, and she couldn’t wait to get there.
God will always lead you home, in this life, and in the life to come. Exile is not the end.Even death itself is not the end; death can be the doorway to new life…
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