Message Description

Guest speaker Dr. Carol Kaminski continues the Second Message series teaching out of the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles illustrating forgiveness as the antidote to escalating tribalism.

Message Transcript

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Well, it's great to be with you today. I arrived yesterday and was here for a seminar that we did yesterday morning. And then last night, I had the privilege of going to Mount Washington. It was kind of late, but we had a wonderful view over the city, so it was terrific to see this. When Kurt asked me to come out and preach, I was thinking this could be tough. I'm, of course, from Australia, but I live in New England, north of Boston. I teach at Gordon-Conwell. My two sons and my husband are New England Patriot fans. I know this could be tough. 

However, I do want to mention that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law both went to Penn State. Now, some of you are thinking that's good, and some, not so good. My brother-in-law played football at Penn State, but I have more. My brother-in-law, Roger Duffy, played for the Steelers from 1998 to 2001. 

The passage we're looking at today is from 2 Chronicles. And before I read it, I just want to mention a couple of things. First of all, I know Chronicles is not a popular book. I was mentioning this to someone at one point. And I sent her this, she said, "Oh, what are you working in?" And I wrote a commentary on Chronicles. And she said, "Oh, Chronicles, you mean from Narnia?" And I'm like, "No, no, not Narnia. This is Bible Chronicles." And the passage that I'm going to read in a moment also has some names like Zebulun, Issachar, Manasseh. And it’s sort of like, "Okay, what's going on?" 

So, as we get started, as I read it, I want to set the context, because the story takes place with King Hezekiah. And the passage I'm going to read is when King Hezekiah sends an invitation to these Northern tribes, and that's when you read these names that you may not be familiar with. But I'm going to explain why they're important in just a moment. 

But the other thing I want us to be thinking of, as we read and hear this passage, is you may be familiar with the passage in 2 Chronicle 7:14, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." I think Kari Jobe, she's got a wonderful song on Heal Our Land, so you may be familiar with that. 

And the story that we're going to be looking at today is a commentary on that verse, all the language appearing in that verse. Everything occurs in this chapter. It's the only chapter in the Bible that they all appear together, and it's a commentary. It's going to help us explain how to live out 2 Chronicles 7:14. So that's where we're headed. 

2 Chronicles 30:1-3, and I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible Version. "Now Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month, since they could not celebrate it at that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people been gathered to Jerusalem." 

Now, I'm reading verses 10-12, and I would encourage you to read the whole chapter at home, but I thought I wouldn't read it all out as that would use up all my time this morning. Verses 10-12, "So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them with scorn and mocked them. Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord." 

Now, verses 18-20. "For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, and Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.” So, the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people." 

I have a good friend of mine, David Palmer, and he is a senior pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio. And I also work with him on this CASKET EMPTY project, which is a Bible project, how to understand the Bible. He's written the New Testament. And about two years ago, he was teaching in Beirut, in Lebanon. And he met a pastor there of a church who ministers to refugees. And this pastor told him a story about a man named Yasir. 

Now, Yasir grew up in Sudan, and he grew up in a devout Muslim family. And when he was at school, there was another kid in the class whose name was Zacharia, and he was a Christian. And Yasir tells the story of how he absolutely hated Christians. And he said, "We saw them as the infidel." So, one day, he and a few of his friends dragged Zacharia out into the field and they beat him up. They damaged his eye, broke his arm and leg, and they left him for dead. 

Well, God took hold of Yasir's family. His uncle became a Christian first, through some amazing circumstances. And then Yasir did, and his family disowned him. He ended up doing study, and then he finally became a pastor to refugees in Germany. Not only did he become a pastor, but he also was a speaker at conferences. 

So, 25 years after that time when he was in school, he's speaking at a conference and he sees someone in the few front rows, and the person is weeping as he's sharing his testimony. And after he finished, he said he went up to the person, and he said, "I noticed that you were weeping. Why were you weeping?" And as Yasir looked at the person, his eye was blind, and his body was clearly disfigured. 

