"Claiming the Treasurers of the Past"

September 22, 2024

Background: 2 Chronicles 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34:1-35:19;

Print: 2 Chronicles 35;1-6, 16-19;

Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 35:1; Devotional: 2 Chronicles 34:8, 14-27

2 Chronicles 35:1-6 (ESV)
1  Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And 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  And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel.
4  Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son.
5  And stand in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers’ household.
6  And slaughter the Passover lamb, and consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the LORD by Moses.”

2 Chronicles 35:16-19 (ESV)
16  So all the service of the LORD was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah.
17  And the people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days.
18  No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19  In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.
 

2 Chronicles Chapter 35 (Commentary)

35:10-19 The priests and the Levites faithfully accomplished their duties and the people celebrated (35:10-17).

The event was so incredible that the chronicler confessed, No Passover had been observed like it in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed (35:18). This evaluation is at once both wonderful and tragic. It is wonderful because it demonstrates the intense repentance and devotion to the Lord of this young king. He was going to ensure that God was honored by the nation on his watch. But, it is also tragic that the worship of God had been so neglected.

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