FIRST THINGS FIRST 2 Chron. 29:3 10/15/17 – Reformation 500 Month Living Word, Montrose Nehushtan

Do you remember the story about the bronze ? If you don’t, this is what happened: God had recently rescued his people from the Egyptian armies and now they were traveling through the desert. But instead of being thankful to the Lord, the people grumbled and complained about their situation and blamed God for what they were going through. The Lord wanted to change their attitude and so he sent venomous into the camp and many people who were bitten died. When they realized how awful they had acted, the people prayed to the Lord and so he told to make a snake out of bronze and put it up on a pole so that everyone who had been bitten could look at that snake and live. And that’s exactly what happened: the people who trusted God’s promise looked at that bronze snake and survived. But that wasn’t the end of the bronze snake. Apparently the people kept that sculpture and carried it with them during their travels. And when they finally reached the land of Israel many years later, they still had it with them. They even set it up and gave it a name: Nehushtan. Unfortunately, this wasn’t just a memorial that the next generations were able to visit; the Bible says that it became an object of worship for the . How could that have happened? Well it had been crafted at the command of Moses himself after all – one of the greatest national heroes the Jewish people ever had! And maybe they thought that it still contained some magical powers to heal those who were sick. In any case, they were burning incense to this ancient object of their past and it remained with the people for almost 800 years. 800 years! But then was crowned king. King Hezekiah took that bronze snake that Moses himself had made, the bronze snake that the people of Israel had elevated to an object of worship, the bronze snake that was 800 years old, and he broke it into pieces! Can you imagine how furious that would have made the entire nation of Israel? That would be similar to the next president of the United States taking office and immediately destroying the Liberty Bell, burning the original Constitution of the United States signed by the founding fathers, and toppling the Statue of Liberty into New York Harbor. Those hypothetical actions would create such an uproar from the citizens of this country that it might be difficult for that imaginary president to escape with his life. But that’s exactly what Hezekiah did when he took office. And he did it with something three times as old as the Liberty Bell, the Constitution, and the Statue of Liberty. But not only did he break this priceless artifact to pieces, all of the religious places they had been worshiping at he systematically removed and all of the poles that had been set up to the goddess he cut down and all of the sacred stones that they had been using for pagan rituals he smashed. But most importantly, “In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them.” The doors of the temple had been nailed shut by his father. But Hezekiah took care of that right away. He didn’t wait to get it done. He didn’t try to gain a consensus or work towards getting the people’s approval before moving forward. Hezekiah didn’t hesitate! He immediately made major reforms to the worship life of his people no matter how ticked off it might have made them. Hezekiah certainly did plenty of other good things through his 29 year reign, but “In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD.” First things first. Hezekiah made sure before anything else: first things first.

First Things… Not First I walked around my backyard the other day making a list of all the things I need to take care of. Trash I need to get rid of, messes I need to clean up, broken items I need to fix…. It’s been building up and building up and building up over the year. And even though this has been in the back of my mind and it’s on my unwritten “to do” list, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve had time, I’ve just spent that time on other responsibilities. Taking care of the backyard has been put off and pushed down the list and left for another day time and time again. All of us have those little tasks or responsibilities or items on the list that keep getting putting off for later. If you have a job, you have to get to work. If you have children, you have to get them to school. If you have a family – spouse, kids, older parents – you have to take care of them. You have to eat on a consistent basis, you have to sleep for a while each night, you have to complete any number of obligations that people are counting on you for. And first things first, right? The first things have to be done first and then the “other” things can be dealt with after that. But that means some of those responsibilities just never get done. And that’s OK. You’ll never be able to do everything every day. But it’s not OK if that happens to your faith. It’s not OK when taking care of your faith in as your Savior keeps getting put off and pushed down the list and left for another day. It’s not OK when what are supposed to be the “first things” in your life are not first. Our archenemy, the devil, of course loves to see that happen. He enjoys it when we get complacent, when we get comfortable where we’re at, when we’re unconcerned about the health and the stability of our faith because we have the false impression that it’s good enough. He will do everything he can to convince you to just let it slide, that there’s nothing to worry about, that you’re going to be alright no matter what happens. But then “it” happens: a catastrophe you never saw coming, a tragedy that you never thought would happen to you, an accident that changes your life in the worst of ways… and the bottom drops out and you have nothing left to stand on. And instead of your faith firmly grasping the promises of your Savior, you’re left floundering in the flood waters, waves crashing over your head, the darkness below threatening to pull you down. When the first things aren’t first, it’s going to catch up to us! And we might not notice it right away. We might not realize how critical the situation is because it’s usually a gradual weakening of our faith over time. Our faith is like the muscles in our bodies: they will atrophy if not used and worked on a regular basis. Maybe you’re lying in hospital bed for extended period of time or you have a cast on your arm or you have a brace on your leg, and although you understand that your muscles are not getting the exercise that they need, you don’t really notice it until you have to use them again. Then you experience firsthand how quickly those muscles have deteriorated and how fragile you feel. Your faith works the same way: it must be continually strengthened by the Word of God so that you don’t find yourself in a position of weakness and frailty and vulnerability. And you know what your faith needs; you know what needs to be done. The spiritual maturity for each one of us is different – we are at different stages in our spiritual lives. And so you know what “first things” should be first for you. Maybe it’s worshiping more often, maybe it’s taking time for a Bible study, maybe it’s disciplining yourself to actually read your own Bible regularly, maybe it’s actually listening to God’s Word better or digging deeper into the Bible than just hovering on the surface or reprioritizing your life in the light of the Word of God…. You know. You know. I know what I need too, but I just don’t want to do it. I don’t want to exert myself any more than I have to! My sinful nature doesn’t like that kind of change anyway. My sinful nature prefers to have a little distance between me and God’s Word at times so that I can do what I want when I want. I’m just like you! I’m in the same situation. There are plenty of days when the first things are not even close to first for me. And they aren’t second either. Sometimes they’re dead last.