And the man said to him, "I am Zacharia, you beat me and left me for dead 25 years ago." And then Zacharia said, "I have been praying that you would become a Christian these 25 years." Not only that, but he took out his Bible, and then he opened it up. And Yasir saw that his name was on the front page of the Bible because he had been praying for him. And Yasir thought to himself, "What kind of religion is this, that an enemy like this can love someone?" And the passage that we're looking at today is actually about former enemies being reconciled. 

Now, we're not living in a context where we have that Christian/Muslim hatred for each other. And nor are we living at the time of King Hezekiah when there was hostility between tribes. But we are living in a context where there is a high, increasing sense of anger and bitterness toward people. Think of who you vote for, whether you're a Trump or a Biden supporter, whether you support Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, or Blue Lives Matter, whether you agree with wearing masks or not wearing masks, whether you agree with vaccinations or not vaccinations. I mean, we're becoming increasingly tribal. 

Ben Sasse, who is a Senator of Nebraska, and he spoke at a Gordon-Conwell commencement a couple of years ago, has written a book called Them: Why We Hate Each Other - and How to Heal. And he said it really struck him a couple of years before writing the book because he was at a marathon where his daughter was a runner, and he and a few others had set up this little tent giving water to runners as they ran through. 

And he said a group of protestors set up exactly opposite them, on the other side of the road. And then what happened was when the runners were coming by and they started handing out water, the protestors would start shouting, "Poison, poison. Don't drink any of it." And some of the runners were kind of like, "No, thanks." And he says, "When that happened, I realized there's something deeply wrong with our country." And you may have felt that as well. And I want us to think through the story of Hezekiah because they were facing a different kind of hostility, but God has a better way forward for us. 

First of all, just as we look at the context, let me tell you a couple of things about setting the scene. So, King Hezekiah is an eighth-century king, in the eighth century BC. And there had been two hundred years of a divided kingdom. For those who were at the seminar, remember the Northern and the Southern kingdoms. There'd been two hundred years of division. Ten tribes had moved to the North, and there were two tribes in the South, Judah, and Benjamin, and Jerusalem was the capital. And there'd been several wars that had taken place, and there were deeply held animosities. 

There were different political systems because you had kings. Remember all that, those who were there, twenty kings in the North. There were different kings and political systems, and they had set up idols in the North, at Dan, and Bethel. And so, they were in conflict with each other. 

But what Hezekiah does is he's going to send an invitation to the Passover celebration, the Passover that celebrates their redemption. And he sends letters to the Northern tribes. And if I could have the map up, I just want to highlight where we are. If you'll see that Judah is in the South and it's in the blue, and that includes Simeon, and you'll also see Jerusalem is in the South. And I'm just going to give you a couple of the verses, so you get a sense of what we have in verse one. 

It says, "He invited Ephraim and Manasseh and Judah." So, you can see Ephraim, Manasseh, and then further up North. In verse five, it says that "The letters went from Beersheba to Dan." And you'll notice Beersheba is way in the South, and then Dan is way in the North. Verse 11, talks about people from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun coming to the South. And then in verse 18, it says, "Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun." In other words, just while the map's still here, he is moving across tribes. 

All of those Northern tribes had been enemies, but his invitation is extending across the tribes. And as we start to think about it, we're not the tribes of Zebulun, Judah, or Manasseh, but we have our own tribes. And this story is about extending an invitation of reconciliation beyond our own tribes, so to speak. 

Well, this was even more profound. Not only does he send the invitation to invite them to come to the Passover, but there'd been some recent history. In fact, during Hezekiah's father, Ahaz, the Northerners had actually come to the Southern kingdom, and they had killed thousands of people. And they had taken their women and their children as hostages. 

Last weekend, I watched a September 11 show, it was the 20th anniversary and I watched 60 Minutes. I don't know if others saw the 60 Minutes, but it was quite moving. Many interviews with people and especially the firefighters, my husband and I felt it was very moving, just because our son is training to be a firefighter. And we just thought, "Oh, what a wonderful group of people in their service, and also the lives that were lost." And I also noticed that 20 years later, how raw those emotions were. And I want to suggest when Hezekiah sends out invitations to the North, that they were raw as well. And the question is, why does he do this? 

