Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Hope For Dark Days | The Writings | 2 Chronicles 28

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Where do you turn when you have a bad day? Where is God when you feel surrounded by darkness? How can you make the world feel less dark? In today's episode, Tanya shares a powerful story from 2 Chronicles 28 and shares the hope of a rescuer from darkness. 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 28

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 Tanya Wilmeth. Have you ever had a really bad day or a string of bad days? Your answer is probably yes. Maybe you felt darkness enveloping you. Maybe you couldn't even see a way forward. It can be hard to believe that God is good and that what he has for us is good when we feel enveloped by darkness.

2 Chronicles 28 describes a dark time and one very, very bad day for the southern kingdom of Judah. Ahaz was the new king in the south, and he was a drastic contrast to his father, Jotham, who was with no fault. There isn't a positive thing to be said about Ahaz. The account of his kingship emphasizes his unfaithfulness, and it describes how the worship of the Lord had been replaced by worship of foreign gods. It also describes the faithlessness of the people in the southern kingdom. It was a truly dark time for Judah. It says, therefore, the Lord His God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus.

He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. For Paca, the son of Ramalaya, killed 120,000 from Judah in one day. All of them men of valor because they had forsaken. and the Lord, the God of their fathers. So because of their unfaithfulness, in the words of Moses' prophecy, they were uprooted and thrust into another land. 200,000 civilians, including women and children, and the elderly, were taken captive along with all of their belongings. This is a dark and desolate picture of Judah marching toward the Northern Kingdom under King Ayaz. But the darkness is mitigated by the action and the responsiveness of people in Israel who followed the Lord.

In a rare mention of life and people above the southern border, we hear about a prophet named Oded. Not only did the people listen to him, but they took his word seriously. So when the captives were being marched to the north, Odad walked out to meet the army. They were broken down, captives were naked, they were coming towards Samaria. But Odette spoke out and said, This isn't right. You're not going to bring those captives in here. We're not any better than they are.

We are just as guilty before the Lord. And when the northern people heard this and recognized it as the word of the Lord, they actually listened and they took action. They began to pass out clothes so the naked people could get dressed. They unchained the captives and they put them on the backs of their camels and their donkeys.

It says they clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. What was a very bad day was still bad. The people under King Ahaz lost their relatives in battle. The others were upended and taken from their homes.

But because the light of the Lord was shown on Odad and people listened to him, what could have been total darkness was not completely dark. God's word brought light into the world through justice and mercy. When I was a little girl, I saw what it was like for a normal person with a normal job and a normal life to bring light to people who needed it. My dad had a job at a factory. He started there when he was 18, and he still worked there when he passed away at 65. He got the job when he dropped out of college.

They hired him to do maintenance. And I can remember when he moved up to Forman when I was a little girl, It was a really big deal for our family because he didn't have to work the night shift anymore. By the time I was in high school, he was the plant manager, and not long after, he got to be part owner and president of the plant. The plant made insulation, the sticky, scratchy, heavy-duty kind. It goes in furnaces and pizza ovens at places like dominoes. My dad knew how to fix every machine in the plant.

I don't think he felt any different as the plant manager than he did as the maintenance man. still came home at the end of the day, took a 15-minute nap in his chair, and went out to feed the cows. Then he got up and did it again. He left every morning after checking on the cows around 6.30 a.m. to go to work, and I assume he drove to the gas station to get a candy bar and a styrofoam coffee before he went into the plant. I saw the evidence in his pickup truck. There was a viaduct on his way to work where people slept to get out of the cold, or the heat, or the rain. He often picked up one or two of the people and took them with him to the gas station and gave them a few bucks out of his wallet to get what they needed or wanted. He always had cash in his wallet. I'm not sure how we found out

about this. It's not like he would have told us, but I remember the conversations between my mom and him. She wasn't a fan. I thought it was amazing and adventurous and kind that he picked up people, that he took them to the gas station, that he gave them money. I understand what my mom was. I understand what my mom was thinking, now that I'm a bit older. When dad died unexpectedly, there was a man that waited until the line was gone at his visitation to approach us. The man walked up to me, took my hand, and said, Bill showed me Jesus. I don't know who he was. I don't know if he lived under the viaduct or worked in the plant. It doesn't matter. But something my dad did showed him what Jesus is like, showed him the light of Jesus.

O dead the prophet was right when he spoke out about the guilt that is upon us all. What right do any of us have to mistreat someone else? We all need forgiveness and mercy and love. Ahaz was a terrible king, and yet all the people in this story were guilty of not being faithful to the Lord. They all needed someone to bring them out of the darkness and into the light. They all needed a rescuer. centuries later, a better king came into the world and said, I am the light. There are opportunities around you and me to make the darkness less dark for people by sharing

God's love. What area of your life feels dark? Where do you need the light of Jesus to shine and show you God's mercy? Where can you extend mercy to someone else? How are you longing for justice, for those in your community that are hurting? The way I understand it, a blessing isn't a thing we get or a day we have, like hashtag blessed day from the top of a mountain, or hashtag blessed with a picture of your lovely house in the background. I think to be blessed, according to the Bible, is to be with God.

When Jesus talks about blessing in the sermon on the mount, it's not the best day ever or having everything you ever dreamed of. It's more about living a life alongside Jesus, focusing on your life. yourself less and less and loving other people more and more. The people of Judah certainly did not have a hashtag blessed day when they were captured and taken to Samaria, but they were blessed by those who spoke out and gave them the kindness of the Lord so they could safely return home. Jesus said in John 812, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. How does it encourage you to know that when you follow Jesus,

His light illuminates your path. Father, bring your light into the world through your people. Jesus, light the dark places of my heart with your true love. Spirit, show me where and when to extend your light and your mercy. Amen.