Strangers Made Friends

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2 Chronicles 30:1–4 (ESV) Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. 2 For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month— 3 for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem— 4 and the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly.

Hezekiah turns from cleansing the temple and priests to celebrating the Passover. Way back when we began looking at 1 Chronicles we talked about how these two books were instruction manuals for returning exiles who needed to remember who they were so they would not repeat the same mistakes of generations' past. So this story is instructive for the returning exiles concerning how they are to come back to God and who they were before Him.

The key and perhaps final step in that journey was to celebrate the meal that made them who they were: Passover. Hezekiah wants it done right, with ceremonially clean and consecrated priests overseeing the festival and he wants to include those in-between tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. He's seeking to bring all the people back to the Lord as His redeemed.

The next verse informs us of an important caveat to this moment:

2 Chronicles 30:5 (ESV) So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed.

Hezekiah goes further to invite ALL Israel back to the festival. This moment shows us that the people had gotten out of the habit of celebrating this feast. They were to do it yearly, but the pagan influence of wicked kings removed its prominence and practice within the nation. And when they lose contact with this meal, they lose contact with who they are.

Guess the result of Hezekiah's invitation:

2 Chronicles 30:10 (ESV) 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.

The Passover was literally a joke for some of the wicked people of the Northern Kingdom who would soon be taken captive by Assyria. At the same time, many responded with a heart to worship:

2 Chronicles 30:11–12 (ESV) However, some men of Asher, of Manasseh, and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12 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.

Later we realize that while they came to the Passover feast, the event was so unfamiliar to them they did not realize what was required for their participation. 

2 Chronicles 30:18a (ESV) For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves...

But the next line follows:

2 Chronicles 30:18b-20 (ESV)...yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” 20 And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

What I love is the picture of Christ Hezekiah provides here for us. He makes intercession for the unfamiliar among the people so that they might not be judged but rather brought near and feast together among the people of God. You have to think this passage is what Paul had in mind when he explains to Gentiles in Ephesus that this is what Jesus has done for them. 

Ephesians 2:12–13 (ESV) remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And to the Corinthians who often divided against each other:

1 Corinthians 10:17 (ESV) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

What has Christ done but the very same (only eternal) work on our behalf to bring us back to God, make us one people and feed us from the feast of the Father's provision. We are no longer strangers, we are friends.