And I want to remind us this morning and suggest that in Chronicles and throughout the Scripture, there is a greater reality than personal animosities or tribal animosities. And the greater reality is God has created one people of God. And Chronicles wants to emphasize this because of the opening of genealogies. And I know you probably haven't read them recently. I love genealogies. My work has been in Genesis. All I want to make is this one comment. There in Chronicles, it starts with nine chapters of genealogies, and everyone flips over. 

The point I want to make is that all the tribes are represented in the opening genealogies. And what is going on is the book is emphasizing that, and it starts back with Adam. And it says, "We are one people of God." And it's a driving theme. And Chronicles is going to use this language of all Israel, referring to the whole people of God. 

And when we think of ourselves, I want to remind us that we are one people of God in Christ. And what that means is our tribal particularities need to take second place, and third place, and fourth place, because the goal is that we are one people. Well, how does this happen in this story? They get invited to the Passover celebration. They're coming from the North. How do you celebrate Passover? You have meals together. Where do you have meals? You have lamb, you have the unleavened bread. Where do you have those meals? Oh, in homes. 

You know that feeling when you've been in conflict with someone and you don't want to see them, or you don't want to see them if you're coming in church, and you happen to see them on the other side. You don't want to see them. They're coming into their homes. 

When I was growing up, my parents were divorced. I had a single mom and a sister who's two years older. And when we got into some sibling rivalry of something and some conflict, what my mom would do is say to us, "Go to your room." And she didn't mean, "Go to your rooms." She meant, "Go to your room. One room, both of you together. And you stay in the room, and you sort it out, and you come out when you've sorted it out." And we'd both sit there in the room. We'd be sitting and waiting, who was going to say something first, and we'd dig our heels in. And we knew that we had to stay there until it was resolved. So eventually, we're like, "Well, I thought you said this," and we'd start to get it resolved. 

The Passover, they're in their meals, having meals together. You see, the story of the Bible is not only about conflict, and there's a whole series of conflicts. And in fact, that's what's going on in our culture now. There are a series of conflicts. That's the human story. My work is in the book of Genesis. And the conflict, where does it start? Genesis 4. And it's all over the book of Genesis, the opening book to tell about the human story. And Jacob and Esau, there's a rivalry between those. There's Joseph and his brothers. 

And so, the conflict that we are seeing in the culture now is part of what it means to the human story, it's the result of sin. But another reality happens in the book of Genesis and its reconciliation. In Genesis, you have the story of both Jacob and Esau, the rivalry, but then you also have them being reconciled. And in fact, in this story in Genesis when they are reconciled, the brothers are weeping. 

The story of Joseph, if you've read that recently, in the end, it's quite amazing, because when Joseph finally sees his brothers, he just completely loses it. And he even sends his officials to go out, and it says they heard him weeping. And he weeps on their shoulder, but there's reconciliation. And that's also the human story. And I want to encourage us today that as we look at the story of Hezekiah, that reconciliation begins with an invitation. Who do you need to invite to a meal today? 

Perhaps some of you need to respond to an invitation. Who do you need to send an email to, or make a phone call to someone that you're estranged from or you're in conflict with? When I was in my 20's, I still remember the time that I'd struggled with my dad, because my parents had been divorced and he ended up moving into the states, and I felt isolated and left on my own. 

I'd become a Christian in my late teens, and I took the step toward reconciliation. And I can still remember now, I was in a coffee shop in a mall. And I can still remember sitting in the booth, and just weeping as I moved toward reconciliation. And we've had a wonderful relationship these 20-30 years, being reconciled over a period of time. 

What this story tells us is that Hezekiah sends out the invitation to the Northern tribes. Some of them reject the invitation, and that's what happens in our own lives as well. You can't make someone be reconciled, but you can offer the invitation. But there are others, it says in verse 11, "Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves, and they came to Jerusalem." 

