2 Chronicles 19:4 Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem. And he went out again among the people, from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers.
As we enter this season of Teshuva (Repentance) during the month of Elul, we enter a unique season approaching the Fall Feasts. This month initiates a 40-day countdown to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and is traditionally known as the time the King would visit His people.
Most of the year, for 11 months, the King reigning from His throne in His royal palace was unapproachable unless a subject was summoned or went through appropriate channels to appear before him. However, during Elul, the King left His palace and set up His royal tent in the fields, issuing an announcement: “The King is in the field!”
A subject no longer needed to be summoned or go through a royal bureaucracy. During this short season, anyone could visit the King. Also, at this time, the King inspected the fields and checked the status of His Kingdom.
In 2 Chronicles 19, we read that King Jehoshaphat went through the fields and called His people to return to God. As we near the days of Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), a time of introspection and reflection, we may also hear a particular call from our King. Yet be reminded that our King Yeshua (Jesus) has not limited us to one month per year of accessibility, though this may be a time of particular intensity.
While we may be encouraged in this season toward giving particular attention to our relationship with Him, asking for greater intimacy, deeper repentance, or victory over personal strongholds, we also know that his availability during any and every season is assured because of his atoning sacrifice. We can always return to Him.
Our Lord’s accessibility is unlimited, and yet…there are and can be special seasons during which we are prompted to deepen our communion with Him. This season of harvest and the signs of His soon coming should urge us on… not to waste this or any season, but to visit the King while He may be found!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]The revivalist D.L. Moody was on vacation in England from his ministry in Chicago. At one point during his sabbatical there, a local pastor prevailed upon Moody to speak at his parish church. So D.L. went to preach the next Sunday morning. That afternoon he recorded in his journal that it was the deadest crowd he had ever seen and the only thing worse than preaching to those people was that he had promised to speak again the same night.
Yesterday, my family and I had the privilege of being among the nearly 300,000 individuals at the March for Israel event in Washington, D.C. As many in the crowd stood in solidarity with Israel, I reflected on our role as believers. In these last days, we are simply called to be watchmen on the walls.
During the Battle of Britain, the German Luftwaffe rained down about thirty-five thousand bombs upon London during nightly air raids, causing terrifying fear and tremendous destruction and mayhem in large parts of London.
Over the years I’ve often gotten emails asking “Do you think revival will ever come to the United States?, When do you think it will come?” While re-reading Charles Finney’s lectures on revival recently, I was reminded that a key aspect of world revival is revival within ourselves.
Jonah the prophet ran from what he considered a difficult and abhorrent assignment from God, thinking he could escape to a place where he couldn't be found. He refused to obey the Lord and he boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction. But YHVH's irrevocable gifts and callings were faithfully resting upon His servant Jonah, and He provided the drama needed to bring his man around. He sent a great storm which rocked Jonah's boat and then a large fish which ate him! These persuasions changed Jonah's attitude.
The word for builder in Hebrew is “bo-neh”. It is also translated repairer. When our Messiah came 2000 years ago, He came to repair lives — to do a complete restoration of all that is broken in this world. Interestingly, the Hebrew words for son, “ben” and daughter, “baht” both also come from the word “bo-neh”.
When the apostle Paul compared our lives to clay pots, he focused not on the earthen vessels, but rather the contents of those vessels. Jars of clay deteriorate over time, become chipped, cracked, and eventually broken. However, the real value of those ancient pots was not in the clay containers themselves, but in what they contained.