If you’ve ever gone through a ground-shifting change in life, you know it can be unsettling and upsetting. That’s how God’s people felt in 2 Chronicles as they returned home after seventy years in captivity.
They were a people in transition and needed an explanation of their past and future.
Second Chronicles met that need by focusing post-exilic Israel on its heritage and hope, especially as symbolized by the temple in Jerusalem.
Terms like temple and the house of the LORD occur 139 times in 2 Chronicles. Nothing symbolized God’s presence among His people more than the temple.
This book tells stories about Solomon, who built the original temple; about Hezekiah, who repaired the temple; and about; Josiah, who purified the temple following days of idolatry.
During the final years of Judah the temple was plundered and destroyed; but seventy years later a decree went forth to rebuild the temple as a sign of God’s enduring care for His people.
While God no longer dwells in a physical temple of stone, the New Testament declares that a believer’s body and spirit is a temple where He resides.
The picture clearly shows the growth of the modern city around the ancient one.
We are bought at a price; therefore, we’re to glorify God in our body and spirit, which are His.
In today’s terms, Solomon’s temple cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. Yet God purchased each of us with something far more valuable – the precious blood of Christ.
Let’s glorify Him as His temples, houses of His glory, vessels fit for the Master’s use.
Key Thought:
God is determined to have a temple, a dwelling place for His glory on earth.
Key Verse:
“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chr 36:23).
Key Action:
Glorify God in the temple where He resides—in your body and spirit.