Grace and peace to the children of promise, and greetings to the children of disobedience.

The book of 2 Chronicles chapter 30, tells about the revival that took place in Israel after the installment of King Hezekiah.  By this time, Israel had long since fallen into idolatry and left off worshipping the God of Israel, abandoning the proper keeping of the Passover and the solemn feasts.  For this, God allowed them to be carried away into Assyria. 

A righteous and just king, Hezekiah was naturally grieved at Israel’s apostasy, and resolved in his heart to bring her back to the worship of the one true God.  He therefore published a proclamation throughout all Israel that they should come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover.

So, the people came, and the Passover was kept.  However, because Israel had not celebrated the Passover the right way in such a long time, they had not properly prepared themselves:

“For there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified…

“For a multitude of the people…had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the Passover otherwise than it was written.

“But Hezekiah prayed for them saying, The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.

“And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people” (2 Chronicles 30:18-20).

This is yet another great example of intercessory prayer, and there are two lessons that we can learn from it.  The first is that God is so willing to have a relationship with us, that even though we sometimes are not in the best spiritual standing with Him, if our hearts are towards Him, though we are “unclean,” He will hear us. 

This is what Jesus meant when the Pharisees criticized His disciples for not washing their hands before they ate.  Jesus told them that it wasn’t what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of him.  In other words, his words reveal his spiritual state.  If his heart is clean, then will his words also be clean.  Conversely, if his words are unclean, then is his heart also unclean. 

So, though we may not be dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s—we may not be doing everything in the way the Lord would have us—if our earnest desire is to please the Lord, then He will accept us.

This is important, because many of us—the author included—came into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ outside of the established church.  We may have come into faith through a Gospel tract, a Christian television program, the witness of a faithful saint, or a Christian website or blog.  We may never have even stepped foot into a church.  Consequently, we may not know how the Lord wants us to do certain things.  It may also be that the pastor of a church may love the Lord with all his heart, but not know how or even why a certain thing is done in a certain way.  And if he doesn’t know the reason why a certain thing is done a certain way, then he will not know whether what he is doing is right or wrong.

Take the Lord’s Supper, for example.  The best example of how it should be eaten is the way Jesus Himself ate it.  One of the things for which Jesus was best known was in the breaking of bread: 

“And when [Jesus] had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided He among them all” (Mark 6:41). 

“And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them” (Luke 24:30).

This was obviously something Jesus was known for doing, for the two disciples, who encountered the resurrected Jesus on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus by the breaking of bread:

“And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them,

“Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

“And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in breaking of bread” (Luke 24:33-35).

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven, the disciples continued to break bread when they fellowshipped:

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…” (Acts 20:7).

When we eat the Lord’s Supper then, we are supposed to break the bread and give to one another in honor of the Lord.  Even Jesus Himself broke the bread at the Last Supper:

“And [Jesus] took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

Even Paul, when speaking of the Lord’s Supper, recognized that Jesus broke the bread at the Last Supper:

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

“And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).

It is painfully obvious that the act of breaking the bread is as important as the bread itself: for the whole purpose of Jesus, the Bread of Life, coming in the flesh, was to die for the sins of mankind, which death is symbolized by the breaking of bread.

Why, then, when we eat the Lord’s Supper, do we pass around a plate filled with microscopic pieces of bread too small to be broken?  In some cases, the bread is in neat little cubes.  These morsels are way too small to break, and the breaking of the bread, again, is as important as the bread itself, for the breaking of bread symbolizes the death of our Savior. 

Do you understand that when we neglect to break the bread we are actually denying the death of Jesus Christ?  And if we deny His death, then we deny His resurrection: for if He did not die, then He could not have been resurrected:

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

“And if Christ be not raised, our faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:16-17).

We have come to believe that when Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of me,” He was referring only to eating the bread.  But, if this were true, He would have said, “Eat this bread in remembrance of me.”  But Jesus didn’t say that.  He said, “This do,” referring to everything He did to the bread.  And the first thing He did to the bread was break it. 

Understand that the Lord’s Supper is to the Christian what the Passover is to the Jew: it is a solemn celebration of our salvation.  For just as Jesus passed over and, therefore, saved the Jews who believed Moses, so has He “passed over” the Christian who believes. But just like the Jews of Hezekiah’s day, we have forgotten to cleanse ourselves and have forgotten why we do what we do.  But Jesus is not angry with us.  If we who know and believe pray for those who prepare their hearts to seek God, though they be not cleansed, the Good Lord will “pardon every one.”

This brings me to the second point.  God always reserves unto Himself a few faithful who have a zeal for His righteousness, and understand His ways.  Because their hearts are toward God, He will listen to them, when they intercede on the behalf of others.  And, as we see in the case of Hezekiah, God will extend this mercy even to an entire church congregation.

This is good news, saints, because in this present age of apostasy, most churches have long left off from the true worship of Jesus Christ.  This is especially true for charismatic churches, which “make the Word of God of non effect, substituting for doctrine the traditions of men.”  There may very well be only one true believer in a church congregation, who truly understands the ways of God.  And this one can intercede for all who have their hearts toward God.  

Remember that some of the seven churches of the Book of the Revelation were preaching heresy, but, even then, there were a few, such as in the church in Sardis, “which [had] not defiled their garments” (Revelation 3:4).  The Lord always reserves (and preserves) unto Himself a remnant. 

Now, as 1 John 5:16 tells us that we should not pray for forgiveness for a brother who commits blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, likewise should we not pray for a church that preaches the same.  We should leave it.  But, generally, as every other sin is pardonable, even so, then, are our churches pardonable, even though they may be preaching a clear heresy, such as the Rapture. 

Jesus told us to love one another (John 15:17), and one of the greatest acts of love one can do is to pray for another.  Let us, therefore, pray for our congregations.  The church desperately needs it.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man