Mtr Kelli Joyce

“Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘The good Lord pardon all who set their hearts to seek God, the Lord the God of their ancestors, even though not in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.’”

Dear friends in Christ,

I grew up in a church that placed a heavy emphasis on reading the Bible, and that regularly encouraged its members of all ages to read the entire Bible through in a year. So I know that I must have read this story from 2 Chronicles before today, but I confess that when I read it, in sparked no memory in me, and I read it as if it were a story I was hearing for the first time.

For generations God’s people been led by wicked kings, men who were unconcerned with the will of the God of their ancestors. But Hezekiah is different. He wants to keep the law, and help the people keep it too. But the priests aren’t ready. The people aren’t ready. There are problems of knowledge, and of timing, and of ritual cleanliness.

The story doesn’t suggest that these things don’t matter to God - proper worship according to the law wasn’t about strident pedantry, it was about orienting all of individual and communal life around the reality of God’s love and holiness. But it does tell us that if the options are “keep the spirit of the law but not the letter of it” or “don’t keep the law at all,” it is better to keep the spirit of the law - to yearn to honor and glorify and praise God to whatever extent is possible.

Hezekiah went before God on behalf of his nation, and presented their desire to follow his will and keep his ways, despite their limitations and shortcomings. And God was well pleased to accept their honest worship. God was well pleased to extend to them the same grace and kindness that God has shown toward humanity since the dawn of creation, and continues to show to us today.

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli