A Unique Passover

2 Chronicles 30-31

            The Chronicler’s account of Hezekiah’s Passover emphasizes his inclusion of all Israel. The invitation goes out to Manasseh and Ephraim especially, but to all Israel in general. For two reasons, Hezekiah moves the Passover from the first month to the second: first, because the priests and Levites are not yet ready for the celebration, and 2) unmentioned, but a factor nonetheless, is that the northern kingdom celebrated Passover in the second month.

            Why the emphasis on inclusion? In the narrative of Chronicles, the northern kingdom was not destroyed until sometime between chapter 31 and chapter 32, but an informed reader knows it’s coming. The inclusion of the north is an effort to reunify the nation, to bring the north back into the fold of the Davidic kings and the Temple worship. Outside the narrative, the Chronicler wrote after the exile, and in his historical moment he also wants to emphasize that the Lord’s promises remain for all Israel.

            I’m reminded of Jesus’ saying in John 10 that He has other sheep and of His parable of the one lost sheep that the shepherd goes to look for in Luke 15. The Church ought not give up on her lost. Even in Jesus’ famous account of church discipline in Matthew 18, when He instructs us to treat the steadfastly unrepentant as we would a pagan or a tax collector, we are gently reminded that it’s exactly the tax collectors who gathered around Jesus. The Church ought never give up the search for the lost, both those who have never believed and those who once believed but since have fallen away.