2 Chronicles 15:1-19 - Homiletics

The hour of happiness improved.

Perhaps we are not warranted to say that it was immediately after Asa's victory over Zerah, or able to say how soon it was after it, that Azariah the son of Oded came with his message to him and "all Judah and Benjamin," under that direct and ever-typical leading of "the Spirit." Nor does the parallel enlighten us on this point. The history, however, here follows on with the account of Azariah's appearance to Asa, and gives us the impression that it was at a certain favourable crisis, in happy quickened hours, due to the fresh memories of the divinely given victory, the manifest and most merciful interposition of Heaven, that the prophet came. Coming, he did thus the very thing the prophet is ever ordained to do. He breaks in on the lower life, on the life prone to forget, on the life able enough nevertheless to take higher ground and onward action, and reminds it, in plainest fidelity and undoubting firmness of speech, of such great realities as these.

I. ITS ABIDING PRIVILEGE — GOD 'S DWELLING PRESENCE , HIS CONSTANTLY RESIDENT PRESENCE , HIS HABITUAL INDWELLING , ON THE ONE SUPPOSITION AND CONDITION OF HIS PEOPLE 'S ALLEGIANCE . "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him." It is a simple, powerful, ever-necessary reminder for the earliest, opening intelligence of the baptized; for the unfolding, growing, intelligent piety of the confirmed; for the devoutness and all the trembling awe of the communicant; and for all the Church, individually or collectively, in the dangerous, doubtful, fickle, forgetful, tempted course of human life. He is faithful, his mercies fail not, his memory is ever fresh, punctual and to be relied upon, and—wonderful assurance to lay to heart—it is not we who have to wait for him !

II. ITS PERPETUAL OPPORTUNITY — THE OPPORTUNITY OF OBTAINING , SIMPLY FOR THE SEEKING , DIVINE INTERPOSITION . Life and human character need and have the special and occasional as well as the abiding and daily, the exceptional as well as the familiar, hill and valley as well as the level way, dark trial and deep grief as well as the wonted discipline of earth for imperfect creatures, joys as well as peace, and in a word abounding vouchsafements of grace and strength, as well as the unbroken stream of day after day.

III. ITS TREMBLING DANGER — THE DANGER OF BEING FORSAKEN OF ITS CHIEF GOOD , THROUGH FORSAKING ITS GOD . HOW lightly men treat the love which is most sensitive as well as most needed—liable to be grieved, offended, quenched, or absent none can tell how long, as none can tell where the sin and the folly that drove that love, shall cease to drive their victim! To be forsaken of God is absolutely the worst forsakenness, the dreariest solitariness, the poorest poverty. And the sentence, "Let him alone," or "Let them alone," how its echoes wander and trail—sometimes endlessly I

IV. ITS SUPREME EXERTION OF ENERGY . There are times, and there are enterprises, where no outer energy, no inner devotion, can be misplaced. Resolution, courage, and covenant, mutual exhortation, meeting together, edifying one another, and "the speaking oft to one another" on the part of them "that fear the Lord," vowing to the Lord and praying to him, and praising him with singing and music, and "with all the heart, and all the desire," "putting away the idols, stamping them to dust, and burning them," "renewing the altar and renewing ever the sacrifices thereof,"—this enthusiasm becomes certain occasions and spreads a holy contagion. The life that is devoid of it has missed its way and its joy on earth even; the lives that are destitute of it have doomed themselves. Other associations, other bonds, other enterprises, may make them sport, but can scarcely fail in the very act to make them their sport! Now, Asa and his people had found and were following the better way; and oh that such a heart may continue in them! Grateful, happy, and inspirited hours of life were used by the prophet and the king and his people for thinking greater things, resolving on greater things, and carrying them into execution. They should be similarly utilized by us. In hours uplifted by genuine healthful happiness, in periods of higher feeling and tone of thought, we should gladly seize the opportunity to raise the standard of our own conduct, and then fix the standard to which to work, and from which, even in lower mood, we shall, of God's help, not depart.