A Heart Set to Seek
Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 11:13-17
After the division of the kingdom into Israel to the north and Judah with its capital in Jerusalem, Jeroboam sought to sever any and all ties that might tempt the ten tribes under his reign to return their loyalties to Judah and Rehoboam. He knew the strongest pull would be their religion. The temple was in Jerusalem. The feasts would be held there.
To counteract against this Jeroboam instituted a substitute religion, a counterfeit faith. Then he removed all the Levitical priests from their positions of influence and created a fake priesthood.
The Levites left their lands and homes and made the pilgrimage to Judah and Jerusalem. They weren’t alone. While the majority of the ten tribes of the new nation of Israel turned away from the Lord, some remained faithful.
Their faithfulness was not without a cost. They had to leave the lands of their inheritance and move to Judah.
How is a person able to make that kind of sacrifice? The key is found in verse sixteen where we are told, “Those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after [the Levites] from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.”
They fixed their hearts on the Lord first. Once the heart issue is settled the rest will follow. Sacrificial faithfulness doesn’t spring up out of nowhere. It comes from a settled commitment of the heart.
The feet will follow the heart. Get that fixed and the rest will come after.
