GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 15:1-7
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15:1 The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded,
This formula is used in Chronicles and elsewhere for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, usually to speak a prophetic message (1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 20:14; 24:20). It may or may not be significant that the formula we see here is never used in Chronicles for a man who is actually a prophet (such as Elijah, 2 Chronicles 21:12-15), and so Azariah may not have been trained as a prophet at all, but was simply a man (perhaps a priest or a Levite) who was given a message by the Lord, unless he is the exception to this observation (I would hardly call it a rule). We don’t know anything else about Azariah apart from what appears in this chapter. It was a popular name, most famously for one of Daniel’s three friends (also known as Abednego). A book in the Apocrypha is named for Daniel’s companion, “The Prayer of Azariah,” which is also known as “The Song of the Three Children.”
2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a priest to teach, and without the law, 4 but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace to those who went out or to those who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the people who lived in the land. 6 They were broken in pieces, for it was nation against nation and city against city. God troubled them with every kind of distress. 7 But take courage! Do not let your hands relax, for your work shall be rewarded.”
Azariah’s message begins with an address and a promise: “The Lord is with you while you are with him.” Then a warning is given: “If you forsake him, he will forsake you.” A reminder is made about Israel’s history, when during the time of the Judges (1350-1050) the people of Israel were without spiritual leadership, “without a priest to teach, and without the law.” It was the time “when everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). The great disturbances were frequent. Every few years another enemy rose up against God’s people, and these were the times when God raised up the Judges, one by one, to lead the people and conquer these many enemies, the Arameans (Judges 3:8), the Moabites (Judges 3:12), the Philistines (Judges 3:31), the Canaanites (Judges 4:1), the Midianites (Judges 6:1), and the Ammonites (Judges 10:7), and some of these more than once.
Asa was told that he should be bold, and that he should be active in his defense of the nation. “Do not let your hands relax” is a literal translation of Azariah’s words in verse 7.
Azariah’s words are a close echo, really a sermon, on Deuteronomy 4:29-30. There the Lord told Moses: “You will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him when you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you experience misery and all these things have happened to you in future days, then you will return to the LORD your God, and you will be obedient to his voice” (EHV). David had said something similar to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:9), and other prophets repeated these words in later years (Isaiah 55:6; 58:2; Jeremiah 29:13-14; Ezra 8:22). Please notice that these words, “If you seek him, he will be found,” are not spoken to unbelievers, but to those who are already believers. Unbelievers do not come to faith by the act of seeking God, but by hearing the gospel and believing it: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
When God’s people seek him out day by day, he answers them and he treats them as dear friends; his own dear children (Jeremiah 31:20). Those who seek the Lord out of faith and love have hearts purified by faith (Acts 15:9). They have a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5). They serve in the new way of the Spirit (Romans 7:6). Their souls are getting along well (3 John 1:2). They are loved by God the Father and they are kept by Jesus Christ (Jude 1:1). The walk of faith is a life of being picked up with each stumble, being helped with each infirm wobble, being guided around each temptation, and finally being raised to life after death. Our faith places us securely in the hands of our loving God. We seek him out of faith day after day, and we are delighted to know that he seeks us right back again– and rest assured that the Lord always finds those whom he seeks (Luke 15:4). And when he finds, “he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 If you seek him, he will be found