And this is one of the key concepts in the book of Chronicles. "If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves," humble themselves is not being a humble person. It is submitting to the will and purpose of God. And these Northern tribes who humbled themselves are submitting to the call to be reconciled. And it also means being vulnerable, so it doesn't feel very good when we have to humble ourselves. It says they also yield to the Lord, and it's literally to give their hand. 

But I want you to notice something else that happens. In verse 12, it says, "The hand of God was on Judah to give them one heart." And I find this so interesting because what you have is the invitation goes to the North. Some of them humble themselves. They come to Jerusalem. But how do you think the people of Jerusalem felt when they saw these Northerners who had killed some of their people in the past? 

This is a supernatural reconciliation, because it says, "The hand," and the way it's written in Hebrew, it's emphatic. "The hand of God was on Judah." God was doing it to give them one heart to do, and to be obedient to the command of the King, which was according to the word of God. Do you see that? So, they're stepping out in faith. They're being willing to offer the invitation. They're being willing to be vulnerable. But now, when the people are actually turning up in their home, "God, you got to do it." And God does it. He's the one who gives them one heart. 

Last fall, we were doing a Bible study in our women's ministry on Chronicles, Cultivating Godliness. And there was a lady who was part of the study. And she came up to me in church one day, and she was just bawling. And I said, "What's wrong?" And she said, "We've been reading about being reconciled. And you don't know about this, but I've been in conflict with someone in my church, this other lady, for months and months. And it has gotten so bad that I've been thinking of leaving the church." And she said, "God's been stirring my heart." And she said, "The two of us talked before church today, and we have become reconciled." The work of God, you can't do it on your own, the word of God and the work of God in your life. 

Well, I want you to see a couple of other things that happen. So, they come into Jerusalem. We have them having the Passover meal. But before they have the Passover, they are meant to be purified, but they haven't been purified yet, and there's no time according to the custom to do it. So, what we find in verses 18-19 is it says, "Hezekiah prayed for them, 'May the good Lord pardon everyone whose heart is to seek God.'" 

Hezekiah now takes the initiative to pray for one of his enemies, exactly what Jesus is going to call us to do. Again, this has to be a God thing. You see because we're not going to learn how to do this by looking at social media. You may have seen the Wall Street Article, this is its title, Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead. And this article talks about what Facebook's done in its algorithm. It is playing on our anger. They're making money off our anger. 

What they've found is that if you liked something, according to their algorithm, you get one point. But if you put an angry button, you get five points. It's worth more to them. And they've found if people get angry, they're going to stay online. And it is good for Facebook business. So, politicians are working this out and other companies. We're being had. 

There is another way, and we're not going to learn it through social media. It is through the Gospel. It is recognizing that we are the one people of God, and it is recognizing the importance of prayer and forgiveness being extended. And the only way that we can do this is if we have known God's forgiveness ourselves, that is how the anger gets reduced. And that's how we can extend forgiveness to others. 

My husband has another sister. This is not the Penn State sister. He has four sisters and three brothers, so there are eight in the family. And this past summer, we're in Boston and his mother was in Maine, and she was in her last few months of cancer. She ended up being with the Lord this past summer. Lovely, committed, Godly woman, who's prayed for her kids all her life, even just before she died. 

But what was so interesting is that a number of the sisters were coming up to help and be with their mom, and they were taking shifts. And my husband and I also were going up there, and we had the opportunity to talk with some of the siblings. Well, his sister became a Christian about five years ago. Well, maybe it was a few years more than that. 

And we'd never really sat and asked her, we'd seen a difference in her character, but we've never really asked her what happened. We said, "How did that happen?" And she said, "Well, let me tell you. I was in the courtroom, getting a divorce from my husband," which we knew about that. She hadn't been to church. "I was in the courtroom, getting a divorce." And she said, "I was just filled with anger and rage, and I didn't want to get a divorce. And I was just angry." And she said, "All of a sudden, this love and forgiveness just went through me." And she said, "I realized I could forgive him." 