You Are First to the Lord

But who I am and what I do – who we are and what we all do – makes Jesus’ love for us that much more amazing. Because no matter how many times the first things aren’t first for us, no matter how many other items and events and people and choices take precedence in our lives over the Lord, no matter how many days we have put him off and pushed him down the list and left him for another time, we are always first to the Lord. When it comes to “first things first” for the Lord, that’s you! You are his “first things first.” You are his number one concern. You are what he takes care of and provides for and spends all of his energy on before he does anything else. That fact is undeniable when you look at the last few hours of his life on this earth. Jesus definitely wasn’t happy that one of his own chosen disciples was going to betray him or that a mob was going to arrest under the cover of darkness or that the spiritual leaders of the day would make him stand on trial in the middle of the night. But he allowed all of those events to play out just like they did anyway because he wasn’t here for his own happiness, he was here for you. Jesus obviously didn’t look forward to his back being scourged by stone- tipped whips or his face being beaten with a wooden staff or his head being punctured with a mock crown made of thorn branches. But he wasn’t here for his own comfort and pleasure, he was here for you. Jesus certainly didn’t enjoy those nails pounded through his hands and his feet! He certainly didn’t enjoy being spat on and made fun of while he was hanging there. He certainly didn’t enjoy his heavenly Father turning away from him so that he had to go through the awful consequences of hell itself as he was dying. No, that was for you! All of that blood – for you! All of that pain – for you! All of that agony and torture and indescribably misery – for you! His cross, his tomb, his death – for you! Jesus didn’t want a nice life. Jesus wasn’t working towards an early retirement with a big bank account. Jesus wasn’t focused on what he could get and keep for himself. He was focused on you. Always on you because you were his “first things first.” And you still are. That’s why he rose from the dead: first things first. First he was going to win your forgiveness, then he would take care of everything else. First he was going to make sure that your salvation was secure, then he would take care of everything else. First he was going to guarantee that you would one day be in heaven with him through the gift of faith that he gives you, and then he would take care of everything else. First things first. First things always first. And for your Lord, that’s you.

Now!

King Hezekiah understood that. Although it would be many centuries until Jesus was born, Hezekiah trusted in God’s promises and knew that the Savior would one day arrive. And so Hezekiah’s life demonstrated his faith: he made sure that the first thing were first. Now Hezekiah was a very successful king: he acquired a large amount of silver and gold throughout his reign; he made massive treasuries to store his valuables, including precious gems, shields, spices, and a variety of other costly items; he constructed storehouses to keep all of the oil and wine and grain that he gathered in from the land; he had to make more stalls for his cattle and more pens for his sheep. He oversaw the engineering feat of an aqueduct to bring water up into the city of Jerusalem. He even undertook construction of more villages and towns as the population of Israel continued to expand. But regardless of all of these successes and achievements attributed to Hezekiah over the 29 years of his rule, He didn’t do anything of those things first. “In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD.” Before anything else, first things first. Today isn’t the first month of the first year of your life and it probably isn’t the first month of the first year of you being a Christian. But it might be the first time you’ve really had any motivation to make sure that your faith is taken care of like it should be. So first things first: your faith needs to be fed with the Word of God. First things first: your faith needs to be bolstered by the cross. First things first: your faith needs to be undergirded with the gospel of Jesus. I know you’re busy; so am I. I know you’ve got plenty of other things to do and a whole bunch of appointments on your schedule; so do I. I know that they are distracts and a bunch of activities that you like to do; so do I. But make sure that you don’t lose sight of the big picture. Make sure that what is most important is most important. Make sure that what the Lord has given you and the forgiveness he has won for you and the heaven he has promised you aren’t overshadowed by those matters in your life that are much less eternal. First things first. First things first. Amen.

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” – Rev. 7:12