2 Chronicles 30:10-11 and Screenshots

The sermon my preacher gave today was on all of 2 Chronicles chapter 30, and one particular passage really stuck out to me.

As background, King Hezekiah (who ruled over the Southern Kingdom of Judah after the country of Israel was split up into two kingdoms, Southern and Northern) and all of his people had been working to rebuild God's temple. When they were finished, they decided to follow God's laws and celebrate the Passover, and Hezekiah decided to invite not only his people but also the people of the Northern Kingdom to the seven day celebration. So he wrote out notes that asked the people of the Northern Kingdom to turn away from their idolatry and the bad things their forefathers had taught them and, instead, to humble themselves before God and come to celebrate the Passover. He sent these notes by runners all across both Kingdoms, and then here is the passage I want to highlight:

"So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." - 2 Chronicles 30:10-11 (ESV).

The reason why this passage stuck out to me is because I'm at that stage in life where I'm transitioning from being under my parents' bubble to being a member of the world, and the world is not a very nice place for Christians like me. God, my King, has given me a message - the truth about Himself, the gospel, and the way to eternal salvation through the Savior Jesus Christ - and I am tasked to spread that message from one end of the world to the other and back again. It sounds easy enough to just run up and tell someone the message I'm carrying - I'm sure Hezekiah's couriers thought it would be a cinch - but the truth is that it's gonna be hard. The world doesn't like the Christian message, and they will ridicule anyone claiming that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven or that there's a God to begin with. And it may not stop at mocking and scorning. It could escalate to full out persecution, including torture and death. True, Hezekiah's runners probably didn't experience death threats or anything, but as God's runners we just may. A lot of people in the world won't listen to our message.

But some will.

Some guys were strongly convicted by God through the couriers' message, humbled themselves, and went to honor God at the Passover. And that happens with Christians, too. Not everyone I witness to will become a Christian, but God will hopefully touch the hearts of a few and save them.

I just thought that the story at the beginning part of 2 Chronicles 30 was quite a close allegory to the Christian walk, at least when it comes to evangelism and witnessing. I encourage you to read all of chapter 30 sometime. It's a very good one - all of the Bible is good =D - and I really like the allegory it presents.


Well, let's see, what sort of randomness could I talk about now? My grandparents had a 50th anniversary party yesterday, which was a lot of fun but there was so much cake that I can't stand to even think about cake now! I was so exhausted when we got back home that I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it, so that explains why there wasn't a Random Rant post yesterday.

I don't have any pictures from it (they're all on my grandma's camera), so I guess I'll just post some screenshots I took a few months ago from the Season 4 Umbara arc of Clone Wars episodes. These are some of my favorite shots, and I hope you enjoy them!

 - Edessa, signing off