2 Chronicles 27-28

What’s Happening?

Jotham, Judah’s next king, has taken the throne. He loves God and obeys his commands, unlike his idolatrous and disobedient father. Judah is rapidly declining morally, spiritually, and politically (2 Chronicles 27:1-2). But Jotham is able to restore some of the grandeur Judah achieved during the reigns of its greatest kings, David and Solomon. He rebuilds the walls around Jerusalem and refortifies Judah’s military outposts (2 Chronicles 27:3-4). At the end of his reign, the Chronicler has almost nothing negative to say about Jotham (2 Chronicles 27:5-9). He is a faithful king who brings peace to an unfaithful Judah by obeying God’s commands to love him and love others. 

But Jotham’s son, Ahaz, is a tragic inversion of both his father and God’s intentions for his people. God gave Israel a mission to remove several barbaric cults from their promised land and make it a place where love for God and love for others ruled (2 Chronicles 28:3-4). But the northern kingdom of Israel defected from this mission. And like idolatrous northern Israel, Ahaz now leads Judah to worship the land’s ancient bloodthirsty deities and even sacrifices his children to them (2 Chronicles 28:1-3). In an ironic twist God sends idolatrous Israel to remove the barbaric cult that Judah has become (2 Chronicles 28:4-5). 

But during this war, Israel goes too far. Israel slaughters 120,000 of Judah’s troops. They execute the king’s son and advisors and enslave some 200,000 women and children (2 Chronicles 28:6-8). An unnamed prophet tells Israel what they’ve done is wrong. If they want to avoid a similar defeat for themselves, they must send their hostages back to their homes (2 Chronicles 28:9-11).

Throughout the book of Chronicles Israel has consistently rejected God, his laws, and his prophets, but in this moment Israel listens (2 Chronicles 28:12-13). They clothe the prisoners they stripped, feed them, and tend to their wounds before placing them on donkeys and escorting them to the border town of Jericho (2 Chronicles 28:14-15). In an unexpected inversion, Israel chooses to love God and love others as Judah should have. But none of this moves Ahaz to reverse course. Instead, he robs God’s temple of its gold to buy mercenaries (2 Chronicles 28:17-20). He builds more and more shrines to more and more gods in hopes they might protect him, but none do (2 Chronicles 28:21-25). Ahaz died in disgrace for abandoning God and his laws.

Where is the Gospel?

It was unexpected that notoriously pagan Israel listened to God while God’s chosen people in Judah refused to. Stories like this are meant to expose God’s people for their faithlessness and at the same time remind them that God will be merciful to all who listen and obey his laws. 

During Jesus’s ministry, Judah was led by men a lot like Ahaz. They did not worship idols, but they worshiped their identity as Judaens and their religious traditions. One time a self-righteous lawyer asked Jesus which of God’s laws was most important. Jesus said the most important law was to love God and the second was to love others (Luke 10:27). Then, as an illustration of someone who truly loves God, he tells the lawyer a story not about a good Judean but a good Samaritan (Samaritans are the descendents of the pagan Israel). A man on his way to Jericho is brutally beaten. Judean priests and holy men pass by him and refuse to help. But a Samaritan clothes the victim, feeds him, tends to his wounds, places him on a donkey, and escorts him down the road to Jericho (Luke 10:30-36). The illustration is meant to show that the lawyer is like Ahaz and not as righteous as those he looks down on.

But our hope in this passage does not rest only on Jesus’ willingness to critique religious hypocrisy. Our true hope comes from the fact that Jesus is the ultimate Good Samaritan. At great cost to himself he comes to people beaten and trapped by their own sins and heals their wounds. He shows God’s love to victims of others’ hatred. He binds our broken hearts and escorts us into his Kingdom. Jesus is our Good Samaritan, which means we should not be like Ahaz. Instead, we should willingly and joyfully love him and love others. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who rules his people with love. And may you see Jesus as the good Samaritan who heals us and carries us into God’s Kingdom.