As the history of God’s people darkens, God ever raises a light; the deeper the darkness, the brighter the light. This principle is sweetly illustrated in the Old Testament, and I turn to three scriptures which show that the greater the ruin, the brighter the light, where faith was operative.
First, 2 Chronicles 30. Things were bad enough in Hezekiah’s day, with doors shut and lamps put out, but he addresses all the people of God, and they came together and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, taking advantage of a privilege God allowed (see Num. 9:1313But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. (Numbers 9:13)). “Great gladness” prevailed, so they determined to have other seven days, and we read, “They kept other seven days with gladness” (2 Chron. 30:2323And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness. (2 Chronicles 30:23)). Hezekiah simply got before the Lord, and as a direct and natural consequence, “there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem” (vs. 26).
They were very balmy days in Solomon’s reign, doubtless, but these were even better than they. You find, too, that when all were thoroughly happy before the Lord, they began to be occupied with the Lord’s interests. The people brought in the tithe of all things “abundantly,” and the priests and Levites were “encouraged” (2 Chron. 31:4-54Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. 5And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. (2 Chronicles 31:4‑5)). When they began to give, the Lord began to bless. As the joy in the Lord rises, the interest in and care for His things break out, and “heaps” (vss. 6,12) meet the eye of the gladdened king. The Lord has given us a brightening up many a time, but, alas! how soon we sink down. So was it also in Judah’s history.
A Revival
Second, things got very low indeed till Josiah’s time. Then there was another revival. Evil was judged (2 Chron. 34:3,73For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. (2 Chronicles 34:3)
7And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 34:7)); then “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord,” and “Shaphan read it before the king” (vss. 14,18). The Word of God produced repentance and humbling, and thereafter “Josiah kept a Passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 35:11Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. (2 Chronicles 35:1)). And the record is given, “There was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept” (vs. 18). It was the most remarkable Passover since the kingdom had been established. Not even Solomon’s could approach it. What an encouragement for faith!
Third. But, alas! enjoyed blessing will not keep the soul unless the eye is single; deeper failure follows; the people go away again from God, and then into captivity. God’s grace, however, never gives up His own, and, through mercy, there is partial recovery in Ezra’s time. A remarkable revival occurs, and many return from Babylon to God’s earthly center, Jerusalem. This is but a type of what has happened in our days, in which the Lord has worked blessedly by His Spirit, revived interest in His Word, and gathered back His saints to divine ground. Nehemiah, following Ezra, begins to build the wall.
A Wall of Separation
That was separation. Zerubbabel built the temple, Nehemiah the wall, with many true helpers. Nearly all were in the work, sisters and all. Again the Word of the Lord became precious and heeded (Neh. 8:1-81And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. 2And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. 4And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam. 5And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. 8So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. (Nehemiah 8:1‑8)). “This day is holy to the Lord” twice fell on their ears, and “the joy of the Lord is your strength” was the trumpet call of the Spirit. If our hearts are delighting in Christ, there is always strength and power, and understanding too; so the next thing is, They kept the feast of tabernacles. They anticipated the millennium; in fact, there was more apprehension of the mind of the Lord at this moment than there had ever been in their previous history—for “all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness” (vs. 17). Never in the brightest day of kingly power did such a thing happen. I just show this principle in the history of God’s people, that if there is faith and a desire to follow His Word, the darker the day, the brighter will be the blessing, if there is obedience. The further into the ruin you trace them, the bolder does faith become in its action.
W. T. P. Wolston (adapted)