Chronicling

I've just finished a brief survey of the Old Testament book 2 Chronicles today.  I started reading it while I was in Israel last May, when I was moved by how intricately the Jews went about preparing the temple for God.  They knew Him, and they could not take Him lightly.   When I read the first 7 chapters describing the preparation, construction and dedication of the temple, I was reminded of the New Testament truth that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit, that temple is a very specific word in the Bible.  

This coincides with where we in my and Kelsey's small group have been reading in Ecclesiastes 5:7..... "...Therefore stand in awe of God."  

My body is His as the temple was His.  How much I must never forget to take God at His word, seriously, deeply.  He is the Creator of all things, the writer of my story, the keeper of names, the lover of all humanity, the one who knows when the goat gives birth and when a world leader rises up.  He knows me perfectly.  He knows every slave perfectly.  This is God, and I cannot deny Him.  In every king's story, 2 Chronicles records a specific time that shows the way each king oriented himself.  It often says "he did evil in the eyes of the Lord" or "he did what was right in eyes of the Lord" and details his action or inaction regarding the idol worship that Israel had embraced.  

What is important is how I orient myself, toward Him or away from Him.  I have lesson after lesson in this book of how to do it wrong and a few on how to do it right.  

In wrapping up, I think one of my favorites is the story of Manasseh in 2 Chronicles, who begins with his orienting phrase in 33:2-3 “ but he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.  For he REBUILT the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down he raised up altars for the Baals and made wooden images and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.”

But the sweet part is that later on he humbles himself and the Lord gives him room to turn his life around to serve Him.  Even when his entire reign was characterized by antagonizing God, He still had a place in the heart of God to turn and go forward, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

Ooh, and one last thought.  "The eyes of the Lord" is such an interesting phrase.  I think there, being in the gaze of the Lord, is the only place I have truly been able to see and accept reality.