God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 30:10-20 Healed
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, May 26, 2025
10 The runners went from town to town throughout Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people laughed and ridiculed them. 11 Even so, some men from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.
Washington State has a mountain range called the Cascades dividing the large eastern desert from the narrow green strip that tumbles down to Puget Sound and then on to the Pacific Ocean. I was a missionary in the green slopes of the western Cascades, and some days I met more angry dogs than people. There were a lot of closed doors, faces behind curtains, and just plain rude voices that would not talk with me except to insult me and threaten me. This is the reception that Hezekiah’s runners got when they traveled into the valley of Samaria and then on into the green hills of Galilee beyond. “The people laughed and ridiculed them.”
However, I did meet some people; some came only because they heard about me and not on account of my poor attempts at outreach. Some of them came; they came to hear the gospel, and many of them came to help, and a few are still good friends twenty-five years later. And so it was with Hezekiah’s runners. “Some men from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went.” The land of Manasseh had some famous places in its borders: Mount Ebal, and Megiddo which is also called Armageddon, and Mount Gilboa where King Saul died in battle alongside his brave sons. Northwest of Armageddon is Zebulun, without many famous towns except the Bethlehem that is not the birthplace of Jesus, and the border town called Gath-Hepher, where the prophet Jonah was born. And then up on the coast, north of Mount Carmel, the long strip of beach or coastland known as Asher with its many towns beginning with “A,” like Aphik and Ahlab and Acco, Achzib, and Abdon “with its pasturelands” (Joshua 21:30). Few they were, but ready to worship. And one happy result of this effort was a woman (also named with “A”), a woman named Anna, whose ancestors were probably part of this group, for five hundred years later she was there to meet the baby Jesus when his parents brought him to Jerusalem (Luke 2:36).
12 But in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them one heart to carry out what the king and his princes had ordered, following the word of the LORD. 13 A very large crowd of people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. 14 They removed the altars that were in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. 15 They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the LORD. 16 Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them by the Levites. 17 Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for everyone who was not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the LORD. 18 Most of the people, mainly people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, and yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart on seeking God the LORD, the God of his fathers, even if he has not done this according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” 20 And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
With an overwhelming response from the people of Judah and Jerusalem, wicked King Ahaz’ altars were removed from the cities and towns and “every corner of Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 28:24). They were taken out into the Kidron Valley between the city walls and the Mount of Olives, and broken apart. The rubble would be used for walls or garden edging or paving stones, but never again for anything pagan. One of the Passover rituals was to remove all of the crumbs of yeast from every home; these people had bigger issues to deal with, physical and heavy temptations and reminders of the yeast of false doctrine. They did everything they could to purify their cities, their towns, and their lives.
In verse 15 we hear that there were still many priests and Levites who had not consecrated themselves and were ashamed by this, which fills in a detail from earlier when “there were too few priests to skin all the burnt offerings” (29:34). Now more and more priests and Levites were coming to the temple. With most or all of the people from their villages going up to celebrate the Passover, they could hardly stay away. They, too, consecrated themselves and got to work.
One detail about sacrifices is brought out by verse 17, because it’s clear that the worshiper, not the priests or Levites, was the one who slit the throat of the sacrificial animal. But since so many people were not ceremonially clean for this Passover—some of them may never have even heard of being ceremonially clean, or knew what that would mean—the Levites performed the task for them.
The King did not want God’s wrath to fall on the people because of their ignorance. He prayed as pastors pray for their people: “Do not look on their ignorance or their sins with wrath, but look on their faith as righteousness.”
Finally, we see the word “healed” in the text of verse 20. Was God’s disapproval of their failure to keep the festival properly beginning to show itself in the community? It’s possible that some offenders, those who knew nothing about ceremonial cleanness, were becoming sick or were suffering in other ways. But the king’s prayer stood between the offenders and the Lord’s righteous wrath. They were celebrating the festival in spirit, even though the letter of the Law of Moses was not being kept. It was the first Passover that the people had kept as a nation in a very long time; perhaps the first time in many of their lives.
There are people in our fellowship who sometimes go too far in their zeal to serve the Lord. They step on the limits the Word of God places before us, but they do it with faith in their hearts. May the Lord not be angry with them. May the Lord look on their faith with love and charity. We still have much teaching to do, but the Great Commission is that we make disciples by baptizing the nations and by teaching them. Therefore my God our Savior bless our efforts, bless those who are brought to faith, and be patient and merciful with us all. His mercy endures forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.