God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 35:1-7 The Ark and Christ

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, June 18, 2025

35:1 Josiah kept the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the House of the LORD. 3 He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who had been consecrated to the LORD, “Put the holy Ark in the House that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. Do not carry it on your shoulders anymore. Now, serve the LORD your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves in your divisions according to your fathers’ houses, following the written instructions of David king of Israel and the written instructions of Solomon his son. 5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions assigned to each fathers’ house of your brothers the people. A part of a father’s house of the Levites is for each group. 6 Slaughter the Passover lamb, and consecrate yourselves. Prepare it for your brothers according to the word of the LORD given through Moses.”

When Hezekiah wanted to celebrate the Passover, he had to clear out and clean up the temple first, and they ended up celebrating the festival a month later than usual (2 Chronicles 30). Josiah did not have the same difficulties. We notice that he had to instruct the Levites in their duties, to make sure that there was someone available for each family as they brought their lambs and goats. In a Passover, the priest and his family would often join the worshiper’s family at the meal, unless he had to help more than one household. The instructions that Moses gave were that each group should be large enough that one lamb would not leave anything left over to go to waste, and that everyone who ate it was of their circumcised fellowship: “An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it” (Exodus 12:48).

Here again there is a reference to the divisions of the priests in the instructions written down by both David and Solomon. The list was made “impartially by drawing lots” (1 Chronicles 24:5), and the full list of the twenty-four divisions is given in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18. The division that usually concerns us today is the eighth, that of Abijah, because Zechariah was from this division when in his regular rotation he got to burn incense in the Holy Place and saw the vision of the angel who told him he and his wife would have a son, John the Baptist (Luke 1:5,13).

Here is also a reminder that the priests and Levites were commanded by God to be the teachers of the Israelites. This is especially emphasized in Chronicles (2 Chronicles 17:7, 19:4-11; 35:3) but also in Moses (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 6:4-9), the Prophets (Jeremiah 5:31, 18:18; Hosea 4:6; Malachi 2:7) and the other writings (Nehemiah 8:7). And recall the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: “You are Israel’s teacher, and you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10).

What shall we say about the Ark of the Covenant? This is the last reference to it as being present in the House of the Lord. The command from Josiah that the Levites were no longer to go around carrying it on their shoulders reminds us of the days when it was lost to the Philistines when Eli’s sons caried it into battle and were killed. Many teachers, ignorant of this verse, had assumed that Pharaoh Shishak stole the ark in the days of Rehoboam, in about 925 BC. But this is not stated in the Scriptures, and the passage before us tells us that the Ark was still in Judah, and that Josiah commanded that it be returned to its place in the Temple.

7 Then Josiah contributed thirty thousand lambs and kids from the flock as Passover offerings for everyone that was present, as well as three thousand head of cattle. These had been the king’s own property.

Professor David Chytraeus (1530-1600, “the last outstanding student of Martin Luther”) wrote an entire book about the Hebrew sacrifices, their details and meanings. But he summarizes the Passover sacrifice with only one sentence: “The significance of this offering is explained by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7: ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us’” (On Sacrifice, 1569, p. 51).

I thought about this verse for a long time today. A symbolic meaning came into my mind quickly and early: The King (representing God) provided the Passover lamb for everyone. Chytraeus’ advice, to say nothing at all about Passover except to let Paul speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, led my imagination into taking the King as God the Father and the king’s (own) property as his one and only Son, offered for us all. Josiah had to use many lambs; God the Father offered one for all. This is upheld in the New Testament: “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

But the symbolism is not the only thing to be considered; it is secondary if it’s to be considered at all. The King, Josiah, provided for his people. He truly did stand in the place of God the Father, providing what they needed, and following in the way that David and Solomon and Hezekiah did by providing for the people who came for the festival. He did not want anyone left out. If they had faith, they should partake. If they did not have faith, or if they were pretenders, uncircumcised, unbelieving, that was another matter. But just as God has put a little fence around the Lord’s Supper that has to do partly with fellowship and partly with understanding, so also the Passover had a little fence around it. But if someone who does not belong decides to hop the fence, it is not the fault of the host. But the understanding comes with knowing why not to hop the fence; that there is something to be warned about. “No uncircumcised male may eat of it” (Exodus 12:48) only foreshadows “Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:28). For what we eat and drink in the sacrament is not for us to say, “I must have this because I deserve it,” for it is not ours to take or demand. It is for Christ to offer. It is the king’s own property. “So if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment” (1 Corinthians 11:31). We eat the Lord’s Supper with faith, trusting in the body and blood of Christ for our forgiveness, not symbolized but actually present in the bread and in the cup. And we eat with those who believe and confess as we do, for we are all “one loaf,” as Paul also says: “We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Those who ate the sacrifices at the Passover participated in the service of the altar (1 Corinthians 10:18). And, one in faith, they showed their faith and received the blessings of God. And so we, too, one in faith, receive the blessings of the Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. Those blessings are the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation—which is nothing else than eternal life in heaven after the resurrection, forever.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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