Well, she drives after the divorce and drives out. And she says to herself, "I need to find out what just happened to me. I need to get to church." And that's exactly what happened. And her life has been changed, but the anger has changed to forgiveness. This is God's work. And it's a supernatural work that He does. And we have a story to tell the culture around us. 

The outcome of the story in verse 20 says, "So the Lord heard Hezekiah and He healed the people." I want you to notice in this verse, that 2 Chronicle 7:14, and this is the commentary on it, it says, "We pray that God would heal the land." And I want you to know this morning that the land is healed by people being healed. It's not an abstract prayer. It's a concrete prayer. And this is the hard work of reconciliation and prayer. And it comes and people are healed through prayer. 

I don't know if you've ever read the book called Out of a Far Country, but it's by Christopher Yuan. And Christopher Yuan grew up in Chicago. His father was a dentist, and so he went to dental school in Atlanta. But while he was at dental school, he got involved with the wrong group. He ended up going to parties. He ended up going to gay clubs. He moved into a whole gay lifestyle and had lots of different sexual partners. And not only that, but he also got into drugs and actually became a very successful drug dealer. Finally, getting arrested and going to prison for six years. 

Well, while he was going through all this, his mother who had been an atheist and the father had been atheist, became a Christian. And so did her husband at some point. She became a Christian. And do you know what she started to do? She started to learn about prayer, and she started praying for her son. And if you read the book, there are some photographs in it. She used a bathroom that no one used as her prayer closet. And she has pictures of signs up and sticky notes, and these things in the bathroom, of praying for her son and praying for his healing. 

This is the supernatural work of God. While he's in prison, he's in a prison in high security in Atlanta, and at the lowest point in his life. He's in the prison room, and he said he's got a closet sitting there. This old closet. He's got a toilet that's attached to the floor. And then he's got a bed. And he looks on the wall and he saw some scratch graffiti. And the graffiti says, "If you're bored, read Jeremiah 29:11, 'For I have plans for you for good.'" And he keeps reading it and he goes, "Maybe God's got a plan for my restoration." 

And then he's looking in his cupboard, this old closet. And he said there were paper things in there, and there was some old trash. And he puts his hand in the cupboard, and he feels a book and it's a Bible. And he starts to read it. And he comes to the Lord, while he's in prison. He ends up doing Bible studies. Six years later, when he finally gets out of prison, his mother and parents bring him back to Chicago. 

He gets back and he sees outside the house, a yellow ribbon. And he knew the story about the song, Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree. And this story is about this prisoner. And he told his sweetheart, "If you still want me back, tie a yellow ribbon around the tree. And when I come on the bus," He told the bus driver, "If there's a yellow ribbon, stop. If there's no yellow ribbon, just drive by." 

Well, Christopher gets home, and he sees a yellow ribbon. And then when he gets near the front door, he hears the music, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, playing on a CD player. And then he walks inside the house. And there are about a hundred yellow ribbons with prayers that people have prayed for him, for his healing. People from his church, praying for him. And Christopher ended up going to a Bible college, Moody Bible College. He's now a professor at Moody. And he speaks all around the country, calling prodigals to come back to the Lord. That's the supernatural work of God. 

What do we want in our own lives, and our own family? God encourages us to pray to seek His face. And he promises to hear, to forgive, and to heal. And I don't know about you, but in the context in which we're living, I want to be a person all about reconciliation. And this church, Orchard Hill, you're a light to a place that is angry, that needs to find another way. Let us pray. 

Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the supernatural God who works miracles in our lives, one person at a time. Father, we thank you that you're a God who hears and answers prayer. You forgive, and you heal. And Father, I pray this morning that if there's someone here that doesn't yet know your forgiveness, Lord, I pray that you would reveal yourself to that person or those people right now. 

And Lord, for those who are struggling with anger toward, it might be within their own family, a sibling, or a friend, or someone at the church, or even a spouse, Lord, would you do your good work in our lives, that we would come together as a place of worship here, of a restored and a united people of God. We thank you, God, for what you'll do in the days ahead. And we pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory, Amen.