Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Defining Devotion | The Writings | 2 Chronicles 5-7

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

When you hear the word "devotion," what do you think of? In today's episode, Jeff unpacks 2 Chronicles 5-7 and discusses the importance of properly orienting your devotion to God. Sign up here to receive the "Our Good King" Holy Week Devotional beginning on Palm Sunday, March 23rd, 2024. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Chronicles 5-7

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. When you think of the word devotion, what comes to mind? In many corners of the modern church, that word devotion is wrapped up with the concept of a daily devotional or a quiet time, a special portion of the day that's dedicated to spiritual disciplines like scripture reading or prayer, silence. Now, those are all good things, really good things. And the practice of a daily devotional has a rich history throughout the life of the church. This podcast might even be part of your devotional rhythm. That is awesome and it's so important. I love that we get to explore and be shaped by the Bible together. And with that said, if our idea of

devotion or dedication is limited to getting through content or contained by a particular time of day, well, Second Chronicles Chapter 5 through 7 will lovingly disorient and then reorient us. We'll come to find that devotion is deeper than we often assume, and this is really big. We'll see that devotion has a direction.

It's taking us somewhere. Now, before we get into our passage, let's pray for God's presence to prepare our hearts and our minds. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath and for your word. Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Second Chronicles. As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us.

In Jesus' name, amen. Second Chronicles, chapters 5 through 7, they make up a big climactic moment in the writings of the Old Testament. Now that the temple is complete, we read about its dedication. So chapter 5 outlines the ark. being brought into the temple. There are a lot of themes woven into the scene from the book of Exodus. The Ark of the Covenant is a physical sign of God's special relationship and presence with his people, as he not only saves them from misery, but also saves them into his mission. Now, let's focus on the song of praise that's sung at the end of Chapter 5 as the Ark is brought into the

temple, because this song introduces us to the theme that holds this entire passage to together. And frankly, it's a theme that holds the entire story of redemption together. These words are about to read their echoes from Psalm 106, 107, Psalm 118, and Psalm 136. Here we read in Second Chronicles 513. For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Now, keep this phrase in mind because we'll return to it a lot in our time together today. God's steadfast love, his chesed, is front and center in this passage. If you want to memorize a fun Hebrew word, this is a good one to memorize and just have

locked in, his chesed. After this proclamation of God's love, we get another shout out to Exodus as the glory of the Lord fills the house. And here's an amazing note, just blows my mind. The glory of the Lord is so overwhelming that the priests can no longer minister there. This is an important observation in the scene. As the people of God are about to dedicate the temple, we see that the focus here isn't on the temple itself, or even on the people, but on the living God of unrivaled glory. He's just consuming the scene with his presence. This is really all

about the presence and steadfast love, the devotion of God himself. So Second Chronicles is encouraging the exiles to look back and remember what's true. true about God's faithfulness so that they can keep moving forward in devotion to him together. Now, this move of looking back so we can move forward continues into chapter 6 with Solomon's prayer of dedication. Now, we learn a lot from this prayer about how God's people orient their devotion and faithfulness to their creator. Let's start by looking at the first words in Solomon's prayer. Oh, Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love, chesed, to your servants who walk before you

with all their heart. So Solomon starts by weaving in that same theme of God's steadfast love, his chesed. That covenantal, committed love and dedication of God is always the starting point for our dedication to him. And notice how Solomon describes our devotion to God. He says, your servants who walk before you with all their heart. So our devotion is not limited to particular content or a certain portion of the day. It's walking before the Lord in all of your life, with all of your heart. This is a kind of devotion that cannot be compartmentalized. It's meant to be comprehensive over all of life.

Now, passages like this are so convicting because they expose mine narrow and shallow view of devotion to God. And at the same time, it reveals my narrow and shallow view of God's devotion, his steadfast love. In Chapter 7, the fire of God's presence comes down and his glory fills the temple, so much so that the priests can't even enter the temple, a similar dynamic that we saw in Chapter 5. God's glory is the overwhelming presence here. And in response, the people worship and return to the thread holding everything together. God is good, his steadfast love endures forever. That's repeated in verses 3 and 6. And after the dedication of the temple, the Lord appears and responds to Solomon's prayer. Now, this response from God, it's a monumental moment in this

passage and in the book overall. Biblical scholar Martin Selman calls this one of the most important chapters in the entire Old Testament. And one of the key verses in this key chapter is 14. So let's look at it closely. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now these words serve as a lasting reminder for God's people that exile is not the end of the road. God's end goal is restoration. And that restoration is possible when we humble ourselves before his steadfast love when we seek him and turn from our sin. This is a kind of repentance that leads to restoration. Now let's pause here and let's talk about the word repentance because it's

really easy to see repentance as a bad or a dirty word in church. We might even assume that if you're having to repent, it's because you're not as devoted to God as you should be. But here, we see that repentance and devotion are bound together. Repentance, is a life-giving gift from God that's actually evidence of devotion. So here's a question, is your definition of devotion deep and wide enough to include repentance? From God's perspective, it's an essential thing. Now let's apply all of this by asking what kind of perspective or posture would this create for the people of God living in exile? What kind of response does it create for them?

at a big picture high level, Second Chronicles is trying to get them and us to develop that broader, deeper view of our devotion and faithfulness to God. But it all starts with God's devotion, his presence and his perfect faithfulness. Remember that word that's been repeated for emphasis, God's chesed, his relentless, ongoing love for his people. I really appreciate the way that Sally Lloyd-Jones unpackes that phrase, Chesed, in the way that word. that Jesus' storybook Bible. Lloyd Jones writes this. You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children with a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always, and forever love. And though they would forget him and run from him deep in their hearts, God's children would miss him always and long for him, lost children yearning for their home. That's so beautiful.

the kind of longing that Second Chronicles is meant to create in our hearts. It's a longing that points us to the heart of the gospel as God shows his love for us in the cross of Jesus. It's the kind of longing that leads us to a growing devotion that changes the direction of our lives. Our circumstances can be profoundly unfavorable. Our suffering can be unbearable and our sin unrelenting. And yet, this narrative of dedicating the temple points to the enduring hope for God's people. It points to the God who is dedicated to his people, to his promises, to his plan to restore creation in Jesus. Because he's dedicated to us, we can be dedicated to him with a life of repentance and dependence. As we end our time together, I want to go back to that question

that we started with. When you think of the word devotion, what comes to mind? It's easy to think of a specific chunk of time that we devote or dedicate to spiritual disciplines. And again, that is so, so good and important. In that paradigm, we'd look back on a portion of any given day and say, that moment was my devotional. That chunk of time, that was my dedication to you. Yet, based on Second Chronicles 5 through 7, we can consider a bigger answer to that question. To get that bigger answer, let's use our sanctified imagination.

Instead of thinking about your devotional in the scope of any given day of your life, imagine yourself in the new heavens and new earth in the presence of the living God, looking back on the entirety of your life, saying, God, all of that, not just one day, not just one moment of our day, but every day, that was my devotional. It wasn't perfect. It was a process of repentance and growth rooted in your love for me and Jesus. My devotion wasn't only about being disciplined for you. It was about depending on you,

delighting in you. All of my life was a devotional to you. It was only possible because of the perfect devotion and steadfast love you show me in Jesus. It was always about your presence, your love, and your glory. Our daily devotion to God matters because it compounds into a life of devotion. And that devotion, that faithfulness has a direction. It takes us somewhere, making us new people in Christ together. And the anchor, the heartbeat of it all, is God's steadfast love for us. God, would you humble us? Help us seek you and return to you. God, you are good. You are with us. Your steadfast love endures forever. Amen.